YAKUZA APOCALYPSE

He’s a benevolent vampire yakuza feared by criminals and adored by regular folk. One day two men show up: a Django-like goth preacher and a geeky fighter (none other than Yayan Ruhian from Raid 2). They belong to a rival cartel that wants him dead. But just before he dies, the yakuza vampire bites his faithful right-hand man, young Kageyama. What happens next? The apocalypse, obviously!

Takashi Miike goes back to his cinematic roots here, to chaotic, free-spirited films like Fudoh and Dead or Alive 1 and 2. Everything gets thrown into the mix — vampires, yakuzas, wall-to-wall gags, yokais (Japanese mythological creatures), kaiju (giant monster flicks), westerns, horror comedy (like a Kitano remake of Polanski’s The Fearless Vampire Killers), poetry, economic and social crises, climate issues and frogs (you’ll see) — and somehow makes sense. Yakuza Apocalypse is a crazy extravaganza that blends laughs and lunacy. With roots in the traditional theatre of the absurd, it will certainly be considered one of the great surrealist films of our times. Salvador Dalí would most definitely love this film — who wouldn’t? − Julien Fonfrède