Shinjuku Triad Society

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Miike at his best

First chapter of Miike's Black Society Trilogy, Shinjuku Triad Society is one of first Miike movies with played in western festivals. With the usual Miike qualities and limits which were already there. That is to say a pitch seen thousand times and not really well used influence : Kitano, seventies dry stylization, manga-like stylization of the framework... And also bad formal experimentation : blur image/slow motion useless combination, alternate editing just for the fun... The film has no sense of rythm. As usual, script does not know the word rigour. It appears even unable to develop its interesting points (the Japan/Taiwan relationship here). But on the other hand the movie is saved by its delirious ideas. A love story begins in a very special special way for instance. And the eighties sounding score is correct. For on the best Miike i.e. average cinema.