Scrap Heaven (スクラップ・ヘブン-2005)

Starring:
Ryo Kase - Shingo
Joe Odagiri - Tetsu
Chiaki Kuriyama - Saki Fujimura
Akira Emoto
Akira Shoji
Sawa Suzuki
Takama Suzuki
Hidekazu Mashima

Shingo is a frustrated clerk at a police station, Tetsu is stressed out over his mentally ill father and Saki has an inferiority complex over her artificial eye. Together they have the misfortune to be riding the same bus when a terrorist strikes. Shingo is frozen with fear as he helplessly watches Tetsu get shot and the gunman take aim at Saki. A few months later, Shingo is back to shuffling paper at his dead end desk job with no hopes of becoming a detective. He also still suffers guilt over the bus incident. One day, Shingo coincidentally runs into Tetsu and he pours out his suppressed feelings about the shooting.
Together they fantasize about revenge, talk about retaliation and how they can make a business out of it. Their scheme is simple. A client must provide ID credentials. The request for revenge cannot be revealed to the third party. There is no second chance and nobody gets hurt. They scrawl graffiti to solicit customers and begin to get customers.
Their first clients include a patient after a doctor for malpractice and a kid who wants to get back at his abusive mother. Tetsu and Shingo keep playing the revenge game walking the thin line to becoming full on criminals! Shingo starts to crave the feeling of power and omnipotence. He feels some debt to Saki after the bus attack but his efforts to help her always fail.
Meanwhile Tetsu increasingly approaches the revenge game like childs play and hatches a plan to steal guns from police boxes. Eventually, the game goes too far and Tetsu and Shingo dangerously spin out of control.

OMG! It's official....Odagiri Joe....the best damn actor ever!! Damn, he's so freakin' cool and I loved him in this. Sheesh! I can't think of a movie that he didn't do an awesome job even if the movie sucked...he never did. *<3>

Then there is Kase Ryo. First off, he's American....holy shnikeys! I didn't realize. I know I've seen him in other movies but this is the first one where he isn't supporting. He rocked my world.

The first part of the movie I was laughing my ass off. Damn, it was funny. Don't we all wish we could pay back jerks who have done us wrong! I'd have hired them in a second!

I know the reality of it all that "what goes around, comes around" could and should happen. But "what comes around" that being Shingo and Tetsu shouldn't "go around" again. They increased the bad karma upon themselves and it ended up coming back on them. I guess this could be a learning experience for most of us that "an eye for an eye" doesn't necessarily mean that's a good thing.

Extremely well written for both Odagiri and Kase and their acting abilities. Definitely a keeper of a movie!!

Odagiri Joe