Starting the day at 9:15 AM with the screening of the newest Takashi Miike film: pure stupidity or pure genious. Still a bit tired with a long day ahead of you, the explosion of colors and absurdity that the newest Miike brings is either too much for the start of the day or a great adrenaline rush to kick the day off. In my case, it certainly was a great start, cause oh boy, Miike has done it again.
Welcome in the world of Reiji, a cop who gets an undercover assignment to infiltrate the most dangerous Yakuza-clan in Japan. This kind of story we've seen many times before, but I assure you, you've never seen it quite like this. Adapted from a Manga comic, director Miike throws his audience in a pure adrenaline ride from start to finish, filled with absurd humor, wild characters and crazy situations.
Reiji is portrayed by actor Tôma Ikuta (from The Brain Man), who plays the role with lots of funny faces and enthusiasm, as the style of the film requires. Miike doesn't hide the fact that he took the story from a Manga, and puts as much Manga humor and visuals in the film as possible. Ikuta is joined by Shinichi Tsutsumi, who steals the show as Hiura, aka ‘Crazy Papillon', a gangster obsessed with butterflies (yes, you read that correctly), and lives by the motto that “a yakuza should be funny!”. The roles are all well portrayed and a lot of Miike regulars appear in the film that goes nicely overboard on, well, almost everything.
Filled with a big chunk of Miike humor, over the top acting, over the top visuals, over the top action (basically everything goes over the top), the film surely is a visual spectacle that you don't see everyday. A slight minus point would be that the film, as with most films by Miike, loses some of its crazy speed towards the end, but this doesn't really spoil the fun. For some people this might be too much craziness for one movie, but if you are in the mood for something colorful, crazy and fun, this new Miike will certainly do the job for you. Cause come on, yakuza's should be fun!
