MR LONG

Following an assignment gone wrong in Tokyo, professional Taiwanese hitman Mr. Long (Chang Chen) finds himself stranded without a passport in a run-down Japanese village. Long installs himself in one of the dilapidated houses, and does what any cold-hearted killer would do in his situation: he befriends the locals, opens a wildly popular noodle cart, helps a young boy and his drug-addicted mother, and falls in love. But checkered pasts have a hard time staying in the past. It isn’t long before prior indiscretions shatter his newfound tranquility, with lasting consequences for himself and the villagers he has befriended.

Japanese director SABU's latest is a refreshing twist on the gangster genre, moving artfully between scenes of beautifully choreographed violence, slapstick comedy, and gentle, charming drama., The film offers a surprisingly tender fable about the struggle for redemption and the search for an escape from a spiral of violence.

—Ian Hollander