Fudoh: The New Generation

Fudoh: The Next Generation is another in a long line of Yakuza films helmed by Takashi Miike. The big difference here is that the principal Yakuza organisation in the film is made up of adolescents and 5-7 year old boys who are just as deadly as their adult rivals.

The reigning Nio Yakuza clan is made up of five different families, one of the five heads is Iwao Fudoh, and his first lieutenant his oldest son, Ryu. When Ryu orders one of the rival Yasha organisations hit men killed, thus triggering a full scale war between the Yasha and Nio clans, Iwao is asked to make up for his sons mistake and he does so by decapitating him and presenting the head as compensation to the Nio clan.

Upon hearing a noise Iwao's youngest son Riki, awakes and goes to investigate - he stumbles upon the grisly sight of his father beheading his older brother. Cut to ten years later, Riki is now in high school and running an organisation of his own made up of fellow students and a group of little boys. His anger over the death of his brother has not faded in the least and he has plans to wipe out the other four families in the Nio clan and become boss.

Fudoh is really a mindblowing spectacle, we are constantly battered with violent and non-PC imagery, beginning with the sight of two five year-old boys coldly assassinating an elderly Yakuza boss. To see young children effortlessly handling 9mm's is somewhat of a shock to our pre-conditioned minds to start with, but when they continue on to calmly blow an old man's brains out you start to get an idea of what is ahead.

The next slaying involves a poisoned cup of coffee and literally bucketloads of blood. Another features Riki's female friend and classmate Mika, who works on the side at a sleazy strip joint performing her unique act which consists of shooting sharpened darts out of a blowpipe inserted in her vagina and bursting balloons on the other side of the room, though this night, in-between balloons, she shoots a dart right through a Nio leaders head - in one ear and out the other - the dart sinks into the wall with a piece of brain tissue still attached.

Everything about Fudoh is so over-the-top and insanely exaggerated that you seem not to notice that the likelihood of a group of children being at war with the Yakuza is highly improbable. Midway through the film we are shown the children's training camp where we see the kids merrily playing soccer with their English teachers head, this serves again to reinforce the sense of unreality that's at play here. Although, all hyperbole aside, Fudoh also explores the dysfunctional relationship between father and son, a bond so broken down by betrayal and murder that as the two males sit opposite each other eating dinner in silence, each one is plotting a way to execute the other.

All in all, if you dig schoolgirl hermaphrodites, friendly giants, lesbian English teachers, vaginal darts and a large helping of blood and black comedy, this a must-see Miike film.

Director Takashi Miike ("Audition", "Dead or Alive I+II") created a dark vengeance-story that deals with a young guy named Riki Fudoh who takes bitter revenge on the Yakuza for killing his brother. Together with some classmates he starts a merciless crusade against the organized crime... However, without being too sensitive, so faint-hearted persons should stay away from the gross scenes of murder! Acid drinks, beheadings and little kids as contract killers... no doubt, "Fudoh" is bloody entertainment in perfection! It is something like teenagers on a killing spree, but fortunately far beyond political correctness and typical Hollywood-clichés - or could anyone imagine Denise Richards using vaginal firearms?!? (A delicious imagination, by the way...)... Miike´s film ran very successfully at various festivals like in Rotterdam/Netherlands, Toronto/Canada or in Germany. It was a No.1 box-office blockbuster in its home country Japan and everyone who likes violent Asian action movies should give it a fair chance! Recommended!

Fudoh: The New Generation (1996) is Takashi Miike's film which introduced him to the Western audiences and film critics for the first time. After that, he's made many more films which have been shown on festivals and film clubs around the world. Fudoh is alongside Audition (1999) his masterpiece of his films that I've seen. Fudoh tells the story of young boy, Riki Fudoh, who one night sees how his father, a powerful Yakuza gangster, kills his own son, Riki's brother due to some Yakuza "ritual" as the father has to sacrifice something for the crimes he's made to the Yakuza. The Yakuza says that he can get away with the case by chopping his own arm off, but instead he wants to kill his son and bring his head to satisfy the Yakuza. From that day on, Riki seeks revenge for his father without showing it. He becomes the most intelligent student in his school and he forms his own criminal society to fight the old generation Yakuza with the help of some school friends. They include a huge long haired caricature of high school student who crushes everything under him, two cute Japanese girls, which both have some very nasty habits and "tools" and two 6-7 year old boys who commit the assassinations for Riki. Yes, the sentence you just read is true and this is a film by Takashi Miike.

I just love this film in its originality and seriousness. The film is completely over-the-top in some places without ever becoming too gratuitous or (un)intentionally funny, unless Miike wants so. He has the ability to use such symbolism (the ending of Dead or Alive (2000) etc.) that this ability alone would make him a very interesting film maker. Fudoh is a film about same themes as Dead or Alive as they both handle the subject matter of relationships between two men, who cannot quit or change their lethal attitudes and who are enemies but share many similar things. Even more, this film (and Dead or Alive, too) is about human psyche and about the line which appears on the screen at the beginning of the film, before the credits. Human is far more dangerous a beast than any beast we've known from the nature. The ending in Fudoh is very impressive, sudden and great and underlines the message and theme of the film as effectively as the mentioned opening line. This film is about us, but told in the form of a Yakuza drama, as Miike himself is a Japanese and thus Yakuza interests him as a subject matter in his films. Also, the film is about relationships (often gay oriented) between the Yakuza bosses and also relations between fathers and sons, and especially what kinds of things are expected from fathers once they make children. One very unborn "child" is spattered on the face of the huge long haired guy, and maybe that unborn human creature was happier not having to born in this world in the first place? Miike shows and asks us, and those who can or want, try to answer and think about the things in his films. I simply can't imagine a Takashi Miike film being empty in content.

Cinematically this film is very restrained, just like Dead or Alive's middle part after the explosive beginning and the surrealistically wild finale. There are some great images in Fudoh, like the one in which Riki "gets older" after witnessing the brutal murder of the brother, and there's also some beautiful and mythic lights visible, coming from windows etc. and all these things say much more than words ever could, especially when in most cases these lights appear soon after someone's been killed. Fudoh is almost as peaceful as Audition and it is great how the director changes the tones of his films from extremely calm and restrained, to more than wild and explosive. Audition is never wild or explosive, but Fudoh and Dead or Alive sure are. Takashi Miike's ability to handle his films so perfectly is among the things which make his films so unique and fantastic.

The characters in Fudoh are very personal and memorable. The criminals are evil and Riki's partners are crazy, but in a restrained way. The mentioned huge guy has to be seen to be believed, and also one dart wielding female assassin of Riki's is very unbelievable. Some of the violent scenes are very gory, like the poisoning of one Yakuza, which really is effective and grotesque to say the least! The assassinations are brutal and gory, but it all symbolizes the decay of the world as even little children are trained to kill and very effectively, too. None of the violence is exploitative, but some viewers may consider it too graphic and off-putting, but that is always the case with personal, unlimited and symbolic cinema.

Fudoh is very wonderful modern Japanese film and on the same level with the work of Takeshi Kitano, even though these are very different film makers. Equally brilliant and personal, but different in style and elements. Fudoh is Miike's masterpiece and I hope he has many more masterpieces to offer in his career. He has made so much films in such a short time, and all of those which I've managed to see are at least interesting and personal, if not quite masterpieces. Fudoh is among the 10/10 experiences.

Another knock-out by Takashi Miike!!! This one is a doozy... Pre-teen assassins, a chick that can shoot darts out of her p***y, hermaphrodite hit men (hitwomen?), and more bullets and blood than you can shake a samurai sword at. FUDOH is action packed and grabs you from the very first scene. If you are into extreme Asian action, then this should be right up your alley. If your idea of extreme action is Jean-Claude Van Damme and Steven Segal, then you have no idea what you're in for. If you haven't already, also check out ICHI THE KILLER - another Miike masterpiece, both are incredible. I really can't say which film I like better. - Highly recommended 9 1/2 out of 10.

I haven't seen this director's work before. This is my initiation. He sure works with a heavy hand. No subtlety here. Heads roll and blood splatters frequently and often at the hands of small children. Decapitation is particularly repulsive. It's gang warfare and anything goes. It's an eye for an eye. Rural gangs run riot in Kyushu and Kobe plotting to gain control of the illicit drug trade and urging North Korea to involve itself in war with America. It's all about human beings with the worst intentions.

You might call some night club scenes almost comic releief except for the fact that the women entertainers who shoot metal darts from their genital area are amazingly accurate and a man's brains can be seen hanging on a dart after it penetrates his head. Both shocking and tasteless. An hermaphrodite reveals "her" bulge to a surprised woman and then has sex with her. At least this kind of sex is something original. I suppose originality is this director's strongest point and his actors do a great job in all scenes which are literally over the top.

The young Riki Fudoh is particularly charismatic in his mission to curtail his father's cruel and murderous activity.

If savage assassinations with copious blood are what you like this violent film will probably satisfy you although you may not sleep well afterward. On the other hand the killing scenes are so exaggerated and so over the top one might find them almost laughable. I imagine the actors had an hilarious time with the filming of Fudoh.

Now that I am initiated...is it my kind of film? No sir, not for me!