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Customer Reviews of Crying Freeman - Abduction in Chinatown (Vol. 3)

First Half of DVD Sublime Anime Perfection
Crying Freeman, Vol. 2: A Taste of Revenge contains Crying Freeman episodes 3 and 4. Episode 3, "Shades of Darkness," is absolutely sublime. It will have your mouth hanging open in awe. This is what anime is supposed to be. Episode 4, "Oshu Tohgoku," however, is a big disappointment - but I will talk about that later. It is absolutely worth buying this DVD just for "Shades of Darkness." <
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>A Taste of Revenge is the second of three DVDs in the Crying Freeman anime series. Each DVD contains two hour-long episodes. In "Revenge," Yoh Hinomura is the newly-instilled leader of the powerful 108 Dragons Hong Kong Triad. He and his wife, Emu Hino, have new names given to them by the elderly former leaders. Yoh is "Lon Tayan," Emu "Fu Chinran." But Yoh is known mostly as Crying Freeman, or simply Freeman. <
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>"Shades of Darkness" is partly about an African organization called the "Horn of Africa" that is after Freeman. The leader is a powerul young woman, Bagu Nagu. She is such an awesome character. She calls to mind the Shaft films of the "70's. The other part of the episode involves a legendary blade that Fu wants to make her own. The climactic scene on the rooftop as Fu dances with it by the light of the full moon had me practically standing up and applauding, it is so beautiful. <
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>The second episode is titled after the typical BIG BAD GUY. In it Bagu Nagu, now "Dark Eye," is reduced to a female rape victim. Unforgivable! The rest of the episode is hackneyed and not even plausible. <
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DVD 2 and 3: More Action Less Character Development
Crying Freeman - A Taste of Revenge (Vol 2) <
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>A Taste of Revenge takes up from where Portrait of a Killer left off. After embracing the new incarnations as Ron Tayan and Fu Ching-Ran, both Freeman and Emu Hino mature into their new function at the helm of the 108 Dragons family. In this two episode DVD we quickly move away from character development and segue into a new set of villains in The Horn of Africa - a group personally invested in the eradication of the 108 Dragons. The Horn of Africa send an envoy to the 108 Dragons heavily guarded ship with a valise full of money. The gang remising in their duty to thoroughly search this impostor suffer the consequences. The courier quickly eliminates all of the Ten Planets who function as a human shield - making Freeman's life more precious as many have been sacrificed to save him. This killing spree exposes the vulnerability of 108 Dragons - of which Freeman is bound to develop A Taste for Revenge. Once again, the question of excess violence rears its ugly head. There are copious sex scenes as well as the violence that should factor in the viewer's choice to stay with the series. I personally did not enjoy this DVD as much as the first one - of which there was more character development and plot. Crying Freeman is unique in its style and cross-cultural representations - yet again. In this volume we see crass representations of Africa as cesspool of violence. Then again, there is no place in the Crying Freeman series that is not a cesspool of violence. I say enjoy it for the freshness and uniqueness it brings to Anime. <
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>Crying Freeman - Abduction in Chinatown (Vol 3) <
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>Abduction in Chinatown is perhaps the most powerful in terms of stereotypes but not in story and plot. In the first of the episodes, Abduction in Chinatown Freeman meets Nina. Nina is a little freak that has fantasized over Freeman from the first moment she saw him. The plot thickens when Freeman levels the rival gang with Nina at the helm. The second installment in the series, The Russian Connection, brings to presence yet another set of stereotypes - the brutal Russian mob. The whole series up to this DVD is somewhat characterized by deterioration in terms of storyline but an improvement in animation. The scenes become more vivid while the characters more cliché... The most interesting bit of the animation is the loyalty to its manga roots. There are distinctive, clear lines on each character - but the characters themselves remain void - almost tepid. As I segue from here to the much-anticipated live action feature, I begin to feel a sense of trepidation and excitement - but mostly ambivalence. Making the jump from Anime to live action can be tricky. What with all the special effects moviemakers have at their disposal, the live action version promises to redeem this series that showed so much promise from the outset. <
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>Miguel Llora

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Badly dated thriller given a commendable DVD release.
Oh, I am crying, all right -- in regret that I ever watched a few episodes of this five-part OVA thriller series. It has a pretty interesting story: an artist is brainwashed into an assassin by a cult, who cries for his victims. One such victim melts his heart and of course, they have sex (mainly because she wants to "lose her virginity" before she dies). Later, both decide to join the Mafia group. Unfortunately, nothing else about it is particularly recommendable. <
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>At best, CRYING FREEMAN is mainly material for undemanding fans of hardcore sex and violence, both of which are very graphic and explicit. There are nary sympathetic characters to be had, and while there is nothing wrong with doing an anti-hero story or violence and sex in animation, recent productions have proven that both elements can be used to tell a story. The problem with CRYING FREEMAN's story is that it is revoltingly UNINTERESTING -- a confusing, mean-spirited, laughably ridiculous excuse to throw in both elements just for the sake of them BEING there... part of the reason why many titles of this type formed the dreaded cliche that Anime is nothing but sex and violence. Even more astounding is why the folks who torment the anti-hero would suddenly appear kindly and elderly in the next episodes, and why both characters would want to join the Mafia who had basically ruined their lives. <
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>The animation is very stiff and poor for the most part, with few moments of fluid action. The background music is cheesy, dated, 80's synth style fare; I'm willing to admit when there is good music played by electronic instruments, but this isn't one of them. I found it especially nauseating during the pre-sex scene. As far as the voice acting goes, well, I really can't judge the Japanese track all that well since I don't understand the language. The English dubbing, done by Carl Mecak in the early 90's, is mostly faithful to the translation, although it takes occasional liberties. The cast (which includes Steve Bulen, Michael McConnohie, Barbara Goodson, and others who eventually went on to become popular voice actors in Anime) is fairly competent. The problem, however, is that most of the voices are miscast and don't really do justice to their characters. In particular, the two leads are not particularly convincing and sound more monotone. Mecak's dubs are often despised by many hardcore fans. I personally have nothing against his work; it is my belief that dubs are capable of being good. Even so, I wouldn't say CRYING FREEMAN has the worst dub around, but it's nothing great either. (I heard there was a UK dub with badly faked accents.) <
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>This title was a success in America. Although I can understand why, there's no way I can consider CRYING FREEMAN an example of great Anime. Especially when there is more to this genre than the very graphic depictions of sex and violence that dominate this title. These two characteristics, unfortunately, were partially responsible for the cliche that Anime is nothing but a fest of gore, nudity, and breasts. Unless you're the kind who likes this sort of stuff, then check out CRYING FREEMAN. If not, look for something more satisfactory. <
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>For ADVs sake, though, I do have to commend them for their treatment of this curious title. The transfer is bright and clear, and there are none of the title overlays which hampered the original video releases. Even better for purists, the Japanese language track is included (should you care anyway). There isn't much in the way of extras, but at least ADV knows how to treat old titles with care.