The Mole Song Continues- a crazy convoluted mess!?
You can kind of hear the confusion on me because oh my god I just can't believe what I just watched... I actually liked the first movie, it was campy, fun, crazy and had a plot that you could follow more or less- the second one doubles down on some of the campiness but not on the elements that it's actually doing well.
For example, I can't fathom how the director Takashi Miike finds a good enough reason to prolong and keep an awkward sex scene that doesn't even service the plot, same goes for some really gross-out moments that are totally uncalled for. This was done a bit better in the first movie so I don't get why he decided to double down on these moments...
Same goes for the movie length which I think also lies in the difficulty of adapting manga or anime into a live action movie. I haven't read the manga before this so I don't know how the story goes or how the plot is developed but somehow Takashi Miike makes it feel like you're watching two movies at the same time, when the first major plot point ends at the first hour or so you kind of feel exhausted because there's a whole hour left for another plot point to get resolved- this is done very haphazardly which honestly doesn't let any characters develop in a meaningful way and the strongest actors/characters don't get their time to shine. I honestly thought that this movie was going to delve deeper into Reiji's and Papillon's relationship and how they're going to take down the big Yakuza cartels but no... we don't really get that which sucks- this is probably done in a much better way in the manga. Instead we get a prolonged kidnapping heist sort of movie, somehow the Chinese mafia is involved and a new overdramatic baddie is at the helm of the drama with some added twists along the way. This could've all been done in less than what the movie's runtime is, with some good editing this could be a great sequel even!
The one thing that saves this movie for me is the ending scene, I'm not gonna spoil it but by god is it the most silly and campy thing ever- I love it! And honestly I wish there were more moments like that during the film. I recommend it to people that really want to know how the movie goes after the first one but if you didn't like the first one then you're probably not going to like the second one, for me the elements that carried on to the second one were the elements that saved this movie for me but it felt like a bit of a slog watching it, not gonna lie. All in all it was an ok time with an ok amount of laughs.
For example, I can't fathom how the director Takashi Miike finds a good enough reason to prolong and keep an awkward sex scene that doesn't even service the plot, same goes for some really gross-out moments that are totally uncalled for. This was done a bit better in the first movie so I don't get why he decided to double down on these moments...
Same goes for the movie length which I think also lies in the difficulty of adapting manga or anime into a live action movie. I haven't read the manga before this so I don't know how the story goes or how the plot is developed but somehow Takashi Miike makes it feel like you're watching two movies at the same time, when the first major plot point ends at the first hour or so you kind of feel exhausted because there's a whole hour left for another plot point to get resolved- this is done very haphazardly which honestly doesn't let any characters develop in a meaningful way and the strongest actors/characters don't get their time to shine. I honestly thought that this movie was going to delve deeper into Reiji's and Papillon's relationship and how they're going to take down the big Yakuza cartels but no... we don't really get that which sucks- this is probably done in a much better way in the manga. Instead we get a prolonged kidnapping heist sort of movie, somehow the Chinese mafia is involved and a new overdramatic baddie is at the helm of the drama with some added twists along the way. This could've all been done in less than what the movie's runtime is, with some good editing this could be a great sequel even!
The one thing that saves this movie for me is the ending scene, I'm not gonna spoil it but by god is it the most silly and campy thing ever- I love it! And honestly I wish there were more moments like that during the film. I recommend it to people that really want to know how the movie goes after the first one but if you didn't like the first one then you're probably not going to like the second one, for me the elements that carried on to the second one were the elements that saved this movie for me but it felt like a bit of a slog watching it, not gonna lie. All in all it was an ok time with an ok amount of laughs.
- danielatala8
- Jul 7, 2022