“Helpless” (1996): A Nihilistic Descent into Japan’s Shadowlands
This isn’t just a film; it’s a quiet howl into the abyss. Shinji Aoyama’s Helpless is a hypnotic fever dream, stripped bare of sentimentality and drenched in post-industrial gloom. Imagine a gangster film with its guts ripped out, where the violence isn’t cathartic but inevitable, like gravity pulling everyone into the void. Yasuo (played with…