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Dead or Alive is the beginning of director Takashi Miike’s second trilogy that will leave you with your mouth dropped open and your brain on the floor (and no it has nothing to do with the video game). For those of you who don’t know: Takashi Mike is one of Japan’s hottest and most active directors, averaging about 5 movies a year. You could sort of say he’s Japans version of Quentin Tarantino, except his movies contain more violence and gore among other things.

This movie is probably a bit tamer than some of Miike’s other works such as Audition or Ichi the Killer however this movie does have a few moments that may offend or bother some people, such as a scene that contains some pornographers preparing to shoot bestiality, or a scene in which one of the main characters ends up being drowned in a pool of excrement.

One of the main characters in this movie is Detective Jojima (Sho Aikawa) who needs to find a way to raise 200,000 dollars to pay for his daughters operation. On top of this his marriage is in ruins and the streets where he works are a battlefield controlled by the Yakuza and Triads. Enter Ryuuichi (Riki Takeuchi), a leader of a gang consisting of Japanese born, Chinese raised outcasts who are not accepted by either culture and therefore have no sense of loyalty to either country. Ryu wants to get rid of both gangs so that he can take over their lucrative drug connection. As the Yakuza and Triads near an alliance Ryu and his gang start a string of murders that turn the streets into a war zone.

The movie’s opening minutes are quite stunning and will be sure to grab your attention unless you happen to be comatose. The film starts off with the two main characters singing to a four count as if about to start a song, which is obliged by the soundtracks hard-rock song. The viewer is then plunged into a frenzied, frantic, eight minute scene consisting of a woman falling to her death, police abuse, a stripper in a blue glitter wig, and a guy doing a long line of cocaine, amongst other things. Oh, let me not forget the violence that’s sprinkled around, like when a man gets his throat slashed while sodomizing a young man in a public toilet. It’s so fast paced though that I didn’t even realize that there was barely any dialogue until the end! Don’t be fooled though. The opening scene is more than just sex, violence, and drugs. The opening helps to establish the underlying plot and helps to introduce the major players in this movie. Something else to note about the opening is that the audience will also be exposed to the different techniques which Miike uses along the way in directing: extreme close-ups, different camera angles, slow-motion, and a ton of other goodies.

After the beginning chapter the movie slows down a bit. Don’t get me wrong; there’s plenty of action along the way, however it’s not shown in such a rapid-fire pace and may seem to drag and be a bit more conventional after following such a hallucinogenic, frenzied opening. The middle section helps the audience get a better idea of what is going on and learn about each of the characters and their situations. There are a few twists along the way and a good amount of action to keep the gore-hounds occupied while nicely satisfying those looking for substance to gore flicks such as this.

The cinematography is exceptional and doesn’t show the budgetary limitations that were faced. It is also able to mix moments of peacefulness and tranquility with chaotic brutality. The score choice was also well chosen and helps portray the feelings of the scenes that they are played in.
The closing sequence in this movie will either make you a fan or a hater of this movie. The unexpected and slightly comical final minutes of the movie leads to a completely unexpected and seemingly insane conclusion. The ending is driven into a metaphor which may distance people who like to take things literally.