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(More customer reviews)Explaining that there's a "Yakuza attack dog" outside, a Japanese gangster in the midst of a nervous breakdown strolls out of a restaurant and proceeds to beat an adorable Chihuahua to death, culminating when he swings the animal over his head by its leash and throws it against a window with a sickening thud. A mob boss browbeats an underling over the phone while having sex with a ladle planted firmly up his rectum. An innkeeper lactates into bottles in order to avoid paying for milk, and later flogs her simple-minded brother with a chimney brush while he attempts to conjure up a spirit for a stunned guest. A drooling, cow-headed demon suddenly shows up in a dream sequence, then vanishes as quickly as it had appeared with no explanation whatsoever.
Sound weird? Well, it should. However, the foregoing are just a sampling of the oddities on display in Gozu (Japanese for "Cow head," apparently), a film that's sure to have even the most experienced enthusiasts of far-out cinema shaking their heads in wonderment. Directed by notorious Japanese weird-out master Takashi Miike with his typical combination of high style, black humor, and random acts of weirdness, Gozu is a relentlessly inscrutable movie, constantly throwing a new curveball at you just when you think you've got a grip on it. And while Miike has certainly toned down the bloodshed for which he's renowned here, his knack for unforgettable set pieces has obviously managed to survive intact. This movie has some images that WILL remain seared onto your retinas for some time after viewing, none more so than its literally unbelievable conclusion. There's not even a suitable description for that scene; you've just got to see it.
At the movie's beginning, things look much more innocent, or at least simpler. After the aforementioned mentally unbalanced Yakuza, Ozaki (played with menacing flair by Japanese crime-movie mainstay Sho Aikawa), commits his shocking act of doggy-cide in the opening scene, his boss decides he must be taken out. The task of doing the deed falls to his underling and closest friend, Minami (Hideki Sone), a nice enough sort who's understandably conflicted about whacking his old buddy. However, Minami manages to get the job done, albeit in a somewhat unconventional manner, and proceeds to a predetermined dump site in order to dispose of the body. Unfortunately, Minami makes a quick stop for coffee in a diner populated by some, er, offbeat characters, and suddenly looks at his car and finds Ozaki inexplicably gone. And that's when things get *really* weird.
His search for Ozaki takes Minami to a town filled with bizarre characters, from a gangster with no pigment on one side of his face to the aforementioned lactating innkeeper to a couple of weirdos who sit around a diner talking about the weather; and things just keep getting stranger from there. It quickly becomes apparent that Minami is the most normal person in the movie, and much of the fun of watching Gozu comes from observing the cognitive dissonance as Minami tries to adjust to the reality of his surroundings. It's horror of a sort, but it springs more from a deep-seated discomfort than from any particular shock or fright, and Sone conveys it brilliantly with little more than the frequent look of befuddlement on his face. The pacing is admittedly slow, sometimes painfully so, but that doesn't stop Gozu from being a triumph of atmosphere and surrealism. Minami is the proverbial stranger in a strange land, but here the land is strange in more ways than one. It's been said that the often tenuous nature of reality is a common theme in Miike's work, and that's apparent here, as Gozu gets a lot of mileage out of seeing Minami placed in such uncomfortable surroundings and witnessing one scarcely conceivable event after another.
Sometimes (the Yakuza boss with a ladle up his butt being a prime example) the movie's bizarre imagery is gratuitous (if funny), but in other places it's clearly designed to shock you into thinking. This becomes especially apparent in the film's final half, when the unlikely reappearance of Ozaki in an, er, modified form begin's Miike's exploration of the reincarnation/rebirth angle that gives Gozu what emotional resonance it has. This theme gains its fullest expression in the literally jaw-dropping finale, which surely ranks as one of the most stunning in film history. Again, nothing that can be written in this space can do this scene justice. It has to be seen to be disbelieved.
With all the bizarre happenings going on, Gozu is definitely a challenging watch and not exactly for everyone, but fortunately the plethora of extras on the DVD do a whole lot to enhance the viewing experience. Especially useful is the fanboy commentary track from film critics Andy Klein and Wade Major, who discuss some of the underlying themes of the movie like two experts dissecting a football game, while simultaneously placing it in context among both Miike's repertoire in particular and Japanese cinema in general. You also get an essay from Miike expert Tom Mes that cites some of the film's ideas and influences and no less than three interviews with Miike that see him talking about his philosophy on filmmaking and analyzing some of his own work. Miike is certainly one strange cat, which probably explains why he made this movie in the first place, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. If you like Audition or any of his other work, you should consider Gozu an essential watch.
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