Feels like nothing less than the followup to Fudoh: The New Generation, with its grainy straight-to-video image quality and micro budget. Yet Miike’s insane, bottomless resevoir of energy is plumbed time and time again to inject energy into this archetypical tale about a cop stealing money from the Mob. Dead or Alive begins with 10 frenetic, kalaidoscopic minutes taking us through a bizarre, hyperstylized vision of the Tokyo underworld. One boss slurps down a dozen bowls of saimin before his “explosion”; another dude snorts a 20-foot line of cocaine before getting reduced to paste by Riki Takeuchi. Full disclosure: Dead or Alive is ridiculous and unless you’re male and drunk you will probably hate it. I fall into both of those categories so I’m giving it 5 stars. Even if you hate the slow-paced second act, the utterly batshit insane third act would redeem even the most unwatchable drivel. If “Juno” ended with the absolute destruction of Japan, I would have also given it five stars.

Tags: dead or alive, hazaisha, miike

Leave a Reply

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website