Review of Gozu (2003) by James R — 23 May 2009

Takashi Miike is an over-rated bullshit artist who has occasional decent films, this is not one of them. Purposefully confusing narrating and full of inconsequential scenes really detracted from my enjoyment of this movie.

This was intended to be a straight to DVD movie, but got a theatrical release in Japan because of its success at the Cannes Film Festival. This movie is probably awesome for those who like 'Japanese weirdness' crap.

Unfortunately, if you know crazy assed movies that also have some merit, (See: Naked Lunch, The Trial, etc.,) this film offers nothing of value, which may be in part due to to allowing the actors to ad-lib their parts and direction of the film.

The overall theme of the movie seems to be about some guy with phimosis who has an oedipus complex mixed in with some kind of homosexual attachment to his elder yakuza member, (i.e. 'brother.') There were interesting scenes, but the style of the movie was just so contrived, whimsical and annoying, that it is a surprise we could finish watching it to the end.

Two hours and nine minutes for a movie with so little to say or entertainment value, is a bit much; I guess we wanted to give it a chance to redeem itself, all the way to the end.