Dead End Run is an hour length collection of three short films by Japanese visual genius Ishii Sogo.Each short focuses on the protagonists running away from a threat, be it a hitman or the police then finding themselves stuck in a dead end. Edit Translation
- English
- magyar / magyar nyelv
- dansk
- Norsk
- Native Title: DEAD END RUN
- Also Known As:
- Director: Ishii Gakuryu
- Genres: Action, Thriller, Crime
Cast & Credits
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![Iseya Yusuke in Dead End Run Japanese Movie]( "Iseya Yusuke in Dead End Run Japanese Movie")
Iseya YusukeSato Fumiaki (1st story: "Last Song")Main Role -
![Nagase Masatoshi in Dead End Run Japanese Movie]( "Nagase Masatoshi in Dead End Run Japanese Movie")
Nagase MasatoshiYamashita Nengo (2nd story: "Shadows")Main Role -
![Asano Tadanobu in Dead End Run Japanese Movie]( "Asano Tadanobu in Dead End Run Japanese Movie")
Asano Tadanobu(3rd story: "Fly")Main Role -
![Awata Urara in Dead End Run Japanese Movie]( "Awata Urara in Dead End Run Japanese Movie")
Awata Urara{Last Song}Support Role -
![Ichikawa Mikako in Dead End Run Japanese Movie]( "Ichikawa Mikako in Dead End Run Japanese Movie")
Ichikawa Mikako(3rd story: "Fly")Support Role -
![Kunimura Jun in Dead End Run Japanese Movie]( "Kunimura Jun in Dead End Run Japanese Movie")
Kunimura Jun[detective] (3rd story: "Fly")Guest Role
Reviews
"Meeting someone is never a coincidence"
Dead End Run was a bizarre art house film. Disturbing, with dizzying shaky camera work, and yet also intriguing. Three different protagonists in three different stories, running for their lives, find themselves in curious dead ends.Last Song
This was the strangest and my least favorite as it lapsed into a “zombie” song and dance. Surreal. 6.5
Shadows
Two hit men find themselves at a dead end and what appeared to be an existential crisis for both. Unhinged bordering on comical. 7.0
Fly
A criminal is cornered on a rooftop holding a silent girl hostage. Both are at different kinds of dead ends. 8.0
I was not a fan of the nausea inducing shaky cam, especially when it was sped up and combined with other special effects. I could appreciate it, but did not enjoy it. The music also sounded like it came straight out of the 1970s. Much like the camera work, you’ll either love it or hate it.
The moon and mist played a strong role in the first two fantastical stories while the sun made an appearance in the third one. Pay attention to the jewelry shown in the initial hallucinogenic run with psychedelic effects and colors flowing like a kaleidoscope on a bad mushroom trip. They show up later. Honestly, much of the film had the look of someone who had partaken of something that led to a distortion of time and space. The runners were in amazing shape. One ran through the night, day, and night again. I’m sure it had some higher meaning my literal brain could not discern. All three couples ended up in similar positions for different reasons.
Dead End Run is one those films where the beauty/meaning is in the eye of the beholder. It’s not a film I could say I truly liked, but I did find it interesting and worth a watch just to once again experience director Ishii Gakuryu’s creativity and imagination.
6 May 2026
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