User Reviews

Audition and Ichi the killer alone have kept many a Samboy-eating, pot-belly having, awkward facial-hair sporting single guy warm through those long winter nights. Myself included.

Most notable for his no-holds barred, nothing is too over the top style and his prolific release schedule, Miike has his paws on any number of crazy weird for weird's sake films over the last couple decades.

This is a slightly earlier work, though as you will read it is no less wacky. It just isn't that good or different to set it aside from the pack.

This is probably why Weird Al Yankovic is suddenly amusing every few years when he latches into to some popular song and tweaks it slightly. Every so often it is funny to hear a zany version of something just for a laugh. But you can't keep releasing the same thing every year and expect it to sell, which is why Weird Al has two crappy sellers in between his occasional hit… and it is why Takashi Miike is know as "the guy who made Ichi the Killer", and not "Ichi, plus Demon Pond, plus N-Girls Vs Vampire". Look at his IMDb page, I could go on and on with insane sounding names.

The fact is for every time that an audience is ready to be entertained by a left field movie, there are years where they just aren't interested in a half cyborg wannabe Yakuza warrior.

Which brings me to Full Metal Yakuza, which must have been written in 3 minutes after the title was conceived.

Now just try to follow me here, this'll no doubt get messy. A Yakuza heavy named Tosa attempts a hit on his rival gang leader which nearly succeeds, and is very definitely bloody, he is imprisoned as a result.

He is admired by Hanage, a Yakuza underling who desperately wants to be part of the team, but is just too useless and ineffectual to get the shot. In early scenes he is beat up by kids, shows cowardice in scenarios that might earn him credit, and is unable to "please" his chickie. To make matters worse his own brother is most certainly "In", and he makes no secret at times of his contempt for the inferior Hanage.

After time elapses Tosa the Yakuza thug is released from jail, and Hanage is given a task to drive him meet the boss. He feels this is his big chance to make a good impression, only he doesn't realize that the gang boss, wary of inflaming a gang war, has sacrificed both Tosa and Hanage to appease the Yakuza boss that narrowly avoided death earlier.

Phew, you still there? So after the hit, Hanage wakes up, or should I say is rebooted, by a mad inventor who has used parts of both Hanage's puny body, (including his head), and Tosa, (including his wang), and filled in the gaps with robotic inserts and metal reinforcement, hence the title.

He heads back to society, initially trying to cover up his new metal status. He finds out that his Bro is now (very successfully) banging his chick, and that no-one misses the "old" Harage at all. Worse than that he finds that if he is caught in the rain his metal parts short circuit, which leads to the question of whether rusting between the thighs causes sparks when chafing occurs? So after the short circuit he wakes up again, realizes that if he eats metal he is temporarily superpowered, only the Yakuza side sometimes takes over which turns him into a super-killing machine capable of only over-the-top violence, only the best kind there is.

Really they should have ended the movie there, as Miike no doubt had nothing further in the script than "A Yakuza robot would be awesome!", but there are still 45 minutes to go.

Soooooo...

Without spoilers some "other things" happen, Tosa's ex (widow?) gets involved and both parts of the robot are thirsty for revenge.

There is much gushing and severing, blood curdling creams abound and Takashi's obvious disdain for women manifests itself often in frequent scenes of pointless torture and violence.

Final Rating – 5.5 / 10. A typical Miike film, only somehow slightly less so.

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I love Miike films so I was a tad shocked after watching this one. It still bears his trade mark arterial spray shots and the WTF ending but other than that it's more like something you would find along side the likes of Robot Jocks or Dollman from Full Koon films. I recommend this flick to fans of the Guyver films more than I would fans of Audition or Visitor Q (even tho I love both of those films). I was intrigued the entire film laughing, cheering, booing, so I have no idea why everyone trashes on this movie so much (it's even a tad cerebral at times!). So bottom line from me is: Don't watch this flick expecting anything in particular except for an Ultra-Man-esquire splatter film and you'll find a surprising masterpiece.

Okay, so it's basically a Japanese rip-off of Robocop with gore and weird Asian Extreme sentiments. It has a scene highly reminiscent of The Brain that Wouldn't Die and a plot line that can be seen in anything from Killing Machine to Machine Girl and all kinds of movies that have happened before and since. Yet still I dare you to watch this movie and say, "Yeah, I've seen it all before." Won't happen; Miike's too playful and too willing to go "there", "there" being just as far as you didn't think anyone would go before.

So, simple plot synopsis: this guy Hagane is in the Yakuza, only he's an impotent fool and a coward and is only in his family because he greatly admires his "Brother" Tosa. But when Tosa gets gunned down and Our Intrepid Hero catches a few bullets in the process, a self-proclaimed Mad Scientist appears out of nowhere to recraft him out of metal, spare bits, and the heart, genitals, and tattoo of his hero. Fully equipped (on more levels than one), it's time for Hagane to wreck vengeance. And stuff.

There are some pretty amusing scenes here. For the most part, this movie is kind of wonderful because it's a playful and action-filled male wish-fulfillment. He's nearly invincible, he gets to destroy stuff easily, and he gets a bigger penis. Of course, Miike isn't satisfied with only one emotion, and scenes range from hilarious to sentimental to disturbing, switching gears on a whim and always allowing an opportunity for silly facial expressions (the acting in this movie is great, by the way. Japanese actors have this wonderful way of stretching their faces).

Funnily enough, the tone of Full Metal Yakuza fits closer to Zebraman than most of Miike's other work. Ultimately, it's playful and escapist by nature, which is not honestly what he does all that much. But whereas Zebraman can sort of kind of almost maybe be considered a children's movie (except for its strangeness and a couple sordid scenes), this is closer to Heavy Metal type escapism, fully adult entertainment and yet full of boyhood passion.

--PolarisDiB

As you can probably gather from the title, Full Metal Yakuza (1997) is one of director Takashi Miike's most polarising and defiantly idiosyncratic works. Essentially a straight to video project - produced at a time when the market for straight to video pictures in Japan was at its most financially successful - the film imaginatively blends together elements of the director's more iconic and eclectic Yakuza genre films, such as Osaka Tough Guys (1995) and Fudoh: The New Generation (1996), with elements of Paul Verhoeven's classic American science-fiction satire, Robocop (1987). As with the majority of Japanese V-cinema, Full Metal Yakuza offered Miike creative free reign; with explicit, over-the-top bloodshed and sexual violence interspersed with moments of black comedy, pathos, and continual references to old Hollywood monster movies, such as Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll. All of this is naturally delivered on a minuscule budget that seemingly left little room for convincing make-up effects, or indeed, CGI.

Harsher critics of the film often cite such budgetary restrictions - as well as the absurd, almost farcical nature of the plot - as the defining factors for this films supposed failure and its irrelevance within the context of Miike's career. However, supporters of the film, such as myself and other such online admirers, tend to enjoy the film for these very same reasons; with the limited budget and obvious lo-fi quality of the effects adding to the overall enjoyment; with the film managing to encapsulate the very best qualities of low-budget film-making such as boldness, originality and imagination.

However, having said that, this is very much a film of three distinct parts, and the enjoyment of each specific segment will obviously depend heavily upon the individual taste of the viewer. The first part is probably the easiest to appreciate, as it is the most dramatic of the three and the more focused, with none of the tongue-in-cheek humour or references to cult sci-fi cinema that will appear later. In some respects it brings to mind some of Miike's more routine, run-of-the-mill Yakuza/crime pictures, such as the aforementioned Osaka Tough Guys and the great Young Thugs: Nostalgia (1998), as well as somewhat pre-empting the style and tone of later films like Rainy Dog (1997), Ley Lines (1999) and Agitator (2001). As with Robocop itself, this first segment illustrates the rise and eventual fall of the central character (in this case, an inept Yakuza underling), as he attempts to protect his boss and mentor from a fatal double-cross carried out by his own men in conjunction with a rival gang. Its perhaps the most successful part of the film for most viewers as it features no low-tech special effects or attempts at obvious shock-value; instead, drawing us in through the characters and the strong performances from the likes of Tsuyoshi Ujiki, Takeshi Caesar and Koji Tsukamoto. The second half of the film is the more comical; referencing Frankenstein and the much alluded to Robocop, as a crazed scientist (played by Shinya Tsukamoto regular Tomorowo Taguchi) rebuilds our hero as a super-sleek cyborg, replete with a massively exaggerated penis! In this segment, Tsuyoshi must come to terms with his fate, as well as coming to terms with his new (and improved?) body; building up his strength, shooting skills and fighting ability in a hilarious montage, before going off to claim bloody revenge in the name of his slain master!

Sub-textually, the appearance of Taguchi as the central creative figure of this "full metal yakuza" is interesting, in the sense that the film presents a similar thematic and philosophical ideology to that of Shinya Tsukamoto's cult classic, Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1988); in which a mild-mannered Tokyo salary-man finds himself inexplicably turning into a mass of wires, metal and steel (and must eventually struggle with the inevitably disturbing consequences)! The similarity is further stressed by the casting of Koji Tsukamoto, Shinya's younger brother. Obviously, Full Metal Yakuza presents these themes in a way that is completely different to Tsukamoto's dark, expressionistic art-drama; but clearly, the parallels are there and are exploited by Miike in a clear attempt to give a greater sense of meaning to the drama between satisfying his own more subversive impulses as a grand provocateur.

The third part of the film is more interesting but also at odds with the more outré sequences of violence and revenge; reminding me of some of the more thoughtful and tender moments of films like Rainy Dog, The Bird People of China (1998) and Dead or Alive 2: Birds (2000). It also ties this film in with certain images and ideas presented in the later film, Dead or Alive: Final (2002), which also features a cyborg character struggling with the more humane intricacies of their existence in a slow and hypnotic, almost Takeshi Kitano inspired moment of surreal, seaside tranquillity.

This particular segment of the film - bookended by scenes of rampaging revenge - is really the heart and soul of the story, and seems to be a conscious move on Miike's part to instil this very warped, very silly little pastiche shocker with a genuine sense of character; opening up further avenues of interpretation or simply giving us a brief moment to reflect on the violence and bloodshed that will continue through to the closing moments? Full Metal Yakuza definitely isn't "classic Miike", with the three disparate acts failing to make a fully consistent whole (feeling at times like three completely different films edited together), but it is certainly entertaining; filled to the brim with moments of humour, action, thought and disgust, as well as a whole host of imaginative and inspired sight-gags and set-pieces. As you would expect from any film by Takashi Miike, there are a number of fairly shocking images presented for laughs, including rape, necrophilia, dismemberment, torture and death, as well as an incredibly bizarre ending, which - when viewed within the context of the first forty-minutes - seems to belong to an entirely different film!

Kensuke Hagane (Tsuyoshi Ujiki) is a beginner in the Yakuza world , he is very fearful and nobody respect him. After the prison release of Tosa (Takeshi Caesar), who is a Yakuza boss and the idol of Hagane, both are killed as a result of a gang problem with Tosa. Both corpses ends in the hands of mad scientific who creates a kind of robot with parts of both corpses. Now Hagane is part machine with some parts of Tosa, he is bullet proof and has an incredible strength. When he escapes from the scientific, he is looking out for revenge with the heart of his boss and idol, literally.

This is the main plot of this unique direct-to-video film and that is full with elements that only a Miike film can have. The storyline is pretty simple and very common in a Yakuza or Mafia film because is just a revenge story but "Full Metal Yakuza" is not a common Yakuza film. Since the main character, Hagane, who is not the usual Yakuza/gangster with the bad-ass attitude, is more like a common guy and he is always afraid. And the sci-fi elements, with all the influence of Paul Verhoeven's Robocop, (Miike said that Verhoeven is one of his biggest influences) are really bizarre and sometimes funny. So the film is like the main character who is part Hagane, part Tosa and part machine; the film is part sci-fi, part Yakuza, part comedy and sometimes is really absurd. And creates bizarre situations like Tosa's girl is in love with Hagane but what she don't know is that Hagane has parts of Tosa, including his penis. Or Hagane eating metal with milk, really bizarre situations like in every other film of Miike.

So i really love this film because is unique and for be released direct-to-video with a very low budget it has a very good response, in part because of the cult success of Miike in the West. But anyway, the direct-to-video industry of Japan don't have the same bad reputation of it Western counterpart. And according to the interview with Miike in the DVD, he likes to make films in this industry due to the creative freedom and the less stringent censorship.

Conclusion: this film is great and unique, not Miike's best but anyway this film works because of it originality. And is hard that you know about this film before watching "Audition" or "Ichi the Killer", so if you watch this film, like in my case,is because you are into Miike so you must know his bizarre style. Takashi Miike is for me the kind of director that when you see a DVD with his name you don't care about anything else, you just want to see more of his films so i really recommend this film to anyone who likes Miike and also to anyone who want to know about him because this is a great start into his work. 9 out of 10

DVD: i have the Region 1 DVD that i think is the only available in the American continent. Is really good, with interviews with the cast and with the crew and anyway is the unique form for watch this film. Also i hope that soon more films of Miike can be release in Mexico and of course with Spanish subtitles.