Gokudô seisen: Jihaado

Though Takashi Miike's name is featured prominently on the box, his contribution is listed as "supervision," which I assume means that he was paid for his name to feature prominently on the box. Plot-wise we seem to be in familiar territory - a politically motivated assassination, revenge, angry young men - but as the viewer soon discovers this movie is about as far from Miike's style as possible: tepid, lifeless, static. Instead of getting on with the business of revenge, the protagonists spend most of their time just sort of...lying around, talking, and being generally dull. Needless to say there is no narrative drive. (Though this did lead to one unintentionally hilarious moment, where the main characters all ate ice cream and rode on roller-coasters, having just killed a man in the previous scene.) Gore fans will be grossly disappointed, too: only one head explosion, and that from a sawed-off shotgun that sounded suspiciously like a pop-gun. The shelves are full of more interesting Japanese action flicks - though beware, as this very movie spawned two sequels. Do yourself a favor and get a flick where Miike was really behind the wheel.