Review of Deadly Outlaw: Rekka (2002) by Michael D — 21 Jun 2008

Ah Takashi Miike - bless his dark soul. Whenever one feels jaded by cinema and its ability to surprise, just watching one of his films is like being plunged into an ice cold bath and you wake up once more to the possibilities of film. This one is by turns grotesque, absurd, brutally violent but ultimately, comical. Not to give the scene away but the penultimate one had me in stitches laughing - rock n'roll indeed.

A supernatural yakuza revenge movie with a soundtrack by the mighty, MIGHTY Flower Travellin' Band, this is one of Miike's best gangster films and literally, a blast from start to finish. Even the crappy digital effects can't take from the child-like exuberance - if only Hollywood made action movies as edgy and playful as this.