Dead Or Alive 2

Birds fly free
After the brilliant no holds barred Yakuza flick Dead or Alive, miike decided to continue, using Sho Aikawa and Riki Takeuchi (evil japanese elvis) with the same name for 2 more movies with different stories and characters.
Sho Aikawa is a hired sniper who is employed by a small mob to cause a war between 2 powerful yakuza groups.
When he positions for his prey, suddenly a member of the group(Riki Takeuchi) that protects his target kills every single gang member without a reason. Soon Aikawa is on the run with the money and he finds out that the yakuza who killed his group is a childhood friend with whom he grew up in the same orphanage. After ,they are teamed to kill bad guys for money which is sent to Africa for the injections needed for ill children.
Like the story points, movie is rather different from the first one. Characters are actually on the same side this time and althought there are loads of killing and violence, movie is more concerned with past and issues...

Best in the Dead Or Alive series.
This movie, IMO, is the best in the Dead Or Alive series. When I saw this movie I was amazed. I was initially expecting a typical Yakuza shoot em up film, yet this movie delivers a poignant story about lost childhood innocence, friendship, and life and death. It goes beyond expectations.

The movie starts off with an assassination that is supposed to ignite a war between the triads. But, before we know it, this movie takes a 180 degree turn as the two main characters of the film (Sho Aikawa and Riki Takeuchi) return to their boyhood, island home in search of their lost innocence. They were both raised on an orphanage before they became professional killers, so the idea of returning to the island is a return to their childhood when they were innocent. Once they arrive on the island, they meet up with their other boyhood friend, Kohei, who has become a modest fisherman as opposed to a hit man. For a while, Sho and Riki return to their childhood. They play like children, act...

they dont make'm like this in the usa
and i like it that way. this film is absolute brilliance (though not a good place start on miike)

takashi miike is one of my all time favorite directors, his films almost never take themselves seriously, something some movie buffs might find irritating, but imo its just what makes miike, miike. his work may not be considered "brilliant" or "genius" (i sure as hell dont) but i doubt he does either. each of his films are like a passage into the director's own private world within. sometimes its scary, sometimes its funny, sometimes its sad, sometimes it can hardly be put into words, but all the time it is takashi miike. he is the true term, an artist.

now, praise aside, lets talk about the film. well there's the usual rounds of ultra-violence, quintessential dark, or "Selective" humor, one scene of necrophillia(dont over-hype yourselves), & what may be the strongest story of what is considered "the dead or alive trilogy".

the film tells the violent story...

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