Review of Gozu

Introduction

It`s really difficult to classify `Gozu`. It seems to belong to that peculiarly under populated genre that deals with the unsettling world of nightmares. Not the `running in slow motion through misty graveyard` stuff. More the weird, interconnected story unfolding randomly in strange and surreal ways type of nightmares. Like this one. And this one would have you waking in a cold sweat.

Other movies in this genre which must have been filmic reference points for the cult Japanese maverick Director, Miike Takashi (`Audition`,`Ichi the Killer`), include David Lynch`s `Eraserhead`/`Lost Highway`/`Blue Velvet`, Bergman`s `Hour of the Wolf` and the Dali / Bunuel collaborations, `Un Chein Andalou` and `L`age Dor`. But only in terms of atmosphere and style. There`s nothing quite like `Gozu` in terms of plot.

So how can I adequately tell you what goes on in this movie without completely giving the game away? In truth, I can`t think of any alternative to the slightly breathless `And then…` approach. So here goes!

When yakuza Ozaki (Shô Aikawa) shows signs of paranoiac madness (dog lovers won`t enjoy the opening scene where he destroys a Chihuahua which he believes is "a yakuza dog trained to attack yakuza"), the gangs boss Azamawari (Renji Ishibashi) assigns Ozaki`s subordinate Minami (Hideki Sone) to drive his `brother` to a disposal-site in Nagoya where he is to be executed and dumped. En-route, Minami slams on the brakes as a road suddenly disappears and Ozaki does the Volvo-dummy routine, and dies as his head hits the dashboard.

And then things start to get really weird. We`re suddenly in the weird Japanese equivalent small-town to `Twin Peaks` where the standard response to most enquiries is `You`re not from Nagoya are you?`.

As Minami calls at a Chinese restaurant (where a transvestite barman serves him a milky dessert that causes him to be violently sick), Ozaki`s body (left in the car), disappears.

And then his car tyre bursts (on a bone) as he starts the hunt for the body. A man with a half white flaky face, who`s leafing through a pornographic magazine on the grass near Minami`s car, offers him some help. They find accommodation in a bizarre guest- house run by a predatory and lactating middle-aged lady and her un-weaned and autistic son who is probably in his forties and who`s also a spiritual medium.

Milk seeps from the ceiling of Minami`s room into his breakfast. Increasingly disoriented, he returns to the Chinese restaurant and calls his boss who we see engaged in a sexual act with the aid of a `ladle`.

And then things get really weird, including a visitation by a cow-headed man who salivates dripping milk and washes his giant tongue across Minami`s face. There`s a `Naked Lunch` moment too where the tattooed skins of dead yakuza are kept flat on hangers as though at a dry cleaner`s.

And then things get really, really, really weird. The film culminates in the darkest, most depraved Oedipal possibilities that would drive even David Lynch to become a compulsive hand-washer.

Written by Sakichi Sato (who scripted Miike`s astonishing `Ichi the Killer`), `Gozu` was originally planned as a low-budget straight-to-video release in Japan, but won an invitation to the 2003 Cannes Film Festival which cleared the path (rightly) for a theatrical release.

Video

The Anamorphic 1.85:1 ratio image is spotless throughout. As a lower budget movie, some looks a little under-lit by Hollywood standards, but never enough to spoil the action. Sometimes Miike uses low-budget approaches to really enhance the action too, like the use of handheld un-lit exterior shots when Minami rushes out to his car and finds that Ozaki`s body is missing which really accentuates his tense disorientation. Nicely crafted, but clearly not major production values.

Audio

There`s DTS and Dolby 5.1 options here, as well as Dolby 2.0. I flicked briefly through the options, and reverted to DTS 5.1 for my viewing.

The soundtrack here, much like the visual content and narrative, owes much to that master of the oblique, David Lynch. Industrial scraping sounds are mixed with guitar feedback which in turn is mixed with bass strings that really add to the sense of deep foreboding that permeates the film. The surround-sound works well with spot effects placed to the rear at moments of real tension, yet this never really gets in the way of the movie, merely enhances. If the score is out as an OST then I`ll be buying it and filing it next to my `Elephant Man` soundtrack CD. Fan-bloody-tastic!

Features

Apparently there`s a 4-page booklet with film notes by Adel Hartley, though my review version didn`t have one.

There`s a theatrical trailer for `Gozu` which shamefully gives far too much away (including a hint at the shocking ending) and I`d recommend that you don`t watch this until after you`ve watched the movie.

There`s also a bunch of Miike Takashi trailers including an intriguing one for his `murderous musical`, the `Sound of Music` influenced `Happiness of the Katakuris`, which I have naturally added to my current DVD wish-list.

The presentation is in Japanese with English sub-title option only.

Conclusion

In the final analysis, `Gozu` probably doesn`t bear too much … well, analysis. For what it`s worth, the pre-occupation with human lactation is nothing new for Miike. `Visitor Q` also explored his fascination and `Ichi the Killer` had scenes of a similar nature, even if the raw materials differed.

Perhaps the central theme here is the homoerotic possibilities of Yakuza bonding. The `brother` here isn`t a real brother, but another member of the Yakuza gang. In this light, Gozu could be seen as a another angle on the same theme explored in `Shinjuku Triad Society` and `Blues Harp`.

There`s also a beans and pulse seller who is (laughably) American - and she uses giant cue cards to read out `adverts` for her products in Japanese, as if this makes her more authentic. This could be interpreted as a dig at the current glut of American remakes of creative Japanese movies. Then again, it might not be. Whatever the case, there`s much to see and think about in this complex movie, and though it`s frequently bleak and desperate, it`s not devoid of laugh-aloud humour too.

So how successful is `Gozu`? As a whole, tremendously so. It`s deeply unsettling, macabrely entertaining, and incredibly infectious (you won`t be able to switch this one off once you`ve started).

Whilst I feel duty bound to deduct a point off my final appraisal for the occasional technically shoddy shot (sometimes washed out and lifeless), as well as the creeping notion that Miike was occasionally over-contriving the weirdness (to out-Lynch Lynch), I have to award it back again for ingenuity, creativity and courage.

This is, in my view, the finest movie that I`ve watched all year, in a year that`s been pretty unremarkable for innovative cinema. It`s certainly not one for the easily offended, the overly sensitive, or anyone under eighteen. But if you have an appetite for the unusual, then I`d recommend `Gozu` without hesitation.