Family

A somewhat generic crime/Yakuza film from the hand of Takashi Miike. Originally these were two 80-minute episodes, which were then edited together to a single film of 110 minutes. I watched the longer cut, the best thing I can say about this film is that I didn't get bored, which is quite something for a simple genre film that moves well beyond the 2-hour mark.

Takeshi, a skilled hitman, is commissioned to kill the boss of a competing family. The hit is successful, but it stirs up all kinds of trouble, and Takeshi is forced to go into hiding. The family sends out people to find who killed their boss. When they discover Takeshi was responsible for the hit, they try to get to him by harassing his brothers.

If you've seen some of Miike's other Yakuza epics, you should have a good idea of what to expect. It's not one of his more ambitious projects and at certain points it does feel like actual filler, but whenever the film feels like it's slipping away, Miike finds something to draw your attention back to the film. Not his best work, but once you've seen all his more prestigious films it's a fun diversion.