This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
John Johnson’s review published on Letterboxd:
This review may contain spoilers.
Wow, this film kinda kicked ass! It sort of reminded me of the Korean film, "A Dirty Carnival". This is a film I would recommend to anyone that likes gritty crime genre films. I loved the way locations felt very real like in Sorsesse's "Mean Streets" The soundtrack (which doesn't seem to be available?) was terrific, I was thinking it was a Miles Davis track that they got permission to use but the credits are in Japanese so who knows? It has that "Elevator to the Gallows" feel. The character of Isimatsu is pretty unbelievable, he just goes through this movie raping, stabbing, shooting his way through this movie like some wrong-headed Terminator bent on revenge when he hasn't been wronged, all the while getting himself and his wife\hostage hooked on heroine. In the end he is bent on killing the only guy that actually stood up for him (well that is what he gets for his misguided loyalties) , this guy is an unstoppable force of bravado and obnoxiousness. Miike manages to make us sort of root for the guy while hoping that someone will kill him, neat trick.