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Dead or Alive
Dead or Alive
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Dead or Alive

Dead or Alive

1999
Drama, Crime
1h 45m
Without a home and feeling no obligation to Japanese society or Yakuza, Ryuichi (Takeuchi Riki) and his small group decide to make their own place by trying to take over the Shinjuku underworld and the drug trade from Taiwan. As they plan an all-out-assault on the remaining Chinese and Japanese mafia kings, only Detective Jojima (Aikawa Sho) stands between them and complete domination. (imdb)

Dead or Alive

1999
Drama, Crime
1h 45m
Your probable score
Avg Percentile 51.19% from 406 total ratings

Ratings & Reviews

(410)
Compact view
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Rated 27 Dec 2018
65
57th
Wonderfully weird, frenetic and bizarre Japanese genre kaleidoscope shit sandwich of a film. Like riding a roller coaster practically guaranteed to make you vomit and give you whiplash, worth all the pain and foul tastes for experiencing the wild rides' beginning and insane finale at least once.
Rated 14 Aug 2007
80
38th
I'd normally rate this slightly lower, but the finale alone gives it a few points. An entertaining and interesting movie, but Miike has done better.
Rated 14 Aug 2007
66
32nd
The parts where it obviously wasn't taking itself too seriously were very enjoyable, but the rest didn't impress me much.
Rated 21 Mar 2020
58
13th
Sufficiently shocking and violent.
Rated 12 Aug 2015
65
53rd
One of Miike's shocker films. There are whole sections dedicated to allowing Miike to subject the audience to weird shit. It meanders quite a bit, but it has one of my favorite endings of all time. Better than Ichi the Killer.
Rated 29 Dec 2012
62
41st
A thoroughly average cop versus gangster movie with some really gross content and characters you won't care about. Might be worth viewing just for the final 2 minutes where everyone stops Giving Any Fucks which leads to the silliest ending I've seen in ages.
Rated 21 Dec 2012
56
13th
I disliked this for a lot of the reasons I disliked House of 1000 Corpses. Self-indulgent ridiculousness without much substance. I didn't care for any of the characters which left much of the film pretty boring. However, the violence was done well and damn, that ending was great. Worth it for the last ten minutes.
Rated 29 Jan 2012
63
44th
This movie ruined mini pools for me.
Rated 30 Nov 2007
62
37th
The first 5 and last 10 minutes were extraordinary, the rest was mediocre.
Rated 08 Dec 2006
65
25th
This is kind of a typical yakuza film with occasional Miike touches. Except for the amazing/hilarious ending, there's not much special about it.
Rated 18 Apr 2023
78
80th
Over the top Miike yakuza flick with some social undertones about half Japanese citizens. The beginning and the ending go extra hard.
Rated 07 Nov 2019
76
64th
Excellent action cinema with elements of drama. Fantastic, fast, colorful opening scenes that turns into a well-written, interesting yakuza-police story with some crazy scenes throughout the movie. I felt embarrassed and smiled gently at the end, which unfortunately did not work as I expected and changed my perception. I could have expected it (but I didn't want to).
Rated 08 May 2019
43
10th
The first five minutes are brilliant; a fantastic blur of kinetic energy and I love every single one of them. You can see the film try to branch out from that and tell multiple stories out of all of that, and it doesn't quite work. Despite the fact that everything seems great individually, it never comes together as a whole. It feels aimless, it feels muddled. It feels like wasted potential.
Rated 30 Jan 2019
75
44th
Fairly standard cops vs robbers crime drama sandwiched between 20 minutes of complete insanity.
Rated 26 Jan 2019
25
3rd
Impressive opening and appealingly weird ending but total crap in the middle and confusing to boot, the usual platitudes about honor and manhood or whatever and some empty shock value.
Rated 24 Jul 2018
65
67th
A movie defined by its absolutely brilliant first six minutes, that then proceeds to do absolutely nothing with that energy but slowly let it leak away until you don't care about anything.
Rated 15 Mar 2018
22
1st
Ugly, convoluted film has schizophrenic tonal issues, on the one hand presenting a fairly simple, if dreary, cops and robbers saga, which intercuts juvenile, grotesque asides, which are graphically scatological and almost pornographic; this would be a defensible strategy if Miike and Ryu showed a shred of wit or a point of view in what it is they were trying to say, but all we get is a dull crime story with intrusions from a repulsive freak show. Blech!
Rated 10 May 2017
45
19th
Unlike most, for me, the out of left field ending was the ruination of what went before. "What went before" was an OK, by the numbers, gangster flick somewhat improved by some over the top scenes. Well filmed with excellent action. Score, but for the ending, would have been 65 with "better than average but not riveting" tag. If you are looking for a straight modern yakuza film 99% here will be right up your alley, the remaining 1% will either grab you as WTF brilliance or kill the whole thing.
Rated 23 Jan 2017
75
38th
Miike seems to enjoy reveling in the yakuza genre and taking the piss out of it at the same time.
Rated 30 May 2015
78
39th
and the point was?
Rated 09 Sep 2014
71
50th
You don't often see a movie with a complete WTF ending that misinterprets everything that has come before. The characters here are parasites fighting their insignificant battles, but the incongruent and nonsense ending elevates them to cosmic importance. An epic troll.
Rated 07 Aug 2013
55
5th
There is some great stuff in here, but the movie was too inconsistent.
Rated 03 Aug 2011
70
34th
hadouken ending is the best!
Rated 21 Jul 2011
77
50th
This movie and Possession would make a good shit-drowning double bill.
Rated 03 Jul 2011
55
36th
Didn't expect it to be such a dissapoinment especially after amazing opening scenes. Also great ending, but rest of the film is a mediocre at best yakuza drama with a few hints of Miikeness.
Rated 31 Oct 2010
83
61st
I dont know how to score this, it is definitely my favourite movie start and ending but the middle part is quite average and I dont remember it...
Rated 10 Oct 2010
85
71st
Fairly typical yakuza film, until it's saved from left field in the last ten minues
Rated 02 Jul 2010
70
21st
A quite unique cop story.
Rated 09 Mar 2010
95
92nd
We all know Miike is a twisted genius, but Dead or Alive takes it to a new level. After the credits rolled, I sat in my seat for at least 5 or 10 minutes, unable to process what I had just seen. Absolutely incredible.
Rated 25 Dec 2009
70
57th
An orgy of violence and depravity all the things i like. For instance a girl being drowned in a kiddie pool of her own shit, and dogs being jacked off (rover didn't know he had it so good). This one let me down in the ending though, but overall a good movie
Rated 01 Jul 2009
2
40th
It's hard not to enjoy this on some level, with it's range from melodrama to hysterical and frenetic scenes, one more shocking and tasteless than the other. A rollercoaster ride of a film.
Rated 29 May 2009
85
73rd
Um ótimo filme, depois de um começo frenético e empolgante, a estória se desenrola de forma eficaz e tudo nos leva a um duelo final entre o policial e o bandido, mas eis que Miike nos proporciona algo completamente inesperado. O que dizer do kamikaze da granada atirando-se dentro do carro em movimento? E o braço sendo arrancado? E a bazuca? Simplesmente Takashi Miike.
Rated 25 Feb 2009
60
46th
A movie that destroys all the clichés of the genre, therefore deserves to be seen.
Rated 18 Feb 2009
2
16th
"...undeniably stylish."
Rated 29 Dec 2008
30
9th
To be honest, this movie was OK at best. the beginning was neat and whatever but that was about it for me. The ending wasn't cool at all. And by the way, I got it. He put it in there "because, why not." I watched all of the interviews and whatever with Miike, and I really thought that he was making fun of the crowd to see what he could get away with by putting that stupid ending. There were some OK scenes, like the bank robbery deal, but nothing that makes me want to watch this again.
Rated 31 Jul 2008
96
99th
Very Great
Rated 17 Jun 2008
90
89th
Oh, HELL YEAH!!! That ending was orgasm-inducing, knock-you-on-your-ass AWESOME. So's the beginning for that matter. And the shootout with the guy in the bird costume. Oh, and the drowning of that girl in a pool filled with... yeah... this movie rules.
Rated 14 Jun 2008
80
56th
The opening is an insane and coked up montage of hilarious, over the top trash. However, the movie is mostly quiet and minimalist and just casually weird. Miike at least pretends to play it straight, but fuck that, during the awesome final showdown Miike lets everybody in on the joke and pulls the funniest and most ridiculous escalating sequence I've seen in any of his movies. If it's all a set up to that punchline, well, it's worth it.
Rated 14 Aug 2007
78
88th
This director makes an astonishing amount of junk, just about all of it qualifies as interesting and daring, only some of it is really inspired and rarely it's great. To me Dead or Alive is great junk, especially the conclusion.
Rated 14 Aug 2007
85
91st
Holy crap, what was that awesomeness I just watched? The whole first 10 minutes of this film is a breathless montage of insanity. The final duel is a cataclysmic thing of beauty.
Rated 14 Aug 2007
65
55th
Amazing opening, brilliant ending, and a not bad middle.
Rated 29 Dec 2006
90
98th
Best of the three.

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