Review of Dead or Alive

DEAD OR ALIVE is a 1999 Yakuza fable from Takashi Miike, this time feeling more like a Miike film than his earlier efforts like SHINJUKU TRIAD SOCIETY. That's because it benefits from an absolutely crazy opening and absolutely crazy ending, full of the madcap editing, grotesquery, bad taste antics, and extreme violence that the Miike of AUDITON and ICHI THE KILLER is best known for. Sadly, the middle part of this film is more like his subdued earlier Yakuza tales, following bad characters around as they do bad things, but the unlikeable characters and lack of incident made me more inclined to nod off than anything else. The larger-than-life Riki Takeuchi, of DEADLY OUTLAW: REKKA fame, plays his usual slick mobster, but it's only the energy at the outset and climax that keeps this one alive. Two sequels followed.