Dead or Alive (film)
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| Dead or Alive | |
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| Directed by | Takashi Miike |
| Produced by | Mitsuru Kurosawa |
| Written by | Ichiro Ryu |
| Starring | Riki Takeuchi Sho Aikawa Renji Ishibashi |
| Music by | Kōji Endō |
| Cinematography | Hideo Yamamoto |
| Editing by | Yasushi Shimamura |
| Distributed by | Daiei |
| Release date(s) |  November 27, 1999 |
| Running time | 105 min. |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese Mandarin |
| Budget | ¥500,000 (estimated) |
| Followed by | Dead or Alive 2: Birds |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Dead or Alive (ＤＥＡＤ ＯＲ ＡＬＩＶＥ 犯罪者 Deddo oa araibu: Hanzaisha?), abbreviated as DOA (Dii ō ei), is a 1999 Japanese yakuza action film directed by Takashi Miike. It stars Riki Takeuchi, as the Chinese Triad boss and former yakuza Ryūichi, and Sho Aikawa, as the Japanese cop Detective Jojima, and focuses on their meeting and conflict. It is the first in a three-part series, followed by Dead or Alive 2: Birds in 2000 and Dead or Alive: Final in 2002.
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[edit] Synopsis
Ryūichi and his small gang of Triad vie for control of the Japanese underworld in a crime-ridden Shinjuku quarter while Detective Jojima tries to bring it down. Jojima attempts to start a gang war between the Triad and yakuza. Ryūichi and Jojima meet.
[edit] Dead or Alive series
The Dead or Alive films are not connected in any apparent way except by director Takashi Miike and stars Riki Takeuchi and Sho Aikawa. In the first film they play respectively yakuza and cop. Dead or Alive is notable for Takashi Miike's characteristic scenes of ultra-violence and perversity, which come casually littered throughout.
The film opens with the two leads breaking the fourth wall, looking directly into the camera and counting "One, two, one two three four!" as if about to perform a rock song. This leads into an over the top, absurdly violent "Rock Video" style montage set to the film's theme song by Koji Endo, interweaving multiple scenes involving yakuza members assassinating other crime lords.
The film also features a deliberately absurd ending, beginning with the Riki Takeuchi character declaring "This is the final scene" and climaxing with one of the leads producing a bazooka from thin air and the other producing a ball of energy from his body. The energy blast causes a nuclear explosion, - an image that many have cited as a metaphor for the fact that the two have already destroyed one another's families and careers, or in essence, each other's worlds.
Dead or Alive 2: Birds is a quieter affair with Riki Takeuchi and Sho Aikawa as rival hitmen. This too has moments of completely wacky surrealism with the two randomly turning into birds and children, although does not feature the same touches of perversity, with the single exception of a necrophilic sex scene, intercut with a children's play written and performed by the protagonists.
The two hitmen, Mizuki and Shuuichi,played by Aikawa and Takeuchi respectively, are childhood friends who unexpectedly meet again when called to do the same hit job. Both soon become hunted by gangsters, which inadvertently leads them both back to their childhood orphanage where they first met. After a temporary hiatus spent at their old home, they team up and hire themselves out to every hit job they can find but with a new focus: to give all their earnings to poor kids in Africa.
Dead or Alive: Final is a Cyberpunk science fiction film. Riki Takeuchi and Sho Aikawa play androids on either side of the law. This features a similar gonzo ending where the two characters fuse into a giant robot with a penis shaped head -- a metaphor for how they have essentially been the same character all along, just embodied in different ways. Under the credits plays a completely non-sequitur shot of a man in a park strumming an acoustic guitar and singing. Another absurd moment in the trilogy is when, moments before the final showdown, the two leads flash back to scenes from the first two films, as if Final were a true sequel.
[edit] Trivia
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- The "rock video" style montage that opens the film was not in the script, but rather pieced together from the opening scenes which were actually filmed in their entirety.
- The film was created to bring together two of Japan's biggest cult actors, Sho Aikawa and Riki Takeuchi. The ending was designed to satisfy the fans of both by ending in a draw while being at the same time climactic beyond all reason.
- The film has been referenced in The O.C.
[edit] Quotes
- Asked why Sho Aikawa has a bazooka at the end of the film, Takashi Miike laughed and said "Why shouldn't he have a bazooka? Don't all guys fantasize about bazookas?"
[edit] External links
- Dead or Alive at the Internet Movie Database
- Dead or Alive review by Mike Bracken at ToxicUniverse.com
- (Japanese) Dead or Alive at the Japanese Movie Database
