| This is a troubling film. While some could dismiss Takashi Miike's previous "Full Metal Yakuza," "Ichi the Killer" and other films as cartoonish winks at the audience, his intentions are quite serious here. Izo Okada was a real-life money-strapped ronin recruited into the pro-Meiji Restoration Hitokiri killers by Takechi Hanpeita. The same man was portrayed by Shintaro Katsu in Gosha's "Hitokiri" (1969). Crucified for the many murders he had committed, Izo is catapulted through time and place as Miike explores the vital and unkillable spirit of aggression he sees underlying Japanese and World history. Characters are sliced and killed, and except for Izo himself they remain dead - graphically so. Miike demonstrates not only the brutality of war but the venality of its proponents - much below the moral level to consign young souls to slaughter.
If the viewer is averse to extreme violence, he should stay away. |
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