Being a fan of Miike flicks, I was rather looking forward to that one. The premise sounded rather intriguing: 120 million potential enemies and a handful of cops. 'Smoking Aces' came to mind, but if Miike directs it...
I was rather surprised by the first half of the movie, it looked like it could really live up to my expectations. Unfortunately the second half goes places I did not expect - and the ending is, IMO, a total disaster.
Seriously, the same man who directed cinematic awesomeness like '13 Assassins', 'Ichimei', 'Sukiyaki Western Django', 'IZO' and, heck, 'Zebraman' comes up with this? To be fair, he tried to place some emphasis on the characters and their motivations, but that want all sideways.
At times the logic in this movies is beyond me, same goes for some decisions made by some of the characters. As well as those "coincidences" (like the one near the end where they find a car, who's driver is *wait for it* the father of the murder's first victim). Meh.
While the last stand-off had real potential (may I direct your attention to the sword in the cane), it goes all mushy and does not fit the rest of the movie.
All in all, I am rather disappointed by that one. I will, however, check out other of his movies, and see if that is just a one time glitch by the maestro or if he's losing it.
I was rather surprised by the first half of the movie, it looked like it could really live up to my expectations. Unfortunately the second half goes places I did not expect - and the ending is, IMO, a total disaster.
Seriously, the same man who directed cinematic awesomeness like '13 Assassins', 'Ichimei', 'Sukiyaki Western Django', 'IZO' and, heck, 'Zebraman' comes up with this? To be fair, he tried to place some emphasis on the characters and their motivations, but that want all sideways.
At times the logic in this movies is beyond me, same goes for some decisions made by some of the characters. As well as those "coincidences" (like the one near the end where they find a car, who's driver is *wait for it* the father of the murder's first victim). Meh.
While the last stand-off had real potential (may I direct your attention to the sword in the cane), it goes all mushy and does not fit the rest of the movie.
All in all, I am rather disappointed by that one. I will, however, check out other of his movies, and see if that is just a one time glitch by the maestro or if he's losing it.