Full Metal gokudô (Video 1997)

An inexperienced gangster is killed alongside his strong, respected boss and awakens to find a mad scientist has given him a new body made partly of his boss and partly of indestructible bionics.

Director:

Takashi Miike

Writers:

Itaru Era (screenplay), Hiroki Yamaguchi (story)

Stars:

Tsuyoshi Ujiki, Tomorowo Taguchi, Takeshi Caesar

Cast

Credited cast:
Tsuyoshi Ujiki	...	Kensuke Hagane
Tomorowo Taguchi	...	Genpaku Hiraga
Takeshi Caesar	...	Tosa
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Kazuki Kitamura	...	Matsuba (as Yasushi Kitamura)
Yuichi Minato	...	(as Yuuichi Minato)
Shôko Nakahara	...	Yukari
Momoko Nishida	...	Naomi
Ren Ohsugi	...	Nakame
Kôji Tsukamoto	...	Junji

Storyline

Kensuke Hagane (Tsuyoshi Ujiki) is a beginner in the Yakuza world , he is very fearful and nobody respect him. After the prison release of Tosa (Takeshi Caesar), who is a Yakuza boss and the idol of Hagane, both are killed as a result of a gang problem with Tosa. Both corpses ends in the hands of mad scientific who creates a kind of robot with parts of both corpses. Now Hagane is part machine with some parts of Tosa, he is bullet proof and has an incredible strength. When he escapes from the scientific, he is looking out for revenge with the heart of his boss and idol, literally.

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Plot Keywords:

yakuza | revenge | scientist | mutilation | beating | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

5 December 1997 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Full Metal Yakuza

Company Credits

Production Co:

Excellent Film, Tokuma Japan Communications Co. Ltd.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

102 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Connections

References The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962)

User Reviews

Top-Rung Yakuza Sci-Fi Exploitation!

It is tiresome enough when so-called "professional" critics drag a film over the coals for not being an exact match to other work by the same director. It is oh-so-much worse when the same is done by amateurs who don't even know the full output of the filmmaker under this type of dissection.

With splashy films like Ichi, the Dead or Alive series, and The Happiness of the Katokuris having reached these shores and found their audience, the smaller films have started to tag along. Visitor Q and Audition have been highly praised by many, but these low-budgeters were made after Miike had gotten his quirkiness shaped into a formula. A great formula, in my opinion, but a formula nonetheless.

There are many more early films by Miike headed this way, and many of these, I suspect, will be much like Full Metal Yakuza -- stories told in a straight-up style with a view for pleasing an audience, rather than a cult.

While it is no "American Cyborg," FMY is a rip-snortin' 100% straight-to-video exploitation venture by a skilled filmmaker who manages to more than meet the requirements of the genre. The story concerns a Yakuza who awakes from what had seemed to be certain death to find that he now has a body that is partially steel, partially his own, and partially made from the parts of his dead sempai...can you guess? Yes, we are going to have a revenge tale. And, as silly as it is, it's a lot less goofy (and will no doubt age better) than that overpraised pastiche of revenge tales, Kill Bill.

Grab a six-pack, pop some corn, and forget about meaning while Uncle Takashi spins what is without doubt the best scifi Yakuza tale of the 20th Century.