Neo Chinpara: Zoom Goes The Bullet. (1990) – Banmei Takahashi.

Junko's (Show Aikawa) dreams of earning a higher status within his yakuza clan become an unsettling reality once he is tasked to kill a rival clan member, his Yakuza uncle's (Joe Shishido) jibes acting as a catalyst, pushing him ever closer to fatefully pulling the trigger. Freewheelingly unconventional, blackly comical, and winningly heartfelt, Banmei's witty Neo Chinpara: Zoom Goes The Bullet is arguably one of the more atypical Yakuza features Toei ever produced. Ostensibly a blissfully boisterous, comedy-inflected coming-of-age crime/romance thriller, presenting the inexperienced Junko's somewhat inglorious transformation from lowly lackey to black-clad, pop-noir cool killer! An existential journey that is observant of Toei Yakuza tropes, and a wickedly progressive reinvention, uproariously funny, melancholic and thrillingly tense. It is an additionally welcome treat to see virile young gun Aikawa firing on all cylinders, with inimitable Japanese icon Shishido on especially charismatic form as his eccentric, Teflon tough Yakuza uncle.