I was a little disappointed with this movie when I first saw it. However, it is a must-see, and I would even go so far as to suggest, a must-own movie. As with many of Miike's films, you just won't see this stuff anywhere else. If I'm wrong about that, please E-mail me from the contact page, and let me know. I'm always looking for more crazy, but well-made stuff.

Fudoh: The New Generation is the story of Riki Fudoh (Shosuke Tanihara) who is a little at odds with his Dad for killing his brother. Amidst the family tension more pressing matters take presidence: the Dad's yakuza organization is being hit one by one by his enemies. Riki takes it upon himself to save the Fudoh yakuza, with himself and his school buddies as the agents of change.

Did I mention this is a Takashi Miike film? Good. I'll be honest here. OK? I saw this a few years ago on VHS because it was the only copy I could find. I had to borrow a Video Tape machine (remember those?) to play it, so you can see why a) my expectations were built up by the time I got to watch it, and since it was a while ago b) my memory on this one isn't so great.

However, there are some things that are hard to forget. Riki Fudoh's "new generation" of gangsters are rather memorable. Among them, a 10 foot tall (give or take a few feet) 500 pound (give or take a few hundred pounds) curly haired dude who is pretty damn strong and foreboding, yet loyal to Riki. I'll give you another, but uh, well here it goes. There is this girl in Riki's gang (I read that she is an hermaphrodite - I'd forgotten that) that shoots deadly darts out of her vagina. (Sorry Ma, if you're reading this - but, well, they don't show it up close!) She also performs at a strip clup and shooting balloons with the darts is part of her act. Now, I know you can imagine how graceful that could be. However, it's a little harder, and funnier, when one is running, and instead of simply firing a gun, you have to drop to the ground, get prepared, and, well, fire.

Takashi Miike film, right? OK.

Soon Riki and his young gang come under fire themselves as they make their presence know to the underworld, and some "old generation" retribution is in order.

I don't want to spoil the gruesome, bizarre fun. I think you have enough info to go on. Plus I'm a little fuzzy on the rest of the details. I must caution the person who stumbled here looking for a review of Shrek 2: approach Fudoh: The New Generation with extreme caution.

DO NOT BUY THIS FILM IF: Oh my goodness, where to start? This movie is gross, violent, bizarre, hyper-active and funny, all in a really bad way. Careful.

RECOMMENDATION: Oh my goodness, where to start? This movie is gross, violent, bizarre, hyper-active and funny, all in a really good way. A must see.

If that 'New Generation' suffix is bringing to mind Patrick Stewart and Starfleet, forget it. With nympho-lesbian schoolgirls and bloodbath shooting matches adorning every scene - and the most alarming variation on the ping-pong ball trick you're likely to see in a mainstream movie - the Enterprise it ain't. Takashi Miike's lunatic sprawl of teen wish-fulfilment is perhaps best viewed as a Japanese Clockwork Orange, but without Burgess' social message.

This really is not a movie for the easily offended. But, if you can wade through the blood and the sexual shock tactics, there are some interesting ideas. In this nightmare society, tradition means nothing; children have rejected the docile, dutiful role society has prescribed for them, but all they have to replace it with is numb sex and messy vengeance on teachers and parents.

Ultimately, the generation gap theme gets slightly lost among a rush of late arriving characters, and unexplored ideas about yakuza bosses plotting a war against the US. It's also hard to emotionally identify with the stony-faced Riki, or his jaded followers. In the end, it's the subtle shocks that really work - the schoolboy assassins, the degradation of a teenager working nights in a strip club, the strutting 18-year-old with the power of life and death over the whole district.

There's plenty of raw energy in this film, and it will certainly linger in your mind - though you may not want all of it to do so - but a little more focus on and empathy with these abused misfits would have made it a more interesting, and more disturbing, experience...