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"Demented brilliance … just about the best fun you can have in a cinema." – The Telegraph
Kamiura, a hero-worshipped Yakuza boss, is seemingly un-killable. It turns out he's a vampire, and not immune to death if it's delivered via a corkscrew-style beheading. Before he dies, however, he bites his trusted underling Kageyama, who vows vengeance on his beloved boss' killer. From here, things get weird. Really weird!
The latest burst of gloriously berserk creativity from the mind of MIFF favourite Takashi Miike – who could be cribbing from the unfettered imaginations of five-year-olds here – Yakuza Apocalypse: The Great War of the Underworld has everything: rampaging violence, slapstick, volcanoes, animation, giant monsters and, of course, vampire gangsters. As long as you let go of any need for narrative logic or reality, you'll have a total blast.
"Transcendently batshit … a cartoony balloon pit of a film [where] every single element is dialled up to eleven and you can't go thirty seconds without another three-way face-off between OTT, OMG and WTF." – The Playlist