The deeply cynical finale to Daiei's popular "Black" film series on industrial espionage and corrupt business tactics, Superexpress unveils a Japan of schemers, con men, and blackmailers, with the only difference between heroes and villains a question of scale. Tamiya, a rural real-estate agent looking for quick money, discovers a suspicious land deal involving a crooked developer, the government, and a new railway line. Unruffled by any thoughts of morality or civility, Tamiya merely wants to make a profit out of his knowledge, preferably through blackmail and intimidation. He soon realizes, though, that the graft extends to individuals far more powerful, and far more intelligent, than he is. Framing each scene with claustrophobic, unsentimental precision, Masumura perverts Tamiya's "lunatic cry" into $$ in a mundane world of cluttered motel rooms and windowless offices-a repetitive, uneasy vision of society where the statement "mercy won't get you big money" is depressingly, obscenely verified.-J. Sanders