DEAD OR ALIVE II – TOUBOUSHA
(DOA II - BIRDS, Takashi Miike)
2000, ~1.85:1
approx 97 mins.

Mizuki Otamoko (Sho Aikawa, from Miike's LEY LINES and DEAD OR ALIVE and Kiyoshi Kurosawa's LICENCE TO LIVE, amongst other things) is a street punk, who is hired by a loopy magician (the great Shinya Tsukamoto) to assassinate a yakuza in order to precipitate a gang war between the yakuza and a Chinese triad. As Mizuki is waiting on a rooftop for a good shot, one of the yakuza's bodyguards suddenly opens fire, killing all the gangsters and doing Mizuki's job for him. Mizuki claims the reward from the magician and flees to an island, which we learn was where he grew up. Meanwhile, the yakuza are searching for Mizuki who has been blamed for the hit.

Arriving on the island he meets Schuichi Sawada (Riki Takeuchi, from Miike's FUDOH (1996) and FULL METAL GOKAIDO (1998) and the Ohkawa Bros' NOBODY (1999)), a childhood friend and the man who it turns out killed the gangsters as Mizuki watched. They meet up with their other friend, Kohei (Kenichi Endo, who was in VIOLENT COP (1989) but not much else) who has stayed on the island and hang out together. Kohei's wife is pregnant and we find out about the three friend's pasts in flashbacks. There is an orphanage on the island, and this is where the three knew each other from. Keiho's wife finds out about the shooting, but doesn't say anything. Mizuki and Shu help out in a play for the kids on the island, which is shown intercut with the violent gang war back on land.

The two return to the mainland and form a partnership, assassinating people for money which they donate to children’s charities (!) However, eventually the Chinese gangsters catch up with them for a roof-top shootout. The two friends return to the island, covered in blood…

As the above synopsis should make clear to anyone familiar with DOA I, this film bears absolutely no resemblance to that picture in terms of story or content. More than anything else I was reminded of Takeshi Kitano’s films whilst watching this – the structure is highly reminiscent of SONATINE (1993) (violent first third, slow second third and violent last third), whilst the friendship/flashback structure reminds me of KIDS RETURN (1996). Also, there’s lots of beach scenes and sudden violence mixed with long, slow passages. However, Miike does not handle the slow scenes with anything like Kitano’s panache. I found myself restless during the middle part and the different tempos just don’t gel like they do in Ktano’s films.

The film is nothing like as violent as DOA but there are several very messy gun battles and an unpleasant scene in which a man is having sex with a big fat woman. Gangsters burst in and shoot them, and we glimpse quick cuts of the gangsters having sex with (both?) corpses. Things like this will put off people hoping for a less visceral Miike gangster flick, but overall it’s remarkably restrained for Miike. There are some strange stylistic touches in the film, as we’ve come to expect from Miike – in one scene after a hit, Mizuki sprouts white wings and Shu black wings and in another three Chinese gangsters communicate only through text messages on their phones whilst interrogating a street bum. Feathers are used to signify the pair’s presence and the film’s title apparently translates as DOA II – BIRDS. Imagery of birds is prevalent, but without any obvious message other than the very mundane (freedom/independence). The idea of killing people to give money to charity is an odd one and the scenes showing the hits mixed with footage of people in the third world are in slightly dubious taste (not that I suspect this worries Miike overly!)

One interesting aspect of the film is the presence of Shinya Tsukamoto in a strange cameo as the eccentric magician who kicks the whole thing off. He overacts magnificently, as in the first scene in the film when he demonstrates to Mizuki the logic behind the assassination, using three cigarette packs. He starts off fairly normal, and becomes more and more manic, ending up ripping the packs apart whilst screaming manically. Tsukamoto’s two or three scenes are genuinely funny, as he performs stupid magic tricks whilst fearing the yakuza (“The yakuza are scary! Fear the yakuza!”). As Mizuki leaves with the money, having shown no interest in his magic tricks, he runs after him shouting “The whole world loves magic!” Not only is Tsukamoto present though – the great Tomoroh Taguchi (TETSUO I and II) is here too, as is composer Chu Ishikawa, delivering only an average score not really up to his usual Tsukamoto collaborations.

Overall, I found DOA II a real disappointment. The most obvious question concerning the film is why on Earth it’s called DEAD OR ALIVE II. The only connection is the presence of Aikawa, and the film just doesn’t compare in any way with the first film. I started to watch it wondering how Miike could possibly top DOA I – obviously, he wondered the same thing so he simply didn’t bother trying. Instead, he delivers an entertaining, quirky film that would be a fair success were it from any director other than Miike. Once you take that into account, it seems more like a misjudged attempt at a Kitano film than another true full-blooded Miike masterpiece. I should probably mention as a qualifier here that I loved CITY OF LOST SOULS and have seen most of Miike’s work to date, with the exception of his early (pre-FUDOH) films and a couple of minor entries. This is by no means a bad film, it’s just not at all what I was expecting. Perhaps the DOA II tag was what really spoilt it for me, giving me such high expectations. Oh well… I also got GUYS FROM PARADISE, which I shall be watching later this week. Here’s looking forward to THE KILLER I….

Crew:

Director: Takashi Miike
Executive Producer: Toshihi Kimura
Producers: Yoshihiro Masuda and Makoto Okada
Screenplay: Masa Nakamura
DP: KAZU Tanaka
Editor: Yasushi Shimamura
Music: Chu Ishikawa
Lighting: Toshihiro Seino
Production designer: Akira Ishige
Sound Recording: Mitugu Shiratori

Cast:

Riki Takeuchi (Shu)
Sho Aikawa (Mizuki)
Kenichi Endo (Kohei)
Edison (Boo)
Masato (Hoo)
TEAH (Woo)
Noriko Aota
Yuichi Minato
Manzo Shinra
Yoshiyuki Yamaguchi
Tomoroh Taguchi
Hiroko Isayama
Toru Tezuka
Ren Osugi
and Shinya Tsukamoto (as the magician)

(Originally posted at MHVF, 14/03/01)

***on 03/09/01 I posted the following 'follow up' comments on DOA2 at MHVF:***