Review of Crows Zero (2007) by Robert D — 23 Oct 2010

Hyperviolent and overwrought, "Crows Zero" is everything one has come to expect of Takashi Miike films and film adaptations of Japanese boys' comics. "Crows" is the story of high school students' internal struggle to seize control of their notorious school, which apparently has no teachers, no classes and raises no objections to literally hundreds of its students being bloodied on a daily basis or its classrooms being destroyed in gloriously nonsensical mayhem.

Controlling Suzuran is apparently the most important thing that anyone can do in life, though no one actually explains why. The story is a sprawling, messy, vaguely homoerotic soap opera featuring brooding loners; a student potentially dying of a brain tumor; a bruiser so inept around women that he literally orgasms simply talking to them; a mysterious, red-headed student who speaks in crypto-Buddhist platitudes; a failed yakuza still obsessed with his high school days; and a doe-eyed young lady who thinks she's an R&B star.

And that does not exhaust the madness! "Crows Zero" can be appreciated for its scale and energy, but you might want to take notes on the plot as you go along because it tends to get confusing.