DETECTIVE STORY (2007)

Low-rent detective Raita (Kazuya Nakayama) is getting drunk one night at his apartment when a potential client comes by needing help.  Not being that good of a detective, he shoos her off so he can keep drinking.  She ends up being attacked nearby and her liver removed while she's still alive. Jeez! This is the first in a string of murders that all seem to center around Raita.  There's also clues pointing toward a local artist who specializes in morbid paintings. Will Raita be able to solve the crimes before the murders are pinned on him?

If you are a fan of Takashi Miike you will know what to expect (bizarre characters doing bizarre things, weird editing, unusual camerawork, a low-budget masked by Miike's talent, surrealism, random stuff that just makes no sense whatsoever, etc.), but if you're new to Miike then you'll probably end up scratching your head more than a few times. That said, I liked DETECTIVE STORY.  I can't really see myself ever wanting to watch it again anytime soon, but it is unique and I wasn't bored.

On the downside there's never any emotional investment at all since the entire time Raita is on the run from the cops (who blame him for the three murders) he's goofing off like he's in a Ernest P. Worrell movie. Also, there's one scene (after the first murder) when Raita is sitting down and a ghost shows up behind him, it's kinda freaky, but then while Raita moves his head the ghost is suppose to disappear (while being blocked from our view by his head), somebody missed their mark and you can clearly see the actress ducking down. If done properly, it would have been a cool shot, but instead it just ended up looking stupid.  I have no idea why this was allowed in the final film.

As a dedicated Miike fan, I enjoyed DETECTIVE STORY, but I can easily see why somebody else might not like it.

CROWS ZERO (2007)

Nobody in the history of Suzuran All-Boys High School has ever "conquered" the entire school, but newcomer Genji is going to try and change that. His father is the head of a large yakuza family and he's informed Genji that if he can defeat all of the gangs of Suzuran he will put Genji in charge of the syndicate when he comes of age.  That's a very interesting story idea.  I have no idea how faithful it is to the original manga, but for purely entertainment purposes, I was entertained.

The strange thing about CROWS ZERO (besides the fact that there are no actual classes...literally all they do is fight) is it almost seems like it's geared towards teenage girls or something.  All of the main characters are pretty boys who alternate standing around looking thoughtful and beating the crap out of each other.  Usually in the rain.

Tons of fighting, bizarre almost surreal comedy moments, nobody really getting truly injured despite all of the fighting, unneeded musical performances, non-stop overacting, nice photography, lots of hair and a running time that should have been trimmed by 20 minutes.  It's hard to figure out what I thought about CROWS ZERO, since a lot of it seemed to be lost in translation and I've never read the manga, but...I'm actually looking forward to seeing what happens in Part 2.

Part 2 - Crows Zero II (2009)
Part 3 - Crows Explode (2014)

 "Pee Sex"