Sakura Ando stars as a small-time grifter who gets in way over her head in Bad Lands, a Japanese crime drama that attempts to shine a light on the country’s predatory phone scamming industry.

Directed by industry veteran Masato Harada, who enjoyed a return to form with last year’s Hell Dogs, the film wastes no time in plunging its audience into this labyrinthine world, where yakuza thugs oversee a sprawling multi-tiered workforce of chancers, outsiders and ne’er-do-wells all desperate to make ends meet.

Read my full South China Morning Post review