DEAD OR ALIVE TRILOGY (DVD) DVD

Dead or Alive
Takashi Miike takes a dime-a-dozen yakuza script and turns it inside out in this high-octane surrealist crime action thriller. The film's first ten minutes is a breathless montage depicting a naked woman clutching a bag of cocaine being thrown off a high-rise, a porcine Chinese gangster devouring bowl after bowl of noodles before getting whacked, a tinsel-wigged stripper in mid-grind, another Chinese gangster having sex with a guy in a pubic bathroom, clowns throwing knives, and the world's longest cocaine line. Welcome to planet Miike -- one that seems unnervingly like reality but just tweaked enough that the viewer believes almost anything can (and does) happen. What follows is a tale pitting narcotics cop Jojima (Sho Aikawa), who has an ailing daughter and a neglected wife, against Ryuichi (Riki Takeuchi), a Chinese-born gangster sporting a hairstyle that would make Wayne Newton jealous. As Ryuichi tries to muscle in on a big drug haul from Taiwan, those closest to him get killed -- particularly his whey-faced younger brother and girlfriend (the latter meets a particularly grizzly end at the hands of a sadistic scat-enthusiast yakuza). Likewise, Jojima, who is on Ryuichi's tail, looses his partner, his wife, and his daughter. Soon the two are on the road to a literally cataclysmic confrontation. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Dead or Alive 2: The Birds
In spite of its title, this film bares no direct relation to Takashi Miike's rip-roarin' Dead or Alive, which is not surprising since ended with world going up in flames in the last installment. This film opens with Mizuki (Sho Aikawa), who is hired by an eccentric magic enthusiast (Tsukamoto Shinya) to off a yakuza crime lord, only to have his target wasted by a rival mobster Shuichi (Riki Takeuchi). It turns out that the two are long-lost childhood friends who grew up in an orphanage in a remote island in the Inland sea. After the crime, they find themselves drawn back to their childhood haunt. There they reconnect with another friend, Kohei (Kenichi Endo), who ended up not a hired gun, but a modest fisherman who also runs the orphanage. After giving a hilarious performance for a room full of kids, Mizuki and Shuichi decide to leave the island and to work together as hitmen. This time, however, they're killing to make a difference -- figuring that with each scumbag they ice they can save ten children when they donate their proceeds to charity. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Dead or Alive: Final
DragonBall Z meets Blade Runner meets a William S. Burroughs head trip in this hallucinogenic sci-fi flick directed by Takashi Miike. It is set in the year 2346 in the city-state of Yokohama, which has become thoroughly sinocized in the intervening 300 years. People speak a mishmash of Japanese, Chinese, and English and the streets are bathed in digital noise. The place is run with an iron fist by an exuberantly gay potentate named Woo (Richard Cheung) who, hoping to fashion a newer, crueler society, drugs the populace with a cocktail akin to Prozac-laced birth control pills. Pregnant women and children are sent to prison. Woo's lead henchman is named Honda (Riki Takeuchi), a sneering uber-cop with a Wayne Newton-style head of hair. The underground resistance is led by the English-speaking Fon (Terence Yin), his fierce girlfriend Jyun (Josie Ho), and a yellow-haired humanoid robot named Ryo (Sho Aikawa). Raids, kung-fu fistfights, and general weirdness ensue until the cataclysmic showdown between Ryo and Honda. This film is the third and final in Miike's reported Dead or Alive trilogy. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Cast Riki Takeuchi as Sho Aikawa as Renji Ishibashi as Dankan as Hirotaro Honda as Susumu Terajima as Tomoroh Taguchi as Sho Aikawa as Mizuki Riki Takeuchi as Shuichi

Crew Takashi Miike - Director Ichiro Ryu - Screenwriter Takashi Miike - Director Ichiro Ryu - Screenwriter Takashi Miike - Director Ichiro Ryu - Screenwriter

Dead or Alive
The first ten minutes of Dead or Alive will leave you agog, and the last ten will rearrange your head. Originally written as separate scenes designed to set up the film, Miike -- in an act of sheer cinematic bravura -- collapses them together into a hallucinogenic music video of sorts inventing a new way of storytelling that masterfully sets up the film's perverse, unhinged world. In fact, the viewer gets the distinct feeling that one is watching a trailer to the film; there simply couldn't be more to the film than what is in this opening. But there is a lot more. The less said about the film's ending the better, but it left more than one viewer confused. The film's middle, lacking the flash of the beginning and end might seem to drag a bit in comparison, but Miike populates the film with lurid details that keep it interesting. In one scene, Jojima, looking for clues, is talking to one of his underworld connections, who is busily trying to sexually excite a dog for a bestiality photo shoot. In another, Jojima grills a thug sporting a ludicrously large afro. As Miike gleefully undercuts taboos of polite society, a second theme rises to the fore -- the discrimination of non-Japanese Asians living in Japan. At one point, the afro-ed thug argues that Ryuichi is a hero among all non-Japanese working in the underworld because he's willing to take all the societal alienation and estrangement and force it down the throats of the Japanese yakuza. Aside from the dizzying, genre-bending cinematic exploits, the film's sharp and intelligent dissecting of Japanese society makes Dead or Alive a truly fascinating, memorable film. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
 

Dead or Alive 2: The Birds
Takashi Miike's films always seem to ride the extreme ends of the sweet/sick continuum, often serving up healthy doses of both within the same flick -- Visitor Q is one example, this film is another. Unlike Dead or Alive, this film is more contemplative, more good-natured, and more nostalgic, which might disappoint viewers looking for the gonzo adrenaline rush of its predecessor. In fact by the middle portion of the film, one might wonder if the story line has completely abandoned the film's and the series' crime story basis in favor of a bittersweet melodrama more akin to Shinji Somai. Fear not. The movie's last portion, featuring a montage of cheering African children alongside Mizuki and Shuichi wasting their marks firmly realigns Dead or Alive 2 into the bizarro world of the first film. Dead or Alive 2 is a small gem by a director who never delivers the expected. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
 

Dead or Alive: Final
(not reviewed)
 

(no awards)

General Specifications: Language Options: Japanese Subtitle Options: English Sound Processing: Additional Features: Interview with director Takashi Miike Theatrical trailers DVD Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1: Theatre Wide-Screen MPAA Rating: NR DVD Discs Included: 3 DVD Sides: 3 DVD DVD Region Code: 1 Content Length: 290 min   DVD Chapters: Side #1 -- Dead or Alive 1. Necessary Evils [10:50] 2. Family Matters [11:37] 3. A Stray Suitcase [12:20] 4. Making Inquiries [7:25] 5. Ryu's Resolve [11:22] 6. Routine Questioning [4:52] 7. Casualties [7:35] 8. The Dragnet Widens [5:49] 9. Dinner Interrupted [5:33] 10. First Blood [9:03] 11. Hidden Cargo [7:50] 12. The Showdown [10:35] Side #2 -- Dead or Alive 2 1. A Lesson in Politics [8:01] 2. Fallout [6:34] 3. Bird of a Feather [6:46] 4. Another Life [5:20] 5. Painted Red [7:30] 6. Memory Lane [6:16] 7. The Burned Man [4:03] 8. The Travelling Theater [5:35] 9. Showtime! [8:19] 10. A Job Offer [3:56] 11. Avenging Angels [4:01] 12. Death Tolls [8:03] 13. Trail of Blood [2:57] 14. A Job Interrupted [8:26] 15. Everything Okay [4:48] 16. Homecoming Day [6:17] Side #3 -- Dead or Alive: Final 1. A Duty to Live [4:49] 2. The Mayor's Office [1:25] 3. Faceoff [4:30] 4. Remnants of the Old World [10:00] 5. Snatch Gone Wrong [4:43] 6. New Comrades [7:36] 7. An Unfair Exchange [9:16] 8. A Question of Sacrifice [5:38] 9. The Swimming Lesson [5:14] 10. A New Way of Thinking [5:14] 11. Old Friends Meet [3:21] 12. Fathers and Sons [7:38] 13. Replicant's Reflection [8:57] 14. Final Showdown [4:36] 15. DOA 2001 [5:49]