Dead or Alive 3

In the last of a trilogy, Riki Takeuchi and Sho Aikawa are once again on the opposite ends of the spectrum, as they were in the first DOA, after being the best of friends in the second one. Riki is a cop searching for his son being held by a gang whom drifter Sho is a part of. Even though, if you think about it and put yourself in Miike's flow of logic, this ending film is inevitable in it's actions, it's still the less of the three. Of course no Takashi Miike film is totally without merit and such is the case here. There are a few setpeices that make it worthwhile, but the poetry I usually find in a Miike film is not found here (at least in the amounts that I usually expect from this director)

My Grade: C-

The final installment sees Sho Aikawa and Riki Takeuchi (looking cooler than ever in his reversible overcoat!) pitched against each other for one last battle, this time in the future. The plot owes a lot to Blade Runner, but done in Takashi Miike's low budget, frenetic, comic style. I did feel that it was the weakest of the three DOA films, and although the ending was still outrageous, it lacked the shock value of the previous two. Compared to the likes of Ichi the Killer and Visitor Q, DOA:Final is nowhere near as extreme, but is faithful to the other two films in the trilogy. That said, fans of the first two (and fans of Miike) will get a lot from this as it ties all three films together and gives a final explanation of the relationship between the two protagonists.

OK, this doesn't compare to the explosive tempo of the first part's opening sequence; nor to its visual shock value; nor, for that matter, to the melancholic suspense of the second installment. No, it's surprisingly and refreshingly different (apart, of course, from the two main actors). The tongue-in-cheek futuristic scenario drives the characters towards each other across genres and languages with an almost gravitational force. The moment of impact-conclusion is your choice of: a)Shakespearean metaphor of life and humanity in a cartoon costume; b)sublimation of violence into homo-erotics; c)humorous detonation of an impossible buildup. Everything up to then is even less unequivocal.

Highly recommended to indiscriminate movie buffs who don't mind following foie gras with a hot dog; caution to those with more refined palates.

Dead or Alive - Finale

.and it starts so well: a dirigible with neon signs beneath floats over a desolate city street, the sky is yellow (from pollution?) and the underclass run from the reproduction police in Yokohama 2364. However, the image of Blade Runner meets 1984, set for a change during the day, is quickly dispelled by the obvious lack of budget and thin plot that would be hard pressed to fill half an hour, let alone three times that length. I haven't seen either of the preceding Dead or Alive films, but the flashbacks in this (the same good guy & bad guy fighting epic Street Fighter style battles throughout history) make you feel that this is probably the least of the trilogy. Having not seen the previous two, but encouraged that the finale could stand on its own, I went purely as a fan of the director. Miike Takeshi is best known for his sublime thriller Audition, a Japanese (and far better) counterpoint to Basic Instinct that would put any straight man off blind dates for life. Also, his stylistically experimental but totally gripping Triad trilogy makes for diverting viewing. However this film only comes alive (no pun intended) when there are special effects on screen or blistering kung fu. These aren't even terribly imaginative, but at least the bullet time shoot outs are often played tongue in cheek, and are done with considerable gusto and flair. Also, the bizarre technique of varying film speeds throughout the movie (perhaps because old films were shot at 16fps?) is irritating rather than an innovative device. Having beautifully depicted the relationship between an old gangster and a young boy in Rainy Dog, Miike covers much the same ground again in this film. However, anyone who's seen Robocop 3 or Soldier (we're thinking of starting a bad sci-fi support group) knows cyborg / kid relationships normally come across like a lead balloon. Here, this boy and his robot make an amusing double act, but not one that can sustain audience attention for any great period of time. Even the nice liet-motif of old celluloid doesn't really go anywhere; it just seems like the director had recently seen Cinema Paradiso and so poached an idea from it. Also the undercurrent of homophobia throughout the film is somewhat disturbing - why can't we have a heroic male lead with an attractive boyfriend, rather than the slimy mayor who deserves to die. A charity comic published in the eighties featured a ludicrous parody of Robocop by Frank Miller (ironically) as a homophobic robotic penis who fought crime. Astonishingly, this movie ends exactly the same way (honestly!) but not in a manner that is played entirely for laughs or satire, but rather in a way that leaves a nasty taste in the mouth (I can't believe I just wrote that). Occasionally entertaining then, it does make me intrigued to see the prequels, but this film is one to file under 'must try harder' rather than 'must see'. (For a far more entertaining and coincidentally, gay-positive, over the top Japanese sci-fi kung-fu film check out the amazing Wild Zero, if it ever gets released on video / in the cinema in this country)

I'm so honored to see I'm one of the 3 women who have rated DOA: Final on the IMDb that I feel compelled to comment. Look, Ma, I'm an arcane-trash-cinema hound! Yippee!

Right. Having seen all three DOA films in one evening at a triple-feature (this is what happens when you live in a small French city and only one cinema in town shows subtitled films), I'm in a terrific mood, because the movies were tons of fun. More fun than I'd been expecting, because Miike films seem to come accompanied with user comments like "Don't bring a girl to this." Thanks, guys. Anyway, DOA: Final is, sadly, easily the weakest of the trilogy. After DOA 1, which is a nutso, gutsy genre-jumping yakuza tale, and DOA 2, which pretends to be a yakuza tale for ten minutes and then turns into a Wim Wenders film (and a good one too), this last entry apparently wants to be science fiction. But, alas, it just can't cut the mustard.

Sho Aikawa is the bright point -- as effortlessly, unclassifiably entertaining here as he is in the first two DOAs. With his bad bleach job, crackily teenage voice, tracksuit and sneakers, and zen spaciness, he's as counterintuitive and appealing as you'd expect in his role as a battle cyborg, or "replicant," named Ryo. If I could just watch him hang out with nine-year-olds for two hours, that might be worth the admission price. But even a blond Sho Aikawa is no Rutger Hauer, and he can't make this film work.

The SF premise is of the most worn-out sort -- an authority figure is making people take anti-fertility drugs to stop them having children. Oh, no! The all-business, authoritarian hand of the state is placed in opposition to the natural world of human instinct, family bonds and lush jungle backdrops! That's enough to make a sci-fi movie, right? Throwing in a band of sex-friendly "rebels" doesn't help: Terence Yin and Maria Chen seem to have been cast more for their attractively Eurasian features and ability to look good in camos than for their acting talent. Admittedly, it's a tough trick to shuttle between three languages, but Yin's "acting" in English is just wince-worthy, and Chen isn't convincing even when she doesn't speak.

The pompadoured Riki Takeuchi is fun, as always, here in the role of a police chief caught in a moral dilemma about whether to enforce his boss's orders. But returning to that SF premise, we have the problem of an unaddressed: WHY? What's the motivating engine behind all this evil-drug, Mad-Max-type-rebellion, anti-family stuff? Miike's very hand-wavy about this -- "It's an overpopulation thing" -- but, and this is the bad part, he's none too subtle about suggesting the bad-guy mayor's obvious homosexuality has a lot to do with it. Thanks, Takashi Miike! I guess homosexuals really are the ultimate threat to the survival of humanity, huh? I mean, come on, this crap went out with "Dune." Watch Miike associate homosexuality with pedophilia, decadence, pastel scarves and -- a sign of true evil -- saxophone concerts, in order to see why this movie has to get a three-point deduction for catastrophic moronicity.

This is the only one of the three DOA films I wouldn't see again. It's not without its bright spots, but there are far too many negatives to make it hold together. In the little quality meter in my head, I was rating it as low as a 4/10, right up until the final five minutes. Then I started laughing my head off. The bizarreness of Miike's wrap-up pushes the whole experience up to a 5/10. But, you know, if an out-of-left-field conclusion improves the filmic experience, you can be pretty sure there's something wrong with the movie to begin with. Unfortunately, in this case there's quite a lot.