"Gozu, Gozu, Gozu~~." This song has been stuck in my head every since I watched Takashi Miike's 'GOZU: Yakuza Horror Theater.' Well, to tell you the truth, it's not just stuck in my head-- I've actually been singing it whenever I space out walking down the street.
Among all the films I've watched recently 'GOZU' was the most entertaining flick. In fact, after watching it, I screamed (in my own little world) "This is the kind of entertainment I was looking for!!!"
I knew the film was gonna be crazy from the beginning. The film opened with a delusive yakuza Ozaki beat a chihuahua to death on the outside of a café in Shinjuku (Tokyo), claiming that the dog was a yakuza attack dog that had been trained to kill yakuza, so they should kill it before it killed them. There's no use for a crazy henchman. The boss also started getting paranoid that he might become the next victim of Ozaki's whacked illusion. So, he commanded Minami to take Ozaki to Yakuza Disposal (what the heck!?) in Nagoya. It was not an easy assignment for Minami since they had a brother-like relationship and even shared very personal secrets. Despite the hesitation, Minami drove a car to Nagoya with Ozaki in the back seat.
Once they got to a small rural town in Nagoya Minami accidentally killed Ozaki, and things began to get madder like you entered the Twilight Zone where you encounter a bunch of surreal inhabitants and supernatural-like incidents or visions. 'GOZU' which became the title of the film is actually a cow-headed creature with a human body in the Buddhist version of Hell. Yes, you'll meet the creature in the film. As the Japanese distributer described "what if David Lynch made a yakuza film?", 'GOZU' takes you to a Lynch or Cronnenburg like weird fantasy world, yet certainly with a Miike signature. In the interview on the DVD extra feature, Miike says that we used to get an impression that we entered another universe where unfamiliar people lived when we turned a corner we normally didn't take in a town, but as we grow up we get used to it and lose that sort of sensation. Sure enough there are many different universes around us, but the universe Miike created is a nightmarish labyrinth. While Minami stayed in Nagoya, people there kept asking him "you're not from Nagoya, are you?" As being an outsider, how can this naive and confused yakuza Minami handle all those oddities? Well, surprising twists keep coming until the end.
The film is a V-Cinema (straight to video) with limited budget and production, yet the quality of entertainment 'GOZU' is very impressive that contain comedy, yakuza-story, drama and horror all in one package.
Among all the films I've watched recently 'GOZU' was the most entertaining flick. In fact, after watching it, I screamed (in my own little world) "This is the kind of entertainment I was looking for!!!"
I knew the film was gonna be crazy from the beginning. The film opened with a delusive yakuza Ozaki beat a chihuahua to death on the outside of a café in Shinjuku (Tokyo), claiming that the dog was a yakuza attack dog that had been trained to kill yakuza, so they should kill it before it killed them. There's no use for a crazy henchman. The boss also started getting paranoid that he might become the next victim of Ozaki's whacked illusion. So, he commanded Minami to take Ozaki to Yakuza Disposal (what the heck!?) in Nagoya. It was not an easy assignment for Minami since they had a brother-like relationship and even shared very personal secrets. Despite the hesitation, Minami drove a car to Nagoya with Ozaki in the back seat.
Once they got to a small rural town in Nagoya Minami accidentally killed Ozaki, and things began to get madder like you entered the Twilight Zone where you encounter a bunch of surreal inhabitants and supernatural-like incidents or visions. 'GOZU' which became the title of the film is actually a cow-headed creature with a human body in the Buddhist version of Hell. Yes, you'll meet the creature in the film. As the Japanese distributer described "what if David Lynch made a yakuza film?", 'GOZU' takes you to a Lynch or Cronnenburg like weird fantasy world, yet certainly with a Miike signature. In the interview on the DVD extra feature, Miike says that we used to get an impression that we entered another universe where unfamiliar people lived when we turned a corner we normally didn't take in a town, but as we grow up we get used to it and lose that sort of sensation. Sure enough there are many different universes around us, but the universe Miike created is a nightmarish labyrinth. While Minami stayed in Nagoya, people there kept asking him "you're not from Nagoya, are you?" As being an outsider, how can this naive and confused yakuza Minami handle all those oddities? Well, surprising twists keep coming until the end.
The film is a V-Cinema (straight to video) with limited budget and production, yet the quality of entertainment 'GOZU' is very impressive that contain comedy, yakuza-story, drama and horror all in one package.
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