Crazy Japanese gangsters (Gozu (DVD))

Name: hogsflesh

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Product:	Gozu (DVD)
Date:	21/11/05 (128 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A nicely weird film from Japan

Disadvantages: Some will find it offensive

Japanese director Miike Takashi has made some blindingly weird films. Far Eastern cinema, especially from Japan and Korea, is very fashionable at the moment, it’s supposed ‘extreme’-ness being used as a selling point. (Gozu is one of many titles released by Tartan on their ‘Asia Extreme’ label). A lot of the best known films (Battle Royale, Old Boy etc.) aren’t actually particularly ‘extreme’, they’re just very different to what we’re used to in the West. Miike’s best films, however, are most definitely extreme in every way.

He makes at least four films a year, and I think that only the really exceptional ones make it to these shores (plus a few that are frankly rather dull). His best films are the musical black-comedy Happiness of the Katakuris, and the remorselessly offensive but completely charming Visitor Q. Gozu isn’t quite up to their standards, but it’s still very good, and well worth checking out. Miike’s best films derive much of their effect from having completely unexpected, utterly bizarre things suddenly happen. Occasionally it feels as if he’s throwing weirdness at the audience in a random way for the sake of a cheap shock or laugh, but when they do their job properly, his films are jaw-droppingly brilliant, leaving you astounded by their lunatic bravado.

Gozu, made in 2003, is a story about Yakuza (Japanese mobsters). Ozaki, who seems to be a fairly major mob figure, has begun to behave in a dangerously paranoid way. The young, inexperienced Minami, who is fond of Ozaki, and seems to owe him for something in their past, has to take him to the city of Nagoya to be disposed of. Unfortunately, a minor car accident en route kills Ozaki prematurely. Then the body inexplicably vanishes. Minami hunts desperately around the unfamiliar city trying to locate the corpse of his friend. Along the way, a number of very strange things happen to him. I can’t really tell you what they are; as I said, the film’s effect is derived from the unexpected, so to tell you too much would ruin it. But as a general pointer, expect drag queens, incredible sexual dysfunction, some vaguely supernatural stuff and, um, on-screen lactation. (Actually, having found out what ‘Gozu’ actually means, I suspect that Japanese speakers would have an inkling of one of the weirdest things that happens.)

This is the most deliberately surreal of Miike’s films that’s widely available. In most of his other films, the crazy things happen within vaguely normal contexts – here, Minami’s lost in a strange city, encountering people who behave in ways that seem completely illogical to him. Since he’s the only character we can identify with, we share his confusion. It’s probably easiest to compare it to some of David Lynch’s work (specifically Blue Velvet or Twin Peaks) – it has a similar feel in a lot of ways, and a similar sense of humour. Unlike Lynch’s films, though, Gozu never really tries to be serious or to actually scare or unsettle the viewer. Whenever it starts to get uncomfortably strange, something over the top and ridiculous happens, shattering the mood – it’s black comedy all the way. (The thing Gozu most resembles is a graphic novel by Daniel Clowes called Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron. You should check that out, too.)

The film has an 18 certificate: there’s quite a bit of (deeply weird) sex, and some violence. It never reaches the offensive heights of Visitor Q or Ichi the Killer, but some people might find it a bit strong, especially some of the sexual content. Personally, I think that any film that begins with a man repeatedly slamming a small dog against a plate glass window is going to be worth checking out. Others may not agree.

The film is very nicely shot and put together – the fact that it was probably shot very quickly on a low budget doesn’t hurt the film at all, and is hardly noticeable. The acting is fine, although I’m probably not the best judge of Japanese acting, given that I have no idea how the language works. Some of the actors are familiar from other Miike films, but otherwise there’s no one in it you’re likely to have seen anywhere else.

My only criticism of the film is that it’s a bit episodic – Minami stumbles from one insane encounter to the next, and many of them don’t relate to anything else. This isn’t a huge problem, but it does give the film a slightly hurried, almost unfinished feel, as if there should be more to it. Not that the denouement is disappointing – the ending is one of the most bonkers things I’ve ever seen – but it kind of feels as if the film meant to return to certain sub-plots that are abandoned. All this is probably intended to add to the ambiguous nature of the plot, but it does make the film slightly less satisfying than it could be, at least for me.

Apart from an unsubtitled trailer which gives a bit too much away, and some trailers for other Miike films released by Tartan, there are no extras on the DVD. This is almost a relief, as Tartan have a tendency to overload their Asia Extreme releases with too many extras (I love Old Boy, but I really don’t see how the second disc in Tartan’s release is supposed to further my enjoyment of it). The sound and picture quality are fine, as you’d expect for such a recent film. The subtitles have the usual odd typo, but you can ignore that. There’s a small, two-page pamphlet with some film notes, which are OK, I guess, although again they add nothing to my enjoyment of the film. My main problem with the DVD is that the blurb on the back of the box gives away a bit too much of the plot.

Anyone who likes quirky Japanese cinema has probably already seen this. I don’t think I’ve come close to really getting across how crazy this film is, or how much I enjoyed it. But if you’re looking for something that’s a bit stranger than usual; if you’re fed up with the generally uninspiring Hollywood mainstream; and if you’re sick to death of people telling you that Tim Burton or the Wachowski siblings are exciting directors when clearly they’re not, then this might be the film for you.

£19.99, but much cheaper online.

Summary: Just out of interest, what is the point of this 'Summary' line?