Launched to stardom by Jim Jarmusch’s Mystery Train, enigmatic actor Masatoshi Nagase thrives as the hardboiled detective wannabe Maiku Hama in Kaizo Hayashi’s trilogy of the same name, encompassing The Most Terrible Time in My Life (1994), The Stairway to the Distant Past (1995) and The Trap (1996). Stomping through the bustling-and-hustling port city of Yokohama, Hama operates out of a run-down movie theatre and his office sees every kind of customer: from rich ladies looking for runaway pups to serial murderers who look suspiciously like himself… Equal part American hardboiled detective pastiche, Seijun Suzuki-style Nikkatsu akushon send-up, and Masatoshi Nagase’s own new school comedic charmer, the Maiku Hama Trilogy is a cult phenomena of 90s Japanese cinema, that would go on to inspire many and spawn its own anthology NTV television series The Private Detective Mike by 2002.
「罠 THE TRAP」「遥かな時代の階段を」「我が人生最悪の時」収録、全作ともに原語日本語音声収録、国内向け機器で視聴可。