Nice effects though.

Beautiful, moving film.

How wonderful it is to see this fine actress carry a film and carry it so beautifully.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Full Metal Yakuza is a blatantly corny direct-to-video action movie, but I am enthralled by its hero, an aspiring yakuza, made to clean on his hands and knees by the very guys he idolizes, unable to achieve an erection when he's lucky enough to bed down sexy gang molls, bullied by young street punks who would be pulverized by any other yakuza, and then killed as a result of a double-cross. One understands, as one does with similar movies like RoboCop, The Guyver and other movies about a superhuman rebirth, that the premise of the movie is that his body finds itself in the hands of a scientist who keeps him alive by replacing much of his body with robotic body parts. So he has colossal strength and robotic genitalia. He then seeks revenge.I was excited for him the way one is always cheaply stimulated by movies like this. But Miike, freed by the exploitative invitations of the blood-and-guts shoot-em-up video market in which he is working here, gets the inclination to go crazy, but in the direction opposite the one in which he normally goes. We go from slam-bang gangster cyborg vendetta to hues of more elevated art-house elements characteristic of Japanese cinema elements, such as the scene at the beach after a refusal to kill a gang boss. Outside of this movie's genus, violence and revenge are never as aloof and zany as they are within it, and Miike has certainly done leagues better with the same subject matter, as with Izo and Ichi the Killer.The movie leaves us with the sort of jarringly extreme material that Miike regales later in his career, but with more directly exploitative ends. It's not that the movie combats any real analysis. It simply shrugs at the idea of significance, not caring enough to be remembered. And perhaps I wouldn't feel so apathetic about that if I didn't begin with such investment in the underdog protagonist.

I thought of a couple of director Takashi Miike's movies while watching Full Metal Yakuza- Ichi the Killer and Izo- because of what they have sort of in line with it. Both of those films have a protagonist who, more or less, is on a hell-bent path of murderous destruction. But even Izo, in comparison with this (and I consider Izo a flawed film), is more worthwhile than this minor claptrap. Maybe it's also a sign of what Miike had with better things to come, as it was just a short on-assignment gig to fill up his V-Cinema requirements. Not that you can't tell he might've had a hand in some scenes, notably the most violent and abrasive ones where the hero of the title gets his revenge (albeit with the head of one yakuza and the heart & body of another, ho-ho). There's not much story to it at all, except that a lowly gangster gets gunned down when his mentor, a yakuza previously in jail for 7 years, gets out and gets killed too. A mad scientist dubbed the "nutty professor" (double ho-ho) puts them back together, and this time totally in metal. Not that there aren't any other "special" modifications too, like in the groin area to be precise (not just quick blue electrical flashes go through when he gets charged up).Then the exploitation-fun continues, as the bare plot wheels away until I couldn't really care less about whatever really happened with most of the characters, and just wondered when the next big huge violent gush of blood would occur. The special effects, even for something as quick and ultra low-budget (and yes, even for a Robocop spin-off it's very low-budget, even with an invention or two in Miike's arsenal), are cheesy, and sometimes the film/video speed reminded me of seeing kids movies from the 80s or something. The only side development in any of the characters, however shallow, is with a woman (a prostitute I believe) who is with another man after a previous ill-timed engagement. Sure to be OK enough for most just looking for a splatteriffic time, but I think to really get a lot more laughs out of it I'd have to be pretty wasted. It's not devoid of punch, but it's got nothing in the way of a sharpness of wit or wild visual panache of Miike's other works. It's just what to expect- a V-Cinema gimmick made long into a feature with so-so acting and a yakuza story that's nothing new; I don't even think it'll get too much better if on a repeat viewing either.

This would appear to be one of them. If you're a Miike completist, and you simply must see this, try the DVD. That way you can learn to love the blessed ff button. It's cheap and cheesy gore, and I have no complaints about that, but the script appears to have been written by a drunk zombie. Truly it sucks. The interview with Miike on the Arts Magic DVD pretty much explains how and why gonzo trash like this got made, but it doesn't really redeem the 75% of this movie which is just ham awful. It would make a great manga, but the translation to live action only serves to emphasise the lameness of the Franken-san "plot". It clunks, but as a contrast to the beautifully scripted and acted films he's made since, it just about bears watching. Try to borrow or steal a copy of the DVD. That way you won't feel ripped off.

Japanese film maker talent and inventive genius Takashi Miike (born 1960) has done incredible amount of films in his not-even-so-long career so far. He has done made-for-video cheapies and big screen films that vary from unconventional and wonderful Yakuza tales to insane comic book adaptations to mind blowing satires, and the greater the themes in these films are, the more serious he is and uses his ideas and crazy creativity with restraint inside the otherwise serious world he's created: a bazooka torn from a guy's back isn't any funny moment in Dead or Alive (1999) but has its important meaning for the theme telling so much about the character(s) and their values in the violent world Miike depicts.His Full Metal Yakuza aka Full Metal Gokudo (1997) belongs to the cheap and fastly made video films and it is easy to tell it is a very exploitation oriented market that wants simple, violent and graphic films without much more merits in them. Full Metal Yakuza tells the Robocop-like (1987, Paul Verhoeven) story of a killed Yakuza who gets back to life as he is turned into a robot/human by one crazy scientist. He wants to avenge the death of his friend as well as try to save his former love from the sadistic hands of the rival Yakuza. Ultra violence and gore ensues and all the potential that was used to wonderful perfection in Fudoh (1996), for example, is not there in this film.There are some nice Japanese cinema elements like the silence that tells more than words. The scene in the beach after a refusal to kill one Yakuza boss is especially memorable and also close to the work of Takeshi Kitano. Still the revenge theme is not handled here as it was in Dead or Alive or Fudoh. In Full Metal Yakuza, violence and acts of revenge don't have any other meaning than to satisfy the gore audience and that is pretty sad for those who'd like to see Miike making more serious cinema all the time. In real world, violence and revenge is never as harmless and fun as in this film and Miike for sure would have talents to make real films from the subject matter, as he's done. Also the ending, showing how desperate the characters are for personal revenge and payback would be as wonderful as in those other films, but now it all is just mostly comical trash as Miike definitely wasn't doing this for anything else than money and to satisfy his huge need to work. It is hard to make any interpretations on single images and scenes while everything before and after them fights against any serious analyzes.Also the way how females are treated and depicted is pretty unpleasant. I don't think there's even one normal, calm and balanced female character here, all are just screaming and sudden bitches that just need to be killed off by the more or less restrained men. The ending involves a very nasty abusion scene of a female character and that is definitely too strong in a trashy film like this. But fortunately it ends in a way that at least that female had someone who cared for her and loved her so at least females are not completely worthless in the film. Miike has depicted females in various ways and at least films like Fudoh and Rainy Dog show them equally significant, if not always strong, with the men.The film has also very few of the wonderful cinematic elements and ideas of Miike like the kinetic storytelling and speed of City of Lost Souls aka The Hazard City (2000), the brilliant and surreal imagery of one of his masterpieces Dead or Alive, the claustrophobic, creepy and disturbing brilliance of Audition (1999) or the manic elements in the soundtrack, editing and camerawork of Koroshiya Ichi aka Ichi the Killer (2001). Of course the budget in Full Metal Yakuza was much smaller than in those mentioned films, but still the film doesn't offer any significant achievements of its director, other than the typical ultra violence and silliness. At least the always so great criticism towards the Japanese censors who like to censor all the pubic hair off the films is there and again very delightfully so. Another examples of these opinions can be found in his films like Visitor Q (2001) and Rainy Dog (1997). I'm sure the Japanese producers and censors have a lot of fun when they see what has Takashi done now!The film is high on its gore level and so reminds pretty much of Ichi the Killer, a film that is filled with cartoonish violence and blood plus sadism towards both females and males. Full Metal Yakuza has plenty of swordfights (!) and other bloody carnage that gives the makers an opportunity to throw in plenty of blood geysirs and splatter that satisfies some viewers but is not enough when the film is by talented director like Miike. Neither this or Ichi the Killer are to be taken seriously (hardly anyone takes, at least Full Metal Yakuza), and especially Ichi, despite its flaws and negative sides, tells something about the audience, that laughs looking like a bunch of monkeys and as sorry characters as those inside the film, when someone's being tortured and brutally murdered. Ichi the Killer has also some interesting elements in the form of Ichi himself, who is a traumatized boy with violent environment and society around him. This important theme is handled more carefully in Rainy Dog and also in Fudoh.Full Metal Yakuza is filled with desperate and weak human beings that have only few civilized characteristics that make it able to call them men, not only beasts, which they very often are inside in Miike's cinema. Full Metal Yakuza is far from his greatest achievements and ambitions and thus is not at all among his most noteworthy films, but that is understandable considered the film's speedy low budget exploitation money maker status. 4/10 but only as a lover of Japanese cinema. Anyone with not interest in this great cinema and its elements won't likely to be able to sit through the manic and insane (and also the most uninspired) examples of it, like Full Metal Yakuza.