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For those who enjoyed the cyborg-revenge plot ofRobocopbut felt it was a little light on the violence: fear not. The bloodbath that Verhoeven's film touches on, Takashi Miike'sFull Metal Yakuzadelivers in spades. Not surprisingly,Full Metal Yakuzais a complete hyped-up retelling ofRobocopin futuristic, gangland Japan. The plot is simple. A low-rent gangster accidentally gets killed by the yakuza that are attempting to whack his boss. After a mad scientist reconstructs his body, RoboYakuza is out for revenge. What follows is an avenging tour-de-force of violence and gore that oftentimes dips into the realm of the extremely uncomfortable. Though lacking the artistic merits that madeIchi the Killer,Fudoh, andAudition,interesting films,Full Metal Yakuzawill no doubt have its fan base. If violence for violence's sake is your cup of tea, you will not be disappointed in this early Miike flick, so by all means indulge.--Rob Bracco
One of Miike's most underrated Ignore the unjust criticism from some of these clueless reviewers. I can't understand descriptions that include "ill conceived" with Full Metal Yakuza. It is a simple story, executed in a clear manner. The film has an emotional core at its center which balances the horrific violence and dark humour. One of Miike's most fast paced and entertaining films, and the ending does make sense! if you were paying attention.
Nostalgic hommage... so it seems to me at least. The story of FMY is very childish and also being told in a childish way: a young criminal wants to be more (bigger, better, stronger, respected) than he actually is. Nobody can take this man too seriously so they push him around and make fun of him, even street thiefes can't take it seriously when he calls himself "a dangerous yakuza". The young man is the only loyal guy to his boss, as the boss is his big idol. When both of them get shot down a mad, young scientist is partly fusing their bodies together with electronic cyborg tools. When the young criminal is back on the streets, some other criminals happen to cross his way again, this time being forced to to painfully learn that things had changed meanwhile.
The cartoonish presentation of that scientist, the flat but a little thrilling storyline, some characters, they all remind me of some cheap action/horror/scifi video sessions I did years ago. There is (I guess) no background message, nothing at all like this, it is just an entertaining story of a boy-turned-dangerous. It never gets as satirical as verhoevens Robocop. Also due to the fact that the hero is a criminal in this flick. I found the movie better and better everytime I watched it (saw it 3 times so far). The fact that I rewatched it at all is pretty strange to me as I did not like the film this much. But then, I guess it must be this nostalgic feeling the movie causes, the cheap effects (blue lightnings on the body when it is raining, cheap noises when he moves his cyborg body parts etc.), mediocre but engaging acting, a little emotion in a weird way: the yakuza boss inside of him is still in love with a sweet japaneese girl. This also affects his way of movement, he feels like going to some place for unknown reasons, than they meet and have a pretty melancholic time on the beach, a somehow unexpected mood to the rest of the film. Talking of which, in the last 15 minutes it becomes clear that Miike shot this movie when the yakuza kidnap the girl, brutally rape her (even her dead body...) while one of the cyborg eyes is lying next to the scene, forcing the cyborg criminal to witness the whole thing. Plus, there is also some silly stuff to be found here like his fighting strategies that look like bad comedy. Definetly intended sillyness.
Some grown-up once-teenage-video-freaks like me will probably like or even love this movie. Others will turn their heads off as there's not as much action and overall entertainment as in Robocop, not as much violance as in other Miike movies, a pretty solid thing in the end. But then, there's not much in common here with Robocop, except for the main theme.Just a note To the reviewer below and others who might find that the Full Metal Yakuza disc is displaying in a cropped full screen image rather than proper widescreen, this is not a fault in the disc itself. You need to consult your DVD player's manual and adjust the display from 4:3 to 16:9.
Also, regarding the implication that this version of the film is "edited," if you're referring to the digital blurring in some of the scenes, this was done by Miike himself. Don't ask me why.
