effigiebronze This flick isn't awful, but it's not really great either. I'm unclear as to why exactly it was (re)made. It's too violent to be believable, there are too many guns, there are waaay too many deaths to be even close to making me suspend my disbelief, but the violence is handled so realistically as to not make much sense.If this movie went over the top into a demented fever dream, cool, but it doesn't. The presentation is so nuts and bolts and kitchen sink the constant ultra violence just doesn't seem at all plausible. It's one of those movies where you wonder where the police are, when a guy strung out on heroin shoots up his apartment in the middle of the day with at least eight handguns (in Japan!). Apparently nobody ever calls the (ever-present and ever-watching) police in Japan. It's just not believable. Sorry.The tiresome unpleasantness of the main character is also past belief. I suspect any effective crime organization would have taken him down or had him incarcerated at the first stray bullet. Dumb. I'm not saying crazy Yakuza thrillers aren't good, I'm saying this one isn't. Not worth it.

LooyCyphr If Japan is "perfect", how does "imperfection" look like? The protagonist in this movie embodies exactly that. Which takes away a lot of the "Scarface"-like thriller elements. There is a story about a guy stepping up in a mafia environment, but his stoic anti-will, the fact he hurts EVERYone - helpers, supporters, lovers and foes - is meant to be allegorically political.It's stated somewhere and in fact, there's some few scenes that appear very illogical. Not so, if you watch the movies "the right way".Movie is calm, depressing, melancholic, bloody painful, sometimes crazy (in one scene he shoots at everyone: police, bypassers etc., then going "SORRY, OUTTA AMMO!" and delivers himself).Good, disturbing, mature Miike-movie. Not as cartoonish as most of his films.

lastliberal Goro Kishitani was a thrill to watch as the main character of this film. He was a totally amoral gangster that was inducted into the Yakuza by saving the godfather's life. In that sense he had no knowledge of the rules of the family and made some mistakes - one fatal.The rest of the film deals with his run from the family and the attempts of his prison brother, a high family member, to protect him. It just keeps getting more bizarre as he manages an escape from prison in a way that I would describe as vile and gross - but it worked! His treatment of women was the lowest. There are two or three rape scenes. There is certainly a lot of violence, but not gross violence.It was a fascinating story directed by Takashi Miike (Ichi the Killer, Hostel).

h-vadim This is probably the worst Miike I've seen so far. He is notorious for out of this world violence and perverse humour, but while other of his films are fun to watch because of ingenious directing this one is just as plain as a bare butt. The only thing that marks this film is totally pointless violence and a repulsive protagonist. This film really has nothing to offer, so my advise would be not to waste any time on it. It seems most of the people commenting on this film view this mind-numbing violence as this flick's exceptional merit - this somehow arouses a suspicion that they themselves must be psychopaths just like the main protagonist, there is no other way that anyone could ever sympathise with such a person or find the horrendous occurrences enjoyable.