Visually astonishing, the delirious Money Talks puts the pedal to the metal in the opening sequence-a car chase that shows Ichikawa can do anything-and just keeps careening on its crazy way to a final blaze of gangland warfare on a man-made island. Its hot 'Scope frames keyed to the searing yellows and oranges of the cars, Money Talks features a classic Ichikawa obsessive, Machida (Shintaro Katsu), who is in constant trouble because of his instincts to do right every time, even when it endangers his life. A gang hires him for his "forceful personality," and assigns him to kill evil people, a president of a loan company and a drug baron. Both homage to and spoof of the yakuza genre, and a full frontal satire of the "new Japan," Money Talks is one of Ichikawa's wildest films. Though full of his freeze frames and elegant overhead shots, it also offers some very exciting unanchored camerawork in the action sequences.-James Quandt