Dead or Alive 2: Birds

I saw the other comment on under this movie, and simply had to write something. How can you not love this movie? Once again Miike masterfully blends a multitude of genres and uncompromisingly challenges his viewer. Dead or Alive 2 is, at its core, a humanistic drama, which is definetely not what fans of the first one came to expect. Instead of choosing the easy way forward (not that there was an easy way left after the first one) and simply remaking the first movie, he has changed everything to the delight and surprise of the viewer. In the beginning it appears to be simply another Yakuza flick with no connection to the first one (except for Sho Aikawa and Riki Takeuchi), but quickly you realise that this is something completely different. It is a warm tale about childhood friendship, and since everything is seen through childrens eyes, the movie is filled with magic and wonderous moments, leaving you truly uplifted and touched to the bottom of your soul. Who would've thought?

10/10

Miike's fans are usually disappointed by this movie for it certainly lacks in violence and entertainment value. However it more than makes up in subtlety - it's nuanced to the point of lyricism. Who would expect that Miike can spin a tale of a quest for the lost innocence of childhood (soccer games in the rain, sharing bowls of noodles on the ferry, full turtle/lion costumes for a kindergarten play) and still sell it as a sequel to the yakuza audience? Yes, you could read it as cheesy and boring, but then again you could say the same about that other "angel" movie - 'Wings of Desire'. The two characters follow the 'given a second chance at life' path, blazing a trail of "benevolent" executions that add up to nothing. If 'DOA' is the incessant present (with its avalanche of impressions updated at a rate high above the processing limit), and 'DOA Final' is the ironic future of Malthusian power politics, then 'DOA2' is the trip in the past at an impossibly high cost.

Like pretty much every single film that i have seen by this director, this film is worth a watch. There have been times when i realise that i have a penchant for this kind of film and therefore possibly i can enjoy it more than most. Also i enjoy subtitles, and make an effort to understand what is going on..

You should ignore 'Dave Godin's' complaints about the film having UNSUBTLE SYMBOLISM and the characters being ROLE MODELS FOR ARMCHAIR NERDS. I think he is missing the whole point of this series of films and obviously has a sandy vagina - otherwise he wouldn't complain so avidly!

I wouldn't recommend watching this film if you haven't really seen any other stuff similar to it - it is not one of the best! (I say this having not seen it for quite a while) 'Gozu' is probably a better comedy and 'The Agitator' or 'Shinjuku Triad Society' are much better serious films.

Also before trying to rip to shreds Asian movies like this, Old Boy & others, i think you guys should take the initial decision NOT TO WATCH THE FILMS IN THE FIRST PLACE and stick to the films that you know you will like... Star Wars episode III is out 19/05/05 so pre-order your tickets and forget that Takashi Miike ever existed!

Takashi Miike's Dead or Alive 2: Birds is loaded with allegory and symbolism, some that works (like having feathers continually popping up from time to time in the midst of murders, or the sometimes mentioned comet representing wonder in the unknown) and some that doesn't (the re-appearances of the wings on the backs of Mizuki and Shu, and the over-usage of archive clips of impoverished people in Africa to emphasize the two hit men's end goal to donate all their money to that). But at the core Miike has a very thematically rich film, where the insanity, shame and/or brutality of bloodshed and violence and death are contrasted with what comes before people go down the path of crime- childhood.

It's maybe that one is given sight to bloody scenes in person as a child, as Mizuki does when he sees his step-father dying on the bathroom floor dialing on the phone (one of the great images in the film). Or it's just that there doesn't seem to be much of a choice, or out of convenience, it's hard to say. Miike isn't out for easy answers anyway, but after a sort of bizarre meditation on the loss of the innocence we all have in youth, and how it can become uglier and without meaning. It's also, on top of this, a very good story of friendship and ties that bind that friendship going beyond professional duty or consequence.

Mizuki and Shu, played by Riki Takeuchi and Sho Aikawa, also from the first DOA (however not connected by character or plot, only in part by mood), are hit men for a hire, and Mizuki, who hasn't seen Shu in many years, witnesses him kill a bunch of gangsters that he was supposed to fire on with a sniper. He follows him, and it leads the both of them, as they're in hiding for suspected/actual murders and money stolen, to the island of their youth. We see flashbacks of said childhood, of fun playing on the beach (a sweet gag, uncommon for Miike, is when one of the kids is buried in the sand and the other kids run away), but also the pain of separating and finding violence among them, like with Mizuki. Nostalgia comes back tenfold, as they reunite with another old friend, and Miike actually crafts sentimental scenes in this middle chunk that work, somehow, because they don't feel very cheap. Then, as if trying to cleanse themselves of their old crime-syndicate ways, they work at a playground helping out kids, and they even put on a demented play involving goofy innuendo with Cinderella and various animals.

This play scene is juxtaposed with the sprawling yakuza/triad warfare that breaks out back at home, and it's here that Miike has not only, for my money, the best sequence of the film, but one of his best sequences to date. The play Mizuzki, Shu and the others put on is immature and a little crude, but shown to be all the more innocent and playful when compared to the manic, multiple murders that occur between the two gangs, as bullets fly, blood flows, and bodies contort all over the place as neither side really comes out victorious, or with many members left. It's Miike leashing out his wicked, no-holds-barred style, but also the goodness on the other side of the coin, and it doesn't get much better for a fan like myself. On the other hand, Dead or Alive 2, following this sequence, gets weirder by the minute, and sometimes not always for the best. With the focused narrative flow given for the Mizuki/Shu story, where they decide to come back to the mainland and keep going with their killings for money in un-selfish reasons, there's another subplot involving, I'd guess, the other killers out to kill them. But it comes off muddled, and even with Miike going for enjoyably crazy images like a midget walking on stilts, or the fate of a character named Jiro, it suddenly felt as if Miike was getting off track of what was working best.

But if anything, DOA 2 tops the first one by delivering the goods on substance just as well as the style. Miike is always out for experimentation, with his editing and transitions and usage of a symbolic inter-title "Where are you Going". And isn't above getting some touching last scenes with Mizuki and Shu on the boat (Takeuchi, by the way, is one of Miike's best actors), even if it feels very sudden, that could be forced by another director but through him feel compassionate to their doom. While Miike and his screenwriter don't quite get deep enough to make this a great film about lifelong criminal friends, and he's still into getting laughs out of depraved acts of violence and bizarre sex (i.e. that giant penis in a couple of scenes), it's surely one of the better yakuza movies I've yet to see to go past its limitations and make it a movie where the main characters aren't just cardboard cut-outs meant for shouting dialog and dying at a clip.

In no way, other than name, is this a sequel to the previous years, Dead or Alive. We have the same two main actors but here, Sho Aikawa and Riki Takeuchi play different characters who come together after a big gangland hit to, basically, reminisce about their childhood together. There is fierce violence but this has gentle and reflective periods, that reminds one more of Takeshi Kitano's Sonatine than the more usual Miike product. Indeed, whilst this is not easy to follow, with its flashbacks and incomplete tales, it is further made mysterious with magic acts and surreal moments. Nevertheless a likeable film with amazing visuals, just not all of exploding body parts.