This movie is notable for its unusual deviation from the Yakuza/gangster format. Aesthetically it features tastefully lit sets, well-choreographed violence, and weird moments of goofball surrealism. The main characters walk an interesting line between cool and completely weird. Although, by the end they've gone way deep into the territory of being totally creepy.
The plot kinda hard to follow, but it's about this hombre, Jo, the No. 3 killer for the Yakuza, and how there is a competition for rank between the top killers which sometimes involves them being hired out against one another on jobs. On the side, Jo is a sex-maniac (with a sex-maniac wife) who is erotically infatuated with the smell of boiling rice and some dead-bug-collecting woman who is more goth than Wednesday Addams. That's about as concise of a "plot" as you get. Oh--and no one has ever seen the no. 1 "Phantom" killer, so clearly we're gonna be building up to that. Capiche? Hahaha....
Eventually the movie becomes a chore to watch. Some of the cuts between scenes are completely abrasive, a lot of "plot points" happen with no explanation or reason, and right when you think the movie is going to end it goes into another 20 or so minutes of a totally insane stand-off. Yeah, what plot does exist is sometimes abandoned for extended periods of time to show montages of sex-having. You heard me: montages of sex-having.
I thought some of the stuff during the appearance of the "Phantom" killer was pretty funny and the shoot-outs were really well executed and occasionally had a dark sense of humor, but that didn't save the draining quality of the pacing and editing. And really, I understand where the off-beat elements come from -- you can feel the director playing around, trying to enjoy himself in a genre that he's bored to tears with. Some of the film makes me wonder if it inspired some of Miike's more light-hearted moments, with the random jokes amidst fatal violence and the little surrealist vignettes that come out of nowhere.
It's worth a look, but it is a goofy self-conscious movie about film-noir, made with a late '60s panache. That's right, panache!
The plot kinda hard to follow, but it's about this hombre, Jo, the No. 3 killer for the Yakuza, and how there is a competition for rank between the top killers which sometimes involves them being hired out against one another on jobs. On the side, Jo is a sex-maniac (with a sex-maniac wife) who is erotically infatuated with the smell of boiling rice and some dead-bug-collecting woman who is more goth than Wednesday Addams. That's about as concise of a "plot" as you get. Oh--and no one has ever seen the no. 1 "Phantom" killer, so clearly we're gonna be building up to that. Capiche? Hahaha....
Eventually the movie becomes a chore to watch. Some of the cuts between scenes are completely abrasive, a lot of "plot points" happen with no explanation or reason, and right when you think the movie is going to end it goes into another 20 or so minutes of a totally insane stand-off. Yeah, what plot does exist is sometimes abandoned for extended periods of time to show montages of sex-having. You heard me: montages of sex-having.
I thought some of the stuff during the appearance of the "Phantom" killer was pretty funny and the shoot-outs were really well executed and occasionally had a dark sense of humor, but that didn't save the draining quality of the pacing and editing. And really, I understand where the off-beat elements come from -- you can feel the director playing around, trying to enjoy himself in a genre that he's bored to tears with. Some of the film makes me wonder if it inspired some of Miike's more light-hearted moments, with the random jokes amidst fatal violence and the little surrealist vignettes that come out of nowhere.
It's worth a look, but it is a goofy self-conscious movie about film-noir, made with a late '60s panache. That's right, panache!