Crying Freeman

Crying Freeman (1995) is an action crime film directed by Christophe Gans — watch online on iFILM. Based on the Japanese manga by Kazuo Koike and Ryoichi Ikegami, the film follows Yo Hinomura, a ceramics artist who is kidnapped, brainwashed and turned into a contract killer for the Sons of the Dragon, a powerful Chinese secret society. He never misses. He always cries.

Mark Dacascos brings a physical grace to the role that suits the manga's visual language. Yo is dispatched to eliminate a Yakuza leader — and is witnessed by Emu, an artist who watched the killing from a hill. The rules say she dies. Yo makes a different call. What starts as a fateful pause becomes something the organisation cannot control, while Yakuza bosses and internal rivals circle them both.

Director Gans shoots the film like a moving panel from the source comic: rain-slicked streets, slow-motion swordplay, neon backdrops. It was his debut feature, and it announced a filmmaker with a strong eye for kinetic style. Byron Mann and Rae Dawn Chong round out the cast. Stream Crying Freeman (1995) online on iFILM.