Blowback 2

First of all, Riki Takeuchi is a bad ass and I enjoy him in all of his movies. Blowback 2 (Blowback: Love or Death) was slightly hard to get a hold of but after seeing the cover, (Riki with a big chain gun) I really put in some effort to get a hold of this.

The action in this movie is really good. Blood really squirts from gun wounds as it would in a John Woo film. There is even some bloody head shots. There's tons of big explosions, giant guns, and a really really good showdown at the end (Reminding me a little of Takashi Miike's Dead or Alive: Hanzaisha). If you like lots of bloody gun fights and Riki Takeuchi, definitely check this out, but for something to be taken completely seriously, rent John Woo's The Killer.

Blowback 2 tries to be a slick and stylish action film with heartfelt drama and all that garbage but unfortunately it's a blood buttered mozzarella. I get what the director was trying to do but it just didn't really come out the way it should of been I suppose. On a positive note, Blowback 2 has great bloody as a overused tampon action and Riki Takeuchi is a bad mofo. It's b-movie action bliss.

This is an early showcase for a then young Riki Takeuchi. Looking something like Chow Yun Fat doing an Elvis impersonation, Takeuchi appears to have cult status in Japan, and probably well deserved. Although he has a limited range, he plays that range to the max, and with a great deal of energy.

This is one of a myriad of films produced between 1970 and 2000 that borrows heavily from the Clint Eastwood Westerns directed by Sergio Leone. Here, the references are more subtle than we've seen in other films from any country; but it finally adds a bit of bizarre humor at the end, with Takeuchi whipping out a mini-gun. (Italian westerns were filled with Gatling guns, to increase the body-count. In Leone's Fistful of Dollars, it's in the scene where the Mexican soldiers are ambushed.) The point being, this is a postmodern action film, not intended to be taken all that seriously. The film-makers know we've seen it all before, they just hope we want to see some more of it. And it's all done fairly well - action fans will enjoy it immensely.

Very professionally made little film; and a good introduction to the acting talents of Riki Takeuchi, who would go on to continue developing this type of character in many films.