DEADLY OUTLAW REKKA (2002)

Yakuza gangbanger Riki Takeuchi gets all bent out of shape when his boss (and father-figure) is assassinated.  He gets even further bent out of shape when his gang starts talking to the rival gang (the ones secretly behind the assassination) about a truce.  He gets even further bent out of shape when he's double-crossed by his own gang and blamed for some murders he didn't commit (...although earlier he did actually murder 3 rival yakuza for talking shit to him).  So now he and his best friend are hellbent on revenge against the traitors in their gang and the people in the rival gang who are responsible for their boss' death.  "Rekka" means “raging fire” in Japanese.

Although there are a few surreal Miike moments (especially towards the end), DEADLY OUTLAW REKKA is a pretty straightforward yakuza film and very enjoyable.  High energy, fantastic editing, awesome soundtrack, great camerawork, quick pace and a impressive cast full of familiar faces including the legendary Renji Ishibashi who gets so upset at one point he throws his toupee at Riki Takeuchi!!!

Highly recommended and worthy of repeat viewings.  Double feature with YAKUZA DEMON.

GOZU (2003)

This film is probably more brilliant than my little brain can comprehend.

Yakuza Ozaki clearly has a screw loose, so his crew decides to kill him.  To make things easier they send him, with fellow brother Minami, to another town under the false pretense that he's to check in on some crew members there.  Once at the location he's to be killed and his body disposed of in an rather unusual way.  While still on the road some bizarre stuff happens (including an incident at a river which I'm sure somehow signifies Death or a gateway to Hell) and Ozaki disappears.  Minami, terrified that he's failed his job, looks around frantically for Ozaki, but all he finds are bizarre and repulsive characters that don't even seem real.  What the Hell is going on around here?!  Literally.

The story of GOZU is quite strange and maybe impossible to interpret, but clearly Ozaki dies towards the beginning of the film and somehow Minami is pulled (if that's even the right word) into this strange purgatory between Life and Hell.  I'm not a film scholar or a expert on the Buddhist afterlife or Greek Mythology, but it looks to me that there is a lot going on beneath the surface.  A theory off the top of my head is at the beginning of the film we know that Minami is innocent since he's still a virgin, but Ozaki is not innocent (killing the white dog).  The river signifies Death(?) and the town must be a gateway to Hell(?).  The characters signify different things (I won't waste your time with it all) and maybe the female signifies repressed homosexuality tendencies (you'll understand when you see the movie).  Minami is still a virgin, but the voice from inside the girl is calling to him.  He eventually looses his innocent (pop sound) and Ozaki has returned.  There's also the thing about the hidden room at the Inn, could that signified inner happiness?  Who knows?  Or maybe the entire film is all just a red herring full of weird imagery.  Either way GOZU is a fun film and one of my absolute favorite Miike films.  The ladle scene alone is worth the price of admission.  Hell, Renji Ishibashi's facial expressions in the ladle scene alone are worth buying this movie!

Scratching away at the white (innocence)?