A bar owner on the waterfront takes action to prevent a young woman from killing herself. This leads to a nice relationship, but both characters are carrying around deep secrets. The young man was a promising boxer but one night a man provoked him into a fight and he killed him, losing any chance of realizing his dream. This has led to depression and hope of changing his life in some way. His brother has supposedly gone to Brazil and is getting things ready for them to farm some land. The odd thing is that there has been no word from the him. The young woman is a lounge singer, and she is hooked up with some bad guys who want her back. Neither of them can seem to get rid of their respective pasts. Soon, the two stories become intertwined. This isn't bad but it is slow moving and meandering. Also, there is some unfinished business at the end.

Jôji is a washed up boxer. One night he meets Saeko down by the harbor--and she's contemplating killing herself as she's lost her voice--and that's terrible for a professional singer! You don't learn all this up front--it slowly unfolds as the film progresses. However, what neither knows is that her employer and Jôji's plan to move to a farm in Brazil are actually inextricably linked. There is MUCH more to the plot than this, but I'd rather say nothing more about this--as the plot is pretty interesting and offers lots of nice twists and my discussing the plot would ruin the suspense.

This is a movie that creeps up on you slowly. At first, it seems like an ordinary sort of film about two losers who somehow find each other. However, keep watching--the plot changes into less of a romance and more a film noir treasure. The dark lighting, criminals who come into their lives and the dark turn of the plot all work together to make a dandy film--well written, well acted and very exciting in its direction.

The earliest film in Eclipse's new Nikkatsu Noir set, this one stars Yujiro Ishihara and Mie Kitahara, the two stars of the previous year's Crazed Fruit (these are only two of about two dozen films they made together). I Am Waiting is a pretty good crime flick about a retired boxer who meets up with a lounge singer who is trying to run away from her gangster employer. The boxer has been waiting a year for his brother to contact him from Brazil, where he hopes to move and help his brother farm. Turns out that his brother never made it there. His mysterious disappearance is linked with the aforementioned gangsters. The story here is really good, and, in general, it's well directed and performed. It does move a tad too slowly, though, and the two halves of the plot, the romance and the mystery of the missing brother, are connected by a pretty big and hard-to-buy coincidence. It's a good film, but it's one that feels like it could have been done a little bit better (the perfect film for a remake!).