4/5 I never thought the human body can hold so much blood
  by Jenny J.J.I. (That Lives in Northern Nevada)
A Takashi Miike is always worth looking out for, and this one was highly anticipated. It's one of his earlier Yakuza movies, but still very Miike in approach that was highly recommend to me by another great reviewer by the name of Dave K. We open innocently enough with young Riki Fugoh playing catch with his beloved brother Ryu. The entire family, however, is yakuza. After Ryu retaliates for the actions of the rival Nioh gang, the boys' dad kills Ryu to save his own neck. Young Riki, is not amused.

Ten years later, Riki (Shosuke Tanihara) is the smartest, best-looking kid in his high school. He also runs the place with the aid of his own gang comprised of fellow students. With the aid of eight-year-old hit men and schoolgirl strippers and assassins, it looks like Riki could have his revenge on the anniversary of his brother's death, but dear old dad may not go down so easily.

Shock value and native Japanese weirdness aside, this is a great movie. It looks great. Whatever the content, each shot is carefully composed and the action is often so manic it can be had to keep up with. As unemotional as the Japanese can be, "Fudoh" turns into the nastiest family squabble since "Medea". The parenting skills of the eldest Fudoh make Christopher Walken in "At Close Range" look like father of the year. Also into the mix comes man mountain Akira, played by wrestler Kenji Takano who must be the biggest guy in Japan! Even allowing for simple tricks like standing him next to short people, putting him on a box and filming from the waist up (the sort of stuff they do with Robbie Coltrane in the Harry Potter movies) it's clear that this guy is huge! Still, the most notable aspect is that just when you think the film can't get any weirder, it's just getting started. Murders are often accompanied by rivers of blood. The scenes in the children's assassin training camp are hysterical. I lost count on the number of decapitations.

While this is a film about kids, it's definitely not for kids. Director Miike may be better known for his surreal yakuza films and his greater exercises in strangeness, but the only difference with "Fudoh" is really one of style. Miss this and the Yakuza will have your fingers! Don't say I didn't warn you... Miss this and the Yakuza will have your fingers! Don't say I didn't warn you...


4/5 What's not to like?
  by David Bonesteel (Fresno, CA United States)
Six-year-old hitmen. Hermaphrodite soft-core porn. Death by acid. Stripper high school girls who fire darts from their you-know-whats. A North Korean assassin who flies into a killing rage over bad kim-chee. This early effort from autuer Takashi Miike is a totally uninhibited, exhuberant, blood-soaked low-budget mess, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I don't know why. Most people probably won't like it.

4/5 The Crying Game
  by Dark Mechanicus JSG (Fortified Bunker, USSA)
Remember the Neil Jordan flick "The Crying Game", about love and death and terrorism and gender-bending confusion in Great Britain?

Well, my critical reaction to Takashi Miike's "Fudoh", one of his roughly bazillion flicks about Yakuza doing that voodoo that They do so well (which is to say: killing other Yakuza)will be called just that: The Crying Game.

Would you like to know why?

It's not because at one point (between killings), its sailor-suited schoolgirl Yakuza assassin unveils her own little biological---erm---surprise, literally amidships.

It's not because at its warped, twisted, diabolical core "Fudoh" is really about Love. Yes, Love---the kind that boils up a the murderous, acidic rage in the heart of its hero, Riki Fudoh (played with admirable poise and with zero sarcasm by Shosuke Tanihara, who acts for all the world that all this insanity is just a by-the-numbers Yakuza flick, demanding dignity), who declares war against his own father for the murder of his older brother years before.

No, it's none of those things. Basically, "Fudoh" is unhinged, deranged, possibly evil. And when you get done watching it, *you* will be crying.

That's right, *crying*.

Depending on how warped you are, you'll be crying from a)utter shock at having wasted two hours of your life you won't get back, or b) from a state of uncontrollable giggles.

"Fudoh" is not an epic. It's not well-paced, or particularly coherent (very few Miike films are, which is part of their sick charm). Its take on filial piety left me cold; its strange thrusts and feints at mainstream humor rattled and died.

Miike's flicks are always a mixed bag, reflecting the Master's madness, profligacy, and prolificity. Some are screamingly hysterical outburts of shameless chaos (as in "Ichi the Killer"), the violence almost tastily juicy, the carnage ratcheting up into a kind of baroque geyser of gore.

Some are meticulously restrained little jaunts into madness where the gibbering insanity, almost mood pieces: the sheer, monstrous, unholy Wrongness is kept tightly leashed, in the cellar, just beneath the blindingly hip, leather-skinned, sinfully rad surface, ready for Miike to give the leash a tug (as in "Audition" and "Gozu").

And then there is the last category: the Sh*t. Fudoh falls squarely in this last category, because it is, undeniably, even to the most die-hard acolyte of Miike, total sh*t. And that's understandable, because this is one of the Master's first movies, and showed enough lunatic promise that after "Fudoh" he could get seriously bankrolled and really start exporting the madness.

With that in mind, though, "Fudoh" is a tight production, and the constraints show. Those gory, ghoulish fight-sequences? Mostly non-existent here, though they happen: remember, though, Miike made "Fudoh" for just 40 million Yen (400 grand if my exchange rate gears are cranking), which in Tokyo gets you lunch and a motel room for two nights.

So yeah, while there are flashes that will slake the thirst of the high-end gorehound, don't go in expecting "Ichi".

Second, for any Yakuza flick---especially a Miike jaunt---the hero and his chief nemesis (Daddums) are boring. Riki Fudoh stalks around looking somber (if stylish!) in his school uniform, often accessorizing with a white trenchcoat, which makes him look like he's about to launch an invasion of China at any minute.

Nah, the fun in Fudoh is transferred over to Riki's triumvirate of assassins: a big goofy guy for pratfalls, and two Sailor Moon-esque lasses for slaughter and kink.

So why FOUR stars for "Fudoh"? Because like all of Takashi Miike's art, you will see things in "Fudoh" you have never seen before. Things, quite honestly, you will never see again, outside of another Miike flick or Hell.

Think of it this way: when's the last time you went down to the neighborhood cineplex and scoped out:

1) A vicious Yakuza gunbattle with about 10,000 rounds exchanged---all in a toilet stall?

2) A poisoned Yakuza gangster getting some bad morning coffee and turning into a human blood geyser in the back of a police car?

3) A tender, touching, deeply sensitive (yeah, right!) love story between a confused, angst-ridden Ninja schoolgirl Yakuza assassin who fires lethal poisoned darts from her---umm...well, she uses pressure generated in her, erm, nether regions---anyway, between the murderous hermaphroditic Yakuza schoolgirl and the new English teacher who shows her the meaning of Love? Awww.

4) Death by acid bath, on stage, during a striptease?

5) Death! This time by lethal poisoned dart, shot across a lounge by the aforementioned hermaphrodite killer, launched from the boiling depths of his/her...umm...from its---hindquarters?

6) Or a brutal revenge scene at a local Shinto shrine, with the victims two lisping twin Shinto priests and the assassin sent to protect them, who---well, who likes to spend quality cuddling time with his two charges.

And we're just getting warmed up. If God isn't dead, He will be when he checks this demented thing out.

JSG

3/5 Nothing Special.
  by Michelle (San Diego, CA USA)
Lately I've been getting into Asian-Cinema, and the king of it seems to be Takashi Miike. Releasing 63 films in the last 13 years, he's certainly a busy man, and he does his best to make some of the most bizarre movies out there, this being no expection.

The first problem with this DVD is the actual DVD.
It has no DVD Menu, no Sound options (Japanese Stereo + English Subtitles), and no extra features. The movie does have 3 trailers for other films which play right before the movie (Much like a VHS Tape). The video on the DVD Is nothing special either.

The story follows young Riki (A model high school student), son of one of the biggest crime lords in japan, who murdered his other son (Riki's brother) -- Riki swears to avenge his brothers death, and recruits a group of bizarre people from his school (Including a man known as the japanese elvis!), to take out his father, and gain control of the Yakuza.

The movie sounds real interesting (And when you see some of these characters (For instance, the girl who shoots poisonous darts out of her privates)), it truly is bizarre.

Unfortunately the story doesnt unfold so well, and is a large letdown (I wanted to love this movie after hearing about it).

It does feature Miike's typical "over the top violence" at parts, but its not as good as his typical films unfortunately.

I'd recommend renting this one, but I'd hold off on purchasing this movie unless you can find it for under $10.

1/5 Not as bad as a stick in the eye but it comes close
  by D. Widener (Live Oak, CA USA)
The plot of "Fudoh: The New Generation" goes some thing like this. Father kills son. 10 years later younger son takes revenge using a gang made primarily of pre-teens. Now that you know what the movie is about you don't need to watch it. This has to be the worst movies I have ever seen. It is even worse then Starship Troopers II. There is no character development the plot line is about as good as a porn movie. Im not saying this because of all the nudity but rather it is just unbelievably lame.

With the exception of the first action scene the action sequences are slightly worse then what you would find in an average American TV show but they try to cover this up with massive amounts of blood. Which brings me to the one thing this movie does have, shock value. This movie is filled with situations that are intended to shock the viewers, but in most cases just made me giggle at its absurdity. Here are just a few of the situations:

A crime lord drinks a poison which seems to make all his blood shoot from his neck and mouth(lots of blood here).

Another crime lord is shot by a six-year-old kid (meant to be shocking but hey who really cares?).

Yet another crime lord is killed when a stripper shoots a dart through his head with a blowgun. The "shocking part" is that she uses something other then her mouth to blow the dart."

Oh yeah and what movie would be complete without a hermaphrodite sex scene?

In conclusion I can't believe I spent an hour and 40-min watching this. So pleas do yourself a favor and don't watch it or if you do watch it rent it so you wont be out so much money.