Gozu
Metascore
58 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 19 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 19
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 19
  3. Negative: 1 out of 19
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  1. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Jeremy Knox
    100
    Gozu is a riddle wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a cow's head. If you think that this last statement doesn't make any sense, just watch the movie.
  2. New York Post
    Reviewed by: V.A. Musetto
    88
    The film is less violent and bloody than much of the director's work, but the absurdity level is sky high. Takashi Miike is at the top of his game, loving every minute of his surreal visit to the twilight zone.
  3. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Dennis Lim
    80
    Splendidly entertaining.
  4. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    75
    The latest and most creatively unhinged film from director Takashi Miike.
  5. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Michael Rechtshaffen
    70
    Although most definitely an acquired taste, the David Lynchian Gozu delivers the goods in dripping, gooey gobs.
  6. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kevin Thomas
    70
    The film unfolds as if it were a dream in which taboo subconscious urges surface symbolically as in a Dali painting, yet everything takes place in everyday settings.
  7. Variety
    Reviewed by: David Rooney
    70
    Unclassifiable cult figure Takashi Miike's films invariably have their share of weirdness and perversity, but Gozu arguably outweirds all previous efforts in the prolific Japanese director's eclectic canon.
  8. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Michael O'Sullivan
    70
    It somehow feels richly, hilariously real, even -- at its most bizarre -- familiar.
  9. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Sean Axmaker
    67
    Gozu is prime evidence in the argument that gonzo gangster movie maverick Takashi Miike is a major director goofing on minor works.
  10. Empire
    Reviewed by: Will Lawrence
    60
    If "Ichi The Killer" stressed the extreme natureof Takashi Miike's cinematic sensibility, Gozu hammers it home… with a blood-spattered mallet.
  11. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Dana Stevens
    60
    Mr. Miike is best known in the United States for horror films like "Audition" and "Ichi the Killer." Gozu, for all its extremity, is a more relaxed, less disturbing picture. Its dreamy disconnection is reminiscent of David Lynch's "Mulholland Drive," but it is, if anything, even more hermetic and dissociated.
  12. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Elizabeth Weitzman
    50
    There are some genuinely funny moments amid the gore, but who knew this famously edgy director would find bathroom humor to be such a knee-slapper?
  13. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marc Savlov
    50
    Miike's film is a cunning little comedy of manners gone mad. Even when you feel you have to turn away from the screen or lose your lunch, Miike has something interesting to say. I'm not entirely sure what it is but his lips are moving and something horrific is definitely coming out.
  14. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    50
    Not until the last 20 minutes does Gozu come fully alive. A man has sex with a seductive beauty, who then gives birth to...well, let's just say it's a sight that may take time to fight its way out of your head.
  15. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: David Chute
    50
    The various disruptions Miike visits upon his stories, and upon his audience, serve mainly to focus attention on the manipulating intelligence behind the scenes. They're a fancy way of yelling, "Look at me!"
  16. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Noel Murray
    50
    Miike has served up some of the most dumbfounding images in contemporary cinema.
  17. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Stephen Hunter
    50
    Miike's fans, those used to his strange ways, will certainly find Gozu an amusing addition to the oeuvre. All others will be bewildered beyond expression.
  18. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    40
    The homoerotic twists and gender-shifting turns are fun, but they can't hide the fact that the film is little more than a tedious shaggy-dog story with oblique mythological references.
  19. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: G. Allen Johnson
    0
    Stay far, far away.

User Reviews

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User Score
8.0 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 8 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 3
  3. Negative: 0 out of 3
  1. AndrewS.
    10
    Another Miike masterpiece.
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