Late January.
Movie channel, prime time.
Outside the old, dirty glass, the Miami sky was ablaze with color.
Faintly, the Japan outside the window cast their colorful glow into the room.
"Buzz--Buzz--Buzz--"
"Oh, I'm riding high..."
A peculiar melody emanated from the television's speakers.
This is a very unique musical style.
It was so unique that none of the people watching TV had ever heard of it before.
It just kept repeating that one line.
The melody is very soothing, without any of that rushed or agitated feeling.
But it gave off a very strange feeling, like he'd hit something too hard... "Oh, I'm riding high--"
Inside the room, Keanu Reeves sat quietly on the edge of the bed, lost in thought, seemingly preoccupied with something.
He shaved off his long hair, sporting a clean-cut look that perfectly complemented his young and handsome face.
The television next to me was playing static with no signal, and next to it sat an old, greasy Novabox game console.
"Ring ring ring--"
The sound of the telephone ringing in the living room could be clearly heard through the thin partition wall.
"I'm riding high--"
The music continued on repeat, a slow, psychedelic, and addictive tune.
"Ring ring ring--"
The phone rang again.
Keanu Reeves seemed to snap out of his daze and slowly stood up.
The camera follows him into the equally messy living room. "Hello, I'm Tim from the bakery."
The bag of cookies you ordered should have arrived by now.
After listening to the voicemail message, Keanu hung up and went to the apartment door.
Sure enough, there was a package there.
Upon opening it, there were no cookies at all; not even half a cookie could be found.
Inside was only a rooster mask and a letter.
[The target is a briefcase. Please proceed with caution.]
[Go to the subway station to retrieve the target and put it in the trash can.]
[Failure is not an option; we're watching you...]
After reading the above, Keanu's chest rose and fell slightly, as if he had taken a deep breath.
Immediately, he took a cigarette out of his pocket, covered it with his hand, and lit it with an old-fashioned lighter.
"Hoo--" Keanu exhaled a puff of smoke before taking the rooster mask out of the package.
However, instead of putting it on him directly, she carried him slowly down the stairs of the apartment building and got him into the driver's seat of her car.
The scene shifts, Keanu is now standing in front of the subway station entrance.
As the camera zooms in, the interior is revealed to the audience first.
They were a group of men wearing white coats, with distinctly Russian features; they were clearly a Russia gang.
Keanu didn't rush into action immediately.
He took one last drag of his cigarette, threw the remaining butt on the ground, and stomped it out with his leather shoe.
Then, it raised its other hand, which was still holding the rooster mask, and put the mask on its face.
Although the mask was shaped like a rooster, its eyes were wide open in anger, and its pupils were pitch black, making it look exceptionally eerie.
Keanu didn't take any weapons; he started his operation completely unarmed.
"Bang!"
With a powerful kick, the subway station door was flung open. The immense impact knocked the Russian gangsters behind the door to the ground.
Keanu slammed his knee down on him, then grabbed the thug by the neck and lifted him up, leaving him dazed and confused.
Then...
"Bang!"
With a sudden burst of strength, he slammed the thug's head hard against the ground.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Only after the thug's head exploded like a rotten watermelon, scattering blood everywhere, did he slowly stand up and toss the man aside like a rag doll.
Keanu bent down and casually picked up the baseball bat that had slipped from the other's hand and fallen to the ground.
What followed was a complete massacre.
Keanu was like a bloodthirsty demon, disregarding security measures, kicking down any door he saw, and killing as soon as he rushed in.
Despite the violent nature of the scene, the background music was surprisingly catchy.
Unlike the psychedelic atmosphere in the apartment earlier, the background music now is so exhilarating it's impossible to stop listening. The intense and rapid bass and drum machine perfectly complement Keanu's every punch and strike on screen.
The solid, visceral impact of each punch makes this film a work of pure violent aesthetics.
The entire battle proceeded smoothly and effortlessly.
It wasn't a shootout at all; it was a complete massacre.
The scene shifts.
Keanu has completely cleared out the entire subway station.
Covered in blood, he carried a briefcase also stained with blood and slowly walked out of the subway station through the pool of blood.
The camera focuses on his back as it slowly zooms in.
Keanu stopped abruptly just as the camera was almost touching the back of his head, then slowly turned around.
The black pupils on the mask stared directly at the camera.
Richard's rooster mask, which normally exuded an imposing and dignified aura, now transformed into a chilling and menacing presence.
"Ring ring ring--" The phone rang again, seemingly from nowhere.
The scene shifts, leaving only two lines of Japan- style artistic lettering on the screen.
[hotline]
[miami] ( Miami )
It then slowly faded away, transforming into a new scene.
[gamenova x novaarcade]
[Now Available]
Perhaps there's no more outrageous marketing campaign in the world.
Florida, Miami.
"Splash splash splash--"
This is a middle-aged man with several Cuba chains around his neck and an expensive wristwatch on his wrist.
His facial muscles were bulging, and a knife scar was visible.
At first glance, he is the epitome of the stereotype of a "big boss".
He had a cigar in his mouth as he faced the coin pusher machine.
Without even glancing at it, he scooped a handful of coins from the coin slot, then skillfully stacked them into a pile and pushed them horizontally onto the coin acceptor's track.
As he pushed with his finger adorned with a large gold ring, the tokens fell one by one into the coin acceptor.
Tokens flowed into the coin pusher like water, and were then pushed forward by the machine.
"Splash--"
Another place piled high with tokens reached its limit, collapsed, and fell into the coin slot.
The expert kept repeating the same operation without showing any sign of getting tired of it.
After a while, his brick-like Motorola DynaTAC suddenly received a call. "Don! Vittorio's over there..."
"Okay, I understand."
As he spoke, he casually hung up, his peripheral vision catching a glimpse of a group of workers busy installing new arcade machines not far away.
" Hotline Miami..."
The guy called "Tang" muttered something and shook his head slightly.
Installing such a machine in their territory is quite a good fit.
"Huh?"
Tang had excellent eyesight; even from a distance, he immediately noticed the machine's unusual features.
As a regular at arcades, he has seen all sorts of arcade games.
But this machine, fundamentally, gave him a sense of familiarity and warmth.
Because its coin acceptor has tracks similar to those in slot machines, coin pushers, or pachinko games.
Just like these good buddies he dealt with every day. Tang just loved this kind of gambling.
The thrill he gets from playing regular arcade games is nowhere near as great as what these machines provide.
The unusual design of the coin acceptor actually caught his attention.
Honestly, he'd heard of or seen this Gamenova thing before, but he'd never actually played it.
There are indeed such people in the arcade.
Every day, he would bring a basket of coins, find a coin pusher machine, and sit there all day.
What they were truly interested in, rather than other real arcade video games, was the pure mental stimulation.
He called a staff member to deal with the pile of coins he had accumulated. Tang casually filled a basket with the coins and strolled over to the new machine.
Just like in that previous, much-discussed promotional video, the protagonist, wearing Jacket and a rooster mask, stood there, staring intently at him.
There was also a guy wearing a horse mask and an owl mask next to him.
Further down, there was a street-like area.
In the background, rows of houses stand tall, their lights twinkling. A group of Russian gangsters, each armed, surround the man standing in the center of the frame.
He wore a pig's head mask, held a blood-stained fire axe, and had his other arm around a blonde woman.
"Snort..."
Tang, with a cigar dangling from his lips, plopped down in front of the machine and, without a second thought, pulled out a stack of game tokens and shoved them into the machine.
The game is not complicated, or rather, it's surprisingly simple, too simple.
The opening plot is basically the same as in the promotional PV, except that the picture quality isn't as good.
Instead, there is only a pixelated image from a top-down perspective.
Tang wasn't in a hurry and followed the game's instructions to the subway station.
What happened next is clear to anyone who has seen the PV.
A bloody massacre is about to unfold here.
"Choose a mask? What's the difference?"
Before starting, a scrollable list appears on the left side of the screen. Except for the chicken head " Richard " at the top, all other options are black, meaning they are locked.
Since he had no other choice, Tang didn't waste any more energy and directly pressed the attack button to confirm.
Then... the game officially began!
There were no further explanations or guidance.
The protagonist [jacket] stood empty-handed in front of the subway station Daimon.
Beyond the stairs lies the subway station where the Russian mafia operates.
Unlike in the PV, because of the top-down perspective, Tang can easily see the room's layout.
A Russian gangster in a white shirt stood behind the door, just like in the PV.
Then the next step is clear.
"Bang!"
The subway station door was kicked open.
The protagonist, unarmed, charged straight in. Just like in the PV, he grabbed the enemy lying on the ground.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Blood plasma rupture.