| Crying Freeman 1: Portrait Killer |
| Buy the DVD |   |
| Genre: | Animation - Adult |
| Year: | 1988 |
| Rating: | NC17 |
| Length: | 1h 40mins |
Based on a macho, hard-boiled manga by Ryoichi Ikegami and Kazuo Koike (Lone Wolf and Cub), the anime series Crying Freeman (1988-93) is an unflinching and faithful adaptation of the pair's much-admired, mature-themed comic. A tattooed hit man, named Crying Freeman because he can't help but shed tears for his victims, is ordered by his Chinese Mob masters to kill a woman who accidentally witnessed one of his executions. After falling for the beautiful witness -- and after falling into her bed -- Freeman finds that he can't bring himself to kill her. Their budding love affair only leads to a pileup between crooked cops, the Japanese Yakuza, the Chinese Mob, and eventually the Italian Mafia. The story begins with a fairly believable premise but rapidly leaves reality behind for an increasingly bizarre, fast-paced tall tale full of over-the-top sex and violence. It's refreshingly short on characterization and long on action, so jaded thrill-seekers (adults only, please) should find much to admire in Crying Freeman. This first DVD volume, Portrait Killer, contains the first two of the series' six episodes. Volk Lindsay
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