First off I believe Takashi Miike is a mad genius and a very hard working director i mean the guy makes like 4 movies a year and that's pretty exhausting if you ask me but he manages to bring quality as much as quantity and his latest movie Yakuza Apocalypse is no different from his other works it's got all the elements you want from a Miike film, genre mixing, gore, weirdness and over the top violence with little to no humanity to it. the plot is very simple, a Yakuza boss ,who is also a vampire but he managed to keep that a secret from everybody else, is murdered but before he dies he bites his henchman and the latter gets infected and decides to avenge his boss. if you think this is a serious movie please don't watch it because you're not getting the point or you probably never seen a Takashi Miike film apart from those serious ones he makes once in a while like 13 Assassins and Audition to mention a few. the point from this movie is that it's absurd but it tries to be a serious film kind of like Leslie Nielsen's character in The Naked Gun franchise he's a very serious guy but everything around him is just plain stupid and absurd. but here comes the genius of Takashi Miike he manages to keep this film Absurd and Sublime at the same time he knows that there's a fine line between Genius and Maniac and he walks that line with complete confidence. Overall this is a decent film it's not Miike's best but it's still highly entertaining and fun especially for the people who are familiar with his work. My Rating 7/10.
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Jqn_Hgar15 October 2015
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grandmastersik14 November 2015At moments during this film, fans will marvel at Miike's nonchalant excellence... at others, they will either be scratching their heads wondering WTF they're watching, or taking it at face value and enjoying it for what it is.
But what is this film? For me, it was a satire of the absurdities that go on in Japanese comics and, for the most part, I quite enjoyed it. Come on, there's that kick-arse villain from The Raid, a cool Yakuza lead and Bruce Lee in a frog costume - what's not to enjoy?
I have to admit, I really didn't understand why the kid went after the female Yakuza and not the Priest-type dude, who quickly got relegated to a sub-par, may as well forget he exists villain, but most won't likely understand ANY of this film, so it's difficult to recommend it to the anyone I don't personally know as digging this kind of off-beat weirdness.
If you give it a go, I hope that you laugh as hard as I did at the frog's karate chop, which earned the film and extra star simply because I haven't laughed so hard for a long time.
This really is pretty much as love it/hate it as they come... only, the "love" is always going to be replaced by the lesser word of "enjoy". -
benrobo12 June 2017Oh my god! This is either a work of genius on the part of the director (seeing what he could put his actors through) or the work of a lunatic! He has made some truly amazing films in the past (Audition and 13 Assassins immediately spring to mind) and if you haven't seen these then you must.
I know that with a Mikke movie, you are going to get a little weirdness but this was off the charts.
I would put this next to 'Plan 9 From Outer Space' as a film you need to watch.
So bad, it's good.
But if you watch this and understand completely what it's about, could you let me know. -
For those not experienced any of Takeshi Miike's previous work, you are going to be in for a bit of a door slamming in the face experience with this one. There's no denying that he can direct a movie (and he has made some excellent movies) but some of his most popular films have been more offbeat & comical like this.
There's no point explaining the storyline as it's non-linear, intentionally a farce and practically irrelevant. Don't bother trying to intellectualise any of it either like one guy I overheard did as I left the cinema. It's just a farce, and makes no pretences to be otherwise.
You'll either fall for its ludicrous charms in much the same way many do with Month Pythons' work, but it will leave many cold. The humour is quirky but often violent and cruel so won't suit all. Might even offend some sensibilities. It often bored me but others in the cinema were in hysterics. Lots of teenage boy level humour too.
For those who lose patience with this, the only respite is that despite the silliness, you'll find at least something somewhere to laugh at.
It's not by any means the director's best work. Not by a long shot. Still for fan boys they'll lap it up, for all else it will likely miss the mark even if doesn't do so on the screen. -
onryou-189279 October 2015Considering the low budget that most Japanese films are made with, this was a textbook over the top Miike film. He's not going to be remaking classics like Koroshiya Ichi or Rainy Dog. I hope he gets back into that mode. But that's how it is when a director becomes a cult hero.
This is really just a movie about the sociology of living in a small coastal Japanese town. There's all the main components for small time organized crime to exist and flourish. Things turnabout, people get killed, things get sorted out.
I'm a real fan of Ninkyo eiga, the chivalrous yakuza films. I believe the heart of this film is Ninkyo. The outside is all otaku jack-off material, and the wrapper is whatever the heck Tarantino did to make Miike quit making awesome films like Ichi the Killer, Rainy Dog, and Deadly Outlaw Rekka, which is everything that this movie just couldn't provide for people who aren't a huge fan of Miike to begin with.
If you don't like this movie, then watch Deadly Outlaw Rekka, Yakuza Demon, and Rainy Dog. These are the movies that are not childish in any way. -
dctr66618 November 2015This movie is a poorly attempt to create a stylish vampire/mob movie. It has some stupid elements, in another poorly attempt to create comedy, perhaps trying to appeal to more than one type of viewers... Too bad that didn't work. I was hoping, that, when I saw Yayan Ruhian in the cast, the movie would have been more competent in the action scenes... even though the excellent work of Yayan Ruhian, the movie went down the drain very fast...
Takeshi Miike was always connected to excellent film-making, but this is awful and boring... Someone once told me that From Dusk Till Dawn 2 was stupid, because there was no logic on having vampires stealing a bank... I enjoyed that one... but this one is a mess... not worth watching it. -
quincytheodore6 July 2015In a world where being a yakuza is transmitted through bites just like vampirism, one man must rise to take vengeance and lead an army against Spanish Inquisitor, Mad Dog from The Raid, and a giant monster. It's hard to find any movie that can surpass Yakuza Apocalypse in term of oddity. It's literally a parade of random crazy events, which admittedly can deliver some humor in a hectic artistic manner, but it's honestly too discombobulated for mainstream audience.
The plot is as strange as they come, it's a mix of gangster and vampire element in ultra-violence parody. The shift in tone is superbly jarring, one moment they discuss the impact of recession and tribulation of life, then the next time some creepy flying head attacks. It's not an understatement that in halfway point, the movie nosedives into obscurity and rampaging silly carnage.
Takeshi Miike's influence is clearly present as they gore and action are largely embellished with serious and comical undertone, sometimes at the same time. Yayan Ruhian, the extremely agile antagonist from The Raid is here, in similarly strange role. The combat is extremely visceral, in addition to its bloody practical and special effects. Action fans might find some amusement here.
There might be analogy for yakuza's lifestyle, but it's buried in creepy frenzied deliver. In the end, the hectic story might be confusing, pointless even, however for those seeking for utterly mindless fun and action violence will have a few laughs from its sheer unpredictability. -
FlashCallahan10 January 2016Fearsome 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. -
Miike melds genres in this yakuza/vampire flick. This is certainly crazy, but I don't think it's one of Miike's better films. Hayato Ichihara stars as a yakuza henchman who sees his boss decapitated in front of him. The boss has a secret: he's a vampire. And before his head dies, he bites Ichihara on the neck and imparts his powers to him. With those powers (and the power to create more vampires), he looks for vengeance for his boss. Simple enough set-up, but there's a ton of other stuff packed into the film. A lot of that stuff is fun - particularly the late-film appearance of a giant green frog monster who kicks all kinds of butt - but none of it is very coherent. It feels like just weird stuff for the sake of weirdness. Still, there's enough here worth seeing that I'd recommend seeing it, particularly if you're a fan of Miike or just cult cinema. Yayan Ruhian, who starred in The Raid and its sequel, also stars (he also briefly appears in The Force Awakens, but at least here he gets to fight).
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politic198317 October 2015Takashi Miike isn't quite as prolific as he used to be at his height around fifteen years ago. Now, he works to a casual two or three films a year, rather than his exhausting six or seven on the early Naughties. But, has the drop in quantity resulted in a upturn in quality?
Miike films have always been up and down in terms of quality, switching from bigger budget films, like 'Audition' and 'Ichi the Killer' to low-rent, low quality dross, such as 'Silver' or 'Family'. But this was always Miike's charm. The switching of budget, writers, cast, styles and genres resulted in a lot of experimenting, with ideas from the bad benefiting the good.
Now established and of international renown, his films come with anticipation and expectation - maybe to his films' detriment. He could make a bad film before, and no one would realise. Now if he does we'll all hear about it. Recent films, such as '13 Assassins', 'For Love's Sake, 'Hara-kiri' and 'Lessons of Evil' show a more established director, trusted with bigger budgets and international film festival screenings. And while these have their moments, they are not quite as fun and inventive as his earlier works.
'Yakuza Apocalypse' is his latest film to come with a hint of anticipation as to what might be. With his need to cover each and every genre, we now see him take on the vampire film, set among the yakuza. Kamiura is a local yakuza boss, with the respect of those around him. But he has a secret: he's a yakuza vampire, if there is such a thing. This, however, attracts some unwanted attention, and he is destroyed by his rivals. Though before his demise, he bites his loyal lieutenant, Kageyama, transferring his powers unto him. Seen as a Matrix-style 'The One' , he sets about getting revenge, though by this point, ordinary civilians have turned into yakuza vampires themselves, creating a world of chaos where the old, everyday yakuza have no place.
Being a vampire film, this is of course very silly, with moments that make me largely avoid ever watching films of this ilk, actors tested in their ability to give the most stupid of performances with a straight face. This does add a sense of fun to the film and comparisons to his Nineties films 'Fudoh' and 'Full metal Yakuza' can be made, taking a more zany and comic-book approach to the yakuza genre. Indeed, 'Yakuza Apocalypse' very much feels like it could have been a manga, and I'm surprised one hasn't yet been made - to the best of my knowledge, anyway.
However, the aforementioned films had a bit more edge to them than 'Yakuza Apocalypse'. There's something about the hand-held camera- work and straight-to-video feel of these films that suits the more outlandish style, rather than the big sets and production values of his more recent films. The kappa and costumed characters are fun, but feel a bit weird for the sake of being weird, perhaps over-used to the point where it can become a bit farcical. The final fight scene between Kageyama and 'The Raid 2's' Yayan Ruhian is unnecessarily overdrawn, with little real action and suits as a disappointing end, a far cry from the unexpected and instant conclusion of 'Dead or Alive'.
But if you take away any serious attempts at analysis, this is a fun film, with a little bit of everything thrown in. The cast is full of known people, with Hayato Ichihara looking suitably half alive as Kageyama throughout and appearing-everywhere-now Kiyohiko Shibukawa expressing his full range of bemused faces.
At his best, Miike's films are easily watchable over and over. His more recent films, while enjoyable on first viewing, are less repeatable, and so it will remain to be seen whether 'Yakuza Apocalypse' sits nicely alongside his extensive catalogue of experiments that, while varying in quality, always create curiosity.
politic1983.blogspot.co.uk -
The joy of Yakuza Apocalypse is that it's Takashi Miike doing that Takashi Miike does, what he has done, since the 90's and yet it's a filmmaker even more confident in his skills and more assured in the timing of his shots and cuts. Thinking back to another gonzo-Yakuza movie like Dead or Alive or even Ichi the Killer, he reveled in more of a sloppy, throw-lots-of-WILD-things-at-the-wall approach to his compositions and how he would cut, but now he's gone through films like 13 Assassins and Hara-Kiri, where he found a way to balance action and a more (what's the damn word here) patient way to get the audience into the drama. And yes, drama may sound strange in a movie that could also be called YAKUZA VAMPIRE SHOWDOWN and be entirely accurate. But it is a joy as a fan to see Miike in full command of his powers as the truest Gonzo filmmaker in the world. Does it mean he's the best? I dunno.
All I do know is that in Yakuza Apocalypse, if you're on board for the kind of insanity as far as action set pieces, characters, and plot turns that Miike has done in his career - the kind of 'don't give a f***ery' that has made him a household name for cult film enthusiasts - you get things like... a man in a green frog suit who can do martial arts to such a point where Bruce Lee runs for the hills, a duck-billed... man, no, really, he has duck bills in his mouth (and refers to this green-frog-suited man as "the world's most dangerous terrorist"), and, of course Yakuza vampires. How our hero, a young Yakuza who just has always wanted to do right by his boss - and that his boss gets his ass kicked and head chopped off by a rival looking to take over (you can tell since he speaks English and has like a Shakespeare-style neck collar, and his own bad-ass kung-fu fighter that can kick anyone into oblivion), gets turned and then makes others vampires.... well, you have to see it for yourself.
I think the biggest knock I had against this, at least during the first half, was that it is too long. At 115 minutes I'm sure where are scenes here or there that could have been cut, things involving some of the lower-rung Yakuza gangster men (the ones who, you know, are especially idiots but loyal and tough Yakuza guys, they more or less last until the climax too), and made it a little tighter. At the same time, I'm not sure looking back I'd want Miike to close and bottle up his full Miike-ness from the audience. By the time he and his writers go into action over-drive, which involves the entirety of this whole small... town, village, whatever you call it (there are also Western influences that are impossible to miss involving showdowns in the street and shots aping such things), it becomes one of the director's high points of a long career.
He and especially all of the insane stunt performers, who are fighting in such intense set pieces and choreography that I almost felt bad for them, but just almost (that poor guy in the frog suit, what he must've gone through) give it their all, up until the final frames where I threw up my hands going, "SURE?! WHY NOT!!??!" -
G-Lange17 April 2017As usual, Takashi Miike – director of "Audition", "Ichi the Killer" and the "Dead or alive" trilogy – throws things at the wall to see what sticks.
In that case, we have the ninja with the frog costume, the knitting circle/blood farm underground and the always excellent Yayan Ruhian of "The Raid" fame. That's enough for me.
The vampire story pales a bit by comparison, but still keeps the story together. It tells you something about a movie when the yakuza-vampire angle is the grounding part. -
David_Tjahyadi7 July 2015This is pure crap, I expect a stylish dark toned movie from Takashi Miike, he could have made this a simple revenge flick with a tragic ending and a nice fight along the way.
But for the love of god a frog man? Gavanesgue monster with exploding volcanoes? This is utterly crap even for Japanese weird comedy standard, the fight scene are terrible, and Yayan is wasted in this putrid garbage.
There's no drama, no character development, not even logical comedy (if there's any), it's just pure 2 hours of horse manure, and at least give us a f**** showdown we paid our money for, not you throw punch i throw punch kinds of crap.
Seems like Miike is trying so hard to make an abstract garbage which is really garbage and none of the abstract. I want my money back -
Eiriksterminator20 September 2016The picture on the cover has a tattooed dude with a katana doing a pose, and the text "from the director of 13 Assassin's and the creators of The Raid" on it. And it has an age rating of 18. Based on this, I thought I was in for an awesome high-paced, ass-kicking action movie full of cool fighting and general badassery. If like me you've seen "The Raid", and loved it, then you know what I mean ("13 Assassin's" is a cool movie too). Instead I got this boring and utterly ridiculous and idiotic turd of a movie...I didn't find it neither cool nor funny, just lame and stupid. Threw it in the trash after suffering through the whole thing. Really wish I could get my minutes back. Don't waste your time on this.
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Leofwine_draca2 April 2017YAKUZA APOCALYPSE is a typically demented slice of Japanese mayhem from Takashi Miike. It's a fresh and original film in an increasingly jaded world of all-too-familiar cinema, an often stunning blend of visceral delights. The plot mixes in outrageous comedy, a zombie-style vampire outbreak, and the yakuza genre into one unforgettable whole, in a style that could only be handled successfully by Miike or perhaps Sion Sono.
My main problem with this film is just how obtuse it is when comes to meaning. Things happen for no real reason and are never tied up. It just "is". A vampire apocalypse sweeps Japan but that's only incidental to a main action-adventure template in which martial arts comes to the fore. The character of the "world's ultimate terrorist" is a case in point; it's very silly, stupid in fact, and makes no sense at all, and yet it's such a great and eccentric addition to the film that you can't help but love it.
Miike adds many diverse elements into this heady brew, from outrageously funny character performances to gore and well-choreographed action. Yayan Ruhian, from THE RAID series, is present here and a great addition to the story, just as bad-ass as you'd expect. The early part of the film feels rather unfocused but it all builds to one supremely unforgettable climax which is as delirious as you could hope for. -
paul_haakonsen30 December 2018First of all, let me just say leave it to director Takashi Miike to come up with something this weird, unique and exceptional.
That being said, then I will also say that the particular storyline in "Yakuza Apocalypse" was so outright ridiculous that it was not even remotely enjoyable. And it is nowhere near being Takashi Miike's top work, not even remotely.
The cast in the movie was good. They actually had a very talented cast brought together to perform in the movie. Just a shame that the storyline was utter rubbish. Especially since the acting was actually good, so it was just hard to take the actors and actresses seriously, given the ludicrous story.
"Yakuza Apocalypse" (aka "Gokudô daisenso") actually had some pretty good special effects. And these effects would have had such more of an impact if the story had a proper storyline that would have me interesting or entertained. It was just all wasted as I didn't care one ounce for the story.
I do enjoy Asian cinema, and Japan have some pretty nice movies quite often, and Takashi Miike is actually one of the more established of directors in Japan and also one whose movies I normally do rather enjoy, but "Yakuza Apocalypse" was a major swing and a miss for me. -
terrancegore2 June 2021Takeshi Miike films often divide opinion, quite violently, and he has made a lot of poor films. But if you approach Yakuza Apocalypse as the japanese oddity that it is, without expecting any sense, you won't be disappointed.
Utterly barking. -
flipphone-9499014 June 2020I feel that I had to write this review to counterbalance some of the glowing reviews that have appeared for this film, and indeed swayed me to watch it in the first place.
It is complete and utter incoherent, unwatchable garbage.
I have the strong impression that it is deliberately intended to make no sense whatsoever, something this incomprehensible must surely be intentional.
It is a genuine, honest to goodness waste of time, as absolutely not one iota of it carries any meaning or significance.
But that's not the worst part. It is plainly and simply devoid of all entertainment value. It is not funny, interesting, thought provoking, or even distracting.
I believe it is entirely possible the film-maker is psychologically compromised in some way. Not in an unconventional creative genius way. Someone who's brain is broken and possibly baked from entirely too much drug use.
While I would like to attempt as much as possible to be respectful of differing views and opinions, and understand that individual tastes can have tremendous variance, my view is that calling this film 'entertainment' would be like calling the half squashed corpse of a run-over rat 'cuisine'. -
nogodnomasters22 March 2018The Yakuza part is a lot easier to understand than the Apocalypse part. Kamiura (Lily Frankie) is the Yakuza for a small town, acting as a benevolent godfather. He used to be part of a larger syndicate. He is also a vampire. The syndicate comes after him with a Japanese version of Van Helsing and succeed in killing him, but he is able to pass on his vampire powers to Kagayama (Hayato Ichihara) a compassionate understudy. Kagayama doesn't know how to control himself and starts a chain reaction where everyone in the town gets bit. The people in the town decide they are all Yakuza and don't need to pay protection money to the real Yakuza. There is a theme that develops that the Yakuza are the real blood suckers who need to feed off of civilians to survive. There was a goblin in the film that used an ET finger touch while they played a riff from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." Go Figure.
Now I was okay up with the film at this point and then we entered the head scratch phase where Japan's idea of a plague of frogs is different than the acceptable western thought. This was apparently the "apocalypse" aspect of the film which was silly. Now I would not have minded the silly ending if the film had started out that way.
Guide: F-bomb. Near male nudity. Brief rape scene. -
joaocarlosalima19 July 2016When I started watching, the only information I knew about it was the basic plot I read here, which seemed interesting, from an action movie point at least, and it had a 5.5, which wasn't that bad also.
Boy, was I wrong.
The story does make sense for the first 10 minutes or so. After that, it turns into an insufferable 1:30h+ of stupid dialogue, ridiculous characters, and nonsense scenes. I seriously can't pick one single good thing about it once it starts sinking.
I managed to watch the whole movie, don't really know why, but at least I can write this review to warn others not to make the same error.
You're probably thinking "It can't be that bad". And for those who are thinking that, this is my first review on this site, and I took the time to come and write it because it really is an awful movie.
The worst part is that this could have been a good movie, if they didn't screw every single part of it. I even stopped to see if this was based of an anime or something, because that could justify some of the ridiculousness of it. Do yourself a favor and delete this movie from history, I've seen low budget shorts with more quality.
Now I'll just go wash my eyes and pretend I've never seen this mess. -
kluseba8 March 2016"Yakuza Apocalypse" is one of last year's most flamboyant movies. It shouldn't come as a surprise that it's the most recent movie of famous Japanese director Takashi Miike, a diversified workaholic who shoots numerous movies each year and who has gained critical acclaim with psychological horror movies such as "Audition" (1999), gangster movies like "Family" (2001), experimental flicks like "Gozu" (2003), historically inspired action movies like "Thirteen Assassins" (2010), courtroom dramas like "Ace Attorney" (2012) and brutal revenge flicks like "Shield of Straw" (2013). Obviously, there is a lot of hit and miss in this director's extensive filmography but I have adored most of his movies. No matter what genre Takshi Miike touches, his movies are often direct, intense and surprising and he has a very distinctive style that some people love and others despise. There are only few people who would describe Takashi Miike as an average director and his movies mostly get very positive ratings or extremely negative critics which is the reason why most of his movies still have balanced averages. ''Yakuza Apocalypse'' is definitely a controversial movie. Some people might get lost while watching this film while others will adore this movie's eclectic style.
It's not easy to describe this unpredictable movie. It's basically a mixture of a gangster movie with a supernatural horror film and an absurd fantasy parody. "Yakuza Apocalypse" works a lot with contrasts. It features a rape scene and a brutal assassination on one side but humorously exaggerated special effects and slapstick fight choreographies on the other. There are profound dialogues but there is also a lot of situation comedy. The mood of the film can switch from brutal to light-hearted, from emotional to superficial and from serious to ridiculous in a few minutes. It's remarkable that the director still doesn't lose the film's guide line and manages not only to tell an intriguing story but also to include some smartly hidden social criticism here and there by ridiculing conservative gangster codes.
"Yakuza Apocalypse" tells the story of a disrespected young Yakuza who wants to avenge the death of his mentor who was assassinated by the mob of an international gangster syndicate. What makes this movie outstanding are the eclectic characters in this potpourri of genres. You will encounter a weird woman whose head is filled with a noisy liquid, a smart Asian gangster who looks and talks like William Shakespeare, an Indonesian martial arts expert, a hyperactive kappa goblin and a giant frog that wants to destroy the world. Expect the unexpected and you will get some very original entertainment.
In the end, even by Takashi Miike' standards, if he has any, this is one of his weirdest movies along with "Gozu" which is one of my favourite films of all times. This movie here is a little bit less atmospheric and the acting is only of an average quality. Still, this film offers multiple fireworks of creativity and has the potential to become a true cult movie in the future in the key of odd, recent North American films like "The Interview" and "Tusk". This flick has so many incredible genre changes, hilarious details and weird characters that it can be watched a dozen times without getting boring because there will always be something new to rediscover. "Yakuza Apocalypse" offers many flamboyant scenes that should lead to controversial debates with your friends but you can also switch your brain off and enjoy this incredible fun ride on your own. If you're expecting a serious mainstream movie though, you will be disappointed and get the exact opposite. Those who aren't familiar with Takashi Miike's works should maybe try out "Gozu" and other movies before approaching this pleasant oddball. -
kosmasp27 June 2016And that's putting it mildly. Far out could be another description that is fitting. Complettely off your (insert your own term of derangement here) would be another. Like it or not, the violence level is high. The nudity may not concern you as much (as there is little here to be seen), but you may have an issue with how people get treated in general. Than again, this wants to provoke and it doesn't take itself or anyone else for that matter seriously.
It's tough to describe what happens and there are a lot of "wtf" moments happening here. Some were so outraged that they left the cinema I was watching this in (was playing at a festival). You can't walk out at home (well you can, but you know what I mean), but I reckon you can push the stop or pause button to catch your breath. Or maybe stop watching completely. It's up to you, I cannot really recommend or disregard this for you, it will also depend on your mood most likely. Are you up for some crazy? -
Sometimes viewers like to read all kinds of meanings and metaphors into what is essentially just a hodge-podge mess of ideas that a director stitched together with the flimsiest of story-lines. Yakuza Apocalypse is one of such films. Having watched 13 Assassins, I came into this movie with high expectations. And it started off...rather well.
A yakuza boss who also happens to be a vampire is killed but he manages to transfer(?) his powers to his underling who then is out for revenge. Unfortunately it is not as simple and straightforward as it seems. Throw in a couple of twists and soon this movie becomes weirder than a lizard wearing a sombrero and dancing the flamengo with a stuffed teddy wearing an eye-patch and smoking a Cuban.
A severed head that bites, a woman whose brains literally leak out from her ears, a bi-polar, psychotic, axe-wielding kid, a man in a frog mask wearing a frog party costume, vampires who don't seem to be affected by sunlight, a priest with a mini-coffin on his back...
There were some genuinely ridiculous and funny moments but in the end, this movie is just a mess. And the ending doesn't tie up anything, nor does it answer any questions you might have.
In the end, some will like it, and try to justify their fascination with unintended metaphors and meanings which I am sure the director never really intended in the first place.
Others, like me, will wonder why they didn't stop at 13 Assassins, and try to find mental soap to wash away the cluttered images that are going to stick around in our minds for a while.
My goodness this movie is weird. -
Matt_bobco11 December 2021The film starts with a vaguely interesting idea but rapidly gets bored and instead meanders around, throwing in random extra ideas. The initial plot is rapidly forgotten which undermines any possibility of caring about the characters, what they are doing, or why. Comes across like a 14 year old boy who wants to be 'edgy' has been given access to a budget and a team to turn his idiotic ideas into a film. As expected it ends up being over-long, unevenly paced, and completely incoherent. Don't waste your time.
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nikkd19 September 2015This was not the best film I have ever seen. An I agree with the other reviewer that it was a little abstract. The Frog man was something out of the ordinary. As the Director told the crowd after the movie. He had some time, and money and decided to make this movie. It is probably not your usual run of the mill Japanese fight movies, but he wanted to make something different. And he definitely did that. Prepare to be shocked when you see this film because I can assure you it is probably not what you expected but sometimes it is good to mix things up a little. It might work for some people. For me it was barely acceptable. I didn't hate it but I also didn't love it. I will agree that something unique was made and I suppose if you are into the genre of films. Watch it and see how you feel about it.