Gozu (Directed by Takashi Miike with Hideki Sone, Sho Aikawa, Kimika Yoshino) Takashi Miike, the incredibly prolific director of Audition and Ichi the Killer, is without a doubt one of the most singular talents based simply on the strength of Gozu. How on earth did he persuade producers to give him money for a film which defies the solitary marketing strapline by mischieviously giving genre a very hard time? Horror, fairytale odyssey, 'Lynchian' farce, Yakuza crime caper, 'gorey' soft porn with a hard crude edge... God only knows where it sits. unfathomable
The story goes that Minami is ordered to take Ozaki, his senior in the Azamawari crew, out to a Yakuza dump in Nagoya. On the journey he accidentally kills Ozaki and misplaces the body, only to begin an unfathomable odyssey where he encounters a rattle-bag of strange lo-fi fairytale loons.
He eventually finds his senior once again nestling within the womb of a beautiful woman! Gozu is like an amalgam of all the fleeting pseudo incestuous fantasies that ever entered your head and which ignore the exit sign. This is one strange, scatalogical but refreshing mixed bag in which Miike flaunts his talent with outrageous confidence. Hollywood wouldn't touch this offering from the East with a barge pole! It just wouldn't dare.
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