Review of Gozu (2003) by David H — 20 Aug 2004

[i][b]Gozu[/i][/b] is one of those movies that gets people really talking about after they see it. When I was at the CineVegas Film Festival the guy behind him was telling his buddy about [i]Gozu[/i] and how it's isnane and one of the best movie he's seen in a while.

Now this past week, I noticed it was opening up at one of my favorite theaters, and a friend of mine saw it. She immediately called me and told me I NEEDED to see it. She said she knew I'd loved it, and that's it's my kind of movie.

Now those are words I like to hear. But it's Wednesday night, and the film ends on Thursday, and I don't have time to go. My friend who saw it earlier in the week invites me to go to the last show on Thursday, so I leave work early and just barely make it in time. Actually, we we were like a minute late, but she said I hadn't missed anything, so I was okay.

Now, the movie is really good. It's weird, but not really as bizarre as I'd been told, at least starting off. [i]Gozu[/i] is about this crazy guy, Ozaki, who gets lost at a gas station, and Minami, a member of his crew, is in charge of finding him, since he was with him when he disappeared. . Simple as that.

We meet the weirdest people along this journey to find Ozaki. The movie gets more and more bizarre as it goes on, until the end, which is just the most awesomely insane thing I've ever seen.

Director Takashi Miike is known for making films like this. Taking all these random elements, and putting them together to make truly unique films. [i]Gozu[/i], is thrilling, hysterical, morbid, exciting, gross, weird- just so many things that all really fit together perfectly.

It's the first entire Miike film I've seen. I own and have seen about 1/4 of [i]Ichi the Killer[/i]. And I've seen about half of [i]Happiness of the Kitakouris[/i], which was just weird as well.

Now that I've seen, and really enjoyed [i]Gozu[/i] so much, I'm going to definitely get my hands on as many of Miike's films as I can.