Full Metal Yakuza (1997)

Very Cool!!!

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

Audition and Ichi the killer alone have kept many a Samboy-eating, pot-belly having, awkward facial-hair sporting single guy warm through those long winter nights. Myself included.Most notable for his no-holds barred, nothing is too over the top style and his prolific release schedule, Miike has his paws on any number of crazy weird for weird's sake films over the last couple decades.This is a slightly earlier work, though as you will read it is no less wacky. It just isn't that good or different to set it aside from the pack.This is probably why Weird Al Yankovic is suddenly amusing every few years when he latches into to some popular song and tweaks it slightly. Every so often it is funny to hear a zany version of something just for a laugh. But you can't keep releasing the same thing every year and expect it to sell, which is why Weird Al has two crappy sellers in between his occasional hit… and it is why Takashi Miike is know as "the guy who made Ichi the Killer", and not "Ichi, plus Demon Pond, plus N-Girls Vs Vampire". Look at his IMDb page, I could go on and on with insane sounding names.The fact is for every time that an audience is ready to be entertained by a left field movie, there are years where they just aren't interested in a half cyborg wannabe Yakuza warrior.Which brings me to Full Metal Yakuza, which must have been written in 3 minutes after the title was conceived.Now just try to follow me here, this'll no doubt get messy. A Yakuza heavy named Tosa attempts a hit on his rival gang leader which nearly succeeds, and is very definitely bloody, he is imprisoned as a result.He is admired by Hanage, a Yakuza underling who desperately wants to be part of the team, but is just too useless and ineffectual to get the shot. In early scenes he is beat up by kids, shows cowardice in scenarios that might earn him credit, and is unable to "please" his chickie. To make matters worse his own brother is most certainly "In", and he makes no secret at times of his contempt for the inferior Hanage.After time elapses Tosa the Yakuza thug is released from jail, and Hanage is given a task to drive him meet the boss. He feels this is his big chance to make a good impression, only he doesn't realize that the gang boss, wary of inflaming a gang war, has sacrificed both Tosa and Hanage to appease the Yakuza boss that narrowly avoided death earlier.Phew, you still there? So after the hit, Hanage wakes up, or should I say is rebooted, by a mad inventor who has used parts of both Hanage's puny body, (including his head), and Tosa, (including his wang), and filled in the gaps with robotic inserts and metal reinforcement, hence the title.He heads back to society, initially trying to cover up his new metal status. He finds out that his Bro is now (very successfully) banging his chick, and that no-one misses the "old" Harage at all. Worse than that he finds that if he is caught in the rain his metal parts short circuit, which leads to the question of whether rusting between the thighs causes sparks when chafing occurs? So after the short circuit he wakes up again, realizes that if he eats metal he is temporarily superpowered, only the Yakuza side sometimes takes over which turns him into a super-killing machine capable of only over-the-top violence, only the best kind there is.Really they should have ended the movie there, as Miike no doubt had nothing further in the script than "A Yakuza robot would be awesome!", but there are still 45 minutes to go.Soooooo...Without spoilers some "other things" happen, Tosa's ex (widow?) gets involved and both parts of the robot are thirsty for revenge.There is much gushing and severing, blood curdling creams abound and Takashi's obvious disdain for women manifests itself often in frequent scenes of pointless torture and violence.Final Rating – 5.5 / 10. A typical Miike film, only somehow slightly less so.If you liked this review (or even if you didn't) check out oneguyrambling.com

Even if this is not top notch Miike it is always going to be worth watching. The first ten minutes or so are a little confusing (as usual) with, here a yakuza, there a yakuza, one shoots one and another shoots another. Shot and sliced splendidly it has to be said with fountains of blood from headless necks and severed arms in the sidewalk! Soon enough all is clear and a fairly simple tale unfolds enlivened no end by the main character being formed of 'full metal'. There is humour throughout and also some gruelling scenes plus a little more sex than I recall seeing in other Miike films. Not as profound as some, although we probably miss the Japanese social nuances, but a fun ride with more than the odd gasp and wince.

Japanese film maker talent and inventive genius Takashi Miike (born 1960) has done incredible amount of films in his not-even-so-long career so far. He has done made-for-video cheapies and big screen films that vary from unconventional and wonderful Yakuza tales to insane comic book adaptations to mind blowing satires, and the greater the themes in these films are, the more serious he is and uses his ideas and crazy creativity with restraint inside the otherwise serious world he's created: a bazooka torn from a guy's back isn't any funny moment in Dead or Alive (1999) but has its important meaning for the theme telling so much about the character(s) and their values in the violent world Miike depicts. His Full Metal Yakuza aka Full Metal Gokudo (1997) belongs to the cheap and fastly made video films and it is easy to tell it is a very exploitation oriented market that wants simple, violent and graphic films without much more merits in them. Full Metal Yakuza tells the Robocop-like (1987, Paul Verhoeven) story of a killed Yakuza who gets back to life as he is turned into a robot/human by one crazy scientist. He wants to avenge the death of his friend as well as try to save his former love from the sadistic hands of the rival Yakuza. Ultra violence and gore ensues and all the potential that was used to wonderful perfection in Fudoh (1996), for example, is not there in this film. There are some nice Japanese cinema elements like the silence that tells more than words. The scene in the beach after a refusal to kill one Yakuza boss is especially memorable and also close to the work of Takeshi Kitano. Still the revenge theme is not handled here as it was in Dead or Alive or Fudoh. In Full Metal Yakuza, violence and acts of revenge don't have any other meaning than to satisfy the gore audience and that is pretty sad for those who'd like to see Miike making more serious cinema all the time. In real world, violence and revenge is never as harmless and fun as in this film and Miike for sure would have talents to make real films from the subject matter, as he's done. Also the ending, showing how desperate the characters are for personal revenge and payback would be as wonderful as in those other films, but now it all is just mostly comical trash as Miike definitely wasn't doing this for anything else than money and to satisfy his huge need to work. It is hard to make any interpretations on single images and scenes while everything before and after them fights against any serious analyzes. The film is high on its gore level and so reminds pretty much of Ichi the Killer, a film that is filled with cartoonish violence and blood plus sadism towards both females and males. Full Metal Yakuza has plenty of swordfights (!) and other bloody carnage that gives the makers an opportunity to throw in plenty of blood geysirs and splatter that satisfies some viewers but is not enough when the film is by talented director like Miike. Neither this or Ichi the Killer are to be taken seriously (hardly anyone takes, at least Full Metal Yakuza), and especially Ichi, despite its flaws and negative sides, tells something about the audience, that laughs looking like a bunch of monkeys and as sorry characters as those inside the film, when someone's being tortured and brutally murdered. Ichi the Killer has also some interesting elements in the form of Ichi himself, who is a traumatized boy with violent environment and society around him. This important theme is handled more carefully in Rainy Dog and also in Fudoh.

Not all that entertaining, and very low budget, but flashes of Miike's wacky brilliance make this worth seeing for fans of his work. A wanna-be yakuza loser bumbles his way through the lower echelon unpleasantness of a gang, before a very unpleasant incident results in his being transformed into a deadly (if goofy-looking) cyborg fighting machine. Will he get revenge or will he just mope around like some whiner from a French movie and short-circuit in the rain?People familiar with Ichi will see a lot of the same elements (though Ichi does come from different source material). The protagonist of FMG is a proto-Ichi in many ways, full of angst and completely dysfunctional, stalking around in a plated body-suit and not much of a hero. Any serious pathos or plot development is undercut by the wacky joke bits Miike throws in (like our hero learning stances to deflect bullets). The silliness is definitely fun, but the movie is so schizophrenic that most of the enjoyment is of the "Whoa! Did that just happen?" variety. Dig in if you're a Miike fan, otherwise don't start here.