FUDOH: THE NEW GENERATION (1997)
Directed by Takashi Miike
Starring: Tsutomu Tatsumi, Riki Takeuchi
Genre: Yakuza/Thriller
Running Time: 100mins

Rating:

After witnessing the death of his brother at the hands of his father, Riki Fudoh grows with the sole intent of overthrowing the old members of the yakuza and making a name for himself as the new generation of Japan's organised crime world. Enlisting the help of his fellow classmate's (from primary school assassin's to blow dart strippers, and a giant hell's angels school drop out) the stage is set for a head to head of generational gaps, and family ties to be crossed, joined and blown apart.

Okay, where do I start?

Firstly - for those who haven't heard of him (surely there can't be many) Takashi Miike is one of the most wildly original directors around. Not just in Japan, but in the world. This I must stress is not an overstatement, the man cannot be over-hyped. The films which he creates vary constantly in pace, tone, subject matter and genre - try to pigeon-hole him as a gorehound if you will, but the fact remains that Miike has far more tricks up his sleeve than many other so-called artists. And so - after having been treated to the spine tingling delights of Audition, the frenetically visceral Ichi The Killer, the outrageous Dead or Alive and the deeply shocking Visitor Q I settled down to watch Fudoh : The New Generation with all the anticipation of a child at Christmas.

First up - those expecting another Audition beware - Fudoh is an entirely different film. The closest I can refer it to is the opening of Dead or Alive, the intense stylish visuals and extreme violence are all present and correct, but here in Fudoh they are garnered to a distinctly comic book style with larger than life characters and events. The fact that Fudoh is based on a popular manga only further re-instates the visual style of the film. And while some scenes are crass, or badly acted (almost every scene featuring the vertically blessed biker) the entertainment factor of this film is incredible.

Miike shows an impressive control over the subject of his film - the opening is deliberately slow paced - with a highly involving 20 minute prologue that serves to get us simply as far as the films premise - but once we get to the core of the film - the pace explodes. Like a reversal of the technique used in Dead or Alive here Miike chooses to build up to his visceral delights.

These delights include some of the most fascinatingly original ideas included to the Yakuza genre : primary school assassins, blowdart strippers, hermaphrodite sex, indestructible giants, and incest. And that is not all; the most fascinating thing about Fudoh is its sheer bravura for being nothing more than simply entertaining. You could argue that there is an underlying tone or comment about the outdated customs within the Yakuza but it fails to be apparent as a fundamental part of the film.

Its one and only purpose, in my opinion, is to be entertaining, and it succeeds in every way possible.