Non-Stop
a.k.a. DANGAN Runner

1996, 82 min., 35mm, color, in Japanese with English subtitles. Directed by Sabu. With Tomorowo Taguchi, Diamond Yukai, Shinichi Tsutsumi, Akaji Maro, Ren Osugi. Print courtesy of The Japan Foundation.

"Effortlessly clever."–Scott Tobias, The A.V. Onion Club

Introduction and Q&A with director Sabu.

Sabu’s 1996 debut feature, a wild forerunner to the German arthouse smash hit Run Lola Run, by Tom Tykwers, features Tetsuo star Tomorowo Taguchi as a down-on-his-luck would-be bank robber, whose desperate plan to retrieve cash and a semblance of dignity quickly go south. Caught red-handed stealing a gauze face mask to conceal his identity, he is given chase by a strung-out convenience store clerk (played by real life rocker Diamond Yukai), who happens to be a washed-up drug-addled rock singer. In turn, the irate employee is chased by his drug supplier, Takeda, a third-rate yakuza (Shinichi Tsutsumi). As they run for their lives and each other, their stories flash back and forth, continuing a strange chain of events that only gets stranger while the three-man race continues at full speed into the night and through the streets of Tokyo.

Part of the series: Run, Salaryman, Run! A Retrospective of Sabu’s Film Works.

TICKETS
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