Fudoh: The New Generation (1996)

as a fan of japan extreme cinema Takashi Miike is one of my favorite director in the world.After seeing his morden stuff like Audition,Ichi the killer,13 assassins i really curious to watch his older stuff and Fudoh:the new generation came to my mind and i have to say:Oh boy what a movie.The movie is about a young boy named Riki after witnessing his father kill his older brother grew up become a young yakuza boss and set up a plan to eliminated all the people who involved in his brother death in a very crude and brutal.Apart from the ultra violent and how over the top this movie is i find the crime drama very interesting and it makes you go from a surprise to another surprise in a very twisted way.The music composed by Chu Ishikawa whom you may know for the Tetsuo the iron man soundtrack is awesome as always but the problem of this movie is it end with a cliffhanger and i really want to know what happen next but to bad the sequels never been made

If this movie has to be called the Miike's masterpiece, I wonder how bad will be the others. Miike desperately tries to find elements of surprise, in the way the killers act or in the exaggeration of the blood. Really funny the killing of the second old man, with all that blood impossibly flooding a car. It was actually a quite "tromic" image but, unfortunately, I think that Miike takes himself at least as seriously as his stupid characters do: it was merely an impact, with no sense of humor. That's why the ongoing surprises of the movie (strange killers, killings, blood, that's all; well, it has also a couple of unnecessary sex scenes among human beings!! Genius!!) are less and less surprising every time, and the movie gets more and more boring. The ending is the peak of the boringness and lack of surprise.And please, bad Japanese directors, don't use those cheap "haiku" phrases with such stupid characters. It's unbearable to see a "chic" emo-killer acting as if he were a zen-poet: this is nothing more than the movie of the vagina-gun, man!!!!In spite of reading some of the enthusiastic critics on this movie, with the analysis of its symbolism, the nonsense of the violence, the difficult relationship between fathers and sons, "the important questions the director asks to the world", etcetera, etcetera..., I still consider that Shakespeare is better than Miike.

Not my cup of tea.Miike seems to have a cult following of desensitized, budding little sociopaths that hyena bark themselves silly anytime he shows people crapping on camera or a killer vagina.Miike seems to be a director for a generation raised on Fear Factor, for a generation raised on the idea that the suffering and humiliation of others and themselves, the defilement of themselves, makes for good entertainment.He's a director for a soulless generation that thinks SIN CITY or BORN NATURAL KILLERS or SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE are great moves.I don't quite fall in that category, so I can only review his films... as films. Based on an archaic morality, based on an absurd idea, that a movie at its worst... should be unpleasant to lead us to some worthy conclusion, not be unpleasant for its own sake.In Fudoh, it's all sensationalism.But sensationalism devoid of a story or characters you care the least amount about, sensationalism devoid of any real center or real sense of concern for the people who dance on the screen in front of you... sensationalism for its own sake is pornography in the real sense of that word.I've got no problem with adults being adults, with sex, or naked people, I'm no type of prude, (heck I'm a huge fan of films from CASABLANCA to DEVIL AND MRS. JONES to John Woo's THE KILLERS) but I have a problem with films that dehumanize us, and desensitize us, that have no joy in them, that feed are baser serial-killer want-to-be instincts without any thought to our higher ones.And Fudoh (and Dead Alive, a movie that I found even more of a waste of film) is such a movie. About young gangsters and vengeance ostensibly. But its really just a loose excuse to string together a string of shock and gore.I bought Fudoh (I can buy for the price of renting usually)based on reviews posted here, and promptly sold Fudoh.Not my cup of tea.

It's my seventh Takashi Miike movie. I recognize the talent of the man, but here i'll make a statement. His pre-Audition era isn't that interesting. His obsession with the Yakuza theme made a lot of his movies look similar in my opinion.But...even if Fudoh is similar to others like Dead Or Alive or Full Metal Yakuza, it has the merit of being treated in an original way. The teenage mafia, trying to take advantage of that innocent image to fight and ultimately kill the bosses of the current mafia brought my attention into this film. Although I felt this movie was just a series of generic killings and gross sexuality scenes (well, the hermaphrodite scene is something), the whole violent teenagers and influencing alpha personalities things are yet interesting.Miike shows glimpses of his cinematographical talent in this movie, but the best was still to be seen.Don't take this too seriously though, i'm severely bored with the gangster movie genre and I'll move on to something else pretty soon. This movie was mildly entertaining, mildly violent and gross for a Miike and mildly well shoot. It has no real flaw and a few good surprises, so if you like the director, well...you can give it a try