Yakuza Apocalypse

As usual, Takashi Miike – director of "Audition", "Ichi the Killer" and the "Dead or alive" trilogy – throws things at the wall to see what sticks.

In that case, we have the ninja with the frog costume, the knitting circle/blood farm underground and the always excellent Yayan Ruhian of "The Raid" fame. That's enough for me.

The vampire story pales a bit by comparison, but still keeps the story together. It tells you something about a movie when the yakuza-vampire angle is the grounding part.

Oh my god! This is either a work of genius on the part of the director (seeing what he could put his actors through) or the work of a lunatic! He has made some truly amazing films in the past (Audition and 13 Assassins immediately spring to mind) and if you haven't seen these then you must.

I know that with a Mikke movie, you are going to get a little weirdness but this was off the charts.

I would put this next to 'Plan 9 From Outer Space' as a film you need to watch.

So bad, it's good.

But if you watch this and understand completely what it's about, could you let me know.

Miike melds genres in this yakuza/vampire flick. This is certainly crazy, but I don't think it's one of Miike's better films. Hayato Ichihara stars as a yakuza henchman who sees his boss decapitated in front of him. The boss has a secret: he's a vampire. And before his head dies, he bites Ichihara on the neck and imparts his powers to him. With those powers (and the power to create more vampires), he looks for vengeance for his boss. Simple enough set-up, but there's a ton of other stuff packed into the film. A lot of that stuff is fun - particularly the late-film appearance of a giant green frog monster who kicks all kinds of butt - but none of it is very coherent. It feels like just weird stuff for the sake of weirdness. Still, there's enough here worth seeing that I'd recommend seeing it, particularly if you're a fan of Miike or just cult cinema. Yayan Ruhian, who starred in The Raid and its sequel, also stars (he also briefly appears in The Force Awakens, but at least here he gets to fight).

At moments during this film, fans will marvel at Miike's nonchalant excellence... at others, they will either be scratching their heads wondering WTF they're watching, or taking it at face value and enjoying it for what it is.

But what is this film? For me, it was a satire of the absurdities that go on in Japanese comics and, for the most part, I quite enjoyed it. Come on, there's that kick-arse villain from The Raid, a cool Yakuza lead and Bruce Lee in a frog costume - what's not to enjoy?

I have to admit, I really didn't understand why the kid went after the female Yakuza and not the Priest-type dude, who quickly got relegated to a sub-par, may as well forget he exists villain, but most won't likely understand ANY of this film, so it's difficult to recommend it to the anyone I don't personally know as digging this kind of off-beat weirdness.

If you give it a go, I hope that you laugh as hard as I did at the frog's karate chop, which earned the film and extra star simply because I haven't laughed so hard for a long time.

This really is pretty much as love it/hate it as they come... only, the "love" is always going to be replaced by the lesser word of "enjoy".

For those not experienced any of Takeshi Miike's previous work, you are going to be in for a bit of a door slamming in the face experience with this one. There's no denying that he can direct a movie (and he has made some excellent movies) but some of his most popular films have been more offbeat & comical like this.

There's no point explaining the storyline as it's non-linear, intentionally a farce and practically irrelevant. Don't bother trying to intellectualise any of it either like one guy I overheard did as I left the cinema. It's just a farce, and makes no pretences to be otherwise.

You'll either fall for its ludicrous charms in much the same way many do with Month Pythons' work, but it will leave many cold. The humour is quirky but often violent and cruel so won't suit all. Might even offend some sensibilities. It often bored me but others in the cinema were in hysterics. Lots of teenage boy level humour too.

For those who lose patience with this, the only respite is that despite the silliness, you'll find at least something somewhere to laugh at.

It's not by any means the director's best work. Not by a long shot. Still for fan boys they'll lap it up, for all else it will likely miss the mark even if doesn't do so on the screen.