Nicolas Winding Refn’s produced so much material these last ten years––Copenhagen Cowboy‘s five hours are slim compared with Too Old to Die Young, which I suspect is still playing somewhere––that it’s easy to forget he hasn’t made a strictly defined film since 2016’s The Neon Demon. As one who considers all the above mentioned (especially Die Young) arguments for the defense, it’s a relief to read he’ll be returning to cinema soon: as Winding Refn told Variety at the Venice Film Festival (where he’s premiering the short / motorcycle ad “Beauty Is Not a Sin”), plans are set to shoot a new feature in Tokyo next year.
Featuring both Japanese and English, it’s said to be in the key of Only God Forgives and The Neon Demon––naturally boasting “a lot of glitter and lot of sex and violence.” There’s good reason to make a guess as to what this film is, exactly: for some time Winding Refn’s been hoping to work in Japan on The Avenging Silence, a “a big extravagant action film” written by Bond veterans Neil Purvis and Robert Wade, and for which there was (granted, in 2017) this very long synopsis:
A former European spy, accepts a confidential mission from a Japanese businessman exiled to France to take down the head of the most treacherous Yakuza boss in Japan. The spy was one of the leading spies in Europe. An injury inflicted to his vocal cords during a failed mission six years ago left him mute, forcing him to leave his profession. Now, six years later, he is sought out and put on confidential assignment by a former Yakuza, now a retired Japanese businessman in exile in France, to track down and kill the head of the most dangerous Yakuza family in Japan. Afraid of flying, our spy anonymously boards a cargo ship headed for Tokyo. An onboard explosion sinks the ship and our spy finds himself washed ashore on a life raft in southern Japan. As a mute, our spy must silently journey through Japan seeking 4 clues – symbolizing conquest, war, famine, and death – which will guide him to the unknown location of the Yakuza boss. Meanwhile, the Yakuza boss, known for his 2004 mass slaughter of Yakuza members who had turned against him, is believed to be plotting to reenter the Japanese underworld after living in his own surreptitious world in the mountains, void of all technology. This way of life becomes an obsession for the Yakuza boss. Rumors spread that he had committed suicide years ago but escaped prisoners from his hidden camp told stories of his plan for a comeback. Now rival Yakuza families suspect he is forming a master plan to return, a plan that unburies the most infamous story of Yakuza betrayal. Our spy finds himself on an existential journey through Japan in search of pieces to the puzzle that will lead him to a confrontation with the ultimate Yakuza boss in a terrifying conclusion.
In the meantime, Winding Refn is developing two other projects––one at least connected to gaming, which he calls “the only art form that continues to evolve with possibilities creatively.” How long can a cutscene of intense glares and Cliff Martinez droning hold the average gamer’s attention?