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Gozu
Pathfinder Pictures
FILM:
MPAA RATING: Not Rated
Starring
Hideki Sone,
Sho Aikawa,
Kimika Yoshino,
Shohei Hino,
Keiko Tomita,
Harumi Sone,
and
Renji Ishibashi
From the acclaimed director, Takashi Miike, comes a Yakuza/horror film to shock and amaze audiences everywhere. When Minami is sent to kill his mentor, Ozaki, who is in the midst of a nervous breakdown, he embarks on a journey of unexplained natural phenomenon. (Pathfinder Pictures)
| GENRE(S): |
Crime
|
Drama
|
Foreign
|
Horror
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Sakichi Satô
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Takashi Miike
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: November 23, 2004
Video: November 23, 2004
Theatrical: July 30, 2004
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
129 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
Japan |
| LANGUAGE(S): |
Japanese (with English subtitles) |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
100
Film Threat
Jeremy Knox
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.
88
New York Post
V.A. Musetto
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.
80
Village Voice
Dennis Lim
Splendidly entertaining.
75
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
The latest and most creatively unhinged film from director Takashi Miike.
70
Los Angeles Times
Kevin Thomas
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.
70
Washington Post
Michael O'Sullivan
It somehow feels richly, hilariously real, even -- at its most bizarre -- familiar.
70
The Hollywood Reporter
Michael Rechtshaffen
Although most definitely an acquired taste, the David Lynchian Gozu delivers the goods in dripping, gooey gobs.
70
Variety
David Rooney
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.
67
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sean Axmaker
Gozu is prime evidence in the argument that gonzo gangster movie maverick Takashi Miike is a major director goofing on minor works.
60
Empire
Will Lawrence
If "Ichi The Killer" stressed the extreme natureof Takashi Miike's cinematic sensibility, Gozu hammers it home… with a blood-spattered mallet.
60
The New York Times
Dana Stevens
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.
50
New York Daily News
Elizabeth Weitzman
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?
50
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
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.
50
LA Weekly
David Chute
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!"
50
Austin Chronicle
Marc Savlov
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.
50
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Noel Murray
Miike has served up some of the most dumbfounding images in contemporary cinema.
50
Washington Post
Stephen Hunter
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.
40
TV Guide
Ken Fox
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.
0
San Francisco Chronicle
G. Allen Johnson
Stay far, far away.
 The average user rating for this movie is 9.3 (out of 10) based on 3 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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