Director Takashi Miike’s ever inventive interpretation of the underbelly of the Japanese gangster fraternity never ceases to amaze me. Not content with focusing purely on the inner politics that surround the various Yakuza organizations, Miike’s passion for offering something that step out of the ordinary is clear to all with his frankly bizarre yarn about Hagane, the bumbling Yakuza member who’s untimely death offers him a chance to return as a super robotic gangster. With his use of violent and visually unsettling imagery, Miike’s work never shrinks away from the controversial but one plot vehicle that Miike uses very occasionally is dark humor which, for me, always works so well in contrast to the sickness and cruelty.
Hagane’s acceptance as a tough Yakuza member has never been forthcoming. He pisses his pants when executing a mob hit, he gets beaten up by a group of street punks and his girlfriend laughs at the size of his love tool and how he uses it. The young wanabe thug is a joke and is only kept around because he’s good at cleaning the toilet and, for some reason has gained the respect of the Yakuza group’s boss. But when Hagane gets caught up in a plan to assassinate his boss his death brings about a new lease of life as the ultimate Yakuza gangster, one who then commences an outrageous journey of revenge against those who took his life.
Ten years after Robocop we now have Roboyakuza, a mix of underworld politics and super human cybernetics placed amongst a revenge plot not un-similar to that of Kill Bill and a never ceasing desire to create death and destruction just like the T-800 from The Terminator. Whilst the first half of the film is a pretty straight yet amusing tale of incompetence, the second half couldn’t be more different as we are introduced to the mad scientist who crafts Hagane into the metallic freak. This pantomime Frankenstein likes to dress in outrageous outfits and is the focal point for several amusing moments that do become a little unsettling towards the end when, for what ever reason, he decides to grope the breasts of a new female subject in a rather unnecessary display of pure insanity. There are also some very odd moments that surround Hagane’s new manhood which, thanks to modern science, has been oversized to the length of a cricket bat. I’m not sure what was going through Miike’s mind when he was developing this particular plot point but the censor’s sure didn’t get the joke as local censorship is used in this particular version to hide his huge appendage.
Several moments occur which seem at odds with the established story including Hagane’s lack of human emotion which surely makes no sense as he stomps through his aggressors on his flight of revenge. Revenge in itself indicates a will to put right the wrongs that have occurred which is as much a display of human nature as any I can think of. Also, for a film that’s tone has been bloody but lightly camp, we get a segment that changes the mood entirely and one which I dare anybody to sit through without feeling extremely uncomfortable. Miike attempts and succeeds in throwing his audience off balance by placing a rape scene in to the proceedings that culminates in the female character biting off her own tongue in an attempt to end the misery as she slowly bleeds to death. A startling reminder of just how dark the mind of our director can truly be.
Full Metal Yakuza is a rare breed combining some very effective bloody battling with childish humor that culminates in a typically off the wall Japanese finale, but the dark side is strong in this one as the brutality that flows through Miike’s films once again raises it’s head just when you least expect it.
