Review of Shinjuku Triad Society

SHINJUKU TRIAD SOCIETY is an early Yakuza flick from cult Japanese director Takashi Miike, who had already been directing for four years by 1995 and had dozens of credits to his name. The tale is a familiar one for fans of the Yakuza genre, but Miike makes it his own in his own inimitable style. He goes out of his way to shock here, with scenes of male and female rape, graphic homosexuality, and shocking violence and revenge. I found that the plot stalled in between the violent and controversial moments and that there were one too many minor sub-plots and not enough major ones. What's obvious here is that Miike was a remarkably good director even if his material was only average.