Yokohama P.I. Maiku "Mike" Hama (Mystery Train's Matsatoshi Nagase) has the luck of Wile E. Coyote. When he injects himself into a tussle between a thug and a Taiwanese waiter in gambling parlor, he's the only person who gets hurt. The result is a severed pinky finger that Maiku's buddies have to coax from the mouth of a dog so he can get it reattached. Yang, the waiter, feels a sense of debt to Maiku and enlists Maiku's skills to find his older brother who emigrated years prior but disappeared. Suspiciously, someone kills the thugs that accosted Maiku and Yang, going so far as to lop off their fingers. As Maiku tracks Yang's brother he begins to rustle a new breed foreigner gangster ("The New Japs"), who are making their mark on the underworld and are none too pleased with Maiku's prodding into their affairs.

Zipang director Kaizo Hayashi has crafted a very fun film that is always casting a slight wink at its genre foundations. Noir is noir. It doesn't matter if it is Chinese, French, American, or Japanese the style doesn't need any specific language or face. Most Terrible Time in My Life is a capable throwback to the snazzy super cool 1960's Japanese crime films. Maiku shuffles around the city in a porkpie hat gleaning information from his various streetwise connections, and like most great noir detectives, he gets the tar beaten out of him. Be it gagsters or his mentor (a nice cameo by Branded To Kill's Jo Shishido), Maiku constantly gets slapped around and it's a wonder he isn't in a full body cast by the films end. But, important thing is, he still retains his cool.

The Most Terrible time in My Life's mystery is in Yang's motivations and just what happened to his brother, all of which hinges on these gangs of naturalized foreigners encroaching on the more pure-blooded yakuza territory. And it unravels with wit and fun, Maiku and a buddy breaking into gangsters vaults, or Maiku failing in impersonating a bible salesman and nearly getting killed as a result. It's film that has an infectious affection for classic cinema and manages to admirably stand alongside its influences.

The DVD: Kino

Picture: Non-anamorphic Letterbox. The image quality is a real letdown. Very soft with weak definition and contrast. While the print is very clean, it is clear that this is probably a tape-sourced transfer. Watching the film is hampered by this dull picture quality because you just know the image should be so much crisper and the black and white photography would benefit by leaps and bounds if a better source was used. I've gotten DVDs of some 60's era Japanese crime films that have far superior quality to this, so it is a letdown that recent production like this has poorer transfer quality than its influences.

Sound: Japanese Stereo with optional English subtitles. Pretty basic affair. The dialogue and fx comes through clear, and really only the bouncy scoring draws out any dynamics. The subtitle translation is quite good, easy to read, and flub free.

Extras: Not much, trailer for the film, plus trailers for Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl, Junk Food, Tokyo Eyes and Moonlight Whispers.

Conclusion: While The Most Terrible Time in My Life is worth checking out, the picture quality combined with a high MSRP makes this a hesitant purchase. Picky DVD buyers may want to save this one or a rental, which is a real shame since it is a nice slice of fun cinema foreign films fans should be glad to add to their DVD library. Hopefully if Kino has their hands on the sequels, they will release them with better transfers and give this series its due.