One of prolific Japanese director Takashi Miike's best known films in North America and the one that really got the buzz going for him at various film festivals during its initial theatrical run was Fudoh – The Next Generation (based on some Japanese manga). The movie was originally released a few years ago by Media Blaster/Tokyo Shock as a no frills non anamorphic disc with burned in subtitles (the disc didn't even have a menu!), and that's all North American fans really had to work with until now, as the film has (thankfully) been re-released as a much improved special edition.

The story beings when a young Riki Fudoh (Shosuke Tanihara of Godzilla Vs. Megaguirus) witnesses his brothers death at the hands of his own father, who kills his eldest son to settle a problem between roving Yakuza factions. A few years later, and Riki is a smart young man working his way through high school who also happens to be building up a gang of his own with the intention of avenging his brothers death and looking down some turf of his own.

Riki pretty much does what he wants in school. He sells dope to his teachers and as the anniversary of his brother's death approaches, he and his team of school girl strippers (one of whom does a neat trick with her crotch and a blow gun), a couple of assassins that come in the form of some young boys, and a gigantic behemoth of a man named Akira (professional wrestler Kenji Takano) set out to eliminate all of those responsible for killing his brother all those years ago.

Shosuke Tanihara does a fantastic job in the lead playing his part with just the right amount of sheer, unadulterated coolness so as to be perfectly cast in the role of young Riki Fudoh – ace Yakuza boss in the making. He's calm, collected and quiet enough on the outside but when he's crossed he shows that he's just as merciless as his old man was in his prime and he takes care of business no matter what the cost. This makes for an interesting paradox when you figure he's just a high school kid trying to graduate – but then again with some of the horrible current events to take place in the school system as of late, maybe it's not such a paradox after all.

The supporting cast is a lot of fun too. In addition to the aforementioned Kenji Takano, an absolutely massive hulk of a man, watch out for Riki Takeuchi (of Miike's Dead Or Alive trilogy) and his perfectly coifed mullet in a supporting role as an opposing gangster with ties to Riki's past. He doesn't get a ton of screen time but when he's on camera, you know it and you won't soon forget it.

In addition to some fine performances and plenty of slick, manic camera work the film also benefits from outrageous amounts of gratuitous sex and violence. While on the surface it may seem like nothing more than shock value when Yakuza bosses are carved up in a car and cover the windows in their arterial spray but in the context of the film and the context of the world in which Riki Fudoh lives and operates, it makes a twisted sort of sense for the action set pieces to play out the way that they do. Everything else is so over the top in the movie that to underplay the violence and the gore and sex would seem to be putting the film off balance. In short, it wouldn't match up right. They also serve to throw the audience a few curveballs as the movie plays out. You don't expect what happens in the film to really happen, it all seems so implausible but yet it does and the actors play it completely straight while it all goes down.

While Miike has made better films (Audition is a minor masterpiece), Fudoh remains one of his most enjoyable works. IT plays out with a sick sense of black humor and a maniacal perversity that few films can match and it does it with style.

Video:

The previous DVD from Media Blasters was non-anamorphic and slightly dingy looking. While not unwatchable, it certainly was unremarkable. Thankfully, they've taken some steps to correct that with this release, which is presented in a new anamorphic transfer that is noticeably improved over the previous release. The colors look better, the black levels are stronger, and there's a bit more detail present in the picture. It's still not a reference quality image we're looking at here (some of the action appears slightly fuzzy and it tends to blur at times) and likely never will be (Miike shot this one fast and cheap) but it's a pretty decent effort even if it could have been better.