A yakuza enforcer is ordered to kill his older brother, but the job takes a bizarre turn when he encounters increasingly strange people in a suburb.
CRIME/HORROR
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Gozu (2003)Directed by Takashi Miike
Written by Sakichi Sato Starring Yûta Sone, Shô Aikawa, Renji Ishibashi, Ken'ichi Endô, Kimika Yoshino, Keiko Tomita, Harumi Sone |
Of all Takashi Miike’s films that I’ve seen, which only counts for around 10% of his output, Gozu is by far the most bizarre and unsettling of his movies that I’ve seen. Miike’s movies are not restricted to one specific genre either as he has made musicals (Happiness of the Katakuris), samurai epics (13 Assassins) and an endearing family comedy about a Dad trying to be the hero his son believes him to be (Zebraman) so it is very hard to pin him to one part of the spectrum of genre. What I can say with confidence is that Miike is always out to shock and entertain his audiences and his movies are never boring.
Yakuza are often characters in Miike’s films and have been used in ways you’d never expect. This movie centers on two brothers, Minami (Sone) and Ozaki (Aikawa), who are in the same gang. Aikawa is a frequent collaborator with Miike and he is excellent in this movie as he is playing an unhinged gangster who is seen as a liability by his boss (Ishibashi) and tasks Minami with killing him and dumping his body in a junkyard near Nagoya. This is the frame Miike establishes the world of his movie with and takes the script by Sakaichi Sato and fills it with bizarre characters, surreal premises, and some truly horrifying images to life. As Minami drives Ozaki to their ‘job’, Ozaki tells him that a woman driving opposite them on the street is an assassin and he goes to try and kill her. He accidentally kills Ozaki trying to stop him from shooting the innocent woman and puts his body in the car and continues their journey and comes to a literal dead end as the road is cut off by a river and he is forced to find another way. Minami stops at a coffee shop where one guy is on the phone talking with someone about how hot is was the previous day and he is greeted by an odd collection of employees. While he waits to use the phone, he orders a coffee and is given a weird custard-looking thing and told it is complimentary. This does not agree with his stomach so he runs to bathroom to throw up. When he returns, he looks back to his car where he left Ozaki in the passenger seat, he sees his brother’s body is gone! He sets out to try and find his brother and comes upon a weird innkeeper (Tomita) and her brother (Harumi Sone) where he learns that his brother was there the previous day. I am not going to spoil parts of this because you really need to see this to fully appreciate just how bonkers Miike gets with these characters. Minami also encounters the Gozu or Ox-Head creature in a dream. This creature has its own place in Japanese folklore which I found has a very special purpose in Miike’s film. The story of the Ox-Head is so horrifying that people who read or hear it are overcome with fear so great that they tremble violently for days on end until they die. The full story was broken up into fragments that when read individually are not lethal, but still bring great pain and suffering upon those who read or listen to their words. If there is anything that could describe the things this movie does to you, it’s this and, after you see it, you’ll know why. Despite its slow, methodical pace you cannot look away while watching this film as it twists, turns, and fucks with you all the way until the very end which is one of the most bat shit endings I have ever seen. You can never be too sure what Miike has in store for his audience but you do know that it’ll be a unique experience you won’t soon forget. My only recommendation is that you watch other films by Miike before seeing Gozu as this one has been described as using David Lynch’s nightmare logic so if that’s your bag, dive right in, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. |