*the first in a series of Miike reviews*
Dead or Alive
(Takeshi Miike - 1999)
Screencaps- Spike Marshall (me)
CAUTION CONTAINS STRONG PLOT SPOILERS
Sho Aikawa and Riki Takeuchi come into grainy view knelt before a grim looking harbour. They count down from three; they count in Koji Endo’s score. Cut to the title, cut to a naked girl plummeting from the top of a Shinjuku building a bag of cocaine snatched from her dead hand moments after her brutal impact.
Such is the opening of Takeshi Miike’s seminal 1999 smash Dead or Alive.
Before we get into the movie, I think it fair to detail the process that lead up the movie being created. Sho Aikawa and Riki Takeuchi where huge stars of the Japanese V-Cinema (direct to video) scene and as such an opportunity to have them collaborate in a movie was a potential financial mine.
With this in mind Takeshi Miike, the incredibly stylish enfant terrible of Japanese cinema, was invited to work on a project where the two stars were already cast. As such, Miike set out to make a movie that would ‘frustrate their ambitions for the film’. He did this subtly writing a script that at first glance seemed fairly normal and routine but which would degenerate into typical Miike fare as soon as shooting began.
“I Choose You, Pickachu”
An example of this distortion can be seen very early on as the opening scenes which were meant to highlight character relationships and meticulously show three gangland executions is turned from a 20 minute collection of scenes into a heart stopping 5 minute montage set to a thumping rock soundtrack.
Essentially Dead or Alive is about the struggle between gang leader Ryuuichi (Takeuchi) and hard up cop Jojima (Aikawa). Ryuuichi leads a small cadre of his childhood friends who all share the social affliction of being Japanese children born in China. Without a social identity, the gang is pretty much out for themselves and seem to care little for the plight of others.
Jojima on the other hand is a flat foot cop (with a surprisingly high waistline) who is caught between doing the right thing, against the wishes of his arsehole superior, and providing the $200,000 needed for his daughters life saving operation.
What follows is a grotty, seedy and miserable tour through the Shinjuku underworld as Ryuuichi plots to muscle the Yakuza out of a key new dope route from Thailand and Jojima puts his every effort into getting Ryuuichi for the opening gang murders. However being a Takeshi Miike film Jojima receives all of his information from a porn director who specialises in dog-based bestiality and a short order Chinese cook. While Ryuuichi’s efforts to take out his Yakuza enemies leads to his girlfriend being drowned in a pool of her own shit by a scatological obsessed Yakuza boss and a final apocalyptic assault on a Yakuza/Triad birthday party, complete with exploding man in crane suit and psycho triad boss with a sword.
‘5000 years of cultural and everyday a different flavour’
What sets apart Dead or Alive from other films and puts it firmly in Miike’s top five films is the ending sequence. Knowing that to have a definitive outcome between these two powerful stars would be difficult Miike just does the logical thing and doesn’t do a traditional ending.
Indeed, after the sombre moments following the Yakuza/Triad attack it comes as something of a shock to see the vividly coloured energetic ending. After forcing Ryuuichi’s car off the road Jojima, pulls back to mow down the mob boss but is stopped as one of the gang members takes out his car in a suicide bomber style. A wounded Jojima then shoots Ryuuichi’s lieutenant dead as he investigates the flaming wreckage.
Jojima rips off his own arm before exchanging shots with Ryuuichi and both fall to the floor.
The two then look briefly skywards before Jojima produces a rocket launcher from out of thin air and Ryuuichi rips his own soul from his chest and lobs it haduken style at Jojima who returns fire with his bazooka.
The resulting ball/rocket collision creates a shockwave which destroys the entire world.
Takeshi Miike has always been a wild and unpredictable director but he still manages to land a sucker punch. Faced with the uncompromising grit of the second act it almost comes as a pleasant surprise to see the tone lifted somewhat by the bizarre and generally incredible ending.
That is not to say the film is perfect. The middle section is on repeat viewings a horrendous drag whittling away the adrenaline built up by the explosive start and brutal second robbery. As such it is easy to find yourself wasting the minutes wishing to once again be shocked by the ending which even on a second or third viewing can raise a smile of pure delight.
The score throughout the entire film is fantastic, explosive and uncompromising but also sombre when it needs to be (the music accompanying the hideous drowning scene is oddly beautiful). It also manages to make the end sequence even more bizarre as a musical sting lifted straight from Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is used as the two opponents prepare their final attack (the music is from the Spirit Temple before you ask).
Overall the film can feel a little uneasy at times, a little haphazard, a little cheap, a little voyeuristic. But the intrinsic flaws of the movie itself are actually paved over by what is perhaps the most exhilarating start to a movie ever and an ending which just reeks of cinematic genius.
A WORD OF CAUTION
The following stills are taken from the Tartan Asia Extreme version of the movie
Dead or Alive
(Takeshi Miike - 1999)
Screencaps- Spike Marshall (me)
CAUTION CONTAINS STRONG PLOT SPOILERS
Sho Aikawa and Riki Takeuchi come into grainy view knelt before a grim looking harbour. They count down from three; they count in Koji Endo’s score. Cut to the title, cut to a naked girl plummeting from the top of a Shinjuku building a bag of cocaine snatched from her dead hand moments after her brutal impact.
Such is the opening of Takeshi Miike’s seminal 1999 smash Dead or Alive.
Before we get into the movie, I think it fair to detail the process that lead up the movie being created. Sho Aikawa and Riki Takeuchi where huge stars of the Japanese V-Cinema (direct to video) scene and as such an opportunity to have them collaborate in a movie was a potential financial mine.
With this in mind Takeshi Miike, the incredibly stylish enfant terrible of Japanese cinema, was invited to work on a project where the two stars were already cast. As such, Miike set out to make a movie that would ‘frustrate their ambitions for the film’. He did this subtly writing a script that at first glance seemed fairly normal and routine but which would degenerate into typical Miike fare as soon as shooting began.
“I Choose You, Pickachu”
An example of this distortion can be seen very early on as the opening scenes which were meant to highlight character relationships and meticulously show three gangland executions is turned from a 20 minute collection of scenes into a heart stopping 5 minute montage set to a thumping rock soundtrack.
Essentially Dead or Alive is about the struggle between gang leader Ryuuichi (Takeuchi) and hard up cop Jojima (Aikawa). Ryuuichi leads a small cadre of his childhood friends who all share the social affliction of being Japanese children born in China. Without a social identity, the gang is pretty much out for themselves and seem to care little for the plight of others.
Jojima on the other hand is a flat foot cop (with a surprisingly high waistline) who is caught between doing the right thing, against the wishes of his arsehole superior, and providing the $200,000 needed for his daughters life saving operation.
What follows is a grotty, seedy and miserable tour through the Shinjuku underworld as Ryuuichi plots to muscle the Yakuza out of a key new dope route from Thailand and Jojima puts his every effort into getting Ryuuichi for the opening gang murders. However being a Takeshi Miike film Jojima receives all of his information from a porn director who specialises in dog-based bestiality and a short order Chinese cook. While Ryuuichi’s efforts to take out his Yakuza enemies leads to his girlfriend being drowned in a pool of her own shit by a scatological obsessed Yakuza boss and a final apocalyptic assault on a Yakuza/Triad birthday party, complete with exploding man in crane suit and psycho triad boss with a sword.
‘5000 years of cultural and everyday a different flavour’
What sets apart Dead or Alive from other films and puts it firmly in Miike’s top five films is the ending sequence. Knowing that to have a definitive outcome between these two powerful stars would be difficult Miike just does the logical thing and doesn’t do a traditional ending.
Indeed, after the sombre moments following the Yakuza/Triad attack it comes as something of a shock to see the vividly coloured energetic ending. After forcing Ryuuichi’s car off the road Jojima, pulls back to mow down the mob boss but is stopped as one of the gang members takes out his car in a suicide bomber style. A wounded Jojima then shoots Ryuuichi’s lieutenant dead as he investigates the flaming wreckage.
Jojima rips off his own arm before exchanging shots with Ryuuichi and both fall to the floor.
The two then look briefly skywards before Jojima produces a rocket launcher from out of thin air and Ryuuichi rips his own soul from his chest and lobs it haduken style at Jojima who returns fire with his bazooka.
The resulting ball/rocket collision creates a shockwave which destroys the entire world.
Takeshi Miike has always been a wild and unpredictable director but he still manages to land a sucker punch. Faced with the uncompromising grit of the second act it almost comes as a pleasant surprise to see the tone lifted somewhat by the bizarre and generally incredible ending.
That is not to say the film is perfect. The middle section is on repeat viewings a horrendous drag whittling away the adrenaline built up by the explosive start and brutal second robbery. As such it is easy to find yourself wasting the minutes wishing to once again be shocked by the ending which even on a second or third viewing can raise a smile of pure delight.
The score throughout the entire film is fantastic, explosive and uncompromising but also sombre when it needs to be (the music accompanying the hideous drowning scene is oddly beautiful). It also manages to make the end sequence even more bizarre as a musical sting lifted straight from Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is used as the two opponents prepare their final attack (the music is from the Spirit Temple before you ask).
Overall the film can feel a little uneasy at times, a little haphazard, a little cheap, a little voyeuristic. But the intrinsic flaws of the movie itself are actually paved over by what is perhaps the most exhilarating start to a movie ever and an ending which just reeks of cinematic genius.
A WORD OF CAUTION
The following stills are taken from the Tartan Asia Extreme version of the movie
