GOZU
Directed by: Takashi Miike.
Produced by: Kana Koido & Harumi Sone.
Written by: Sakichi Sato.
Director of Photography: Kazunari Tanaka.
Edited by: Yasushi Shimamura.
Music by: Koji Endo.
Released by: Pathfinder Pictures.
Language: Japanese.
Country of Origin: Japan. 129 min. Not Rated.
With: Hideki Sone, Sho Aikawa & Kimika Yoshino.

A promiscuous hotel manager lactates into empty milk bottles. In another scene, she lactates on herself. And later, she lactates forcefully into the face of a customer. That these are not the most disturbing scenes in Gozu should provide some idea of just how wildly far-fetched this film is. Gozu, however, is borderline brilliant. It is a montage of jaw-dropping, eyebrow-raising moments that provides for one of the most exhilarating cinematic experiences of the year.

Minami (Hideki Sone) and his older brother Ozaki (Sho Aikawa) are both members of the Japanese Mafia. When Ozaki begins to see things that aren't really there, the boss orders Minami to dispose of his brother. (The opening scene where the entire yakuza crew learns of Ozaki’s insanity is both horrifying and painfully hilarious as Ozaki wages war with an unsuspecting Chihuahua.) Minami must kill his brother at a dump in the city of Nagoya. On the way there, Ozaki seems to have already been killed through a series of Weekend at Bernie's-style accidents. As Minami searches for a phone to update his boss, Ozaki's body disappears, and Minami must now search the enigmatic Nagoyan terrain for the supposed corpse. The Gozu are said to be cow-headed demons that serve as the guardians of hell, and they are just one of the many indecipherable creatures that Minami encounters on his journey through this makeshift purgatory.

It is refreshing how director Takashi Miike (Ichi the Killer) combines comedy with horror to produce a strangely satisfying mind trip. Miike acknowledges the Lynchian inspirations of Gozu in the way the narrative erratically twists our expectations between the unexpected and the inexplicable. The first half of Gozu is Lost Highway meets Kill Bill. When Ozaki returns in the reincarnated form of an impossibly good-looking woman, Gozu is Mulholland Dr. meets The Crying Game. Outlandish and inventive, it is like an inside joke that lets us think we are in on the punch line until the last few scenes where it becomes apparent that we, in fact, are the punch line. What is indisputable is that you won't be craving milk anytime soon. Michael Belkewitch
July 29, 2004