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Special Features
1.78 Anamorphic Wide Screen
DVD 5
Japanese
Region 0
Dolby Digital Japanese
Dolby Digital
Star And Director Filmographies
Scene Selection
Tom Mes Film Notes
Original Theatrical Trailer
Miike Takashi Interview
Miike Takashi Trailer Reel
English
DVD 5
Japanese
Region 0
Dolby Digital Japanese
Dolby Digital
Star And Director Filmographies
Scene Selection
Tom Mes Film Notes
Original Theatrical Trailer
Miike Takashi Interview
Miike Takashi Trailer Reel
English
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Director Takashi Miike, is one of those directors you will either love or hate, theres no half measures in any of his work (apparantly he shoots around 5 movies a year) and this film is no different...
Basically a gangster movie, a Thaiwanese gang(the dragons claw) are looking to push the local yakuza gang out of the lucrative Shinjuku area of Tokyo. Specialising in drugs, gay prostition, extortion and the sale of human organs. One cop (as always)is determined to bring this to a halt before more blood is spilt, while his younger brother is the lawyer of the dragons claw gangs leader.
What follows is a brutal and often disturbing look at how this seedy underworld district operates. There are no good guys in this film, the lead cop is often as reprehensible in his actions as the men he pursues, but each characters lack of morals in 'buisness' is often counter-balanced by their concern for the people they care about in private (the cop wants to get his brother away from this life so he doesnt end up like him) which means the interplay between the characters is often interesting....
However this film does have its flaws, Miike has a propensity to want to shock and revolt his audience, to expose our own lack of concern that we watch these violent movies by making them as horrific as possible. When it works its compelling, when it doesnt, it just seems pointless. There are certain scenes which seem to have no meaning, the cop, leads a suspect into an interrogation room and questions him whilst another cop sodomises the suspect (no really) to make him talk, in Miikes world anything goes and it doesnt matter if it doesnt make sense. This is all well and good, but at times you get the feeling hes doing it purely for the sake of it, and gives wieght to those who critisce him as a one trick pony...He's not, he's better than that and overall, this film is a pretty good indicator of his talents...
Basically a gangster movie, a Thaiwanese gang(the dragons claw) are looking to push the local yakuza gang out of the lucrative Shinjuku area of Tokyo. Specialising in drugs, gay prostition, extortion and the sale of human organs. One cop (as always)is determined to bring this to a halt before more blood is spilt, while his younger brother is the lawyer of the dragons claw gangs leader.
What follows is a brutal and often disturbing look at how this seedy underworld district operates. There are no good guys in this film, the lead cop is often as reprehensible in his actions as the men he pursues, but each characters lack of morals in 'buisness' is often counter-balanced by their concern for the people they care about in private (the cop wants to get his brother away from this life so he doesnt end up like him) which means the interplay between the characters is often interesting....
However this film does have its flaws, Miike has a propensity to want to shock and revolt his audience, to expose our own lack of concern that we watch these violent movies by making them as horrific as possible. When it works its compelling, when it doesnt, it just seems pointless. There are certain scenes which seem to have no meaning, the cop, leads a suspect into an interrogation room and questions him whilst another cop sodomises the suspect (no really) to make him talk, in Miikes world anything goes and it doesnt matter if it doesnt make sense. This is all well and good, but at times you get the feeling hes doing it purely for the sake of it, and gives wieght to those who critisce him as a one trick pony...He's not, he's better than that and overall, this film is a pretty good indicator of his talents...
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This is a film from `controversial' director Takashi Miike. He is known for his prolific output a sort of quantity over quality, but that is way too simplistic. He has a message and he wants us to get it - without any subtlety what so ever.
This film kicks off with a gangland massacre, some very grubby felatio, and badly dubbed fighting. The basic tale is that a Triad gang `the Dragons Nail', are trying to muscle in on the Yakuza territory and are not bothered about who they have to get out of their way.
Add to this the cop who is trying to stop them and his younger brother - a lawyer who is working for them, and you have quite a potential concoction of things going very bad indeed. They are involved in all sorts of crime, including gay prostitution, drugs, money laundering and human organ sales. This is no black and white, good versus bad as even the cops are very unlikeable. They use any means to get what they want too, thus blurring the lines and confusing as to who you should be caring for.
There are some great moments; we have a serial flasher, a cop that looks like Ronnie Corbett who specialises in torture and uninvited man on man action. A street tramp called `Lonely Jelly' and a cute lovable, but exploited rent boy, who has a penchant for knives and using them on cops.
The picture quality is lacking in places, and the sub titles are often crowded with the original ones not completely removed, but this is a rather good film and I did enjoy it. The action keeps you hooked and the thorough ruthless and nasty characters are somehow fascinating. If you are new to Miike this is a good place to start as any - recommended.
This film kicks off with a gangland massacre, some very grubby felatio, and badly dubbed fighting. The basic tale is that a Triad gang `the Dragons Nail', are trying to muscle in on the Yakuza territory and are not bothered about who they have to get out of their way.
Add to this the cop who is trying to stop them and his younger brother - a lawyer who is working for them, and you have quite a potential concoction of things going very bad indeed. They are involved in all sorts of crime, including gay prostitution, drugs, money laundering and human organ sales. This is no black and white, good versus bad as even the cops are very unlikeable. They use any means to get what they want too, thus blurring the lines and confusing as to who you should be caring for.
There are some great moments; we have a serial flasher, a cop that looks like Ronnie Corbett who specialises in torture and uninvited man on man action. A street tramp called `Lonely Jelly' and a cute lovable, but exploited rent boy, who has a penchant for knives and using them on cops.
The picture quality is lacking in places, and the sub titles are often crowded with the original ones not completely removed, but this is a rather good film and I did enjoy it. The action keeps you hooked and the thorough ruthless and nasty characters are somehow fascinating. If you are new to Miike this is a good place to start as any - recommended.
13 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I had doubts about purchasing this DVD. Tartan Video, the label that is releasing SHINJUKU TRIAD SOCIETY also put out AUDITION and the RING DVDs which were utter garbage - the DVDs not the films. AUDITION was so dark you sometimes couldn't even make out what was going on onscreen! But with this, their latest release, it looks like they've learnt a thing or two. While the picture quality isn't perfect (grainy, slight problems with blacks) it is actually BETTER that the Japanese DVD, the only other DVD release of this film so far! Plus Tartan thankfully was able to score a print without the burnt in Japanese subtitles for the Chinese dialogue that riddled the Japanese DVD! Take that and add removable English subtitles (albeit with slight timing problems), an anamorphic transfer, subtitled trailers for other Miike films and an awesome exclusive on-camera inerview with Miike and you got one great DVD! I definitely recommend this DVD to any fan of Takashi Miike's films and violent, gritty gangster films in general.
I for one will definitely buy RAINY DOG and LEY LINES from Tartan as well.
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