I figured I would put this up. I've found it hard to find a review from the persepctive of an HK action junkie.

Overall, I would say Fudoh was a bit of a let-down. Don't get my wrong its a decent enough movie, but from the hype I read prior to watching it my expectations were fairly high.

Action wise, Fudoh is decent. Most of the action is of the gunplay variety with few hand to hand fight scenes thrown in for flavor. Don't expect any John Woo style extended gun battles here though. Most of the action sequences are fairly brisk. The pacing is good as the movie doesn't ahve any slow moments. They throw in an action sequene and plot twist often enough to keep your interest.

I thought some of the gun sequences were good. There is an opening shoot-out in the first five minutes of the film, that impressed me. Very dark and violent, like something you would see form a Quentin Tarrantino film. Good stuff. There is a fair quanity of action scenes but most of them are brief and leave you desiring a little more.

The hand to hand stuff was weak though. They tried to add a few martial arts style moves that just looked out of place. The movie is definitely not high on choreography. Many will argue that they wanted to do for a more realistic style....but I disagree as the fight scenes are un-realistic and un-entertaining. I mean in one scene fudoh gets dropped kicked, flies through a wall, falls three stories and still gets up to fight. I mean if your going over the edge I want over the top battles and high styleized fight sequences, but thats just me.

Another thing I never liked around Fudoh was how it would swtich between comedic parts, and parts of dark gritty violence. Its like some of the comedy seemed out of place. I mean in one point fudoh is ambuishing a yakuza leader. They set up this dark scene, and then this big dude starts having this really cheesy fight with 10 people at once and they make a joke out of it. For me it never really worked.

You may read alot of reviews saying how violent and stuff this movie is. Yeah it has some over the top violence but I found it more comedic than anything else. There are some scenes featured hermaphrodites who an interesting method of blowing darts (I'll leave it at that) though. Some of this would never get past censors in the US.

Overall, I thought Fudoh was an average action/drama. It does have a few decent action scenes, but it also has some flaws. Its certainly not the gem that alot of critics and Takeshi Miike fans seem to think IMO.

I totally agree. I think I was expecting to much too. The only other Miike film I have see, and really enjoyed was City of Lost Souls (Hazard City)...

After Fudoh, I'm not to sure about checking out some of his others, that seem to have the same hype about them. I might check out Audition, when it comes out next week...

rosert,
Isn't that City Of Lost Souls??

I wasn't impressed by it either...
Audition is not big deal either...
Ichii The Killer is a demented gross-out movie.


so, I am not really impressed by Miike yet... but I've only seen 3 of his works....


J.T.

Before you write Miike off, give Dead or Alive a try when it comes out on the 24th. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

whoops...

I definitly planned on getting this.. It does sound like my kind of movie.. Waiting to see if the BBFC trims it or not. It is not listed on their site yet.