Japan Synopsis
“How do you stop an assassin who has no identity?”
Hired by a powerful member of the Russian mafia to avenge an FBI sting that left his brother dead, a psychopathic hitman known only as The Jackal proves an elusive target for the people charged with the task of bringing him down: a deputy FBI director, a Russian MVK Major, and a jailed IRA terrorist who can recognize him.
Audience Engagement
1,695 audience reviews — more than 98% of Japan films in our index.
Review volume (98th percentile) outruns trending popularity (81th) — a durable title with sustained audience attention.
Titles With Overlapping Themes
Films and series that share thematic tags with The Jackal. Number on each card indicates how many keywords overlap.
Other Titles From Universal Pictures
Action + Thriller in Japan
123 Japan titles in our catalog blend the Action and Thriller genres. Below: the top-rated of them (excluding The Jackal itself).
The 1996–1998 Japan Window
In the crowded 1996-1998 Japan release window, The Jackal sits at #103 of 144. The leaderboard below contextualises its neighbours.
The 1990s Japan Landscape
Catalog density by release year across the 1990s in Japan, 447 titles in total. Highlighted year (yellow) is when The Jackal premiered alongside 38 others.
Budget & Box Office Efficiency
At a 2h 4m runtime, production spent $484K per minute on screen and earned $1.3M per minute back.
Position in Catalog
Released alongside 38 other Japan films in 1997.
The 1124th Japan title from Japan we index (earliest catalogued entry: 1899).
Our Japan catalog contains 4,579 titles in total (2,908 films).
Thematic Fingerprint
Tags on The Jackal, grouped by how common each theme is across the full Asian catalog. Rare tags are more distinctive signals.
- cold war · 5
- bratva (russian mafia) · 3
- ira (irish republican army) · 2
- pretending to be gay · 2
- montreal · 1
- hitman · 30
- fbi · 13
- showdown · 9
- canada · 9
- revenge · 210
- terrorism · 47
- politics · 39
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #3,414 of 4,579 Japan films indexed here (25th percentile by TMDB audience score).
Rating is -0.6 points below the Japan average of 6.9/10.
Among Japan Action productions specifically: #1,322 of 1,714 (top 77%).
Production Details
| Primary Country | Japan |
|---|---|
| All Production Countries | Canada, France, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, United States of America |
| Original Language | En |
| Spoken Languages | English, Russian |
| Production Companies | Universal Pictures, Mutual Film Company, Alphaville Films, Tele München Fernseh Produktionsgesellschaft (TMG), UGC PH |
| Runtime | 2h 4m |
| Release Date | November 14, 1997 |
| IMDb | tt0119395 |