Miike's best
This movie was just... simply put, awesome. I've seen Gozu, Audition, Ichi, One Missed Call, and Izo, and none of them are as good as this underrated gem.
shareout of what i have seen, this is my favorite miike film as well. audition and ichi had their moments but as far as all around story/plot, i like fudoh the best.
-order66
I don't think Fudoh has a good ending. The rest of it is some of Miike's best, most entertaining stuff, but at the end it just stops, like they ran out of money to shoot the final shootout or something. That's the major problem I have with it. It isn't better than Audition, because that's pretty much perfect in a horrible, why-do-I-want-to-watch-the-rest-of-this way. I think Ichi has more to it than Fudoh, but I don't think it's quite as entertaining and fast-paced. (well, in terms of Japanese cinema, that is, which is slow by default) I love Gozu, but it's pretty damn slow at points, with scenes dragged out longer than they should. (what I now call King Kong syndrome, although King Kong would have been better if a man crawled out of Naomi Watts' vagina at the end)
There's no climactic, be-all-end-all atrocity in Fudoh that characterizes some other Miike movies, just a whole lot of great ideas spread out in the first half, and, aside from the hermaphrodite sex, not much in terms of invention in the second half.
While an entertaining film, it is very foolish to think that Fudoh is superior to Gozu or Izo. At best, it's on par with his yakuza trilogies. I almost wish this film was made later in Miike's career...around 2000-2002-ish. Or at the very least, it should be re-released with a better quality transfer.
But still a good film, indeed.
This movie was crappy and ridiculous. Audition was a clean and well-taken movie and is much superior to this junk.
shareThis movie rocked the house. All you haters should quiet down and stop writing angry letters from your moms basement. I enjoyed this movie personally even more then Audition or Gozu, but my personal favorite would have to be Yakuza Demon. These are all excellent movies in their own right.
shareIt's absolutely a cool movie, I enjoyed it, had some laughs, and liked the ending. Still, I think Miike has done better. It should however be noted that I'm more into drama and thrillers than action. I gave it a 6/10, but if you want my opinion in words: It rocked, and was awesome.
"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro."