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The Fable (Junichi Okada) is the top yakuza hitman pretty much ever, he
kills with a precision and at the same time remains untraceable, thus
being nothing more than a phantom. And wearing a ski mask only helps to
keep those who happen to survive his massacres off his trail. But he has
become too successful, so his boss/trainer/mentor (Koichi Sato) decides to
send him and his partner Yoko (Mizuki Yamamoto) to Osaka to lie low for a
year - and he goes so far to threaten to kill Fable himself if Fable
should kill only one more person during that year. There is one tiny
problem, Fable has never been anything but a contract killer, he has been
trained by his boss since a very young age, so he doesn't really know how
to lead a normal life, how to get a job, how to "work", even how
(or what) to eat. Now fortunately he strikes a friendship with neighbour
Misaki (Mizuki Yamamoto), who has pity with the socially odd Fable and
gets him a job in a company that prints posters and flyers, where he soon
becomes a designer, despite his drawing skills being that of a five year
old.
But of course, evil never sleeps, as Hamada (Ken Mitsuishi), boss of
the Osaka branch of the yakuza clan Fable belongs to, wants to use his
talents for his organisation ... and is a bit disappointed when Fable
refuses to kill anyone. Then Hamada's blood brother Kojima (Yuya Yagira)
is released from prison and starts to cause havoc. Now he's an evil and
unrestrained brute who takes pleasure in turning girls into prostitutes,
and next on his list is of all people Misaki. Thing is, Hamada's branch is
also in turmoil, as young hotshot Sunagawa (Osamu Mukai) doesn't like the
way Hamada runs business, and he figures to get him beyond breaking point
he best kidnaps Kojima - and Misaki in the process as well. Hamada turns
to Fable to free his blood brother, and Fable can't refuse, as Sunagawa's
men hold Misaki as well. Still, Fable has sworn not to kill anyone, and he
vows to abide by this rule - so he goes into battle with guns loaded with
duds - duds that still hit hard but can't kill. But given the manpower
Fable's up against, it's more than questionable if this is even nearly
adequate ...
Before everything else, The Fable is pretty insane: It's chock
full of well-staged and inventive action sequences, but it's also carried
by humour reaching from the wacky to the absurd, it's filled with
over-the-top characters, many of which intentionally cross the line to
caricature, and its fast-paced story twists and turns in very unexpected
ways. But inbetween all of this, The Fable also has lots of heart,
and it at least adresses the darker and sadder aspects of its story.
In all, The Fable might not be an absolute masterpiece, as some
story elements seem to be too far-fetched in even the film's rather
outrageous plot, other bits and pieces seem to only pad out the story
rather than serving a narrative purpose, but at the same time, the film's
just lots of fun to watch and should work very well as a party movie!
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