Takashi Miike’s ‘Straw Shield’ Trailer

Takashi Miike has always been one of my favorite Japanese directors.  His tireless efforts to continuously crank out film after film is certainly admirable, but the fact that he never sticks to a specific genre and seems to be always challenging himself creatively is his most endearing quality.

Not all his films are home runs, but one thing you can be sure of is that whatever the subject matter, it will have a unique voice.  With all that brown-nosing out of the way, here’s the trailer for his latest film, Straw Shield.
The film is based on a novel by Kiuchi Kazuhiro and stars Fujiwara Tatsuya (Battle Royale).  It’s set for a Japanese release date of April 26th and hopefully we’ll get a chance to see it soon thereafter in the States. We also don’t have a subtitled trailer as of yet, but you should get the gist. Here’s the plot synopsis:

Based on a novel by Kiuchi Kazuhiro, the movie stars Fujiwara Tatsuya as a killer named Kunihide Kiyomaru, who murders the granddaughter of a powerful figure in the political and financial world (Yamazaki Tsutomu). A few months later, Kiyomaru discovers the man has offered a 1 billion yen reward to anyone who manages to kill him. Fearing for his own life, he turns himself in to Fukuoka Prefectural Police.

Five elite Security Police are tasked with escorting Kiyomaru from Fukuoka to Tokyo, but they’re repeatedly blocked by citizens and other police looking to collect on the reward and or exact revenge. Meanwhile, a conflict arises when one of the SP officers, Mekari Kazuki (Osawa Takao), begins to doubt if they should even bother protecting a despicable person like Kiyomaru while his partner, Shiraiwa Atsuko (Matsushima Nanako), remains duty-bound.