Reluctant hero Minami is a Yakuza charged with executing his yakuza friend Ozaki (Aikawa). After Minami accidentally completes his task, Okazi's body disappears, prompting a journey to recover it that's punctured by Miike's trademark weirdness.
by Will Lawrence |
Published on
Release Date:
30 Jul 2004
Running Time:
129 minutes
Certificate:
18
Original Title:
Gozu
If Ichi The Killer stressed the extreme nature of Takashi Miike's cinematic sensibility, Gozu hammers it home - with a blood-spattered mallet. Miike splices the yakuza genre with horror, and the result is a narrative as hard to decipher as hieroglyphics - a bizarre blend of a skewed Oedipal complex, homosexuality, misogyny and, in particular, a dislike of childbirth.
Thankfully, the twisted tale is tempered by Miike's vivid backdrop, the highlight being the death of Minami's yakuza boss, involving a ladle inserted somewhere dark and unpleasant.
In its effort to be extreme at every turn, it's not too concerned with things like 'plot' or 'making sense'. It is nonetheless, good, dirty fun.
Just so you know, whilst we may receive a commission or other compensation from the links on this website, we never allow this to influence product selections - read why you should trust us
