Serving as a companion piece to Takashi Miike's later adaptation of the first Yakuza game, Like a Dragon: Prologue takes the approach of showing us more of Kiryu's early years and expanding upon elements Miike would subsequently hint at the following year. Obviously, the film is retroactively at odds with the events of 0 in terms of continuity but taken at face value, as a prologue to the original game, it does manage to work filling in the gaps left empty. The film plays the majority of its drama straight, with very little action and comedy permeating the short runtime, granted the series does flip-flop between tones frequently but here the seriousness feels off, not helping is the criminal lack of karaoke, disco and Pocket Circuit smh. Miike joining forces with Takeshi Miyasaka often leads to a movie confused in its direction, looking a lot like a TV drama from around the same time, but the two balance each other quite well despite the glaring lighting flaws. My biggest personal gripe is that Kiryu is played by Masakatsu Funaki who, don't get me wrong, does a great job in the role but is about 20 years too old for when this movie is supposed to take place in Kiryu's timeline. All in all, Like a Dragon: Prologue is worth seeking out if you're a mild fan of the games but not really for the casual fan looking to get hooked on the series.
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