FILM-FORWARD.COMReviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
GOZU
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
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