Yes, the hair is horrible. Now that that's out of the way on we go ...

For a country that produces so many film - to say nothing of producing icons like Sonny Chiba - Japan produces surprisingly few action films. Some martial arts stuff, sure, and a good bit of the ol' ultraviolence and high energy weirdness but straight up action films? I doubt I could come up with more than a handful without doing a good bit of research and that just seems strange.

And so I'm more than a little curious to see what comes of Chameleon, a high profile new effort starring Fujiwara Tatsuya of Battle Royale and Death Note fame. The thing's got a classic 70's action film feel to it and it comes by that naturally: it's being directed froma script written thirty years ago for Matsuda Yusaku, who died before it could be filmed. Fujiwara stars as a small time crook who witnesses a kidnapping and ends up taking justice into his own hands when the kidnappers start picking off his own gang of cronies. The young star performed most - if not all - of his own stunts in the film and the just released theatrical trailer is looking good so here's hoping it is enough of a success to trigger a new wave of Japanese action flicks ...

You'll find the trailer in the Twitch Player below the break.