Graine de Yakuza

FUDOH: THE NEW GENERATION is probably the best starting point if someone wants to study the new wave of cinema coming out of Japan. While not as good as RING or as thought provoking as AUDITION or the films of "Beat" Takeshi, FUDOH will best prepare you for the extreme limits of violence and taste common to Japanese cinema. (The Japanese perspective on sex and violence is a mix of Paul Verhoeven and the Farrelly Brothers.)

FUDOH's sex and violence isn't in unwatchably bad taste. I'd say it's right on the line.

In the film, a Yukaza father with two sons messes up and must pay a tribute to show loyalty to the other Yakuza families. He does this by killing his oldest son (in a prologue that had me so confused I had to read the video box to follow what was happening.) Ten years later, the youngest son (now the smartest and most popular kid in high school) organizes his friends to take revenge against his father and all the other Yakuza leaders for practicing outdated customs that condone killing one's own family members.

Like most Japanese films, FUDOH works on two levels. On the surface, it's a violent revenge picture (and this one moves faster than most Japanese films.) The film is also a commentary on the relationships between fathers and sons (while enemies the two show more in common then they'd ever admit), young and old, and the need to question tradition and keep things current.

Of course most people will walk away from FUDOH talking about the wild sequences of sex and violence. This is the film by Miike Takashi (DEAD OR ALIVE, AUDITION) that put him on the map. (It also got him labeled the Japanese Verhoeven.) Typical of the director's work, FUDOH would most definitely be 'NC-17', with scenes of six-year-olds performing assassinations and a stripper who shoots poison darts from her.you know where. (You have to see it to believe it, and the fact that Takeshi is able to show it without explicit nudity - the girl uses a blowgun-like tube - proves that he does have a threshold of taste.)

I enjoyed large chunks of FUDOH. It's far superior to the better known DEAD OR ALIVE and more entertaining than AUDITION, although it's nowhere near as mature or thought provoking. It's also worth noting that this film is very Japanese in its behind-the-times attitudes towards females. The sexism is a bit surprising coming from Takashi, since AUDITION (which the director made five years later) is one of the strongest cinematic arguments for a woman's sexual equality that Japan's ever produced.

I've mentioned in some of my other reviews ('Ezo Ezo Azaraku II' and 'Mr Vampire') that SBS (a free-to-air Australian channel specializing foreign programs) shows some pretty cool and pretty weird. That being said, I watched this not knowing who Takashi Miike was, and ignoring SBS's usual "warning: this program contains material that may disturb some viewers". That was quite the understatement. I reckon 'Fudoh' could disturb most viewers.

When Riki Fudoh (Shosuke Tanihara) was a child, he witnessed his father Iwao Fudoh, a yakuza boss, behead Riki's older brother, Ryu. Ryu has committed crimes against the Yakuza and dishonoured his father, and in such a society, it is Iwao's duty to kill him, regardless of Ryu being his first son. Naturally, this has an impact on Riki. Skip to Riki in high-school, and he is now the boss of his own Yakuza gang, with the intent of taking out the older generation of Yakuza, and destroying the old ways. Only in Japan...

'Fudoh' plays out as quite the violent yakuza drama. It may not have the body-count of a John Woo or Quentin Tarantino movie, but the "controversial violence" of Tarantino's 'Kill Bill' has nothing on this, and I'd be willing that Woo would much prefer to avoid making anything like this. Riki's yakuza gang is made of up teenagers and kids. Very early into the movie, we see some kids (I dare say no older than 8 at the most) pull out their hand-guns and assassinate a rival Yakuza. That I could barely handle, but Miike just goes further and further with some rather unusual acts of violence and very bizarre sex-scenes.

And even through all that, there is still a plot. 'Fudoh' explores the same theme as 'Battle Royale' - the younger generation of Japanese not understanding, or not willing to understand, the long-lasting feudal traditions in Japanese culture. OK, I'll admit that is how I understood it. Maybe I got it wrong, maybe I was just looking for something that wasn't there, but I'm fairly sure that my interpretation is at least somewhat correct. It is easy to overwhelmed by the action on-screen, and I wouldn't be surprised if some people completely missed any theme and left only with the image of someone's brain stuck to a wall.

'Fudoh' is a good movie, but not for the faint of heart. Or most people. In fact, it may be best if only shown to fans of the more violent action movies from Asia - 9/10

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.

For the most part Takeshi Miike's movies have been getting weirder and weirder, so if you've already experienced the likes of 'Ichi The Killer' and 'Visitor Q' his earlier movies (e.g. 'Rainy Dog') might seem a bit tame and too "normal". Not so 'Fudoh: The New Generation'! Eight years old, which is a lifetime in Miike's world (60 movies since 1991!), it's still as outrageous as ever. This was the movie that started Miike's reputation as being one of the most wildest and inventive directors in the world. The bare bones of the plot makes it sound like countless other yakuza movies, but Miike continually shocks and subverts his audience. This is one movie you just have to see to believe! Shosuke Tanihara plays Riki Fudoh, teenage son of crime boss Iwao Fudoh (Tôru Minegishi). Fudoh senior sacrificed Riki's older brother Ryu when Riki was a child. Now that Riki is older he plans an audacious plan of revenge, using his own gang of child assassins and sexy schoolgirls, one of whom dispatches her victims via a blow gun she fires from her vagina. 'Fudoh' will have you giggling insanely throughout. Just how does Miike get away with it?! It's also one of the most entertaining and exciting action movies I've ever seen, up there with Miller's 'Mad Max 2', Hill's 'The Driver', Peckinpah's 'The Getaway', Rodriguez's 'El Mariachi' and Ishii's 'The Black Angel'. Most Hollywood action movies these days send me to sleep. I tried watching 'The Fast And The Furious' the other night for example and gave up after becoming bored to tears. Tarantino's mind blowing 'Kill Bill: Vol 1' is the one recent notable exception. Is it any wonder that it was heavily inspired by asian cinema both old and new, including the work of Takashi Miike? I think not. If you enjoyed 'Kill Bill: Vol 1' check out Miike's 'Fudoh' and 'Ichi' and 'Dead Or Alive' trilogy, and Kinji Fukasaku's amazing 'Battle Royale', and you'll immediately see the energy and black humour that Tarantino is currently drawing upon. 'Fudoh: The New Generation' is an instant classic. Fans of action, crime, or exploitation movies will eat it up!

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.