Gokudô kyôfu dai-gekijô: Gozu (2003)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Takashi Miike

Writer:

Sakichi Satô (screenplay)

Release Date:

14 July 2004 (France)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

Minami, a member of the Azamawari crew, highly respects his Aniki (brother) Ozaki who has saved his life in the past...

Plot Keywords:

Dog | Violence | Milk | Yakuza | Bra

Awards:

5 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Yûta Sone	...	Minami (as Hideki Sone)
Shô Aikawa	...	Ozaki
Kimika Yoshino	...	Female Ozaki
Shohei Hino	...	Nose (as Shôhei Hino)
Keiko Tomita	...	Innkeeper
Harumi Sone	...	Innkeeper's Brother
Renji Ishibashi	...	Boss
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ken'ichi Endô
Kanpei Hazama
Masaya Katô
Tamio Kawaji		(as Tamio Kawachi)
Susumu Kimura
Hiroyuki Nagato
Hitoshi Ozawa
Kazuyoshi Ozawa
Sakichi Satô	...	Coffee Shop Manager
Tokitoshi Shiota	...	Gozu
Tetsurô Tanba
Yoshiyuki Yamaguchi

Also Known As:

Gozu (International: English title) (USA)
Yakuza Horror Theater: Gozu (USA)

MPAA:

Rated R for aberrant sexual and violent content, and for language.

Runtime:

France:130 min (Cannes Film Festival) | USA:129 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

DTS

Certification:

UK:18 | Australia:R | Australia:R (2008) | New Zealand:R18 | France:-16 | Japan:R-15 | Hong Kong:III | USA:Unrated | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Nagoya, Aichi, Japan

Company:

Klock Worx Co.

Quotes:

Ozaki: Your wiener looks like Frankenstein's.

Movie Connections:

References "Riget" (1994)

Full of calcium and milky goodness

So we've all seen a psychological horror, right? Well, how about a psychological comedy? Or, even better, a psychological horror-comedy? Miike can sometimes be a rather haphazard director - unavoidable considering his amazing work-rate - but this is one of his most rigorously worked-out films since 'Visitor Q' (2001) (with which it shares many similarities). The whole film seems geared towards demolishing the classic horror protagonist - here, a shy, virginal foot soldier in the yakuza called Minami. Minami's sexual purity is one of the things the film takes wild advantage of, stripping back his sexual anxiety to reveal a subconscious wish to return to the bosom of his family - in, erm, every way possible.

Though it doesn't sound it, this is amazingly funny. One of the important things about Miike is that his deconstruction of genres is always fueled by a fundamental understanding of them. The Yakuza scenes here are pitch-perfect imitations of Kitano and others - long takes alternating with hand-held tracking shots, oddly-paced pauses giving off a deadpan air, sudden explosions of violence and paranoia, etc. But after the first twenty minutes or so, the film actually becomes what Sight & Sound accurately described as "a Japanese 'League of Gentlemen'".

Is what happens after this point real? Undoubtedly - Miike always differentiates between the dream sequences and the 'reality'. So we're left with the hilariously subversive notion that Minami has crossed to another plane of reality that is single-minded dedicated to warping his mind and exposing his insecurities. The rules of the game are inconsistent - one staggering late plot twist runs solely by dream logic, with no natural or even paranormal explanation for how it could happen. But it's always funny, and always enjoyable in its none-more-grotesque gallows humour. If nothing else, it makes the Farrelly brothers' claim to be making "gross-out comedies" seem very wide of the mark indeed.