Welcome back to Movie Recap. Today I'm gonna show you a 2009 Hong Kong crime drama film
called, Shinjuku Incident. Spoiler's ahead. Sit back, relax and enjoy the video.
The movie begins at the beach when one police officer sees a crowd of Chinese immigrants
scatter on the shore along with their luggage. He approaches them and as he does, one man
stands up and waves a knife. In response, he moves to take his gun but as he is about
to open the holster, another man comes at him from the back. The immigrants take the
chance to run away as the man with a knife also struggles with the policeman on the sand.
Incidents like this have been on the Japanese news lately and the Japanese authority is
giving a close look at it. They are now searching for illegal Chinese immigrants to practice
the law on them.
In broad daylight, a man goes clothes shopping from someone's clothesline. He then chooses
his footwear from a display of shoes by that someone's door. After that, he goes on his
way and finds himself in Tokyo's Shinjuku District as night falls.
The man walks mindlessly around the district. There are women bargaining leisure to men
here and there and casual passersby minding their own businesses. Moments later however,
the somehow dull night gets excited as a gunshot from somewhere echoes through the streets.
Screams are everywhere as each goes on their way- some are even running as if to save their
lives.
The man finds a hiding place in the form of a disregarded crate. He curls himself there
as he sees people running to wherever the police is not seen. In his crate fort, he
looks back to his life in China where people call him, Steelhead.
Memories of a day flashes in him. Steelhead remembers walking into his girlfriend's house
with people gathering and talking about getting into Japan. Then, he remembers talking to
his girlfriend, Xiu xiu, who had always dreamed of going to Japan. He never stopped her. Instead,
he encouraged her to follow her dreams. In return, Xiu xiu promised to return once she's
made enough. She went to Tokyo and broke her promise when after sometime nothing was heard
from her.
Two days of walking and Steelhead finds himself in front of a small house. A young man with
curly hair and bright smile welcomes him with a hug. Jie, the young man introduces him to
everyone in the house but food catches his attention that he grabs a bite even before
Jie finishes.
Days pass by with Steelhead learning how to live in the shadows. Jie shows him around
and introduces him to people like them, people who are considered aliens in the country and
are therefore, sought by law.
One night, while working in the sewers, adrenaline doubles in their systems as cops pay them
a surprise visit. They start to run but still, the cops are able to put them to stop. One
by one, the cops question them in line. One detective, Detective Kitano sees Steelhead
and directly questions him in his broken Chinese. While he does, other cops start cuffing the
workers and so they begin running away again.
As the chase ensues, Detective Kitano finds his life in danger as he falls down a chute
and starts to drown. Steelhead gets back and saves him then runs away again. At that moment,
Detective Kitano considers his life a debt from Steelhead.
Steelhead continues to live in the shadows considering half the usual pay of those in
the light for the same job. Some of Jie's acquaintances tell him the great secrets of
the black market but, just as Jie, he always refuses to follow.
Now, he stretches his neck as he scrubs dishes clean outside of a restaurant. A young lady
approaches him and hands him a couple of bills for food . Then, an old man gets out of the
restaurant and calls the lady by her name. Lily-san! exclaims the old man as he merrily
sings how Lily always takes care of him.
The old man's merriment however, is cut short as a group of men in black blocks them and
asks for money. A bottle on his head puts the old man down and makes Lily scream. At
that moment, Steelhead comes with a pipe and waves it to the men. He puts some down with
the pipe and makes them run away with bombastic scream of, Help!
Lily gets them in a bar that she apparently owns. Her employees are all quick to assist
Mito, the old man who is with her as he has a shower of blood. She then leads Steelhead
to the bar and offers him food and drink. She also offers him work and money but Steelhead
refuses. He even gives back the money she handed him earlier. They spend the night over
drinks and sharing things about life.
Another night comes for Steelhead and he finds himself in another job with Jie. This time,
they are at a fancy restaurant filled with people. Jie points to him some big shots in
Shinjuku. Moments later, his eyes land on a familiar woman, wearing a kimono with her
hair in a bun. The woman is surrounded by other women, greeting her with respect. Not
sure about what he sees, he calls Jie for a second opinion. Now, that makes two unsure
men.
The night is about to end and Steelhead chooses to stand outside the restaurant. His decision
to wait a couple of steps from the entrance serves him well as his eyes meet with the
womans'. Right there and then, he confirms it. It is Xiu Xiu, his long lost fianc e.
However, he also learns one thing, Xiu Xiu is married. She's married to a big shot who
Jie had pointed out to him that could be a Yakuza.
Eguchi Toshinari. That's the man Xiu Xiu is married to and is indeed a Yakuza. He is a
sub-head of an organization called Sanwa-kai.
Broken-hearted, Steelhead makes a resolve that night. He tells Jie that he will now
live for himself even if it means playing against the law.
Jie's acquaintances prove to be supportive of him as they help him on the roll. They
resort to many kinds of schemes from stealing luxury items in malls to tampering a machine
in an arcade. Steelhead even gets more men in the job and forms a team. Now, they all
earn more than what they used to.
For their every scheme, however, Jie is always anxious and thus makes mistakes here and there.
Deciding that they cannot involve him into the dark business, they surprise him with
a chestnut cart. It has always been Jie's dream to have one. However, selling chestnuts
in the streets does not really take Jie away from the dark world.
It is the New Year's Eve and everyone is celebrating. Steelhead brings Lily with him and introduces
him with the rest of the gang. They stuff themselves with food all the while teasing
Steelhead. However, their joyous night welcomes a twist in the form of Jie.
Jie arrives home with a smashed face. He cries as he tells Steelhead that a Chinese gang
leader, Uncle Tak, had him beaten for befriending his daughter, and also took away his cart.
Mad at how his brother is humiliated, Steelhead stands up to look for the man.
Despite the objections and warnings that Uncle Tak is backed up by a Yakuza, Steelhead continues
in his pursuit. Now, a guy called, Hong Kong Boy, follows him and points him where Uncle
Tak's place is. But it's not just the two of them who face Uncle Tak and his men as
all the other guys follow suit with all sorts of every day tools in their hands.
Uncle Tak concedes and tells Steelhead where the cart is as he sees his men suffering from
Steelhead's guys. However, the police is not late to get into the scene that everyone has
to run away just as quickly as they have smashed some Japanese bones. Steelhead on the other
hand gets lucky to meet Detective Kitano again who thanks him for saving his life. Kitano
helps him run away with the cart.
Another fateful night comes for Jie, now well and healthy enough to sell chestnuts again.
Dai, who is playing in the arcade, calls for him as he needs to go to the restroom. Jie
casually walks into the arcade and sits at the pachinko machine Dai has been playing
on. But just as he inserts some pinballs into the machine, someone grabs at his shoulder.
Jie looks up to see a guy in suit with several men behind him. It is Gao, a Taiwanese gang
leader and the fiercest in Shinjuku. Gao accuses him of tampering the machine. Jie strongly
denies and explains that he is familiar with the place because he sells chestnuts outside.
Nevertheless, Gao turns deaf ears towards him and has his men drag him outside.
Outside, Dai sees Jie and Gao. Without much thought, he returns home to tell the others.
The others stop eating as soon as they hear about Jie and runs towards the arcade. Nonetheless,
they are late. Gao has just cut Jie's right hand in the wok of boiling chestnuts. They
can only bring him home and get him treated.
Anguish fills Steelhead as he hears Jie's cries for his hand. In another resolution,
he sets out to Gao's territory. There, he hides and waits with a sword in his coat.
While hiding, he hears a certain Togawa Kyohei asking Gao for Eguchi's life.
Eguchi arrives not long after as he has business to talk with Gao. Steelhead sees everything
from when Gao draws a Taiwanese knife from behind him until he lashes the tool at Eguchi,
wounding him on the stomach. He sees when Gao is about to put an end at Eguchi and just
at that right moment, he lets Gao see his forearm leaving his body. He slashes it with
his sword.
Eguchi brings Steelhead with him to his house and lets him meet his wife, Eguchi Yuko, formerly
called Xiu Xiu. He also meets the couple's daughter, Ayako. Yuko acts as an interpreter
for both of them as Eguchi offers a job for Steelhead which he politely declines.
The attempt on his life creates a stir in him. It adds to his anger that the head does
not believe him when he accuses Togawa-gumi for it and instead, he has to apologize for
his accusations.
With a concrete job in his mind, Eguchi pays Steelhead a visit. This time, Steelhead makes
a deal with him: a legal status in Japan and Taiwan gang's territories in exchange for
the lives of Togawa-gumi and Sanwa-kai's leaders. Eguchi easily agrees as he already has the
first part of the deal in his hands.
The death of Sanwa-kai's leader stirs the organization and blames Togawa-gumi for it.
Sanwa-kai's members begin coming after every perceived traitor even in broad daylight.
Attacks happen here and there in Shinjuku that heightens police alert in the area.
Eguchi becomes the new leader of Sanwa-kai and Togawa Kyohei becomes the new leader of
Togawa-gumi after his father. As part of the deal, Steelhead now handles all Taiwanese
territories but leaves everything for his fellows to run. For himself, he opens a tractor
business.
The Chinese immigrants power over territories becomes known to the supreme leader of the
Yakuza through Kyohei. He questions Eguchi about it who assures him that the Chinese
are just his game pieces. Eguchi then tells the supreme leader of his plan to get rid
of Kyohei. And just like that, Eguchi has his men turning their backs towards him as
they join Kyohei and the supreme leader in a scheme to eliminate him.
With the government looking closely at the Yakuza cases, Steelhead receives a surprise
visit from Detective Kitano. But what surprises him more are the documents that the detective
has with him. They show how big his business is and how he is now the biggest foreign gang
in Japan. All of which are news for him. Another surprise is the fact that Jie is selling drugs
and is cahoots with Eguchi's dirty business.
He promises to confront Jie and asks the detective to never arrest his people. Detective Kitano
on the other hand promises to abide by his principles to arrest crooks. Nevertheless,
he proposes to have arrangements if Steelhead brings him something about Eguchi.
Lily has always been there in every decision Steelhead has to make. Fearing for their lives,
she talks Steelhead into going to Brazil. However, Steelhead remains stubborn with his
decisions. He confesses his involvement in the death of Togawa-gumi and Sanwa-kai's leaders
to Detective Kitano. His decision earns him a slap and a selfish brand as Lily leaves
him, right there and then.
The fateful night comes and Steelhead brings Detective Kitano with him in their headquarters.
As they enter the place where almost everyone is, confused and mad eyes greet them. They
question his action of bringing a cop in their place. Instead of directly answering them,
he confronts Jie about his dealings behind his back.
Steelhead learns that Jie is not alone with his business. As a result, he gets into confrontation
with everybody. Jie even reminds him of the blood in his hands. The confrontation leads
into a squabble as they all point fingers at each other. Steelhead tries to appease
everybody as he tells them that they only need to turn in Eguchi and Kitano will help
them with the law. Everybody refuses to listen.
Now, Steelhead gets a shock as he sees Hong Kong Boy casually slashing one of their fellows
in the neck and is now pointing the very knife at him. However, before Hong Kong Boy can
step closer, a stone breaks the glass window and hits his head putting him to instant sleep.
Steelhead looks over the window and gets his umpteenth shock for the day. Stones are flying
towards the windows.
In a matter of seconds, chaos occupies the building they re in as Eguchi's right hand,
Nakajima, leads men to ambush them. Everyone fights for their lives, waving their swords
here and there. Everyone runs and hide. Detective Kitano, despite the chaos calls for police
backup.
In a moment of short peace, Eguchi makes himself an easy target as he looks down the window.
A gunshot to his chest by Nakajima puts him down and with his remaining strength, he pulls
out a flash drive and hands it to Steelhead.
Chaos continues out of the building as cops arrive with their sirens. They save Detective
Kitano first and try to get ahold of everyone in the riot. Steelhead on the other hand,
looks for Jie and finds him trying to hold his life but fails as red gushes out of his
stomach. Helpless, he covers Jie's body with a piece of fabric.
Steelhead then calls Yuko and tells her about Eguchi's fate and to meet him at Okubo station
where he will wait. Unknown to him, Kyohei has Yuko captive and uses her for his whereabouts.
Instantly, Kyohei sends men to the station.
In another chase, Steelhead finds himself dodging swords and more in the streets of
Shinjuku. He runs ceaselessly until several men blocks him and Detective Kitano shows
up with other policemen just meters away from them. Now Nakajima shoots Steelhead but meets
his end instead, by Detective Kitano's bullet.
The movie ends with Detective Kitano finding Steelhead floating in the same chute by the
end of Shinjuku sewers where his life was saved by the latter. He tries to do the same
but Steelhead knows it is the end for him. Seeping red into the waters, Steelhead hands
over Eguchi's flash drive to the detective and then lets the current carry him. In Chinese,
he calls out to the detective, We can call it even now.