Director: Miike Takashi
Starring: Renji Ishibashi, Mickey Curtis, Miike Takashi, Masaya Kato, and Yoshiyuki Daichi

- Reviewed by Frankie

No one can accuse Miike Takashi of being a director that sticks to one genre or style of film. Agitator is a sort of Japanese Godfather involving the struggle between several different gangs who are at war with each other over something or other. The plot is so confusing, the number of characters so numerous, and the characters’ relationships with each other so entangled and complicated, that any meaning, emotion, or twist that may have been in this film was completely lost on this viewer. Not to be stereotypical, but many of the actors look very similar, and since they all wear the signature gangster black suit, it’s hard to pick some of them apart. With this total alienation from the film’s depth, one has to examine the film from its visual, mood, and acting standpoints.

The visuals are certainly there. An incredible amount of graphic violence occurs during the film, with no character dying in a way that would be deemed normal (shot, drowned, etc.) by any other movie’s standards. The blood is almost artful, a character in itself. The acting is excellent, even though you really have no idea what the characters are doing or saying. I’m told that Miike himself appeared as a character somewhere in this film, but I was unable to pick him out.

It doesn’t help that the film runs a butt-numb-inducing two and a half hours. While there was never actually a point where I wanted to leave, there were times were I felt like falling asleep. The film could have ended about fifteen times in the last third of the movie, but instead it just kept going on and on and on. The film started late (about 9:50 PM) and extended into the early morning hours.

Gladly I didn’t fall asleep for the ending, which was quite exciting and entertaining, but doesn’t nearly redeem the two hours and fifteen minutes of boring confusion before it. Miike’s made an amazing thirty films, more or less, in his eight-year career, all of which are drastically different in quality and theme. This is one of the worse ones. Try another.

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