Product Details

• Actors: Masatoshi Nagase, Shirô Sano, Kiyotaka Nanbara, Yang Haitin, Hou De Jian
• Directors: Kaizô Hayashi
• Writers: Kaizô Hayashi, Daisuke Tengan
• Producers: Kaizô Hayashi, Kazutoshi Wadakura, Shunsuke Koga, Yoshiharu Saga, Yu Wei Yen
• Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: Japanese
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 3
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Kino Video
• DVD Release Date: July 5, 2005
• Run Time: 292 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: B0009GV9I2
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #220,509 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Maiku Hama Private Eye Trilogy (The Most Terrible Time in My Life/The Stairway to the Distant Past/The Trap)" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

MAIKU HAMA:PRIVATE EYE TRILOGY BOX SE - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Japanese pulp neo-noir, June 28, 2010

By 

William Adams - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Maiku Hama Private Eye Trilogy (The Most Terrible Time in My Life/The Stairway to the Distant Past/The Trap) (DVD)

Masatoshi Nagase is brilliant as the the lead, Maiku Hama (his real name), a stylish private eye whose office in the projection room of a Yokohama cinema. Once a juvenile delinquent, he now hunts missing persons (and pets) in the hopes of earning enough money to send his little sister to a good college. While there's definitely quite a bit of comedy in the films, the stories are pulp to their core and, in the detective noir tradition, what begin as simple cases become ever more dangerous and complex for Maiku. With the help of his friends and fellow private eyes (and with little to no assistance from the mostly crooked police), Maiku will have to face Japanese gangs and crazed killers, and success is far from guaranteed.

The photography is well done. It's at once modern and faithful to the film noir style. Unfortunately, it's let down by the DVD transfer. The picture is grainy and washed out.

Aside from short written bios and filmographies of the writer, director, and lead actors, there are no special features to speak of.

Spoken language is Japanese with optional English subtitles.