Review: Yak*za Ap*calypse.

Yakuza Apocalypse is a yakuza vampire action movie directed by Takashi Miike and stars Hayato Ichihara and Yayan Ruhian with Riko Narumi and Lily Franky in supporting roles.

The movie revolves around Kageyama (Ichihara), a vengeful yakuza who was turned into a vampire by his beloved boss (Franky) after he was betrayed by the captain and was murdered by assassins (which includes Yayan Ruhian of The Raid). Also, when he bites people they undergo yakuzaification and also turn into yakuza vampires.

Yakuza Apocalypse is one of Miike's better films and honestly a pretty good beginner (but not quite introduction) film for those looking to get into his filmography.

Unlike a lot of protagonists in the Miike movies I've seen, I actually enjoyed Kageyama and I think Ichihara was perfect for the role. There's this vibe that Ichihara brings to his character I've only really seen elsewhere with the likes of Riki Takeuchi and personally, if Ichihara did yakuza movies during the 90s I think he could've been a Takeuchi-level v-cinema star and I do hope to see him do more yakuza movies in the future.

I think he could've had a little bit more screentime though, as he just disappears halfway through the movie and makes sporadic ten second reappearances before disappearing again. 

Unfortunately like most Miike movies I found the supporting cast much more memorable than Kageyama was. If I had to pick between if I found the yakuza vampire or the inflatable frog suit martial artist, the cowboy priest, Yayan Ruhian dressed like a nerd, and a literal kappa. I can't imagine a world where I pick the former.

Really though the only memorable characters are frog man and Mad Dog (Ruhian's character), frog man specifically is like, the best random villain I've seen in a Miike movie so far. Kinda hard for me to not love the guy in a mascot frog suit doing martial arts and doing flying karate chops after a grenade propels him into the sky.

He's such a wacky villain and is treated like he's the most evil badass alive and I find that just really funny, the action's great too surprisingly. While there is a shaky camera I do really like seeing martial arts used in a Miike film, and I did like it enough I kinda forgot about the whole you know, frog suit.

And don't get me wrong, I love Mad Dog equally as much in this film. Seeing a dude in a plaid long sleeve, a backpack, and giant glasses beat up a guy in a suit like it's nothing is the single most Yakuza (game series) ever. I'm unfamiliar with Yayan outside of Star Wars but if he's as good in The Raid as he was here, I might just need to see The Raid too. He had the best action scenes in like, the whole film. Not including the climax between frog man and Kageyama of course.

I think the gun priest was wasted potential though, he had so much potential to be this cool opponent for Kageyama to face but he just, doesn't. He fades into the background a lot and doesn't even really fight him in the film either, he's just kinda there. And they made this guy look so cool too!

I think the wackyness is what this movie succeeds at the most, it's very VERY Yakuza-ish. Because it's so serious in tone yet so full of off the wall gags that are shoved in like it's nothing that I found myself laughing at this movie a good amount, the fake dynamite gag is straight of Looney Tunes.

As much as I loved this film, it is still full of flaws. Mainly the fact this movie is way too quiet, the large majority of this movie is quiet quiet, sounds like the movie is muted if you turn the volume a little bit down kinda quiet. I had my volume cranked up and I couldn't hear half the dialogue properly, I hated that. Especially since theres a good amount of English dialogue I COULD. NOT. HEAR. Cause of how quiet this film is.

I also think this film was a little too long, it could've lost a couple minutes and would've been mostly fine I think. And I just don't get the whole thing with the captain having her brain melt, I think that plot point was just a mcguffin to shoehorn in more crazy Miike moments.

While this film is hard for me to review and I do apologize for how disorganized this review is, I would recommend this for people getting into Miike's filmography as it's a pretty good showcase of a full power Miike.

I also recommend this to fans of No More Heroes since this film gets mentioned when Miike digs Travis from his grave. 

That's all for now, Love and Peace!