Kinoreal
  • Essays
  • Reviews
  • Fantasia
  • Red Brand Studios
  • Français
✕
A Frozen Flower at Fantasia
A Frozen Flower (Ha Yu, 2008)
November 24, 2010
Threesome in The Naked Kitchen
The Naked Kitchen (Ji-yeong Hong, 2009)
November 24, 2010

Crows Zero 2 (Takashi Miike, 2009)

Crows Zero 2

I hadn’t seen the first Crows Zero before venturing into the second one, nor had I heard anything about it or read the popular manga this franchise is based. It’s only part of my viewing list because the director is Miike Takashi and its premise appealed to me.

I have a love-hate relationship with the films of Miike Takashi. His films rarely appeal to me. But since he’s a critical and popular darling, and so prolific, I always end up thinking that maybe I don’t get his genius and I get convinced into trying him again just to make sure. Sukiyaki Western Django was a nice surprise and the only film I felt his genuine love for cinema instead of virtuoso technical play. Miike neglects the storytelling in his films, that they’re vapid works of plastic art, complex to look at and deconstruct but with no heart and no purpose. Sukiyaki Western Django was different. You could feel his love for spaghetti westerns and genre films without him losing his flair for artsy fare.

So I go to see Crows Zero 2, hoping that it’s more Sukiyaki Western Django than Shinjuku Triad Society. The Miike cool is in display in the film’s characters, in their brechtian dialogue, their jeans, chains, wild greased hair, machismo and nonchalant demeanour. They are modern day warriors haunting the streets of Tokyo in search of a good fight. They’re all like yakuzas-in-training (the yakuzas have a prominent role in the film) but all adhere to a different honour system than their organized crime counterparts. For them, a real man doesn’t fight with weapons, only his bare fists. When one of them doesn’t stick to the honour code, choosing to draw a weapon during a fight, he’s alienated from his gang as retribution. It all culminates in an all-out massive brawl on the different floors of a disaffected school (an interesting re-appropriation of the institution) between dozens of rival gangs, with notable one-on-one fights between certain lead characters, an obvious manga reference.

Crows Zero 2 can be compared to like Fight Club, without the individualist emphasis and psychological implications. It’s interesting as a sociological snapshot, not necessarily realistic or accurate but portraying the spirit of Japanese honour, sense of community and male bonding while showcasing its marginalized youth.

More info on IMDB

  • About
  • Latest Posts
Eric Lafalaise
Follow him
Eric Lafalaise
Head Honcho at Red Brand Studios
Eric Lafalaise mostly communicates by writing and telling stories. He is a contributing writer to the Kinoreal film blog, a producer for Red Brand Studios, an artist, a photographer, a tech freak, and an all-around (left-right) brain nut.
Eric Lafalaise
Follow him
Latest posts by Eric Lafalaise (see all)
  • Black Panther: A Perspective - March 20, 2018
  • Seven Pounds (Gabriele Muccino, 2008) - May 5, 2015
  • Honeymoon (Leigh Janiak, 2014) - January 30, 2015
Share

Related posts

Honeymoon
January 30, 2015

Honeymoon (Leigh Janiak, 2014)


Read more
Live
January 30, 2015

Live (Noboru Iguchi, 2014)


Read more
I'll Give It My All... Tomorrow
January 3, 2014

Fantasia 2013 bits IV


Read more
✕

SIGN UP
FOR OUR
NEWSLETTER

Get notifications of new film posts and reviews!

Subscribe

ABOUT KINOREAL

Kinoreal is a blog on the nature of life in film.

TAGS

Ah-in Yoo Anton Yelchin Brad Pitt Cate Blanchett Chadwick Boseman Ching Wan Lau Christian Bale Daniel Wu Dong-won Gang Donnie Yen Edgar Ramírez Herman Yau Hitoshi Matsumoto Hun Jang Jacky Wu Jennifer Connelly Ji-Hoon Ju Joe Odagiri Johnny To Jung-min Hwang Kate Winslet Keanu Reeves Keira Knightley Ki-young Kim Louis Koo Lupita Nyong'o McG Michael B. Jordan Philip Seymour Hoffman Russell Crowe Ryan Coogler Ryan Gosling Sam Mendes Sam Worthington Satoshi Miki Sean Penn Takashi Miike Tilda Swinton Tony Chiu-Wai Leung Tony Ka Fai Leung Tony Scott Wilson Yip Xueqi Wang Yi Huang Yoon-seok Kim
© Kinoreal. All Rights Reserved.