The Dead or Alive Trilogy belongs on your must see movie downloads list simply because it's so crazy. You've seen action movies, you've seen over the top action movies, but you've never seen anything quite like these three flicks from Mike Takashi . Every one is out to top the last in terms of sheer craziness.
The first film in the trilogy, Dead or Alive, was conceived simply to get two of Japan's biggest cult legends together, Sho Aikawa and Riki Takeuchi. These two are sort of the Japanese cult film answer to DeNiro and Pacino, so Dead or Alive is sort of the Japanese cult answer to Heat. It was also focused on solving one of the primary problems with that movie: The anti-climactic ending.
We won't spoil the ending of Dead or Alive, but let's just say that it's certainly not an anti-climax. The entire movie is a thrill ride, starting with a rock video style montage that gets you into the movie's world fast, and culminating in an ending that you will not believe.
Dead or Alive 2 is both a sequel and not a sequel. The two leads are recast as two entirely different characters, but they sort of parallel the original two characters. In the original, they were a cop and a gangster after one another's throats. This time, they're best friends. They grew up together in an orphanage and now work as hitmen who donate all their proceeds to fighting disease in third world countries.
Interestingly, while the movie is very positive in its outlook and portrays its heroes in a positive light, the reality of violence is not simply glossed over. The first is a wild action movie, the second is a little more honest about the weight of violence on a person's heart.
The third takes the whole series in an all new direction, going into science fiction akin to Blade Runner or Robocop, that sort of cyberpunk, androids and megacorporations sort of theme. It's probably the least interesting of the trilogy, but it's really interesting for how it ties the whole thing together.
Check out Deadly Outlaw Rekka if you want more Miike. It has the same sort of over the top, insane attitude towards the story, and recasts Riki Takeuchi in the title role, as he seeks to avenge the death of his surrogate father. What really makes that movie work is the style. The story is standard revenge stuff, but it's all set to an alternative rock album from the seventies by the Traveling Sunflower Band, and the action is all out stuff. Takeuchi also turns in an interesting performance as the unstable and unpredictable Rekka.
As the trailer for the first film declares: Takashi Miike is the rabid dog of Japanese cinema. You never know what he's going to do in his movies. Interestingly, he's said in interviews that he tends to look for boring scripts. When the script is dull, that gives him a lot of opportunity to spice it up. And spice it up he does. Miike has always managed to take these director for hire movies and make something new out of them. He makes an average of four movies a year, and has made around a hundred feature films total. The quality of each of these movies... It goes up and down, but if only one in ten is worth watching, ten great movies is more than most directors ever get around to creating. - 40725
The first film in the trilogy, Dead or Alive, was conceived simply to get two of Japan's biggest cult legends together, Sho Aikawa and Riki Takeuchi. These two are sort of the Japanese cult film answer to DeNiro and Pacino, so Dead or Alive is sort of the Japanese cult answer to Heat. It was also focused on solving one of the primary problems with that movie: The anti-climactic ending.
We won't spoil the ending of Dead or Alive, but let's just say that it's certainly not an anti-climax. The entire movie is a thrill ride, starting with a rock video style montage that gets you into the movie's world fast, and culminating in an ending that you will not believe.
Dead or Alive 2 is both a sequel and not a sequel. The two leads are recast as two entirely different characters, but they sort of parallel the original two characters. In the original, they were a cop and a gangster after one another's throats. This time, they're best friends. They grew up together in an orphanage and now work as hitmen who donate all their proceeds to fighting disease in third world countries.
Interestingly, while the movie is very positive in its outlook and portrays its heroes in a positive light, the reality of violence is not simply glossed over. The first is a wild action movie, the second is a little more honest about the weight of violence on a person's heart.
The third takes the whole series in an all new direction, going into science fiction akin to Blade Runner or Robocop, that sort of cyberpunk, androids and megacorporations sort of theme. It's probably the least interesting of the trilogy, but it's really interesting for how it ties the whole thing together.
Check out Deadly Outlaw Rekka if you want more Miike. It has the same sort of over the top, insane attitude towards the story, and recasts Riki Takeuchi in the title role, as he seeks to avenge the death of his surrogate father. What really makes that movie work is the style. The story is standard revenge stuff, but it's all set to an alternative rock album from the seventies by the Traveling Sunflower Band, and the action is all out stuff. Takeuchi also turns in an interesting performance as the unstable and unpredictable Rekka.
As the trailer for the first film declares: Takashi Miike is the rabid dog of Japanese cinema. You never know what he's going to do in his movies. Interestingly, he's said in interviews that he tends to look for boring scripts. When the script is dull, that gives him a lot of opportunity to spice it up. And spice it up he does. Miike has always managed to take these director for hire movies and make something new out of them. He makes an average of four movies a year, and has made around a hundred feature films total. The quality of each of these movies... It goes up and down, but if only one in ten is worth watching, ten great movies is more than most directors ever get around to creating. - 40725
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