Home Video
[Review] Takashi Miike Overloads With ‘Yakuza Apocalypse’
Takashi Miike. Depending on the horror fan, Miike is either a genius director or just plain crazy. After seeing Audition, Ichi The Killer, and sitting through his Masters Of Horror episode “Imprint”, I’m still unsure of what to make of the man. There’s no doubt that he’s talented, but the off-the-wall craziness and his obsession with pushing the boundaries in gory moments are definitely things that divide fans. With his return to the Cannes Film Festival in 2015, Miike unleashed Yakuza Apocalypse. ‘Unleashed’ couldn’t be more apropos. This is one crazy film, in good and bad ways.
Yakuza boss Genyō Kamiura (Lily Franky) is known to be one of the most ruthless men ever in the crime syndicate. He also happens to be a vampire. Or was, as he is betrayed and decapitated by his own men after refusing to return to the international syndicate. After witnessing Kamiura being killed, his protégé Kageyama (Hayato Ichihara) is bitten by Kamiura’s head, receiving his vampire power. With his newfound powers, Kageyama goes on a path of revenge for his boss’ death, leading up to a confrontation with the man behind the assassination, the mysterious Kaeru-kun.
If you thought that the synopsis was nuts, that’s only the start. Miike has once again gone off the deep end with pretty much everything in Yakuza Apocalypse. That’s a good thing, mind you. Being treated to a feast for the eyes and ears with ridiculous scenes involving blood showers, slickly-choreographed fight scenes mixed with cranked-up sounds of the action is just a start. Miike forgets to take his meds, and gives us absurdities such as prisoners being confined to a knitting circle for later feeding by Kamiura (“Break a leg, guys” has never been more hilarious), a beaked kappa demon, schoolgirl yakuza, and the appearance of Kaeru-kun dressed in an amusement park frog costume beating the snot out of other yakuza. The visual effects are just the same in their absurdity. I could mention more, but that would be spoiling the fun.
Predictably (if you can call anything in this film predictable), the acting is as ridiculous and over-the-top as the visuals. Granted, if any of these guys played it straight, they’d stick out like a sore thumb. That said, Ichihara does a good job in selling this entire film as our main protagonist. He also pulls off his impressive martial arts skills with little effort. Fans of The Raid (including myself!) will get an initial kick out of seeing Yayan Ruhian dressed as a geeky otaku and busting out his moves, but his stuff is largely wasted on stuntmen and the editing. Really, that leads into the main problem with Miike’s latest effort.
The big issue with Yakuza Apocalypse is that it’s often too scatterbrained in its progression. Writer Yoshitaka Yamaguchi admitted to have scribbled his ideas on a napkin, and it shows. Too often the film throws in characters, ideas, and the absurd into the mix, which has the plot progression (yes, it exists) grind to a halt. And what was introduced initially is put to the side in favour of the new wacky thing. Then that gets put to the side. Eventually, what was fun and kinetic at the start quickly devolves into overkill and becomes a chore to sit through. The addition of friends and/or alcohol would probably help (which is probably what Miike intended), but even at almost two hours of watching non-sequiters, you’d be hard-pressed to keep up with this film, sober or otherwise. Even in the film’s final battle, which turns into a Godzilla parody of giant monsters duking it out, I was getting bored with the flood of crazy.
Yakuza Apocalypse is far removed from Miike’s earlier horror films in tone, but still manages to retain the over-the-top violence and black humour. Miike successfully supplants the darker tone with more “light-hearted” bizarre imagery. Unfortunately, the constant throwing in of increasingly weird ideas backfires by the midway point, as there’s simply just too much going on to keep your attention. It’s a schizophrenic and fun high-speed Ferrari ride, but even that starts to tire out with the constant influx of ideas with little plot progression. Fans of Miike’s previous works will feel right at home, although they will probably feel exhausted like the rest of us by the end.
Home Video
‘Herencia Diabólica’ – 1993’s “Mexican Child’s Play” Finally Has a Blu-ray Release [Review]
Did you know that there is a Child’s Play-inspired film from Mexico? If you didn’t, you can thank Vinegar Syndrome’s new label Degausser Video for making 1993’s Herencia Diabólica available for the masses to watch. Or at least for the VS hardcore fanbase, Chucky completists and anyone else who needs something like this in their lives.
Director Alfredo Salazar, known for his writing connection to the 70s Santo film series, also serves as the writer here to bring us a film seemingly inspired from the Child’s Play franchise. While it has been recently labeled as the “Mexican Child’s Play” (there’s a special feature on the disc with that very title), the killer doll concept is where the comparison should start and end. Despite having some seeds planted by that franchise, Salazar delivers a story that blossoms into something unique.
Tony (Roberto Guinar) receives a letter informing him that his aunt has died, and he has inherited her estate in Mexico. He quits his job and uproots his life in New York with his wife Annie (Holda Ramírez) to relocate south of the border and move into his new crib. Now I know what you’re thinking, what person just quits their job and drags their wife to another country without having reliable monetary income? Tony does, everyone, Tony does.
And what’s the first thing they do once they arrive in Mexico and check out the estate? They hit the bedroom, naturally. We are treated to a sex scene with an erotica song that feels like a knockoff of “Sadness” by Enigma (remember them?). Sounds fun and all, but the scene takes place completely in the dark and we see absolutely nothing. Maybe that’s why the sexy-time tune was pumping, so we could know what was exactly going down.
While Tony goes on a job interview, Annie explores the estate’s grounds in a tedious chore to experience, going room by room, plodding along. But it does lead us to her discovery of our antagonist—the evil clown doll, Payasito! Of all the things in the house, she decides to bring this monstrosity down to show Tony when he gets home. What an exciting way to celebrate (sic)! Then out of nowhere, she spouts off some exposition about rumors that Tony’s aunt dabbled in the dark arts and now we know where our title Diabolical Inheritance (the English translation for Herencia Diabólica) originates. For those of you who keep score for things like that.
Before proceeding with this review, you really need to visualize what Payasito looks like to truly embrace the rest of the film’s shenanigans. While Chucky resembles a cute ginger child, Payasito resembles a small clown that is much larger in stature than Chucky. That’s because Payasito is performed by an actor (Margarito Esparaza) in clown cosplay whenever he’s on the move (like Mannequin 2), and makes some really horrible facial expressions. Chucky dresses in “Good Guys” overalls and a striped shirt, but Payasito wears a new wave Santa hat while sporting a Sgt. Pepper jacket and Peter Pan tights. As you can now tell, he is quite beautiful.
Back to our story, Payasito begins to spook Annie cerebrally until she becomes unnerved to the point of having a complete mental break down, making her easy prey to eliminate. She dies but the unborn child survives, with Tony believing that her death was caused by her mental instability. Fast forward some years later and the couple’s surviving spawn has grown into child Roy (Alan Fernando), who at this point has already bonded with Payasito to help him over the loss of his mother. Dun-dun-duuunnn!
Meanwhile wealthy Tony remains single, still grieving his late wife, until his blonde assistant Doris encourages him to move on with his life and start seeing other people. And by other people, she naturally means herself. As the old Kanye West song lyric goes, “I ain’t saying she’s a gold digger…”, and it seems that she might be until we learn more about her character. Doris is played by the stunning Lorena Hererra who has an extremely extensive resume in Mexico, and she carries most of the film quite well during the feature’s second half. The singer and former Playboy centerfold for their Mexico edition is by far the most recognizable face in the cast.
Doris and Tony do indeed hookup and she moves into La casa de Herencia, where she does her best to impress Roy and lessen his obsession with the doll. There is a scene where they go to a nearby park without Payasito that is filled with famous fairytale figures, such as Pinocchio, Cinderella and King Kong! What, you didn’t know King Kong is a fairytale? Me neither. But Roy continues to be obsessed with Payasito after their trip, much to Doris’ chagrin.
Her actions to separate him from Roy gets Payasito angry, setting up the film’s most memorable scene. We already know that Payasito is a devil doll like Chucky, but now we learn he also has the power to invade people’s dreams like Freddy Krueger! Does Payasito enter the dream world and concoct a creative way to kill Doris in her sleep? No, he harnesses his power to sexually assault her instead. Yes that actually happens. After she awakens, Doris grabs the doll and tosses him into a lake, only to find him waiting for her by the time she gets back to the house. So now we know he also maintains the ability to “transport” like Jason Voorhees too. This doll is the total package!
More insanity happens before we close out the film with the longest victim chase sequence ever. It makes the previously mentioned painful house search scene seem like an eyeblink. It feels like it’s the film’s entire third act, filled with so much padding that you could soundproof an entire three-story house.
So how’s the transfer? Considering it was created using a mix of VHS and film source elements from 1993, they did one heck of a job! The work they put into it is especially noticeable in the dream invasion sequence, with the pulsing multi-colored psychedelic visuals. Super trippy stuff. Even the film’s score provides a pretty chill vibe, during the times when Payasito isn’t on the prowl.
If anything you read has piqued your interest in the very least, you should give it a shot. But if not, it is best to leave this doll on the shelf.
Herencia Diabólica is now available to purchase at VinegarSyndrome.com.
You must be logged in to post a comment.