"Gozu" is an absurdist picture from famed Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike. When I call it absurdist, this means that there really is no meaning to the film at all--and all the bizarreness and nonsense really means nothing. Some folks might like artsy nonsense like this--I just thought it was stupid and pretentious.
A Yakuza member is told to transport a really crazy and dangerous member of his gang to the countryside. The guy seems to die--but later the dead crazy guy and the driver spends the rest of the film looking for him. During this search, he encounters all sorts of meaningless and brain-melting idiots. There is the old woman who loves to shoot milk out of her breasts everywhere and she spends much of her time filling milk bottles. There are the patrons in a weird restaurant who keep repeating the same lines over and over and over and over. There's a giant man/bull who licks the driver all over the face for no apparent reason as well as an S&M scene involving the milk lady and her brother. And finally, we have the guy with the ladle stuck up his butt. As I said, none of it makes any sense and to me it felt like watching a version of "The Wizard of Oz" made by folks who were both on LSD and had very significant brain injuries. Some folks seemed to love it and think it amazing, others (like myself) think it's just a stupid waste of time.
By the way, although there is no apparent reason for any of the weirdness in the film, Miike has made some wonderfully strange films that DID work...and work well, such as the ultra-strange but clever and watchable "Happiness of the Katakuris". The key, though is WATCHABILITY--and "Gozu" has absolutely none.
A Yakuza member is told to transport a really crazy and dangerous member of his gang to the countryside. The guy seems to die--but later the dead crazy guy and the driver spends the rest of the film looking for him. During this search, he encounters all sorts of meaningless and brain-melting idiots. There is the old woman who loves to shoot milk out of her breasts everywhere and she spends much of her time filling milk bottles. There are the patrons in a weird restaurant who keep repeating the same lines over and over and over and over. There's a giant man/bull who licks the driver all over the face for no apparent reason as well as an S&M scene involving the milk lady and her brother. And finally, we have the guy with the ladle stuck up his butt. As I said, none of it makes any sense and to me it felt like watching a version of "The Wizard of Oz" made by folks who were both on LSD and had very significant brain injuries. Some folks seemed to love it and think it amazing, others (like myself) think it's just a stupid waste of time.
By the way, although there is no apparent reason for any of the weirdness in the film, Miike has made some wonderfully strange films that DID work...and work well, such as the ultra-strange but clever and watchable "Happiness of the Katakuris". The key, though is WATCHABILITY--and "Gozu" has absolutely none.