I'm always intrigued by Japanese films, but somehow never really engage with them fully. This is undoubtedly down to the sheer difference between cultures and the evolution of film making practice between the East and West. Whereas a film like Shall We Dance' succeeds because it provides characters that we can identify with, the Yakuza lifestyle portrayed in this film is so alien that it never really hooked me (a similar complaint I can level at the same director's Kids Return'). No doubt a lot of the humour is lost in the rather half-hearted subtitling of the film. Nevertheless, for the most part I didn't really have a clue what was going on. Individual scenes play well, but there seemed to be little continuity between them, and the story was conspicuous by its absence. On the other hand, the imagery is arresting, as is the simple yet effective shot composition and use of colour. I'm no fan of films that overtly glamourise violence however, and I found that the cruel detachment of the bloody action scenes gelled badly with the light-hearted tone of the rest of the film.
