Customer Reviews

Fudoh: The New Generation

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Since being off on sick leave and discovering Amazon, I have also had the time to discover Takashi Miike. A Japanese director who was a bit of a thug in his youth, he fell into directing just because, well, it was there. Films which I have seen of his and reviewed include Audition (Hitchcock on steroids) and Bird People In China (a remarkable character study). The only film of Miike's I have not liked to date is 'Visitor Q', which just plain pushed my buttons--and the wrong ones. However, lately I have been feeling bad about that. I posted a positive review of Ichi The Killer, but it disappeared into cyberspace--but plenty of people have already reviewed that remarkable film.

Miike is a provocateur. For the most part, he makes direct to video films. The budget is low, the money is made back by DVD sales, and he can cut loose. Often cutting loose for Miike involves chopping off feet, but can include people being cut in half. Miike likes to be outrageous. I first came across him when, cruising Future Shop, I came across "Imprint." This was a one hour film commissioned by Showtime for its "Masters of Horror" cable tv series. However, it was too much even for that series, and was released independetly on DVD after Showtime refused to air it.

Fudoh is something else again, even for Miike's work. It is a revenge story, with some real similarities to Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven"--one act of violence leads to an endless cycle of more violence. The violence gets worse and worse.

Although I will be judicious in this review about plot points, and not give away too much, you should still beware:

SPOILERS AHEAD. IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS, STOP!!

The film begins with Fudoh as a child. His father and older brother are both gangsters. After what can only be described as a toilet massacre that makes Sam Peckinpah's films look like The Sound Of Music, Fudoh's father kills Fudoh's older brother to placate other gangsters upset by the massacre. To say Fudoh's dad gives the other gangsters a head's up on Fudoh's brother, or that he heads off their concerns...well, you can guess, eh?

Cut to Fudoh as a high school student. This is one rock and roll high school. Fudoh is running his own gang. Helping him are two young boys, perhaps eleven or so years old, who look like they can barely carry their machine guns. These boys don't, uh, kid around. They help Fudoh with his gang, and that includes assassinating the gangsters connected with Fudoh's brother's death.

My favourite Fudoh aide is a cheerleader type, a girl who shows a remarkable ability with darts. She does not use her hand to throw darts, nor does she use her mouth. But she does blow the darts out. Do I have to be explicit? Let's say her aim is remarkable, given she shots the darts while on her back.

The film is beautifully shot and paced, and contains, as one should expect from the above descriptions, a whole truckload of dark humour. I've seen Peckinpah, I've seen Scorsese's gangster movies, heck I've seen Friday the 13th. But I ain't never seen nothing quite like this!!

The film, while hilarious in parts, is equally dramatic. Miike makes it serious when he has to, yet there is no vibe clash when he switches tones. I'm not sure yet how he pulled it off, but he did.

As the revenge cycle gets worse, the violence increases and things get nastier and nastier. Unlike with Visitor Q, though, this is an entertainment that does not rub your nose in it (in fact, unlike Dead or Alive, which tended to also rub your nose in it). Also, unlike some Miike films, it does not feel rushed, with things thrown in for the heck of it. Everything works, right to the end. No scenes stick out like a sore thumb. Or, for that matter, like a dismembered thumb.

Stylish, clever, violent, sexy--did I mention the scene involving two women making out, only one of them is also a man?--this is a unique film that is well worth checking out. Except you'll never check it out of any video store except a speciality store, you'll have to buy this sucker. It ain't coming on cable any time soon!!

The Hitoshi Tanimura comic on which this film is based must have passed me by, but it shares a publisher with Legend of the Overfiend and is a similarly exploitative sex-and-violence tale set in a Japanese school. But this time the invaders are Japanese gangsters, our messiah is the son of the local boss, and the demons are all too human.

The original Japanese title implies that the whole story is a rewrite of Japan's civil war, but screenwriter Toshiyuki (Onibi: The Fire Within) Morioka paints a very modern drama of murder and mayhem. The eponymous Riki Fudo (played with startling presence by Shosuke Tanihara) is traumatised by the death of his elder brother, and swears revenge on his murderous father.

Gathering his own cohorts about him, Fudo fights a war on two fronts, against both his sworn enemies in Kyushu and his own Dad. Bird People in China director Takashi Miike takes this raw stuff of straight-to-video bargain bins and turns it into a big-screen revenge tragedy worthy of John Woo. Father and son face each other over dinner, each framed by the flames of a Buddhist hell; a blood-red Moon shines on midnight meeting; there is the glint of sharp knives and the flash of even sharper suits.

The influence of this 1996 film is already extensive - it opens with an explosive restroom shoot-out that makes Kite's (1998) seem like a pale imitation, and Shark-Skin Man & Peach-Hip Girl's (1998) seem all the funnier. Exceedingly violent, Fudo never ceases to amaze with its sick originality - highlights include assault with kimchi, a new meaning to the phrase `dropping acid' and a schoolgirl stripper with an eye-popping party trick. Boasting both the malicious inventiveness of Evil Dead and the honour-among-thieves of Goodfellas, this is one film which (trust me) can't fail to surprise you.

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...

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.

I caught this movie at a film fest two years ago and was completely BLOWN AWAY. Our main character is a high school kid who happens to be a yakuza (mob) crime boss. He decides to make a power move against some old-school rivals with the help of two female classmate/assassins(one of which is a stripper with a FASCINATING weapon, a hulking behemoth, and two deadshot tykes). The action sequences are incredible! The film critic at TIME put this on his list of Top 10 movies of the year at the time of it's Japan release. I put it on my Top 10 of all time.

Takeshi Miike is a cinematic visionary who has directed over 50 films and among these most memorable are Audition (2000) and Ichi the Killer (2001). Miike's films often bring the audience into a dark and disturbing world of crime and psychologically distressing themes. In Audition Miike depicts a love story that turns into a carnival of mutilation and degradation in which the audience still can connect with the mutilator. In Ichi the Killer the audience can be forced into a shockingly violent world of crime, but there is a deep sense for the understanding of the characters despite the violence. Miike's absurd fondness for the disturbed and dark shines through in his films, yet each film he directs has a unique touch and offers a new experience. In short, Miike who seems to do nothing but work as he releases film after film, reinvents himself in each film with his own characteristic touch, and each accomplishment leaves a new mark of Miike.

Fudoh: The Next Generation is no exception to Miike's style as it takes on a yakuza revenge story where the young Riki Fudoh (Shosuke Tanihara) is severely traumatized by witnessing the murder of his brother as his father decapitates him in order to please the bosses of the other yakuza families. Riki promises himself to seek revenge on those who ordered the killing of his brother. Ten years later when Riki is in high school he has organized himself with well-trained six-year-old assassins with guns and stun-guns, two lethal high school girls, and a gigantic high school boy that can crush anything with his hands. Riki begins to take on the yakuza killing them off one by one in Miike style, which means that each killing offers a new disturbing experience. The question is can Riki make it, or will he also be a victim for the violence that he breeds around himself. Fudoh: The Next Generation offers an interesting cinematic experience as it offers notions in regards to social learning and violence.

Based on the Japanese comic book by Hitoshi Tanimura, Takashi Miike's "FUDOH The New Generation" (aka. Gokudo sengokushi: Fudo) is his very first film to ever make it to U.S. shores and it presets the expectations for his other projects. This wildly visceral, eccentric, ultra-violent, silly, tacky is unbelievably fun to watch and made such an impact when I saw it for the first time many years ago. Miike abandons all expectations as to how a Japanese film should be and ventures way beyond the impression of what a Yakuza film should be.

Riki Fudoh (Shosuke Tanihara) is a young man whose appearance is misleading. A highly cultured model high school student on the surface, but underneath he has become a vicious, cold-hearted killer. Riki witnessed his older brother get beheaded by his father in order to prevent a gang war from breaking out. Successor to the Fudoh family, Riki devises a plan to destroy the old generation of the criminal organization, and to take control with his fellow classmates. But his father discovers that Riki is behind the past hits on the Yakuza bosses and now young Riki is the hunted...

"Fudoh the New Generation" is enjoyable trashy fun--silly, full of unrealistic goofs and as with most of Miike's projects during this time, floats around bad taste, over-the-top fun and pure brilliance. There are several scenes that doesn't make sense but for some reason I had no problem buying into the odd material; a supposed "blown up" big bruiser reappears alive, there's a poisoned coffee that causes blood to spray, a vaginal dart gun, a sexy, hermaphrodite school girl and a sexy English teacher who wears an ultra-skimpy, mega-short outfit. Take all these elements and combine it with gallons of arterial spraying blood, a metal shoe, a lot of gunfire and brutal violence and what you'll get is "brilliantly" played, gross fun!

This is a Miike project, so expect brutal violence to be the film's selling point--it also doesn't hurt when he throws in sex and nudity into the mix; which is oddly toned down. The hermaphrodite school girl and the teacher sex scene (between Marie Jinno and Miho Nomoto) was mildly erotic, tame and mostly just implied--a fact may not exactly excite those looking for pervy kicks. Most of the film's action is exaggerated and "manga-inspired" with the tone taken from the Japanese comic book. However, Miike balances this out with an insanely bleak tone, simple cinematography, and an almost realistic protagonist in Riki Fudoh. There is also some commentary as to how humans can be the most violent and insufferable creatures, since even wolves never kill their own. The film is structured quite well, and even though some scenes were grotesquely unrealistic, the film maintains its wild, visceral and moody pace.

The film's best aces come from its cast of oddly, bizarre if interesting characters. Shouke Tanihara plays an unbelievably realistic "Riki Fudoh" as a high school student bent on revenge and the elimination of the old generation of Yakuza bosses. Tanihara is just unnervingly convincing as a cold and calculating young man. He delivers his lines with convincing fervor that made such a disquieting impact. Riki Takeuchi has very limited screen time as the rival gang boss, Nohma; but the actor still fills the screen with his own brand of wicked charisma. Seductively arousing Marie Jinno plays the substitute school teacher, Jun Minori who also has a dark past; I loved her portrayal as the mysterious femme fatale and she steals the show when she wears the skimpy outfits and definitely when she's in the nude. Takeshi Caesar plays Riki's older half-brother, Gondo Akihiro and fulfills the unsettling violent nature of his character; he beats up a chef for making a wrong kind of kimchi. Riki's band of students are made up by two school girls (Touka and Mika, played by Tamaki Kenmochi and Miho Nomoto respectively), Aizone ( the big guy on steroids, and a group of kids are an odd mix of innocence and cold emotion--these kids are outcasts and finds solace only among themselves. The film does pretty much lean toward its characters to deliver its emotions, and Miike does manage to avoid the film from becoming too comic bookish.

Whether you like Miike or not, you have to admire his versatility and the freedom he exercises in his films. The man can indeed direct and can effectively pull off a wild blending of genres such as in "Ichi the Killer", "Gozu" and "Dead or Alive". The only complaint I have about the film is that it ended too soon, with the real showdown just about to begin. Most of his films are unrated so he can do whatever he wants. I suppose one wouldn't be hard-pressed to see this film as a major commentary by Miike as to the younger generation disregarding the older one. Then again, we do shape the "children of the future" don't we? With this in mind, the older Fudoh shaped the younger Riki Fudoh--show callousness and cold emotion, and it will be returned to you in kind.

"Fudoh the New Generation" delivers one heck of an "avant-garde" of a movie experience.

Highly Recommended!! [4 ½ Stars]

Shew! One time when I was reading one of many reviews of one of many Miike works, somebody used the phrase" Miike's personal brand of surreal gangster flicks." That there would be the perfect way to describe Fudoh: The New Generation. While showing off Miike's obvious inspiration in Kenji Fukasaku movies, he goes about it by way of Luis Bunuel, both delighting in the absurd while paying close attention to making it follow continuity and a dreamy sense of realism (inherent contradiction intentional). I'd like to call it, "like Gozu, but to the Yakuza genre than to the horror genre", but, well, again Miike defies genre base; after all, Gozu was about the tribulations of a Yakuza member, too.

But honestly, Fudoh: The New Generation does stand out in Miike's ever increasing oeuvre. It's interesting that, although reading a filmography of his makes it seem like he throws in the random classic in a long line of b-movies, it's actually the other way around, and some of the more ridiculously titled of his films are actually the better ones (Fudoh, Big Bang Love Juvenile A, Visitor Q). Fudoh: The New Generation is certainly one of the more underrated of his work. It showcases his general propensity towards over the top violence, sex, and body horror, but nonetheless proves that he's capable of some very effective drama, zany humor, and even disturbing social commentary, as needed. In a way, his best movies are the ones that reflect his oeuvre as a whole: strange, unpredictable, and all over the emotional spectrum in terms of how it affects you.

This time, though, there's something of an interesting metanarrative point: the theme of Fudoh is stated when the eponymous character says, "New blood must replace the old, else the body dies." Young Fudoh is talking about the Yakuza. Miike is talking about the Yakuza genre. This movie is about the love, honor, and respect of a well-known genre of Japanese filmmaking while also delighting in subverting its every cliche. I compare it to The Yakuza Papers, but not lightly: whereas the earlier series of films are obviously a cataclyst for the hyperactive styling of this new, younger generation of Japanese filmmakers, it still takes its traditional themes seriously, Godfather-like. Here, Miike throws the playful, the absurd, and the hermaphroditic into previously assumed roles and lets the blood spray when needed, lets it not when necessary.

It may be unpredictable, but it's far from absurd. I would actually recommend Fudoh: The New Generation to someone not previously exposed to Miike, because it's extreme without being too challenging on the viewer's sensibilities like Ichi or Audition, idiosyncratic without being too clandestine like Big Bang Love, and dramatic without being too reminiscent of previously established forms like Rainy Dogs. It's a good introductory movie to the fascinations of a prolific filmmaker whose every movie excites a feeling of the random and bizarre and yet don't fall into sorry repetition.

It also bears worth mentioning that some of the most striking imagery and graceful camera movements in Miike history are featured in this film.

Definitely a must see, this one.

--PolarisDiB

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.

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