Aneesa Wardle
The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
Ginger
Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.
Brian Camp
CRYING FREEMAN: FINAL CHAPTER -- THE GUIDING LIGHT OF MEMORY (1993) is the sixth and last volume in the OAV series of Japanese anime adaptations of the "Crying Freeman" manga. A hard-hitting tale of violent criminals engaged in a brutal turf war, it is easily the best-written and most stylishly directed since the first in the series (PORTRAIT OF A KILLER). This one tells the story of a young Japanese Yakuza who takes over the Russian supply of drugs and weapons to Japan and cuts out the involvement of the Hong Kong-based 108 Dragons. Freeman, the hitman of the title and the 108 Dragons' star player, goes to Japan to investigate and gets framed for a succession of assassinations of top Yakuza bosses. The chief enemy here, Tsunaike, is aided by an icily sexy Arctic hit lady, Tanya (described as "Eskimo" in the subtitles, although she looks more Siberian), who is frequently seen in the nude in regular trysts with Tsunaike.Of all the CF animated volumes, this one has the most sharply etched and vividly portrayed urban setting as the various characters converge on Tokyo and confront each other in offices, hotel rooms, streets, back alleys and, for the spectacular final battle, a sprawling array of rotting piers and warehouses. The artwork throughout is quite detailed, surpassing even than the manga, particularly when it comes to the design of the various characters. This is the most realistic-looking entry in the entire Crying Freeman series.There are plenty of bloody gun battles and sword-and-knife fights, as fans have come to expect from this series. There is also abundant nudity and graphic sexual activity, although it is limited chiefly to Tanya and the various Yakuza bosses' mistresses. Freeman himself, uncharacteristically, is not seen in the nude until a coda at the very end featuring his lovely wife Emu. As of this writing, this chapter has never been released in the United States.
