Half-breeds and cultural outcasts dominate yet again in another Takashi Miike monster-mash; this time 'round, more true to the Dead or Alive universe than some of Miike-san's more recent cinematic digressions. Japanese-Brazilian outlaw Mario takes the lead, killing a mob of South American nobodies before commandeering a helicopter to rescue Chinese Kei (Michelle Reis) from deportation. The remainder of the film situates itself in Japan, in part around a dislocated Brazilian community in harm's way with the territorial Yazuka after Mario and Kei heist a stash of cocaine in the middle of a gangland deal.

It's all unimportant, with the film's premise simply one banked on the Breathless-like couple's attempt to escape to Australia. Hence, the loose narrative serves really as a place setting for plenty of arbitrary Miike madness: Matrix cock-fighting, wacky intercuts, or our heroes jumping out of a sky-bound helicopter, landing, and emerging unhurt from a dust cloud in defiant, Tarantino-registered slow-motion. It's persistent, increasingly repetitive cinema, yet is more or less everything we've come to expect (and love) from a Miike film – perverse humour, comic book violence and that all-important what-the-fuck ending.—Tim Wong

» Takeshi Miike | Japan | 2000