Full Metal Yakuza (1997) - Takashi Miike

Ah the good old ultra violent b-movie. To varying degrees these have been a staple of direct to video releases for the last couple of decades. At one point in time these movies actually thrived in theatrical showings. In Japan, the genre has always remained healthy, and helping to lead a new charge of quick, cheaply made and extremely gory films was Takashi Miike. His Full Metal Yakuza is a gangster version of Robocop with a sword, and I can somehow see that popping up on a movie poster.

The effects are cheap, crude, and often hilarious for these very reasons. With a title like Full Metal Yakuza, you can't really take it too seriously. There are constant dick references, even though members are of course pixilated. Size does seem to have an importance for the yakuza and nearly everyone else in the film. Even the mad scientist would be Frankenstein admits there's hardly a point in building a super being if he doesn't have the junk to match. Although one really wonders what good it would do a cyborg.

Nothing in the film is really grounded in reality. The politics of who killed who and why are completely irrelevant. Still the film does have a broader context for revenge than the utterly pointless yet equally violent Izo (2004). After all, if you were killed, wouldn't you want revenge? Sure his creator doesn't see the point, and wants his creation to be something of a super hero, but well we can't exactly rationalize against the crusade. Along the way a very pointless and comical love affair pops up between the cyborg and the mistress of a man he once killed as a human. Although no longer human, throughout the film, he struggles with an inability to surpress his emotions. This reliance on emotions serves as something of an achilles heel, and goes to prove a rather neanderthal point that in order to be a real man/hero, you can't have feelings.

You can't take a film like this seriously, and hopefully no one does. Its a fun, cheap, do-it-yourself type of film that rewards our childish id's with plenty of senseless violence. Sure there's no enlightening method behind the madness, but Miike the director makes enough use of various cinematic techniques to keep the film interesting through its ludicrous story.

Grade C