AKP Job 27 opens this week

Vaughan Weekly
February 19, 2014

They said it couldn’t be done but the first-time feature director Michael L. Suan did it. He created a full-length gangster narrative entirely without dialogue.

AKP Job 27 is a silent-noir film about a veteran Yakuza hit-man (Tyce Philip Phangsoa) whose repressed yearnings for a lost love resurface via his relationship with a Toronto prostitute (Roxanne Prentice).

The film - which was dismissed in its development stage as “not viable” by one production company - has toured film festivals worldwide, and has been in competition amongst Asian Indie giants like Takashi Miike and Kim Ki-duk and was later nominated for a Free Spirit Award (for uniqueness and originality) at the 29th Warsaw Film Festival, as well for Best Canadian Feature at Toronto’s ReelWorld Film Festival.

In AKP Job 27, the hitman (whose lost love invades his consciousness in flashes of memory, punctuated by gunfire) receives orders in Tokyo for the 27th “job” of his career. Half a world away, in a fleabag hotel in Toronto, his focus is derailed by a beautiful prostitute who, to his eyes, is a double for the woman who haunts his waking moments. Soon, he is her self-appointed protector. But their mutual redemption leaves the hitman vulnerable. As the movie notes in its opening titles, “The Devil only desires those who have something to live for.”

Inspired by Luc Besson’s also-wordless Le Dernier Combat, Suan’s blueprint for AKP Job 27 was a 20-page treatment with 77 scenes.

Suan admits he had to stretch the truth to keep investors happy during the movie’s genesis - especially after its initial rejection.

“If you can polarize audiences, then I think you’re on the right path, artistically speaking,” said Suan. “As Canucks, I believe we have an inner Maverick about us that is seldom seen, but admirable nonetheless.”

The premiere for AKP Job 27 will take place Feb. 21 at York Cinema at 115 York Blvd. It will also be shown at Woodside Cinemas at 1571 Sandhurst Circle and at Square One Landmark Cinemas at 100 City Centre Drive on Feb. 21 and at Cinestarz located at 377 Burnhamthorpe Road East on Feb. 28.

AKP Job 27 was directed by Michael L. Suan, produced by KingSky Productions International Ltd., and White Night Studios Ltd.