Japan Flix: `The Quiet Don`
Mild-mannered Shizuya Kondo lives a normal life, occupied with his dreary office job as a women's underwear designer. But, he also happens to be the only son of the leader of the biggest criminal organization in the Kanto region... and when his father is murdered by a rival gang, Shizuya is forced to become the new head of his yakuza family! Working as a businessman by day and a yakuza boss by night, Shizuya finally begins to realize his true potential. But, things take an unexpected turn when Akemi, his secret office-crush, is suddenly kidnapped.
It should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the ebs and flows of the Japanese entertainment industry that The Quiet Don began life as a manga back in 1988. Since then it has been made into an OVA in 1991, 19 episodes of a dramatic serial in 1994 and the first film adpatation came out in 2000. Then in 2009 director Hideo Jojo made two films starring Yoshihiko Hakamada as Shizuya Kondo and gravure model Emi Kobayashi as his love interest Akemi. What a stroke of genius that was, signing on a gravure model to play an underwear designer. Sheer genius. It would have been even nicer had she modelled her own creations. Just saying.
The Quiet Don should appeal to anyone familiar with similar shows like Gokusen and My Boss the Hero though the comedy is not as tight. There are some good moments in the scant 82 minute run time but the comedy doesn't alway hit its mark. There is no shortage of action either but because this is light entertainment as opposed to say, Kitano's Outrage, you will have to settle for cap gun sound effects and Yakuza hitmen who cannot hit the broad side of a Japanese Kondo. Why yes, an M-16 and a Mac 10 do sound alike. Didn't you know? But as a general rule of thumb all fights between Yakuza gang members must take place in abandoned factories where there is an abundance of metal pipes lying around on the floor.
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