Rating: C+
Dir: Takashi Miike
Star: Tôma Ikuta, Shinichi Tsutsumi, Takashi Okamura, Riisa Naka
One of the many Miike movies which somehow escaped my notice. Though, let’s be honest, there was a spell where it seemed he was making films faster than I could watch them. This lightly checks off most of the expected boxes – organized crime and wacky characters. However, after an enjoyable and excessive opening, I did feel it didn’t have all that much to offer, especially considering it runs comfortably over two hours. The hero is Reiji Kikukawa (Ikuta), a cop who is fired from the force for gross misconduct. Except it’s all a ruse, allowing Reiji to go undercover and infiltrate the Sukiya-kai yakuza gang, with the aim of gathering enough evidence to arrest its boss.
As you would expect, there are a number of complicating matters. Another group, the Hachinosu-kai, is trying to start a gang war, and sends its cat-obsessed minion, Nekozawa, to instigate the conflict by killing Reiji. Our protagonist’s girlfriend, Junna (Naka), is also in the force, yet is unaware of his undercover status. And Reiji’s boss, Masaya Hiura (Tsutsumi), a.k.a. “Crazy Papillon”, seems increasingly like an all-round good guy, vehemently opposed to the drugs his gang are allegedly selling. But when a Russian group offers a million tablets of MDMA, everything comes to a head. Though their method of getting the drugs from ship to shore, has to be seen to be believed. I’ll just say, I suspect PETA would not be impressed.
This begins as if it’s going to be one of Miike’s films where he lets his imagination go entirely unfettered. We first meet Reiji, as butt-naked as Japanese censorship will permit, tied to the bonnet of a car as it speeds through the streets (top). It’s like a homoerotic version of the finale from Death Proof. Similarly, when he completes his largely useless training to become an undercover cop, his colleagues burst into song to honour him, singing the rules of his new position. “Rule Four! If you keep your resolve, nothing is scary!” It’s completely deadpan, and wonderfully mad at the same time. Yet, after a certain point, it feels like it largely forgets to have tongue in cheek. Or perhaps the humour becomes only detectable to local viewers.
Oh, as yakuza movies go, it remains a decent entry. Yet I still felt a sense of loss, given how it started as if Miike was going to bend the conventions of the genre to his will. It’s a little disappointing for it to end up seeming that it was Miike who got bent. Hard to be sure how much is due to the source material. For rather than coming from the director’s fevered consciousness, it’s an adaptation of the Mogura no Uta manga, by Noboru Takahashi. Is it too accurate to the source material? Who knows. It proved successful enough to spawn two further sequels. Though I won’t exactly be rushing to put them on top of my pending Miike pile.