The film that lifted director Takashi Miike from a Japanese cult video following to theatrical presentation and ultimately international fame. His most used elements are vividly displayed here, the wondrous photography as likely to pick out a colour reflected street puddle as encapsulate a fast flowing fight involving many, the uncompromising and nastiness of the bone crunching violence, the associated blood splatter and the ever appropriate accompanying sound. But also there is the humour, the need to tell of Japan's 'others', the Chinese and the Taiwanese and always everything referenced back to the individual's family. When I first watched this some years ago, it was a muddy picture and I was almost lost amidst the languages I couldn't decipher. The Arrow Blu-ray is a wonderful thing to behold and from the streets and back alleys of Shinjuku to the houses of ill repute and kick boxing sparkle with life. The subtitles are a revelation in that it is now apparent to anyone when it is Japanese or another language being spoken and that is of considerable assistance with so much happening to so many. There is terrible violence, excessive and gory scenes as well as near explicit gay sex and rape but something very rare and true appears to be being revealed despite the seeming horrors.
Review of Shinjuku Triad Society
