Not Showing: Yakuza Apocalypse

When a report says that Miike Takashi will be back to his roots, everybody got excited. I am one of his fans that look forward about this film, especially when that title came out.  I thought, he will go back indeed.  Even those films were outright crazy, it has a lot of sense and some of his crazy films were fantastic.

Not for this film. 

Well, after watching this flick for over 2 hours, I kinda thought, he rushed going back in his gonzo genre. Two things I did not like in this new film of his, first was yeah, sensibility. I mean, after all those mayhem for 2 hours, the ending was kinda flat and hanging. I'm glad it ended at that time. Geez, I felt it just made no sense. Almost felt I wasted 2 hours. I thought that Visitor Q, which was the film I ranked the worst he made, made more sense. 
Second thing, there were repetitive action scenes and not polished scenes. I don't know if he intended to do it or he also rushed it. I felt some scenes I hoped it was done differenly and some, just cut it. By the way, Mad Dog was not really utilized in this film, especially that last fight scene he has. Geez.

Anyway, not all fails in this film. Besides with the cool movie title, 3 good things happened in this film. First, wow, I love the first scene and some of the action scenes there. Sorry to spoil, but also how that yakuza blood scattered all over, I love that concept and yes, the mayhem. Indeed, he is back. Despite that rushed feeling in this film, he is back and I hope in the future, he'll think of more of this crazy films. Ah, another thing I like in this film, even he under used Mad Dog, I love how he utilized the cast. I mean the only known star in this film is Lily Franky, I don't know the lead star Hayato but the characters fit in its cast. Even that battered leading lady was good and I'm searching her name. hehe But other stars done a good job. Well, yeah I like that frog dude even he did not show his face and is that a korean star? Love that suit he wore. 

Miike was able to improve a lot using his cast as time goes by. Compare from his previous films which he uses small cast, but as time went by, even he has a bigger cast, the cast delivers! Last thing I like in this film, looks great! Even with a weird plot, I mean it looks Takashi has a big budget for this film and spent it wisely. Effects used were good and doesn't feel he used a lot of CGI. Like I said before, if some action scenes were not good. Some were great, especially that Lily Franky first scene. That really kick ass! hehe 

Anyway, I hope Miike was able to finish this film in order. It's a waste that it ended that way but I know.. He'll come back with a different film and same vibe. Well, Miike has done a lot of films with all the genres you can think of. I know he'll do another film better than this. 

By the way, about the title, when you finished watching this, it's easy to understand. Don't worry. 

Suck more blood! Not Yakuza blood..