by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

With shockingly transgressive films like Audition, Visitor Q and the lurid Dead or Alive, filmmaker Takashi Miike has certainly cemented his rep as one of Japan’s most dangerous talents. That’s saying something, considering how much sleazy, perverted ultra-violence comes spilling out of that country. Miike has, in recent years, managed to balance the shock value of exploitation movies with artfully-employed production values and even a degree of thoughtful social criticism.

The first Miike flick to hit this continent was Fudoh: the New Generation in ’96. It’s screening at the Parc this week, offering a chance to take a fresh look at the one that got the ball rolling for Miike. Don’t get too excited, though—it’s no masterpiece.

Fudoh is based on a manga, a Japanese comic series, and a tawdry, pulpy one at that. The lacklustre storyline plays the old generation-gap card—Riki Fudoh, a handsome, straight-A high school student, is out to unseat the old-school yakuza gangsters and usher in the titular new generation. Standard sub-Shakespearian crime-flick fodder, right, except there’s a Freudian twist in that Riki’s primary target is his own dad, who beheaded Riki’s older brother years before to appease his yakuza clan. Conversely, Fudoh senior sends his North Korean lovechild, a kickboxing killer who will brook no insult to the correct preparation of kimchi, to kill his half-brother Riki.

Not a terribly engaging yarn, especially with all the corny stoicism going on. Really, this film’s rep is based on all the over-the-top detailing—the hermaphrodite schoolgirl stripper who employs pussy pressure to fire lethal blowgun darts, the pistol-packing pre-teen tykes playing soccer with a severed head, the murders by acid bath and ebola-in-a-cup. Miike’s got a knack for inventive brutality and blood by the barrelful, loaded with subversive energy, and for making it all look really nice and slick and artsy. But when all’s said and done, Fudoh’s a rather empty melodrama that just plain fails to stick. :

Fudoh opens Friday, Nov. 15 at the Parc

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