Dead or Alive (1999) was a straight to video police/Yakuza cross-over that opened with a rock-video style montage and climaxed with a scene of jaw-dropping implausibility. It took on the clichés and characteristics of the usual police dramas that we're familiar with but infused them with all manner of bold and brash directorial flourishes and much in the way of attention grabbing shock sequences; from the sight of a stripper drowned in a paddling pool of excrement, to a vicious gun battle that brings about the end of the world. This follow up - which takes the same lead actors from the first DOA and drops then into a whole new setting as entirely new characters (giving us a sequel in the thematic sense alone) - tones down much of the first film's explicit giddiness in favour of a richer story with humanity, empathy and depth.
As a result, those new to the films of maverick director Miike Takashi might find this semi-sequel/follow up to be something of an understandable departure from the typically brash and attention grabbing style put forward in his more widely seen films, such like Ichi the Killer and Visitor Q (both 2001). Those with some familiarity however will be aware of Miike's more sensitive side from films like The Bird People in China (1998), Rainy Dog (1997), White Collar Worker Kintaro (2000) and the Great Yokai War (2005); which are certainly not troubling the 'Disney' studio when it comes to wholesome family entertainment, but at least show Miike to be a filmmaker capable of blending his tendencies for over-the-top action and cinematic excess, alongside emotional depth and intelligent character development. Hell, even parts of the violent Yakuza epic Agitator (2001) and the first hour of his masterpiece Audition (1999) show a director capable of dealing with fully formed three-dimensional characters and a slow-building story that drags you in.
Like those films, Dead or Alive 2 offers bursts of the typical Miike-like violence to punctuate what is essentially a quietly moving film about friendship and nostalgia, focusing as it does on the characters Mizuki (Sho Aikawa) and Sawada (Riki Takeuchi), childhood friends that grew up together in an idyllic island orphanage, who find themselves, after many years of not seeing each other, hit men hired to assassinate the same man. What follows is a combination of routine Yakuza crime drama - as the inevitable gang war erupts between two warring factions of Yakuza looking for answers as to who sanctioned the hit (and why?) - and a lyrical coming of age story - as the two men eventually find their way back to the island where they first met and meet up with old friends and reminisce about days when life was much more simple. The juxtaposition between these two worlds is handled perfectly by Miike, who shoots the film through the eyes of his child characters, even when we're in the company of their adult counterparts. This gives us a film that is visually unique; rich in colour and filled with surreal abstractions and over-exaggerations, some of which are disturbing in their darkly-comic absurdity.
Some of it aims to shock as much as the first DOA, with one sequence showing dead bodies being molested by a couple of hoods, while one sequence shows a dead body with an exaggeratedly large penis. Once again, Miike indulges in his love of playing around with Japanese censorship issues (ala, Visitor Q and Agitator) by partially blurring out the offending image; which would have been enough to render the joke useless had the appendage in question not been the size of a tree trunk (literally). The joke is repeated again during one of the film's key sequences, in which Mizuki and Sawada entertain the kids at the orphanage with a slightly lewd and colourful pantomime performance that is inter-cut with an incredibly violent gun battle that erupts between the two warring gangs. Other scenes are just as memorable and less shocking; such as the beautiful sequence in which Mizuki and Sawada spend the day with their old orphan friend Kôhei (who has stayed on the island as a fisherman and now lives the good life with his childhood sweetheart Noriko), climbing fences, playing football and generally running wild in the rain.
The later part of the film is more surreal and enigmatic, with the duo returning to the mainland and becoming hit men for "good"; taking down mob bosses and donating the money they steal to charity. They even grow angel's wings (tying itself into an old childhood memory and relating to the "birds" of the title) and envision themselves as children blowing away these corrupted grown-ups. The film even has a great supporting performance from cult Japanese film maker Shinya Tsukamoto (Tetsuo, Tokyo Fist, A Snake of June) as a magician who sets the wheels of the story in motion; recalling his similar appearance in Miike's earlier film, Ichi the Killer (2001). Dead or Alive 2: Birds, for me takes everything that we love about Takashi Miike's particular style and combines it with a story that works and characters that we can believe in. This, for me, is easily the best of the DOA trilogy, and a minor-masterpiece to rank alongside the likes of Shinjuku Triad Society (1996), Audition (1999), Gozu (2003), Visitor Q (2001) and The Bird People in China (1996).
As a result, those new to the films of maverick director Miike Takashi might find this semi-sequel/follow up to be something of an understandable departure from the typically brash and attention grabbing style put forward in his more widely seen films, such like Ichi the Killer and Visitor Q (both 2001). Those with some familiarity however will be aware of Miike's more sensitive side from films like The Bird People in China (1998), Rainy Dog (1997), White Collar Worker Kintaro (2000) and the Great Yokai War (2005); which are certainly not troubling the 'Disney' studio when it comes to wholesome family entertainment, but at least show Miike to be a filmmaker capable of blending his tendencies for over-the-top action and cinematic excess, alongside emotional depth and intelligent character development. Hell, even parts of the violent Yakuza epic Agitator (2001) and the first hour of his masterpiece Audition (1999) show a director capable of dealing with fully formed three-dimensional characters and a slow-building story that drags you in.
Like those films, Dead or Alive 2 offers bursts of the typical Miike-like violence to punctuate what is essentially a quietly moving film about friendship and nostalgia, focusing as it does on the characters Mizuki (Sho Aikawa) and Sawada (Riki Takeuchi), childhood friends that grew up together in an idyllic island orphanage, who find themselves, after many years of not seeing each other, hit men hired to assassinate the same man. What follows is a combination of routine Yakuza crime drama - as the inevitable gang war erupts between two warring factions of Yakuza looking for answers as to who sanctioned the hit (and why?) - and a lyrical coming of age story - as the two men eventually find their way back to the island where they first met and meet up with old friends and reminisce about days when life was much more simple. The juxtaposition between these two worlds is handled perfectly by Miike, who shoots the film through the eyes of his child characters, even when we're in the company of their adult counterparts. This gives us a film that is visually unique; rich in colour and filled with surreal abstractions and over-exaggerations, some of which are disturbing in their darkly-comic absurdity.
Some of it aims to shock as much as the first DOA, with one sequence showing dead bodies being molested by a couple of hoods, while one sequence shows a dead body with an exaggeratedly large penis. Once again, Miike indulges in his love of playing around with Japanese censorship issues (ala, Visitor Q and Agitator) by partially blurring out the offending image; which would have been enough to render the joke useless had the appendage in question not been the size of a tree trunk (literally). The joke is repeated again during one of the film's key sequences, in which Mizuki and Sawada entertain the kids at the orphanage with a slightly lewd and colourful pantomime performance that is inter-cut with an incredibly violent gun battle that erupts between the two warring gangs. Other scenes are just as memorable and less shocking; such as the beautiful sequence in which Mizuki and Sawada spend the day with their old orphan friend Kôhei (who has stayed on the island as a fisherman and now lives the good life with his childhood sweetheart Noriko), climbing fences, playing football and generally running wild in the rain.
The later part of the film is more surreal and enigmatic, with the duo returning to the mainland and becoming hit men for "good"; taking down mob bosses and donating the money they steal to charity. They even grow angel's wings (tying itself into an old childhood memory and relating to the "birds" of the title) and envision themselves as children blowing away these corrupted grown-ups. The film even has a great supporting performance from cult Japanese film maker Shinya Tsukamoto (Tetsuo, Tokyo Fist, A Snake of June) as a magician who sets the wheels of the story in motion; recalling his similar appearance in Miike's earlier film, Ichi the Killer (2001). Dead or Alive 2: Birds, for me takes everything that we love about Takashi Miike's particular style and combines it with a story that works and characters that we can believe in. This, for me, is easily the best of the DOA trilogy, and a minor-masterpiece to rank alongside the likes of Shinjuku Triad Society (1996), Audition (1999), Gozu (2003), Visitor Q (2001) and The Bird People in China (1996).