Fearsome yakuza boss Kamiura is also a bloodsucking vampire. One day, men arrive from a competing clan and deliver him an ultimatum: Play nice or die.
Kamiura refuses and, during a fierce battle, is torn limb from limb. With his dying breath, he passes on his vampire powers to his loyal lieutenant, Kageyama.
His first order of business is revenge, setting him on a collision course with the seemingly unstoppable foreign syndicate, while making his name..........
I don't know if I'm missing a trick or so etching here, Miike is a visionary director, making some of the most gut wrenching movies and bonkers set pieces in the last fifteen years, and here, he seems to have tried to up his game, and in doing so pushes it off the cliff whilst in a wheelchair.
It starts off as your typical generic exploitation gangster movie. Rival clans feud, as they do, but then some one who is not too dissimilar to Mortal Kombat's Raiden comes into shot, wearing a coffin on his back, whilst that bloke from The Raid is dresses as a geek, and turns into an assassin. Then someone inherits vampire powers.
This is the most sanest part of the film.
Then it goes from bonkers to you asking yourself 'is this some sort of experimental movie to rat out the snobby wannabe film critics who know nothing about the medium of film'. If it is,mother it's genius, because there will be someone out there who thinks that this is the best film ever made, because of its symbolism. When in fact,mother only symbolism I saw here was a big fat middle finger to pretentious geeks, and a big laugh emoji to those who just think its a load of old cobblers.
By the end of the second act, we have a frog that appears to have wandered in from Sesame Street. At first you just think its a man in a costume, after all, we've already seen a man dressed as a toucan, and vampires eating transparent slugs.
And then it goes beyond the realm of the senses, as it begins to reference Big Trouble In Little China, Godzilla, and all the while have the air and cheapness of something that Takeshi's Castke would be embarrassed at.
But,then again, I believe this film will be studied for years to come, and garner a huge cult following, because some snob somewhere will they know the true meaning of the film and try to influence others to his train of thought.
But it's not, it's about a man dressed as a frog with evil eyes who can do karate.
And if that sounds like your idea of heaven, then go ahead.
Kamiura refuses and, during a fierce battle, is torn limb from limb. With his dying breath, he passes on his vampire powers to his loyal lieutenant, Kageyama.
His first order of business is revenge, setting him on a collision course with the seemingly unstoppable foreign syndicate, while making his name..........
I don't know if I'm missing a trick or so etching here, Miike is a visionary director, making some of the most gut wrenching movies and bonkers set pieces in the last fifteen years, and here, he seems to have tried to up his game, and in doing so pushes it off the cliff whilst in a wheelchair.
It starts off as your typical generic exploitation gangster movie. Rival clans feud, as they do, but then some one who is not too dissimilar to Mortal Kombat's Raiden comes into shot, wearing a coffin on his back, whilst that bloke from The Raid is dresses as a geek, and turns into an assassin. Then someone inherits vampire powers.
This is the most sanest part of the film.
Then it goes from bonkers to you asking yourself 'is this some sort of experimental movie to rat out the snobby wannabe film critics who know nothing about the medium of film'. If it is,mother it's genius, because there will be someone out there who thinks that this is the best film ever made, because of its symbolism. When in fact,mother only symbolism I saw here was a big fat middle finger to pretentious geeks, and a big laugh emoji to those who just think its a load of old cobblers.
By the end of the second act, we have a frog that appears to have wandered in from Sesame Street. At first you just think its a man in a costume, after all, we've already seen a man dressed as a toucan, and vampires eating transparent slugs.
And then it goes beyond the realm of the senses, as it begins to reference Big Trouble In Little China, Godzilla, and all the while have the air and cheapness of something that Takeshi's Castke would be embarrassed at.
But,then again, I believe this film will be studied for years to come, and garner a huge cult following, because some snob somewhere will they know the true meaning of the film and try to influence others to his train of thought.
But it's not, it's about a man dressed as a frog with evil eyes who can do karate.
And if that sounds like your idea of heaven, then go ahead.