Gozu (2003) User Reviews

A Freudian road trip through Hell

[reelreviewsandrecommendations · 8/10 · 26 August 2022]

From the twisted minds of Takashi Miike and Sakichi Sato comes this atmospheric and absurd crime comedy about a Yakuza underlings' quest to find his missing colleague. To discuss the plot any further would be an exercise in cruelty to uninitiated viewers, as to watch this film without knowing what'll happen next- or without knowing anything about it at all, for that matter- is an experience like no other. It's a terrifyingly hilarious tour through the subconscious to the darkest recesses of the mind, featuring the Lynchian-Cronenbergian mix of horror and comedy that is the hallmark of Takashi Miike's best work.

Hideki Sone- now known as Yuta Sone- plays the central character, Minami. A low-level Yakuza, Sone's Minami is a perfect conduit for the audience as the film burrows into the dark and strange. He is as disturbed by the spectacle of madness that confronts him as many viewers likely will be. At times the character bears a resemblance to Anthony Perkins' K in Orson Welles' version of 'The Trial', in that everyone around him doesn't appear at all disturbed by the confusing, bizarre scenes that are occurring. Minami is the only one perturbed by the happenings in 'Gozu', and Sone's naturalistic, bewildered performance is pitch perfect for the role.

Show Aikawa plays Minami's missing colleague Ozaki, and he is brilliantly unhinged. A frequent collaborator of Miike's, Aikawa is a very versatile actor with the admirable, enviable ability to give believable, grounded performances as outrageous characters (see him in Miike's 'Dead or Alive' series for proof of this notion). Few roles he's played have been as crazy as Ozaki though, a violent, paranoid Yakuza distrustful of dogs and humans alike. Though he has relatively little screen time, Aikawa leaves a lasting impression; and 'Gozu' may be one of the most memorable movies he's made with Miike.

The rest of the cast is made up of talented performers, with Renji Ishibashi- another frequent collaborator of Miike's- and Keiko Tomita standing out, playing two sick, strange characters. Miike usually gives Ishibashi roles as creepy, twisted people; and his character in 'Gozu'- a ladle-loving sadomasochist- may be the creepiest of the lot. Tomita plays an innkeeper Minami encounters along the way who has a very weird secret and she steals her scenes completely.

Kazunari Tanaka's cinematography is unobtrusively refined and he captures the outlandishly bizarre images in the film with real panache. Sakichi Sato and Miike worked together two years before on 'Ichi the Killer,' and his script for 'Gozu' is terrifically weird and wonderfully sinister- not to mention bizarrely funny. The film doesn't take itself too seriously- though its themes are dark and deep- and his strong screenplay reflects this. Many times, while wondering what the peculiar images signify and just what the hell is going on; most will also be laughing while watching 'Gozu.'

Yes, while most will find humour alongside the macabre in 'Gozu', it is almost a certainty that some will be nothing more or less than disgusted and discouraged at the spectacle of psychological, abstract horror in the film. If you are squeamish or easily perturbed, you should probably avoid it at all costs. If you appreciate the complex, the strange and the dark, however; then 'Gozu' is the film for you.

One of the best black comedies of all time.

[Jacques98 · 7/10 · 14 January 2009]

The reason black comedy really isn't funny anymore is because all modern black comedies just repeat the same jokes. Though Gozu isn't going to have you laughing on your first viewing, it definitely will have you laughing in shock when you look back post-viewing, after everything comes together. Gozu isn't really hard to understand, it isn't complex, but it certainly isn't forgettable. If anything, it's set up a lot like a sick version of The Wizard of Oz: a straight path, with the lead character meeting eccentric secondary characters that help him along until he reaches the final solution to his problem. While this seems simplistic, it's impossible to not notice Takashi Miike's stunning originality throughout. While most Asian horror is riddled with cliché ghosts and evil mothers, Takashi Miike proves here that he is not only the most original Asian director out there, but one of the most original directors working in the industry today. And I think Gozu may be his masterwork.

I'm personally sick of movies that claim to be a mind trip, filled with "weird" ideas that turn out to be nothing but cliché mentions of time travel and every other genetic idea. I could list names of these films—Donnie Darko, 12 Monkeys, etc.—but the point is, weird isn't weird anymore in modern cinema. If you were been born and raised on The Twilight Zone like I was, all these movies are as generic as average spy thrillers. Gozu, however, may be one few films to come out post-2000 that I can honestly call weird. And, believe me, that is a good thing. Instead of rehashing tired clichés, Gozu brings the viewer to placed they've never even thought of before. The opening instructs the viewer not to "take anything seriously—it's all a joke", and the punch line has to be one of the most bazaar endings in cinema history. It's terrifying and genuinely grotesque, as well as hilarious. Everything in this movie is stuff writers/directors would sit around and joke about, but never, EVER, have the balls to actually film. That's what makes the story behind Gozu so refreshing and truly original. I can't believe I'm actually writing that final line in a review.

Miike's directing is stylish, as always. He knows how to set up a scene and inflict a terrifying mood. The entire film takes itself so deadpan seriously, and though that would usually be a fatal blow to most movies, Miike makes it work here. Somehow. Whenever a major plot point happens, it's done so flawlessly it's impossible not to be immersed in the moment.

So why didn't I give Gozu a perfect score? Because as much as I loved it, the movie needed to be shortened. Do not get me wrong: I love Miike's slow dialogue as much as I love his balls-to-the-wall action, but here it gets a little overbearing. Characters sit and stare at things without any purpose, and while it works, it's just not entertaining at all. The movie could have been shortened by at least 20 minutes, and if it had been, it would have been near perfection. Also, a few scenes became very repetitious and even mildly annoying. What I mean to say is, although the story is amazing, Gozu lacks a lot of entertainment value.

Overall, though, despite its flaws, Gozu is not forgettable. It's hard for me to remember a time when I would pop in a DVD and actually remember what I watched by the next morning. In a world of cheap carbon copies plots and cheesy horror elements, Gozu seems almost like perfection, even though it really isn't. But I have no room to complain. I'd take this over another black-haired-ghost-girl-evil-mother-terrorist-time-travel movie ANY DAY.

7/10

Very Strange....but in a good way

[theoscillator_13 · 7/10 · 15 June 2005]

The synopsis on the DVD case compares it to something in the style of David Lynch. I would agree with that. It's definitely a surreal and strange movie. I would not rank it as high as Ichi the Killer or Audition , both of which I loved. This is Takishi Miike doing what he does best, trying to shock people but I think he's trying too hard with this movie at times to the point where it gets boring. The movie seems to loose itself in it's own strangeness at times but overall it's accomplishes what it's out to accomplish.

This movie is a nice piece of artistic filmaking and I must say that it actually made me much more uncomfortable then Ichi or Audition especially the last 30 mins or so.....watch it and you'll know what I mean.

Overall, if you are a Miike fan or a fan of David Lynch or that style of film-making then you'll appreciate this movie. If you have seen this and have not seen Ichi the Killer or Audition, do yourself a favor and go out and rent or buy those.

A post-apocalyptic, homosexual-psychodrama

[ThreeSadTigers · 29 December 2007]

Takashi Miike's stark, "Yakuza Horror Theatre" presentation Gozu (2003) is an infernal cinematic nightmare of fear and anxiety, played out within a sepia-toned subterranean underworld abstracted to the point of outright parody. Like many of the director's more personal and idiosyncratic pictures, the plot is largely secondary to the uncomfortable atmosphere and wild sense of spectacle presented on screen, as Miike constructs an absurd and enigmatic story of a loyal Yakuza henchman struggling with issues of homosexuality, guilt and desire when he is required by his boss to "dispose" of his mentally unstable brother in arms. This incredibly personal and moral dilemma - in which the central character must juggle the greater notions of loyalty to his boss and the loyalty to his best-friend and mentor-like figure that he's obviously quite attracted to - creates a rift within the world of the film that plunges the whole story into suffocating surrealism, horror and the absurd.

As with his other great masterworks, such as Audition (1999), Birds (2000), Visitor Q (2001) and The Happiness of the Katakuris (2001), Miike takes the story in so many continually contrasting and self-consciously abstract directions as to render any notion of a single interpretation entirely void. Instead, he bombards the audience with a seemingly endless barrage of repeatedly warped visions, uncomfortable scenarios and bursts of disarming black comedy to continually shock, amuse and perturb us into a sense of ultimate submission. Eventually, the point of the film becomes less important that the sub-textual ideas behind it and the surreal and over-the-top manner in which the director depicts it - with the tone of the film switching continually from the first scene to the last, as the absurdities of the Yakuza genre that Miike knows so well are persistently ripped-to-shreds and turned into fodder for this meta-physical, psycho-sexual conundrum.

With this in mind, it is best to approach Gozu as a prolonged nightmare, complete with personal demons and elements of religious imagery interweaving, as all notions of character and conventional narrative development are done away with in favour of an almost stream of consciousness presentation where the real, the dream and the purely metaphorical are smashed together and left in shards for the audience to reinterpret as they see fit. With Gozu, more so than any of his other recent pictures, Miike takes his personal style further than even the hall-of-mirrors-like surrealism of Audition; creating a dark and distorted recreation of a nameless Japanese underworld that is labyrinthine and claustrophobic throughout, whilst simultaneously jarring us back and forth with Buddhist symbolism, bizarre caricatures and a continual hum of aural, industrialised ambiance. The whole thing is further heightened by the glowing yellow sepia tones of the cinematography, merging with the occasional shards of red and blue lighting, the lingering shadows around the edges of the frame and the often distancing and exaggerated camera angles and choices of location.

With these factors in place, it would be easy to categorise Gozu as a horror film; however, this simply isn't the case. As with many of Miike's more iconic films, Gozu follows no singular genre or style; moving freely between the characteristics of illogical comedy, knock-about buddy picture, gritty Yakuza-thriller, unrequited romance and psychological horror story seemingly simultaneously. Obviously, when we take this approach into consideration, Gozu won't be the kind of film that appeals to everyone, with a certain interest and familiarity with Miike as a filmmaker required by the audience to really appreciate the sense of humour and the continual shifts in tone. Even then, multiple viewing will be needed for the audience to fully digest the film's central message and layers of potential interpretation. However, it's definitely worth it, especially for anyone with a keen interest in the work of similarly minded filmmakers like David Lynch, Terry Gilliam, Sogo Ishii, Ken Russell, David Cronenberg and Shinya Tsukamoto.

Gozu takes the surreal horror and ambient farce of films like The Happiness of the Katakuris and Visitor Q to the next conceivable level of cinematic deconstruction, self-reference and meta-textual despair; as we literally submerge ourselves in a homosexual love story played out against a self-aware purgatory-like construction, rife with the allusions to the filmmakers aforementioned, and further applied alongside the desolate use of landscapes, jarring shifts from parody to horror and the freewheeling structure of the narrative itself. Combined with the fine performances from Hideki Sone, Kimika Yoshino, Tetsurô Tamba and Miike regulars Sho Aikawa and Renji Ishibashi, Gozu is easily one of its directors best and most unique endeavours; an arch, dead-pan, deranged and often dangerous sub-textual trawl through one man's despair and Freudian confusion dressed up as a post-apocalyptic fable of ridiculous gangster theatrics, role playing, gender metamorphosis and pure, existentialist angst.

topped it

[psaygin · 9/10 · 19 January 2005]

i did not know anything about Miike when i saw Gozu. i read about Gozu in a magazine randomly and it sounded like something i had to see. then i waited a few weeks until it was in the theatres here. i told my fellow David Lynch fan officemate "hey, here is this movie which sounds cool, i think we both need to see this".

so we went. afterwards we left the theatre in a state of amazement. we had seen and enjoyed "weird" movies all our lives, Lynch, Cronenberg, whatever. we both enjoyed surrealism in general. even so, Gozu was really a peak experience.

but you can't just be weird for the sake of weird... is Gozu good? definitely. it is well-made, beautiful,... and it speaks to a deep visceral part at times. and then turn ridiculous and made you laugh... but even in the weirdest movies you have seen, there is probably more linearity and perhaps some symbolism you can conjure up. i think with Gozu, the way to see it is, just watch and let it take you. open your mind a little more than usual. otherwise i don't know what effect this movie can have on someone. for me, it was very significant. i immediately went and saw it again the next night (which was the last night it was playing) and my appreciation grew.

Miike is amazing. very talented director. good use of sound as well as the great visuals everyone talks about. i am looking forward to more of his work.

The Japanese equivalent of a David Lynch's Twin Peaks with a touch of "Eyes Wide Shut"

[Icarus_prime · 7/10 · 23 December 2017]

Basically a Japanese Yakuza Twin Peaks Lynch-like movie. Starts off slow because you have no idea where the movie is going but you slowly realise that you can appreciate it for the weird, surreal atmosphere.

Not sure what the movie is trying to say, but if someone told me it's a more fucked up, twisted version of Eyes Wide Shut in terms of undergoing some sexual odyssey, then I'll gladly believe them.

Also...that...ending...

an insane ride

[djores · 9/10 · 7 December 2005]

Miike is probably one of only a dozen directors to make 6-8 movies a year. Yet he is the only one to keep not only a consistent quality at this rate, but also to keep surprising his fans. "Gozu" is a case in point.

A yakuza meeting turns ugly when Ozaki, in a paranoid moment, paints a window red with a chihuahua. The boss puts Ozaki's understudy Minami in charge of taking care of him and sends both of them away.

The tongue in cheek yakuza plot provides only the starting point. From there on, it's a cast of characters that would put to shame any freak show and/or dada event. Just as "Ichi the Killer" is a movie about gangster violence taken to its extreme (yakuza are ultimately masochist), so is this one about gangster loyalty taken to its latent homosexual conclusion. However, one could just as easily read it as a study of a character, lost in the effort of coping with the absurd situations that stand in for the jumble of his own emotions and motivations. Minami spends a lot of time riding around Nagoya in his Mustang convertible. As I watched him, I felt in a somewhat similar situation: sometimes riding along Miike, sometimes being taken for a ride, but ultimately just following the trip for the sheer fun of turning, stopping, accelerating, passing, reversing, having a flat tire...

Miike proves not only that he's one of the most innovative and productive directors of all time, but also that unlike critics everywhere, he can take himself not seriously - watch out for quotes and references to some of his earlier classics (Visitor Q, Dead or Alive.) And don't worry, the ending is sure to surprise you, even if you are a seasoned fan. If this is your first Miike movie, watch any other one mentioned in this review first, then come back to this one.

not Miike's best

[JetJagMan · 6/10 · 3 October 2003]

I am all for films that value mood, moment, images, music over plot, but I am growing weary of international and independent films that lack all sense of story. There has to be something moving things along. The characters have to want something identifiable, to keep my interest.

Gozu pales in comparison to Visitor Q and Ichi The Killer, in that the latter two, most of the time we know roughly why the characters are doing what they or doing, or at least what they are after, or we can place their actions in the context of the larger story. Gozu spends a lot of time going nowhere. Now, the breast milk and final scene sure got the audience groaning and guffawing, but that's not enough to sustain a movie.

Let's home Miike doesn't become a caricature of himself. Let's hope he resumes his fine work of laying out a movie that moves along. They aren't called "movies" for nothing.

Wonderful creativity

[simon_booth · 9/10 · 5 June 2004]

Takashi Miike is a very strange man - I think there's sufficient evidence of that fact that I need not justify it further. So if I tell you that GOZU is probably Miike's weirdest film to date, you will know that we are talking some world-class oddity. Billed as a "Yakuza Horror" film, which is a label that just about fits if you consider that Japanese horror films have always shown a very different sensibility than Hollywood films (Japanese horror is generally of a quite intangible nature, about the horror of the unknown and the incomprehensible - not so much about the big scary monsters). GOZU is interesting in that the "horror" of it comes almost entirely from the way it is filmed - the camera work, the editing and the sound effects all come together to create a sense of foreboding and fear that for the most part is not at all born out by the actual events in the film. Miike is probably making the point that most horror films are just exercises in film-making technique these days, rather than presenting truly frightening content. Or perhaps he just fancied a way to make his latest Yakuza film a little bit different :)

Miike is definitely one of the most creative film-makers working in the world today - quite possibly *the* most, given his insanely prolific output and the fact that almost every film he makes manages to be unique and memorable. Doing that with one film a year would be an impressive feat, and Miike gives us at least 3-4 such films every year. GOZU shows him on fine creative form once more, turning a story that probably isn't all that interesting into a surreal, dreamlike experience. The plot itself is very minimal, and largely irrelevant for most of the 125 minute running time. Basically, a Yakuza is told to take his yakuza-brother (Sho Aikawa) to an out of the way part of Japan and get rid of him, as he been showing signs of going a bit loopy. However, before he can carry out his orders, Aikawa disappears - and most of the rest of the film is concerned with Minami's efforts to find him. But that description really sells short the content of the film, which is really about the strange characters he encounters and the even stranger experiences that he has.

Going into more detail about what happens wouldn't add a lot to this review, so I won't. Just be prepared to "go with the flow" and see what the film has to offer, rather than expecting anything specific from it. Don't expect a nice neat resolution at the end, either, 'cause you'll definitely be disappointed. Miike's films are often films that need to be seen in just the right mood to be enjoyed, and I'm glad I made the decision that my mood wasn't right when I started watching GOZU 6 months ago. The film sat there waiting for me until this weekend, when I figured the time was as good as it was going to get, and it paid off in spades :)

Miike's films often suffer on repeat viewings, and I am pretty sure this will be true of GOZU - at over 2 hours it is definitely too long, and there are sure to be scenes that are a bit of a chore to sit through when you know what's coming. I couldn't say which scenes they are from a first viewing though, so there's nothing that's truly redundant in there, and I hope that the US distributors that recently acquired the film will remember that their viewers would rather make the decision themselves about any scenes that weren't needed. i.e. uncut, please!

Bizarre Visual Feast

[hokeybutt · 6/10 · 21 December 2005]

GOZU (3 outta 5 stars) This is a typically extreme and bizarre visual feast from the mind of director Takashi Miike... marred only by the lack of any forward momentum of the storyline. One weird scene follows another until... they just ran out of ideas for weird scenes, I guess. Basically, the movie deals with a Yakuza gangster who is ordered to kill a colleague while on a road trip. The colleague dies by accident and, when the gangster stops in a small village to phone in his report, the corpse disappears from the front seat of the car. The movie is certainly not boring and a lot of fun to watch but if you are familiar with other Miike films you may find that this movie is nothing but a hodge-podge of elements from his more memorable movies. If you are a Miike novice and you enjoy this movie at all you will definitely be thrilled by his other works ("Audition", "Izo", "Ichi the Killer") but I don't really think this would be the best intro to his stylish oeuvre.

Nonsensical...and really awful.

[planktonrules · 1/10 · 28 July 2015]

"Gozu" is an absurdist picture from famed Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike. When I call it absurdist, this means that there really is no meaning to the film at all--and all the bizarreness and nonsense really means nothing. Some folks might like artsy nonsense like this--I just thought it was stupid and pretentious.

A Yakuza member is told to transport a really crazy and dangerous member of his gang to the countryside. The guy seems to die--but later the dead crazy guy and the driver spends the rest of the film looking for him. During this search, he encounters all sorts of meaningless and brain-melting idiots. There is the old woman who loves to shoot milk out of her breasts everywhere and she spends much of her time filling milk bottles. There are the patrons in a weird restaurant who keep repeating the same lines over and over and over and over. There's a giant man/bull who licks the driver all over the face for no apparent reason as well as an S&M scene involving the milk lady and her brother. And finally, we have the guy with the ladle stuck up his butt. As I said, none of it makes any sense and to me it felt like watching a version of "The Wizard of Oz" made by folks who were both on LSD and had very significant brain injuries. Some folks seemed to love it and think it amazing, others (like myself) think it's just a stupid waste of time.

By the way, although there is no apparent reason for any of the weirdness in the film, Miike has made some wonderfully strange films that DID work...and work well, such as the ultra-strange but clever and watchable "Happiness of the Katakuris". The key, though is WATCHABILITY--and "Gozu" has absolutely none.

Insane, Funny, Horrific, and Awesome

[Cheesedemon28 · 10/10 · 16 September 2004]

This is perhaps the first movie I've ever seen that's had me consistently laughing out loud and then nearly creeping me out to the point of p**sing my pants. Don't get me wrong... this movie won't have you shrieking because of frights... but it will quietly nestle itself in the back of your brain and set shop in your nightmares. Did I mention it's also hilarious?

Where to start... Gozu starts somewhat normal (compared to the rest of the movie): Ozaki, a member of the Azumawari Yakuza clan, is starting to go crazy, even paranoid. So it's up to his successor and admirer, Minami, to get rid of him. Now just when you think the movie's going to be a heartbreaker about duty and brotherhood, the s**t hits the fan. Ozaki dies before he's supposed to. His corpse disappears. The dead seem to walk in more than one incident.

Breastmilk is being sold to everyone. Cow demons are handing out pornography in the middle of the night. WHAT THE HELL DOES IT ALL MEAN!?!?

I'm not totally sure. Without spoiling anything, the themes tend to lean towards rebirth, motherhood, and homosexuality, all at once. I've seen the movie three times now, and each time I've got something different out of it. That, my friends, is mastery. I'm not quite sure if Gozu is one for the ages, but even in a year with such movies as Fahrenheit 9/11, Garden State, Ju-on, The Corporation, and

Coffee and Cigarettes, this has to be my favorite so far.

The Final Cut:

Direction: A

Well, gosh, it's Takashi Miike. Do you expect any less?

Style: A+++

Once again, Miike delivers head-on with the style. This movie is so fudged-up, you will probably go somewhat crazy.

Acting: A-

Hideki Sone, who plays Minami, is absolutely fantastic in this movie, as is Sho Aikawa, who has a supporting role in Ozaki. Just plain brilliance.

Script: B

A little janky at some parts, but it compliments Miike's insane outlook quite nicely.

Music: A

Koji Endo's creepy cello / nails on chalkboard score scared the crap out of me, while the bizarre ending song broke my heart in a way like no other.

Overall: A

Don't miss this! You probably aren't going to get another chance to see Gozu on the big screen for a LONG time.

Best quote: "You weener looks just like Frankenstein's!"

Slightly disappointing...

[jcr22 · 7/10 · 20 October 2003]

I'm a big Miike fan but have to say I was let down a bit by gozu. It seemed to me to be little more than a series of unconnected set pieces rather than a coherently plotted movie, and that it was a gross out movie pretending it's high art. And strangely enough I didn't think it was that gross... The ending is almost identical to Lars Von Triers The Kingdom and it was done better there. Don't get me wrong, it's funny as hell and well acted but I was just expecting something more. Maybe I just went in to it too hyped up. Ah well I give it 6/10. If you're new to Miike I'd recommend you leave this alone and check out fudoh or dead or alive instead.

Weird for weirdness sake

[grantss · 2/10 · 4 August 2019]

Minami, a junior member of a Japanese underworld organisation, is sent on a road trip with a senior colleague, Ozaki. Ozaki is to be bumped off, as he is now a liability to the organisation. On the way Ozaki disappears under mysterious circumstances.

Directed by Japanese action-horror master Takashi Miike, this movie had potential. The yakuza setup, the planned assassination, Minami's conflicted loyalties, all these should have set the movie up for interesting plot development. Sadly, it was not to be.

The movie moves at a pretty slow pace initially and for the first 60% or so it is quite dull. After that it is plain weird, and weird for weirdness sake rather than interesting/quirky-weird. Very pretentious, pointless second half.

"Orpheus and Eurydice" for Miike Fans

[wordmonkey · 4 November 2004]

It hit me like a thunderbolt about two days after I saw the film that the plot is that of "Orpheus and Eurydice." I don't know how intentional this connection is, yet for those who think that the film's events are arbitrary or meaningless, I beg to differ, as such is clearly not the case.

{SPOILERS BELOW}

Minami, the young Yakuza, is analogous to Orpheus, and Ozaki, his yakuza "brother," is the Eurydice whom Minami must rescue from the underworld (Nagoya).

Right at the beginning, as the two drive to Nagoya, Minami almost drives into a river, but slams on his brakes just before entering the water. Ozaki is whiplashed by the stop and seems to "die." This is the point at which they hit the river Styx that the dead cross to reach the underworld.

In the next scene, they are across, in "hell," and that's when everything begins to get really weird. Minami loses Ozaki, and must find him by passing a series of surreal challenges with demonic or supernatural figures (including a "broken" over-nurturing mother, a minotaur-like cow, several dead men, and gruesome trash compactors who crush bodies and remove their skins). Finally, Minami must rescue Ozaki after Ozaki's rebirth as a woman from their oyabun (boss), the king of the underworld -- who originally wanted Ozaki dead, but now wants him for a "bride."

Through all of this, Minami's "guide" is a man who, with his skin half-whitened, is like a person who can traverse both the living and dead worlds, as he is symbolically half-spirit.

It all fits very nicely. The more the more I examine this film, the more I love it. It's yet another brilliant Miike film laden with dreamlike imagery that gives it weight and power. This makes it a great match with Miike's previous "Visitor Q," another masterpiece of great symbolic kick and potent, unforgettable imagery.

THE wild goose chase of Takashi Miike's career; enough to give Freud a hemorrhage

[Quinoa1984 · 10/10 · 2 April 2007]

Let it be known that Gozu won't be for everyone. This recommendation is not for a mass audience in the slightest. This is not Takashi Miike, filmmaker behind the modern cult hits Ichi the Killer and Audition, as you'd might expect. And yet, if you've seen these films, to an ironic extent, you should know what to expect. Gozu is a fabulous act of surrealistic tastelessness, a peering into filmmaker and screenwriter into what can f*** around enough in their psyches to have it blasted back into these characters here. So much can be read into everything that goes on, though I wondered at first if the bulk of film could do better than the first twenty minutes, where a psychotic yakuza- who sees little dogs and cars as specifically "Yakuza killing"- is being taken to be offed by his 'brother'. Whether it's really his brother or not AT FIRST doesn't seem important, until he loses him while stopping at a restaurant. From there on in, we're given a near shaggy-dog story, as if done in the ideals of reaching Lynchian proportions even still with a unique attitude and sense of humor.

If I tried to say too much of what goes on in Gozu one might just stop reading altogether - or be anticipating it, depending on the fan. Miike's style here is stripped down to essentials this time, which is very fitting for the story and characters he's relaying. Not that he's one to skimp on atmosphere, far from it, and if there's one thing he succeeds at in homaging/parodying Lynch it's in the use of sound, and how much varied colors in the lighting can make a difference for the psychological effect. Then again, one would need such a heightened sense of reality, or rather in Gozu as it's sort of not rushed, taking its time with its backwoods gang: the guy with the half-white face dazed out of his gourde; the lactating woman who, forgive me for actually writing this, isn't quite as effective as the lactating woman in Visitor Q; the various owners and hanger-ons at the places Minami, our protagonist, goes around to find his brother. It finally leads him to a woman, who says to him something unbelievable that, somehow, he buys without a second thought (at this point, as Jodorowsky used to say on his film sets I'd wager, 'why not'?) By now someone watching this will have said more than once "alright, this is starting to get weird", but there's more in store on the side of the personal side, and something that happens that, as Miike can only do, actually softens the much more disturbing implications of the shock before the BIGGER shocker.

Gozu is somehow, through all of its deliberate sideshow irregulars, ominous signs and the little knife-stabs of circumstance encountered by the wandering yakuza, very funny throughout because of something elemental Miike knows about this: it's the only way it could work, if it does at all. Other reviewers have and will continue to argue the pointlessness, the meandering, and how it goes too far over the line of decency in films. The first two can be arguable, but the last part is what Miike works best at here: take the audience over the line, and still say "it's only a joke." I'd have to imagine that, if only out of the little behavioral bits in Gozu, that Miike was behind the camera laughing silly. He means for it to be a serious presentation, to be sure, but what are we to make of a brother and sister who can conjure up dead spirits by one constantly thwacking the other with a fly swatter and chanting incantations? Or a classic dream involving a cow head and some sexual jealousy? The opening to the movie, in a sense, sets up the first litmus test, as some might want to turn it off right away. Yet its the nature of a surrealist, as Miike goes for here, to get away with vicious, wicked pranks that get the audience in an uproar, and since its never done too draggingly, and the thinking gets richer in the nature of the characters as it goes along, it's a successful work.

It's maddening and about societal madness, with enough U-turns and carefully composed visuals for two Miike movies, and it's one of the true like it or don't films of the past several years. For me, Miike and his writer Saito have not-so-subtly hit it out of the park.

Hard to dislike, Silly and Spooky

[SteveRaccoon · 7/10 · 26 November 2005]

This film is certainly not for fans of mainstream flicks, I'm not even sure if it's for all fans of the darker side of Asian cinema either.

It doesn't make a whole lot of sense, to be honest, even when you do force some framework of a plot onto the film (and think "there, that's what it all means"), you're still wondering why one character did this, what that scene meant etc.

The plot itself could be written in a few sentences, but it's the characters which really flesh out the film. Their mannerisms, the fact that you REALLY want to dislike some of them, you want the main character to dislike them. Yet, he doesn't it seems, and neither did I. Very rarely does a film actually make me want to think about the characters, decide whether I'd ever want to encounter such people in life.

One thing that really bites about this film (it's been highlighted by other reviewers) is the length of the picture. A lot of this extra time comes from empty scenes where nothing happens, nobody says anything and there's precious little to think about. The film could easily have lost half an hour of 'gawp-time' and still been just as delicious (if not more so). That knocks a point off the score, particularly when a film is this good! I don't want to have internal arguments about whether to fast-forward or not, I want to enjoy the film.

That aside, I'm delighted to have this film on the shelf.

If you're not 100% sure of your love of Takashi Miike's work, I'd recommend renting this first. If you've seen none of Miike's work, definitely rent first!

Cow head .. hmmmm ??

[CelluloidRehab · 9/10 · 6 August 2004]

If this is your first dive into the realm of Takashi Miike, STOP. GO BACK. REMOVE THIS MOVIE FROM YOU DVD PLAYER. You have to start somewhere less obscure than this movie. You can start out with Audition (or one of the Dead or Alive movies), follow that up with Happiness of the Katakuris and then either Ichi the Killer or Visitor Q. Once you have seen that, then you are ready to savor the flavor of this movie. To try to describe this movie would do the movie and you, the reader, an injustice. This movie just has to be watched and experienced. What can you expect from Gozu ?? Yakuzas. Killer Yakuza attack dogs. Lots of driving. Transvestites. Breast milk. Seance. Horse cropping. Sex. Birth. Ladles. The plot is based on the adventures of a yakuza made-man (Ozaki) and his underling (Minami). Ozaki is going crazy and the Boss has ordered Minami to take care of him. From there on you'll just have to watch to get the point (if there is one). As compared to his other movies, this one doesn't really have much of a story. The sheer obscureness or strangeness (and/or dark comedy) holds the various events together, linking them into a movie. At the same time, you are sitting there waiting to see how much more bizarre things can get. The movie passed by pretty quickly, with little slowdown. Fans of Miike should definitely see this movie. For everyone else, see the movie at your risk.

-Celluloid Rehab

David Lynch- eat your heart out

[A_Coprophiliac · 7/10 · 6 August 2004]

Putting Gozu into words is an act of futility, it's more of a dream when you watch it. Fans of Miike's work will find this movie surprising, it's more of a twisted comedy, a cross between There's Something About Mary and Lost Highway and so it turns out to be something of a rarity.

(MANY SPOILERS APPROACHING)

The movie starts of normally (bar the killer yakuza dog and the killer yakuza car). Our hero, Minami (a fairly decent performance from Hideki Stone considering all the weirdness) has been asked to kill the, quite frankly mad but likable, Ozaki. With no intention of doing so he accidentally "kills" him anyway and that's when our hero starts tumbling down the rabbit hole. With (and spoilers approaching) , the most bizarre "child"birth ever thought and the weird old lady who runs the hotel obsessed with her breasts, the dreams Minami has about the person with the cow head (Gozu means cow's head in Japanese), the talking vagina, the list is end less (not to mention the hilarious yet revolting death by ladle inserted into the anus)

Gozu is not a traditional film and is most definitely not mainstream, hell, it might not make any sense at all, but there is something about this film that makes you feel drawn to it, like a Lynch film, the director respects the audience and there is a certain charm you get from the film.

I enjoyed Gozu and when comparing it with other films in it's genre (whatever the hell genre it is), Lost Highway, Erazerhead and Blue Velvet, I feel it makes a worthy, if not necessary, addition to the world of film.

72%

a fascinating nightmare

[kmevy · 10/10 · 17 June 2006]

Gozu is my third miike movie and i have to say that i am again quite astonished. Sure, he didn't wrote the script but the staging of this movie is marvelous (camera angles/lightning/cut etc...). I've never seen a movie with so many scenes which are funny, grotesque and scary at the very same time. This is so fascinating! One moment you could really burst out laughing and then immediately freeze because of the instant turn of events;..and vice-versa. This is also based on the excellent performance of the cast and the very creepy but ingenious sound-design/soundtrack.

Well, it is unavoidable that some might think of gozu as a repugnant and f***ed up movie. But for all those, who would want to take an unique and psychedelic ride: i really recommend to check this one out.

Deja Vù...

[thedudester · 6/10 · 24 July 2003]

Interesting, for sure... but don't you think that this Japanese New Wave has been a little too overrated? After all, David Lynch has been doing a terrific job and had been feeding us the same kind of weirdeness for a long time now... anyway, watch it and you won't be displeased... but don't think it is going to be an epiphany or any kind of breakthrough...

A confusing and surreal movie from one of Japan's most unique movie makers.

[BA_Harrison · 4/10 · 27 October 2006]

Heavily influenced by the surreal movies of David Lynch, and steeped in Eastern mythological references and symbolism, Gozu is a bizarre movie, even by Takashi Miike's standards. Having watched several of the prolific director's other works, I felt ready to tackle what is probably one of his more inaccessible works.

As it turns out, I wasn't! At over two hours long (unrated), Gozu represents one of the strangest movie experiences I have had in a long time, and I won't even pretend to understand exactly what Miike is trying to say with this particular film.

Minami (Hideki Sone) is a young yakuza who is instructed by his bosses to take his embarrassingly eccentric 'brother', Ozaki (Shô Aikawa), to the town of Nagoya to be 'disposed of'.

Minami reluctantly follows his orders but, before he even arrives at the town, Ozaki is killed in an accident. Minami stops at a restaurant to use the telephone and consider his options, but whilst he is in the restroom, Ozaki's body goes missing.

Minami's next couple of days are spent searching for his missing brother who eventually turns up alive and well—as a sexy young woman (Kimika Yoshino). With the new (and, in my opinion, vastly improved) Ozaki now reunited with his underling, the two return to the city to confront their Yakuza boss...

Despite containing enough weirdness for several movies and a memorable last 30 minutes or so in which Miike goes into off-beat overdrive, Gozu is actually quite a tedious film which often tested my patience (and my ability to stay awake). After a nifty opening scene in which Ozaki spectacularly kills a small dog by swinging it into a plate glass window, the film trundles along rather uneventfully for over an hour and a half. Even Miike's slow-burning Audition seems fast paced compared to Gozu.

Once Ozaki reappears as a woman, things get more interesting (although they are just as confusing), and the final couple of scenes are classic examples of Miike excess. Where else but in a Miike film can you witness a man inserting a ladle into his butt in order to achieve an erection and watch a woman give birth to a fully grown person?

If you're new to Miike's brand of cinema, then be warned—Gozu is not a good place to start; even seasoned viewers of his work may struggle with this offering. As innovative and inventive as this movie is, I just didn't find it that riveting.

Miike opens a big can of WTF

[Verklagekasper · 9/10 · 5 November 2013]

I watched Audition and Dead or Alive before watching Gozu, so I was familiar with Takashi Miike's weird visions. Or so I thought, because Gozu is so extra strange that I couldn't really figure out what was going on. But then again, maybe that's the whole point of it? Eventually, I just leaned back and enjoyed the show. Which is gross at times but also hilarious.

To find out if this movie is for you, just watch the first few minutes. If you feel appalled, you might want to skip this movie (as well as other Miike movies). If the opening makes you chuckle a bit, give the movie a try. It's a strange but highly entertaining ride.

Those who wanted something strange weren't disappointed

[GiraffeDoor · 7/10 · 19 March 2019]

This is an Odyssey of the bizarre and the macabre.

Going in knowing it's Takashi Miike, I was braced but even then he just finds new ways to weird me out both in imagery and script.

There isn't too much plot. Often with these movies I keep thinking there must be some nuance I'm missing.

But this whirldwind of the sordid world of crime where the gangsters seem like the most stable people is not easily forgotten.

Get high and watch with your friends. It'll be a riot.

Senseless movie

[athena24 · 2/10 · 20 August 2005]

I just don't understand why people praise this movie. I'm not a fan of alienated films like this one, but after I red the reviews about it I decided to give it a try.

****************** Spoilers Below *****************************

For the first hour of the movie, it was like a strange road movie with a lot of creepy characters. Strange, but nothing unusual. Others Have done it. In the middle of the film, when Nose tells Minami about the keeper of the coffee-place being dead for three years, I thought that all the town was populated by dead people ( It was very convenient since it could explain the vanishing of Ozaki). Actually I hoped it would turn that way. It would be kind of twilight zone theme. After the appearing of Ozaki the woman Gozu lost any connection to the previous 1.5 hour, or to any possible sense in the movie. The last part of reappearing of Ozaki the man was final punch to the movie. I just spent more then two hours on watching something what appeared to be a total loss.

******************* Spoilers Above ******************************

Gozu's main character (Minami) is not bad at all, but that's why my rating of this movie is 2/10 and not 1.

If you are not a fan of weird movies, skip this one. Otherwise you will regret seeing it.