FUDOH: THE NEXT GENERATION (1996)

Takeshi Miike is a cinematic visionary who has directed over 50 films and among these most memorable are Audition (2000) and Ichi the Killer (2001).  Miike's films often bring the audience into a dark and disturbing world of crime and psychologically distressing themes.  In Audition Miike depicts a love story that turns into a carnival of mutilation and degradation in which the audience still can connect with the mutilator.  In Ichi the Killer the audience can be forced into a shockingly violent world of crime, but there is a deep sense for the understanding of the characters despite the violence.  Miike's absurd fondness for the disturbed and dark shines through in his films, yet each film he directs has a unique touch and offers a new experience.  In short, Miike who seems to do nothing but work as he releases film after film, reinvents himself in each film with his own characteristic touch, and each accomplishment leaves a new mark of Miike.

Fudoh: The Next Generation is no exception to Miike's style as it takes on a yakuza revenge story where the young Riki Fudoh (Shosuke Tanihara) is severely traumatized by witnessing the murder of his brother as his father decapitates him in order to please the bosses of the other yakuza families.  Riki promises himself to seek revenge on those who ordered the killing of his brother.  Ten years later when Riki is in high school he has organized himself with well-trained six-year-old assassins with guns and stun-guns, two lethal high school girls, and a gigantic high school boy that can crush anything with his hands.  Riki begins to take on the yakuza killing them off one by one in Miike style, which means that each killing offers a new disturbing experience.  The question is can Riki make it, or will he also be a victim for the violence that he breeds around himself.  Fudoh: The Next Generation offers an interesting cinematic experience as it offers notions in regards to social learning and violence.

DIRECTED BY

Takashi Miike

COUNTRY

Japan
REVIEWED
7/3/2004
GRADE


Filmography links and data courtesy of  
The Internet Movie Database.