Dead Or Alive: Final (2002)

Although Dead Or Alive: Final isn't a terrible movie, it's a disappointing end to what could have been a wonderful trilogy from Takashi Miike. Having said that, it at least feels like it belongs here. As flawed as it is, it's almost an inevitable destination for such a strange journey.

Riki Takeuchi and Sho Aikawa return, this time playing a cop and a wandering android, respectively. The setting is a post-apocalyptic future, the two main characters find themselves struggling with their very natures and roles (Takeuchi's cop is working on the orders of someone who may not be all he seems), and that's really all there is to it.

Seriously, that's about it. You get a few fight scenes, there's one twist that doesn't feel that impressive, and none of the characters make much of an impression. Notice that I didn't specify the supporting characters. I mean NONE of the characters. Takeuchi and Aikawa are completely wasted here, only able to shine through in a limited selection of moments in which the material doesn't keep them suffocated.

I didn't even mention the writers in my reviews of the previous Dead Or Alive instalments because, despite the occasional strength of the scripts (particularly in the second film), each film felt very much like a Miike film. This doesn't, which means fewer enjoyable elements to distract from the rather weak script.

Perhaps he was just desperate to finish the trilogy, perhaps he really thought there was a good story hidden away at the centre of this thing, or perhaps he created something that just didn't manage to appeal to my sensibilities in the way that the other films did. Whatever his reasons, Miike takes the potential playground of the post-apocalyptic sci-fi film and continues to keep the focus on the relationship between the two leads. In some ways, it's a typically impressive and bravura Miike move, but in other ways it leaves this film feeling like an inferior rehash of themes and ideas explored in the preceding instalments.

6/10

Buy the trilogy here.

Dead Or Alive 2: Birds (2000)

I've probably mentioned this before, many times, but my introduction to Takashi Miike came in a bit of a triple punch to the gut. I can't remember the exact order, even if I have previously named a title as my definitive first ever Miike, but it was a dizzying mix of the horror of Audition, the insane nastiness of Ichi The Killer (as butchered by the BBFC as it was/is), and the blistering opening salvo of Dead Or Alive. I then followed that up with the likes of Visitor Q, The Happiness Of The Katakuris, and managed to see clips of Gozu.

Those are all representative of Miike movies at the turn of the 21st century, but only in the way they show his wild and varied approach to subject matters. What they don't really show is the heart and maturity that can be seen in a film like this one, the second of the very loose trilogy (basically only connected by the titles and leads), and how he can do a hell of a lot with fairly limited resources.

The plot of Dead Or Alive 2: Birds is quite simple, really. Two hitmen (played by Riki Takeuchi and Sho Aikawa) cross paths, realise that they were friends as children, and head back to visit the orphanage on an island community that helped to raise them. They then decide to use their deadly skills to help get money for the orphanage, a decision that doesn't sit too well with the gangsters who had previously been profiting from the specified kills.

Although there are still little fantastical flourishes here and there, this is a much more grounded film than the hyper-stylized Dead Or Alive. The first film was about morality, shaded and complex as it can be. It was about good versus evil, taken to an enjoyably ridiculous conclusion, but it also spent a lot of time wallowing in the criminal underworld. It made viewers feel unpleasant, in need of a shower. This film, while it certainly looks at good versus evil, explores the grey middle ground even further. Bad deeds can be done for many reasons, but are they still essentially bad deeds if the outcome ends up being so good? Is redemption available to those who can't fully change their nature? Can reconnecting to your more innocent youth reconnect you to your more innocent soul? All, or none, of these things might go through your head while watching this surprisingly emotional look at two jaded men potentially saved by the memories of when they were just two young boys.

The performances from all involved are very good, with Takeuchi and Aikawa giving their best turns in the trilogy. But, even more so than the lead performances, the overall atmosphere of this film is something to be displayed as exhibit A when anyone tries to dismiss Miike as nothing more than a dealer in violence and shocks. You can almost feel the sunshine and smell the surrounding countryside during the many scenes that show the leads in their youth, remembered in that sun-hazed nostalgia that affects so many of us when we strive to remember long lost years that were wasted in playtime before we knew anything of adult responsibilities or stresses.

It still falls short of being perfect, in different ways from the first film, but this remains a beautiful and resonant work that still needs to be seen by a LOT more people.

8/10

Buy the trilogy here.

Dead Or Alive (1999)

Takashi Miike has spent the last quarter of a century making a LOT of movies. And, in between 1999 and 2002 (approximately), his profile was considerably raised in America and Europe with a selection of unforgettable, and astonishing, works. Films such as Audition (still perhaps his finest hour, for me anyway), Ichi The Killer, Visitor Q, The Happiness Of The Katakuris, and the Dead Or Alive trilogy. Miike was clearly someone worth watching, even if he often placed scenes in his movies that were tough to watch.

Dead Or Alive, at its core, is a very basic film about warring criminal factions and the cop trying to clean things up. There’s a large cast of supporting players, and a number of disturbing vignettes, but the focus ends up on a gangster named Ryuuichi (Riki Takeuchi) and the man who ends up undoing his plans (Sho Aikawa, as Detective Jojima). These two men move through a narrative that allows them to show the shading of their character before finally attempting to paint them as opposing black and white pieces in a winner-take-all endgame.

To call the opening 5+ minute opening sequence of Dead Or Alive blistering is pretty accurate. But anyone who has yet to see the film should be made aware that this is REALLY blistering. It’s an audio-visual assault on your senses, and I’m not using that phrase to be hyperbolic. You get gunfire, dancing, sodomy, drug deals, arterial spray, one hell of a long line of cocaine being snorted, a rocking track overlaying everything, and lots of noodles. The entire sequence sets up the tone of the film, although viewers will undoubtedly breathe a huge sigh of relief when Miike starts to slow things down to a more bearable pace.

Of course, the slowing down of the pace of the movie also means that the unpleasantness, when it occurs, is onscreen for longer. Whether it’s a maker of pornography trying to set up a very twisted scene for a niche market or a drugged-out woman lying around in a small pool full of . . . . . . . well, I’ll let you see for yourself. Even the hardiest of viewers may find their stomach churning on occasion.

And while you could make the valid point that so much of what unfolds here is pointlessly shocking just for the sake of it, you could also argue that Miike, and/or writer Ichiro Ryu, is deliberately railing against a cinematic tradition of cool Japanese killers. Handsome leading men who order clean, swift murders, and who act within a strict code of honour. I may be reading too much into things, and Miike has made films with his fair share of cool killers too, but it almost feels as if this movie deliberately forces viewers to look into the cesspool that violent crime can inhabit. By exaggerating things, by making moments so repugnant that you can almost smell something rotten while the film is running, Miike seems to be using the material to teach us all a lesson about glamorising a lifestyle most of us will hopefully never see outside the edges of a movie screen.

8/10

Order the trilogy here.

Ani-MAY-tion Month: Urotsukidoji: Legend Of The Overfiend (1989)

The '80s, as far as I'm aware, is the decade when people here in the UK REALLY started to take notice of anime. Akira is the title, I think, that really led to an increased interest in the form, but there were other titles that came along to help. Personally, discovering Urotsukidoji: Legend Of The Overfiend as a teenager was quite an eye-opener. Especially as I didn't even know what the word "hentai" meant back then. I'm not sure that many others did either.

Based on comics by Toshio Maeda, this is a film edited from some previous anime episodes, but they're all put together quite seamlessly (as far as I was concerned). It's a tale chock full of demons, big battles, sex, nudity, more sex, tentacles, and all of the stuff that would ensure my attention was held as a teenager. The plot is quite simple - an entity is about to enter Earth that will reunite the different worlds and make everything better - but it's given plenty of twists and turns as characters try to find the entity in time to either help or hinder it.

The vocal work here is okay, but I'm not going to list everyone or single out anyone for praise. Nobody really stands out. It's competent stuff. The animation is, likewise, competent. Crude at times, and many scenes are just far too busy, but it puts onscreen what is needed (well, needed by this particular storyline). Director Hideki Takayama, working from a screenplay by Sho Aikawa, does a good job, and it's impressive that neither writer nor director stayed away from the more extreme aspects of the material.

But the most praised must be given to Maeda, who had the warped and brilliant imagination to come up with the whole thing in the first place. Okay, it's often juvenile stuff (especially in the first half hour), but it's also enjoyably insane, full to the brim with nastiness, and the kind of epic tale that can often only be given justice in comic/animated form. I don't really understand the appeal of hentai, but I do sometimes enjoy demonic beings fighting one another, and plenty of blood 'n' guts. Which this delivers in abundance.

7/10

Pricey, but this seems to be the best option for now - http://www.amazon.com/Urotsukidoji-Perfect-Collection-Hirotaka-Suzuoki/dp/B007Y5OYZ6/ref=sr_1_3?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1399994338&sr=1-3&keywords=urotsukidoji