Five strangers gather in a light blue Ford Thunderbird and make their way under the cover of darkness. Having only just met each other, the group have assembled to carry out a one-time robbery. They head towards a deserted love hotel acting as a money laundering site for a yakuza gang. Their heist ends in success, and the five return to their respective lives with a fortune each – everything according to plan. But yakuza gangs, police, politicians and many more all come sniffing after the money. Who is friend and who is foe? Who will be the last one standing in this war?
A Japanese mix of Pulp Fiction and Bonnie and Clyde, Goodbye Cruel World is an oddly beautiful film noir of stylish decadence. Hidetoshi Nishijima, star of 2021’s Drive My Car, plays an ex-yakuza who leads the robbery gang.
You can find the programme notes from The Japan Foundation here.