Gozu (Unrated Director’s Cut)

 

Picture: B-     Sound: B-     Extras: B-     Film: B-

 

 

Takashi Miike’s focus on the Japanese underworld took a humorous turn in White Collar Worker Kintaro and a stylistic one in the Dead Or Alive films, both reviewed elsewhere on this site.  In Gozu (2003), it turns sadistic, bizarre and nearly supernatural.  Will a Yakuza underling succeed in killing his superior under orders?  Only if he can find him, but the story changes when he keeps getting detoured under more and more mysterious circumstances.

 

At times, this feels like an X-Files film, but the odder aspects never become too much like a mere genre piece.  Instead, Miike does something interesting that has failed many an American artist to date.  He manages to cross the supernatural to some extent with the Gangster genre; something Hip Hop artists have been failing at for years and this film has its youngest underlings essentially talking in some variation of Hip Hop slang.  This includes subtitles where their words have the letter “z” at the end of many of the words in the same sentence.  The use of the Ford Mustang is odd in some way as well, though not necessarily intended as so.

 

With that said, the film goes into some directions we have not seen before, though it does not add up to as much as it might have.  The actors have to juggle well-timed comic bits with the drama of the piece, keeping it grounded in a certain reality before the surrealism kicks in.  Then it returns to “reality” and moves on.  In the end, it never recovers from all this shifting, as interesting as it is to watch.  Gozu shows a talented filmmaker with some interesting ideas, but he just took on a bit more than he could juggle.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is not bad and was shot by cinematographer Kaz Tanaka, exhibiting some detail limits, but also a consistent look with a shade of darkness even running through the bright scenes.  The print used is in fine shape.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has Pro Logic surrounds on the healthy side, while the film was issued in DTS’ version of Dolby SR exclusively in theatrical release.  The score by Koji Endo is not excessive and subtly applied.  Extras include an essay on the film by Miike expert Tom Mes, an audio commentary by Andy Klein and Wade Major, a production featurette that runs about 20 minutes, a U.S. trailer, a Japanese trailer, title theme song in audio-only form, text bio/filmography info on Miike and five of the main actors, stills gallery and three interview segments that offers interview with two critics who did the commentary separately and directors Eli Roth (the silly Cabin Fever) and Guillermo Del Toro (Hellboy, Blade 2) in their own segment discuss film very much all worth seeing.  They run over a half hour altogether.  The extras are at least as good as the film, so this is all around worth getting.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo