Shin jingi no hakaba

Takashi Miike has a knack at Yakuza thrillers. Some might not be very good, some might be some odd sorts of deranged masterpieces. But with Graveyard of Honor, I can only imagine how fantastic the original Kinji Fukasaku film from the 70s was if this might possibly be Miike's best "serious" Yakuza movie. This is to say that Miike turns down a somewhat typical level of madcap gore and humor for an approach that is kind of staggering, as though Cassavetes had some input on the screenplay (or Abel Ferrara ala Bad Lieutenant for that matter). It's a solid piece of drama of a man, Rikuo Ishimatsu (in a performance that, within the range, is one of a lifetime from Gorô Kishitani ala young Mifune), who unwittingly becomes apart of a crime family after saving its boss while working as a dishwasher. He serves some time for attempting to kill another gangster, he gets out, the years pass and he gets bitter, and in a fit of panic he bites the hand that feeds him - he shoots his own boss.

From here on it's a path right to hell that Ishimatsu takes. Already one has seen him as a character with some demons he has trouble quelling. He's tough, maybe too tough, and doesn't have much of a sense of humor (which includes around his woman, a timid creature who soon gets into the dank mess that Ishimatsu puts himself into). He also turns into a full-fledged junkie, and burns more bridges than one could ever fathom. What Miike crafts here is something that might not be his most inventive work, but it displays him as someone who has the range to plunge into real bloodshed and tragedy. It's almost the reversal of the cartoonish mayhem of Ichi the Killer - where that you almost were given permission to chuckle at the carnage and excess of violence, in Graveyard of Honor it's grim, ugly, the blood flowing hard and with bodies writhing in total agony. It's a rare instance for the director to present things about as realistic as he'll get, in edgy hand-held and compositions.

But there is some style that Miike puts, appropriately and with an creative sensibility, on the material. The music crooning on and off is like that of New York jazz from the late 50s and early 60s, and I'm almost reminded of some lucid nightmare of a beatnik on junk ala William S. Burroughs and pulp fiction. As the downward spiral continues for this character, even if it starts to seem unlikely that it would go this far (the escape from prison alone, intense for the self-inflicted horror done to himself, is just enough to swallow), we go right down with this character in his oblivion. It's hard to turn away, and there are moments that are gruesome not so much for what's shown, which can be a lot, but the emotional impact. Not to sound pretentious, but I'm almost reminded of some damned Shakespearan king or something, only here it's a sensibility of total unadulterated nihilism that propels Ishimatsu to his horror of an end.

On the surface, it doesn't feel a whole lot different from other Miike Yakuza fare. Yet it's a little maturer, a little more tightly crafted and developed with the characters, and it has the mood of a filmmaker working outside of his reputation as a showman or provocateur. It's a real movie, one of the best in the Yakuza realm.

Gorô Kishitani plays Rikuo Ishimatsu a mid level Yakuza heavy in Takashi Miike's (sort of) remake of the classic 1970's movie.

It's a remake of an older movie but apart from a few similar scenes and some other call backs it's mostly it's own original thing.

It's a Miike movie through and through with everything you would expect - Extreme violence with buckets of blood, offbeat characters, dark humour and a cool mean streak throughout.

This is a pretty insane movie which features one of the most repugnant main characters in any movie ever.

Ishimatsu is a scumbag and the movie doesn't try to make you relate to him or make him sympathetic, you are just there to witness his horrific actions.

If you like Miike's other movies then this is a no brainer for fans and it's not exactly a laugh riot but it's intense as hell, stylish and disturbing.

If that's you're thing then check it out.

Takashi Miike was on fire in the late 90s/early 2000s, putting out a ton of quality movies in a short space of time. Graveyard of Honor is no exception, and if it counts as a remake, might be one of the better one out there.

Granted, I think it's a little bloated at 131 minutes, but not too much. There's also a lot of brutal yazuka violence - as well as a lot of violence/sexual violence towards women in the first half - and some other unpleasant scenes that could (understandably) put some viewers off.

I did mostly like it, though. To make a movie with such an awful person for a protagonist and still have most viewers not want to turn it off before it ends is impressive. It makes for a gritty, sometimes harrowing, but ultimately the engrossing yakuza crime/thriller.

Took me a minute to get to grips with this movie after watching but now reflecting thinking how good it was. Great soundtrack and interesting story that covers a lot of different themes of self destruction. The protagonist is deeply unwell and the level of violence and sexual violence harrowing and gritty. Even through all the violence the theme of watching someone slowly self destruct is quite engaging. I wouldn't say you feel sadness for the protagonist but you do feel some sense of shock witnessing the events of his life which are mostly self inflicted. Quite a stirring film but took a minute to settle in my psyche. Def not a feel good movie.

Anyone expecting "just another Miike flick" might get very disappointed, as I'd claim this remake, of Kinji Fukasaku's 1975 success, to differ quite much from Miike's other works. There's a lack of comic events here, while the amount of violence is steady and non-compromising straight throughout the movie. While Miike's other works may have a sort of balance between the cold terror of Yakuza violence and fun punchlines, dark and light or whatever you'd like, this piece is leaning way more to the darker side. No one gets away with anything, women and men, they're all facing their dramatic paths down the line.

As I've mentioned above, the piece feels quite different, and at the beginning I thought it may even be bad. However, such a case didn't await me and afterward I thought it was all good. Different, but good. I prefer the other works of Miike, but that didn't disqualify this one to be a good view. Shattering, touching and filled up with non-sympathy. 7/10.