What's not to like? Six-year-old hitmen. Hermaphrodite soft-core porn. Death by acid. Stripper high school girls who fire darts from their you-know-whats. A North Korean assassin who flies into a killing rage over bad kim-chee. This early effort from autuer Takashi Miike is a totally uninhibited, exhuberant, blood-soaked low-budget mess, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I don't know why. Most people probably won't like it.
The Crying Game Remember the Neil Jordan flick "The Crying Game", about love and death and terrorism and gender-bending confusion in Great Britain?
Well, my critical reaction to Takashi Miike's "Fudoh", one of his roughly bazillion flicks about Yakuza doing that voodoo that They do so well (which is to say: killing other Yakuza)will be called just that: The Crying Game.
Would you like to know why?
It's not because at one point (between killings), its sailor-suited schoolgirl Yakuza assassin unveils her own little biological---erm---surprise, literally amidships.
It's not because at its warped, twisted, diabolical core "Fudoh" is really about Love. Yes, Love---the kind that boils up a the murderous, acidic rage in the heart of its hero, Riki Fudoh (played with admirable poise and with zero sarcasm by Shosuke Tanihara, who acts for all the world that all this insanity is just a by-the-numbers Yakuza flick, demanding dignity), who declares war against his own father for the murder of his older brother years before.
No, it's none of those things. Basically, "Fudoh" is unhinged, deranged, possibly evil. And when you get done watching it, *you* will be crying.
That's right, *crying*.
Depending on how warped you are, you'll be crying from a)utter shock at having wasted two hours of your life you won't get back, or b) from a state of uncontrollable giggles.
"Fudoh" is not an epic. It's not well-paced, or particularly coherent (very few Miike films are, which is part of their sick charm). Its take on filial piety left me cold; its strange thrusts and feints at mainstream humor rattled and died.
Miike's flicks are always a mixed bag, reflecting the Master's madness, profligacy, and prolificity. Some are screamingly hysterical outburts of shameless chaos (as in "Ichi the Killer"), the violence almost tastily juicy, the carnage ratcheting up into a kind of baroque geyser of gore.
Some are meticulously restrained little jaunts into madness where the gibbering insanity, almost mood pieces: the sheer, monstrous, unholy Wrongness is kept tightly leashed, in the cellar, just beneath the blindingly hip, leather-skinned, sinfully rad surface, ready for Miike to give the leash a tug (as in "Audition" and "Gozu").
And then there is the last category: the Sh*t. Fudoh falls squarely in this last category, because it is, undeniably, even to the most die-hard acolyte of Miike, total sh*t. And that's understandable, because this is one of the Master's first movies, and showed enough lunatic promise that after "Fudoh" he could get seriously bankrolled and really start exporting the madness.
With that in mind, though, "Fudoh" is a tight production, and the constraints show. Those gory, ghoulish fight-sequences? Mostly non-existent here, though they happen: remember, though, Miike made "Fudoh" for just 40 million Yen (400 grand if my exchange rate gears are cranking), which in Tokyo gets you lunch and a motel room for two nights.
So yeah, while there are flashes that will slake the thirst of the high-end gorehound, don't go in expecting "Ichi".
Second, for any Yakuza flick---especially a Miike jaunt---the hero and his chief nemesis (Daddums) are boring. Riki Fudoh stalks around looking somber (if stylish!) in his school uniform, often accessorizing with a white trenchcoat, which makes him look like he's about to launch an invasion of China at any minute.
Nah, the fun in Fudoh is transferred over to Riki's triumvirate of assassins: a big goofy guy for pratfalls, and two Sailor Moon-esque lasses for slaughter and kink.
So why FOUR stars for "Fudoh"? Because like all of Takashi Miike's art, you will see things in "Fudoh" you have never seen before. Things, quite honestly, you will never see again, outside of another Miike flick or Hell.
Think of it this way: when's the last time you went down to the neighborhood cineplex and scoped out:
1) A vicious Yakuza gunbattle with about 10,000 rounds exchanged---all in a toilet stall?
2) A poisoned Yakuza gangster getting some bad morning coffee and turning into a human blood geyser in the back of a police car?
3) A tender, touching, deeply sensitive (yeah, right!) love story between a confused, angst-ridden Ninja schoolgirl Yakuza assassin who fires lethal poisoned darts from her---umm...well, she uses pressure generated in her, erm, nether regions---anyway, between the murderous hermaphroditic Yakuza schoolgirl and the new English teacher who shows her the meaning of Love? Awww.
4) Death by acid bath, on stage, during a striptease?
5) Death! This time by lethal poisoned dart, shot across a lounge by the aforementioned hermaphrodite killer, launched from the boiling depths of his/her...umm...from its---hindquarters?
6) Or a brutal revenge scene at a local Shinto shrine, with the victims two lisping twin Shinto priests and the assassin sent to protect them, who---well, who likes to spend quality cuddling time with his two charges.
And we're just getting warmed up. If God isn't dead, He will be when he checks this demented thing out.
JSGNothing Special. Lately I've been getting into Asian-Cinema, and the king of it seems to be Takashi Miike. Releasing 63 films in the last 13 years, he's certainly a busy man, and he does his best to make some of the most bizarre movies out there, this being no expection.
The first problem with this DVD is the actual DVD. It has no DVD Menu, no Sound options (Japanese Stereo + English Subtitles), and no extra features. The movie does have 3 trailers for other films which play right before the movie (Much like a VHS Tape). The video on the DVD Is nothing special either.
The story follows young Riki (A model high school student), son of one of the biggest crime lords in japan, who murdered his other son (Riki's brother) -- Riki swears to avenge his brothers death, and recruits a group of bizarre people from his school (Including a man known as the japanese elvis!), to take out his father, and gain control of the Yakuza.
The movie sounds real interesting (And when you see some of these characters (For instance, the girl who shoots poisonous darts out of her privates)), it truly is bizarre.
Unfortunately the story doesnt unfold so well, and is a large letdown (I wanted to love this movie after hearing about it).
It does feature Miike's typical "over the top violence" at parts, but its not as good as his typical films unfortunately.
I'd recommend renting this one, but I'd hold off on purchasing this movie unless you can find it for under $10.
