First Love

It was like watching an alchy friend go straight. You're happy to see him sober and competent but secretly yearn for his wild dead or alive full metal yakuza gozu audition ichi the killer days

Wild, messy and fun gangster flick from Japan's most prolific director. I'm not a Miike expert by any measure, but this is now among my personal favorites from him.

Easygoing, cruel and romantic. Miike is the only guy in the world who could direct such rollercoaster: poetic and frenzy yakuza thriller, romcom... It all happens during a Tokyo night where a down-and-outer boxer helps a druggy call girl in a whirlwind after a crystal meth scam goes wrong - yakuza and a dirty cop are to blame. Now we've got a mafia war between a chinese gang led by an armless Triad dude and yakuza guys, a widow crazy for revenge and et al. Many fun movies in one comic book fest

One of the most enjoyable Miike made in years. At first it feels like he is trying to do too much. But after the plot is established half-way, the film gets going at a breakneck pace with some the typical highly entertaining insanity one can expect from Miike.

The movie goes back and forth between a plethora of characters and yet somehow manages not only to be comprehensible but always moving towards a singular story arc that does in fact converge all the pieces together for a neat little what the hell showdown. Makes Bullet Train look like Smoking Aces which of course is to say nothing about either them.

A very wild ride through yakuza/mobster/assorted villains/true romance land, points deducted for poor writing that results in an ending to the fight arc that is so impossible that it has to be animated and for some overly sympathetic villains.The overall end is too pat but the movie is entertaining and will keep you watching. Comic book violence that is often amusing is a plus. A good casual watch for a rainy (or boozy) night.

That long, last action set piece really tired things out. A shame since there’s so many fun moments in the preceding events.

Not bad.

okay movie

The fights were terribly filmed but everything else was a blast.

It isn't hard to follow all the different characters' cute little motivations, but frankly it doesn't detract much from the experience if you forget who some guy is. It's perfectly watchable comic-book stuff. Not as bloody or surreal as a lot of Miike's work, but very over-the-top in terms of action and whatnot.

A well shot, stylish film that managed to engage me in the first half but feels like a complete slog once it reaches its climax as the pacing is painfully padded and the plotting/characterization is way too sloppy to make any of the catharsis work. The film has so many gears running throughout the plot that it's difficult to care about who is doing what and why, especially since the main thing you're supposed to care about are the lead couple anyway. The action and acting aren't much better.

Fun gangster movie that brings a very Japanese touch to the old Guy Ritchie formula. I was genuinely sad when the one seemingly immortal character did actually die.

Did I do it a service or a disservice to watch it in 2 parts? The first 30min weren't that great but interesting enough for me not to discard the movie completely... It had to wait 2 weeks before I managed to muster the motivation to resume watching it. I'm glad I did. I'm not sure what I really liked about it; the acting wasn't memorable (Becky's performance was poor and irritating) but the way with how Miike/Nakamura managed to tell the story was quite refreshing. It was 10min too long though.

Süper eğlenceli. Miike dünyasını seviyorum.

uzun süredir ilk defa insanları rahatsız etmeyeyim diye salonda anırarak gülmemek için kendimi zor tuttum. gerçek bir eğlence sineması şaheseri.

This film is very annoying whenever somebody opens their mouth, but quite entertaining when it turns up the music and does its thing - making it the first nonsense yakuza film I've seen that actually works.

Conventional by Miike standards and featuring some familiar yakuza flick faces.

True Romance through the prism of Miike in 2019. If he'd made this in the mid-2000s I know it'd have been even wilder, but as it stands, it's wholesome, over-the-top, and fun- all at the same time.

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