Gozu

The movie begins with a man whirling a dog in the air by its leash and releasing it to land with a bloody thump on a restaurant window. Right from the beginning, Gozu is up front about its intentions. As it continues to deliver one strange set piece after another, it manages to be progressively more audacious with a climactic scene that would leave even the most jaded surrealist scratching his head and asking "WTF did I just watch?"

Takashi Miike, the director of Gozu, has managed to forge out an enormous body of work in a relatively short period of time (he is, if I can be so bold, like Rainer Werner Fassbinder or Roger Corman in that sense) and he regularly hits peaks of manic inspiration in films like this that travel off the yakuza picture's well-beaten path.

Gozu (according to the subtitles on the disc) means "cow head" in English. That should tell you some of what you might like to know before diving into this picture, essentially a road movie in which two yakuzas travel together. One of them has already lost his mind and a series of events unfold that put the other one well on his way. One stop at a diner is like a small David Lynch movie in and of itself, there's a meeting with a mysterious and beautiful woman who claims to be a man, there's the appearance of an albino-faced wandering spirit...and don't even get me started on what Miike does with soup ladels.

The extras include a commentary track handled well by critics Andy Klein and Wade Major, both of whom appreciate Miike (and be warned if you are not familiar with him, he is something of an acquired taste) and what he pulls off in Gozu. The best extra is a series of roundtable discussions between Takashi Miike, Eli Roth (director of Cabin Fever), and Guillermo Del Toro (the director of great chillers such as The Devil's Backbone and Cronos). These guys like what they do and relish being labeled "sick" by their critics. There is also a making-of featurette which is better than usual, offering a generous behind-the-scenes view, while keeping interviews to a minimum.

If weird is your cup of tea, enjoy a hearty cup of Gozu. -- Christopher Hyatt