Yakuza Apocalypse
Studio: Samuel Goldwyn Films
Directed by Takashi Miike
Oct 09, 2015
Web Exclusive
The degree of enjoyment of Takashi Miike’s newest submission into the canon of crazy will entirely depend on the viewer’s affinity for the director’s style. This is not an entry-level movie.
A young member of the Yakuza sees his boss murdered while he is left for dead. Mourning over the corpse with its disembodied head in his hands, things get nutty. The head comes back to life for a brief moment (reminiscent of a scene in Hausu) and bites his charge in the neck. Turns out this is a vampire movie.
Later, a demon with a bird’s beak shows up to guide the forces who betrayed the Yakuza boss. They summon a humanoid frog creature (a man in a lifesize, felt costume…think Kermit the Frog and E.T. had a baby with gigantism). This results in several hand to hand combat scenes. Turns out this is a sci-fi kung fu movie.
Those looking for a straight action-crime flick will be disappointed or horrified. Probably both. This is a genre-demolishing film that throws as much weirdness at the audience as it can muster. Enjoyment and appreciation will vary depending on taste. Miike rarely takes the easy or digestible route with his films and this is no different. There is an admirable quality that suggests he doesn’t care about traditional form. He thrusts forward with reckless abandon to make a movie that is simultaneously sloppy and precise. It’s exactly as messy as he wants it to be. This messiness will be frustrating for a selection of the audience. It veers from place to place, especially after the vampiric reveal, and devolves into a madness rarely seen at mainstream cinemas. It will remain so as this will not likely play at the local multiplex.
Where Yakuza Apocalypse will find a home is in the contemporary cult canon. This is the kind of movie people will forcefully show their friends with the precursor, “you have got to see this!” Yakuza Apocalypse seems like it was tailor made to be shown exclusively at midnight with raucous audiences ready to cheer along as the carnage ratchets up until it explodes. That is the appropriate atmosphere to experience Yakuza Apocalypse. Otherwise, it may be more frustrating in its lack of cohesive form within the narrative. Proceed with caution.
Author rating: 5/10
Average reader rating: 5/10
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