Fudoh
The New Generation
84
8
Story
10
Cast
8
Fun
8
Subs
8
Overall
Chris Hanyok
August 25, 2002
Synopsis

Ever since Riki Fudoh witnessed his father viciously murder his older brother in order to prevent a gang war from breaking out, his sole goal has been the destruction of the old yakuza generation and replacing it with his. Only his father soon realizes that Riki is behind the past hits and plans to put and end to Riki.

Scene from the movie Fudoh: The New Generation - Review | KFCC
Scene from the movie Fudoh: The New Generation - Review | KFCC
Scene from the movie Fudoh: The New Generation - Review | KFCC
Scene from the movie Fudoh: The New Generation - Review | KFCC
Review

Gallons of blood, hermaphroditic schoolgirl and Riki Takeuchi oh my! I think Fudoh was the first Miike film to reach American shores, legally, and that preset everyone's expectations for his other projects. When I first saw the film I could not believe how a wildly eccentric trashy film left quite an impact on me. Despite the fact that it was (like most of Miike films) made straight to video the film is 100% enjoyable trash. Who cares about the goofs like how a character was just brutally blown away, supposed to be dead, and you can see them breath; dammit this film is gross fun.

Shosuke Tanihara comes off insanely believable as Riki Fudoh, a young yakuza/high school student hell-bent on revenge and the eradication of the old yakuza generation. His most memorable and convincing line that summed up his character was "A body becomes stiff unless you change the old blood with new". Riki Takeuchi has quite a limited screen time, as the rival gang leader Daigen Nohma, but fills his presence with his own brand of wickedness. Marie Jinno, as replacement English teacher with a criminal past, portrays her character with a seductive edge (which means most of the times she own screen she's nude). Takashi Caesar played Gondo, Riki Fudoh's half brother whom his father employs of to take out Riki along with his crew, and for some reason I admired his character the most. Maybe it was for the savage beating he dealt on the chef for making kimchi "wrong" or the head butting of a schoolgirl; here's a character to aspire to.

The film, like most of Miike's projects, borderlines between bad taste and over the top fun. The sequences in which Riki and his gang(comprised of lethal schoolgirls, a malevolent giant, and a hit squad with children) take out the other Yakuzas are brutally brilliant yet at the same time incredibly silly (being mowed down by a schoolgirl with an Uzi, drinking poisoned coffee that causes your body to squirt out copious amounts of blood, etc). Surprisingly enough the scene in which the afore mentioned school"girl" making love to another woman is quite tame and watch able, not that way though you sick perverts, since most of what's shown happens luckily to be implied. Nevertheless Fudoh entertains us by being this sick "avant-garde" movie. The only fault is the film ends right when the real conflict begins (much like in the big screen adaptation of Sanctuary) only to be continued in to rather atrocious and pointless sequels.

Takashi Miike : "Many films are made with the image of what a Japanese film should be like. Some films venture outside those expectations a little bit, but I feel we should break them." Interview with Takashi Miike conducted by Midnight Eye.

Keep that quote in mind, because as much as you hate or despise Miike you have to admire the amount of freedom he exercises in his films. Since most of them are headed straight to video he can create and film whatever the hell he wants. Whether or not his films have reason for being made, people will inject their own personal feelings in a sense to justify his films' existence. In regards to Fudoh The New Generation some might see it as a violent visual Fuck You from the younger generation to the older, or how because in human nature the young replace the old, etc. Either way Miike has laced Modern Cinema with his own original vision of films which began with Fudoh.

Scene from the movie Fudoh: The New Generation - Review | KFCC
Scene from the movie Fudoh: The New Generation - Review | KFCC
84
Story
Cast
Entertainment
Subtitles
Overall
Chris Hanyok August 25, 2002
Media Review
Media Review by
Chris Hanyok
Distributor
Deluxe Edition
Media Format
DVD
Region
Region 1
Encoding
NTSC

Fans of Miike can now rejoice that a new and better version of the classic movie that started it all for Miike is now available. This new Media Blaster edition features the movie in a new anamorphic widescreen transfer with both Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.2 in Japanese and English. The transfer has slightly improved over the older version, but the change is not very big unfortunately. The English subtitles have been redone and are now removable, unlike the older version. This edition also includes very interesting extras such as interviews and audio commentary with Miike and actor Shosuke Tanihara. Both are in Japanese with English subtitles. A trailer of the movie and 4 extra trailers are also included. This new edition is a very nice improvement over the older release.

Media Review by
Chris Hanyok
Distributor
Tokyo Shock
Media Format
DVD
Region
Region 1
Encoding
NTSC

I'm trying real hard to be nice to Tokyo Shock since they have acquired the rights to Visitor Q and Ichi The Killer, but as for the DVD it's really weak. There's no menu or setup or even selectable subtitles. They are two trailers for other Tokyo Shock films, the film itself is divided into eleven chapters, and has the Japanese dialogue with subtitles (which overall are quite nice and easily readable) burned into the film.