'Yakuza: Like a Dragon' review by MartialHorror.

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YAKUZA: LIKE A DRAGON(2007)
(Directed by Takashi Miike)

"Yakuza: Not like a Takashi Miike movie."- Signed by MartialHorror

Plot: Various people interact in Tokyo, mostly surrounding a badass yakuza who is trying to find the mother of a little girl. He's chased by old old rival in the process.

Review:

While Takashi Miike has yet to hit rock bottom, the quality of his films seem to be in decline. At the turn of the decade, he reached his peak, delivering superb films like: "Audition", "Ichi the Killer", the "Dead or Alive" trilogy and "Gozu". Okay, so maybe not "superb" films, but they were movies that were cool in their strangeness. Nowadays, his movies are like "Sukiyaki Western Django", which are fun but lack that Miike touch. His movies remained consistently decent, but few stood out as great. "Yakuza: Like a Dragon" is based on a video game called "Yakuza". I don't know how faithful it is, but it does feel like someone crammed an entire game into a movie that's a little under 2 hours. The result is a movie that contains a little of what Miike does right, but also a lot of Miike does wrong. But oddly, no one gets raped....so I can't call it your normal Miike movie, now can I? But that doesn't change the fact that I was often more lost than Fred Phelps in the middle of a gay parade.

Oh dear, this is the part where I discuss the plot, isn't it? Not an easy task. Kiryu(Kazuki Kitamura) is a super badass yakuza with a heart of gold. Having been just released from prison, he decides to help a young girl(Natsuo) find her Mother. However, he's stalked by an old rival, Majima(Goro Kishitani). Meanwhile, other stuff happens.....Not enough? Fine. Detectives stake a bank robbery, a Korean Hitman is preparing his next job, and a young couple turn to a life of crime. Plus, people are looking for other- okay, honestly? This movie makes no sense. There were too many names, too many subplots and too many twists for me to actually keep up with the damn thing. None of it really fits together either. I was lost more often than not.

What keeps it from ultimately being a stinker is Miike's attention to character. All of the characters are interesting. In fact, they all deserve movies of their own. I'd be interested in all of them. The actors are all solid as well, although many of them are underused(Sho Aikawa). I also found myself chuckling at the movies off-beat, dark sense of humor. It's strange, but I also chuckled a lot at it. But it's the characters that kept me from being bored, while the rest of the movie was not up to par.

"Like a Dragon" is based on a video game, so it does have a few video game plot devices. But it doesn't blend in very well with the rest of the movie. Some of the fight scenes(which are all okay) have a characters aura materializing into a blue flame around their first. Or normal flames engulf a warriors body. It doesn't happen often, but that's the problem. When it happens, it's distracting. It's as if Miike initially intended for this to be a normal Yakuza movie, but the studios forced him to turn it into a video game adaptation. So a few video game-esque sequences were added.

I don't want to tell you to avoid "Yakuza: Like a Dragon", nor do I want to tell you to watch it. If you like Takashi Miike, yakuza movies and/or video game adaptations, you might want to give it a cautious look. It might appeal to you. The characters are interesting, fun and likeable, and the actors are strong as well. But Miike seems to not care about the films visual style. Despite a few ambitious shots and pretty interiors, the awkward editing(and continuity errors) caught my attention more. I personally didn't like this movie at all, but I liked parts of it. In short, I cared for the characters, but not for this movie.

Violence: Some, but it's mostly cartoonish. PG-13 worthy.

Nudity: None, shockingly.

Overall: "Yakuza: Like a Dragon" is another oddity of Takashi Miike, but it's also inoffensive. Watch at your own risk.

2/4 Stars


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