Dead or Alive: Hanzaisha
Director: Takashi Miike
Year Released: 1999
Rating: 2.0
Starts and ends with such energetic, 'Heads Up!' sequences that everything else is on complete autopilot - a few shock moments are scattered throughout to get you to pay attention, only to dissolve again into standard Japanese mafia conventions not unlike what Takeshi Kitano has been doing for the past couple of years (although Miike and Kitano's approaches to the material and style are definitely different). Unlike Time and Tide, the action isn't stroboscopic, and some time is spent developing characters (although the characters developed aren't exactly unique). The 'last scene' takes video game imagery in movies to a whole new, comical level.
