Hard-hitting action used to be a Japanese industry strength, as exemplified by Kinji Fukasaku’s reality-based 1970s films about brawling and battling yakuza.?
But South Korean action movies have long delivered more bang and pow than their Japanese counterparts. A recent example is the hit “Roundup” series starring actor and producer Don Lee (also known by his stage name Ma Dong-seok) as a relentless police detective. Four entries have been released to date in South Korea, starting with “The Outlaws” in 2017.
Now, set in that same universe is “Tokyo Burst: The Roundup,” a Japan-original story with Eiji Uchida directing and Lee producing. Unfolding primarily in Tokyo’s Kabukicho nightlife district, the film aims to be as action-packed as its Korean predecessors. Its big-scale, headlong chase and car-action scenes, shot on-site in Kabukicho, would have been unthinkable not long ago when securing the necessary permits meant venturing into the bureaucratic Land of No.
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