This review reportedly contains spoilers. I can handle the truth.

If l wanted to see a yakuza man go on a downward spiral l would want Takashi Miike to make it.

Fuck roller coasters, see this instead..

Not exactly a remake but more of a 21st century re imagining of Kinji Fukasaku's landmark 1975 yakuza film. Miike's film is aesthetically and tonally different, going for a bleak, raw visual style which never hides the immorality and dysfunctionality of the characters. It's iconic in it's own right, and is a great companion piece to the Fukasaku original.

A dishwasher-cum-Yakuza "uncle" quickly points out to his peers how laughable their codes of conduct are. They attempt to destroy him to preserve their way, yet they do so by beating up women, cutting off thumbs, and a host of back- (and front-) stabbing. Y'know, honorable stuff. The lethargic jazz that runs under all this is a requiem for these gangsters' delusion.

'A Yakuza without honor isn't worth shit.' So says a Yakuza Godfather towards the end of "Graveyard of Honor," and the entire movie puts this notion to the test against a terrifying new breed of gangster that is without honor or any recognizably human emotion, portrayed by lead actor Gorô Kishitani. Takashi Miike is able to meld the traditional Yakuza film - featuring plenty of brutal stabbings and gunfights - with the kind of decadent, heroin-fueled downward spiral you'd associate with a rock star. The result is one of the most satisfying and memorable films of the director's prolific career.

This review reportedly contains spoilers. I can handle the truth.