Like a dragon

Takashi Miike's loose adaptation of the PS2 game "Yakuza" is definitely an odd duck. It defies most formula conventions and delivers a uniquely Miike experience. Reminiscent of City of Lost Souls before it and Crows Zero after it, Like A Dragon has as many laughs as it does bullets. Combining bombastic action with a violent sense of humor, the film almost seems to want you to hate it, but it's hard not to like what amounts to be one of the most twisted action comedies in recent memory. A gangster fresh out of jail, his bat-wielding and bugnuts crazy arch-nemesis, a lost little girl, two Bonnie and Clyde posers, a pair of idiot bank-robbers, a mysterious Korean hit-man and plenty of other characters inhabit one hot night in a fictional district of Tokyo with two missing women and ten billion yen at stake. If you're expecting a deathly serious action fest, you had better look elsewhere. Relying on vicious physical gags and some truly inspired comic timing, Miike mixes in dynamic camera-work with colorful imagery to continuously rebel against traditional action conventions. This is definitely not one of Miike's most profound works, but it is certainly one of his most undeniably fun.

As a huge Yakuza fan I feel as though they hit every plot point but it's not in order. There's no Kiryu attacking the funeral and a few other things. May I also ask why Majima has a shotgun.. I don't recall him having that in the games. Other than that its fun but don't think I'd come back.

Miike has proved to be one of the most versatile and reliably inventive directors of the last decade. He is no longer merely Japanese; his movies reach an ever-growing audience in Europe, America and elsewhere. Capably of churning out several films a year (owing to his background in the B-cinema of straight-to-video yakuza action variety), even the best of Miike's films have a sense of fleetingness - not to say hurriedness - to them. That is because, for Miike, more is more. Frugality be damned. The film under review is NOT one of his most polished works, but it is smooth and shiny, and thoroughly entertaining from start to finish. And a faithful adaptation to boot.

You see, with "Like A Dragon", the celebrated but wacky director enters the world of video game screen adaptations, translating Sega's Playstation 2 hit game "Yakuza" into cinematic terms. But Tomb Raider or Doom this is not. For one, "Yakuza" (which I've played and enjoyed) had a much superior storyline to most other games out there. Thrilling and dark, the story of the game gets adapted, with seeming ease, into Miike-speak. How did they condense a 15-hour storyline into a 100-minute movie? Not perfectly, but satisfactorily. A few jumps and omissions bespeak the origins of the story, but overall the story holds.

The reason for this easy transition is clear: The world of the yakuza, petty criminals, cops and street urchins is right in well-tested Miike territory. After dozens of films that deal with the underworld of Japan, the veteran director knows his stuff. A yakuza game + a yakuza director is a marriage made in (some perverted) heaven. Visually, too, this film captures the atmosphere and locale of the game. The colour spectrum of both the outdoors shots and the indoor sets is pleasing to the eye, and almost every shot is beautiful to look at. Especially in a few indoors shots there is poetry to violence.

Mixing humour (as Miike does) with violence and tragedy, the film never loses its edge. Miike captures both the serious and comic side of the thugs and social rejects in the film. Many of the characters in the game, especially the young girl, Haruka, and the delinquent teenage lovers are really likable and you really feel for their fates.

The storyline may leave those who haven't played the game hanging (just who-what-where?), but it isn't necessary to play the game to appreciate the movie. They both stand on their own.

Lucky for Miike to have such good source material, and lucky for Sega to be able to attach one of the great directors of today in a project that otherwise would have been doomed to mediocrity. Salvaged by style and visual richness, "Like A Dragon" is an above-average Miike film with enough twists and turns to make you feel like game-to-movie adaptations ARE possible after all. Uwe Boll and Paul W.S. Anderson - take notes and learn!

Having played 0-6 just since the pandemic, they are all fresh in my mind. I also have a great affection for characters, appreciate the convoluted plots, and love wild insanity that make Yakuza games like a Japanese Monty Python at times.

It is one the best game adaptations I have played. It is not condescending or trying too hard to wedge in game mechanics. Even when it does, it has that Kung Fu Hustle kind of wink about it. Everything from beating people with crates and traffic cones, to Poppo and Don Quixote brawls, to seeing Kamurocho as a backdrop and actually recognizing buildings and streets.

That said, it's like they just wrote a story set in the Yakuza 1 game, and in the last 20min remembered they needed to make a movie based on the source material. There are at least 2-3 subplots with unrelated characters that suck all the time and oxygen out of the story, who are not even in the game. If you hadn't played the games, you may have had fun instead in the first 3/4 of the movie, and then wondered who the hell these titular people were at the end and what was going on.

Other than getting to hang out with Kiryu one more time, it was a total waste of fun material and decent story that would have had no problem translating to the screen.

I actually think I may be the only one who enjoyed this film, being a big fan of the Yakuza games I had a feeling despite the bad reviews on this I was going to enjoy it. I think you need to be one of those who have played the games to get why certain aspects of the movie hold a special place in your heart, I spent so many hours playing as Kiryu Kazuma that I grew an attachment to the character so from that there i knew it was going to be a good watch.

I have to admit some parts aren't needed but all the same kts a good watch that I thoroughly enjoyed, I feel like we could of delved into the story more with this movie, it went as good as you could have gone when it comes to reliving a gaming experience through a movie. It can't be exactly the same or it'd be boring as we'd just see what we've already seen so I get why things need changing.

Great movie to watch if you're a big fan, if you're not id recommend checking the games out as they are great, if you're not a gamer I'd say go for it you might even like it.