Search - Family, Part 2 on DVD

Unnecessary Sequel to an Unnecessary Original

Johnathan Albrecht | Bel Air, MD | 07/18/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"From the grand master of cool in contemporary cinema, Takashi Miike, comes this piece of doody that sits at the festering bottom of his catalogue with the likes of his other atrociously ailing creations: "Silver", "Bodyguard Kiba", and the first "Family". Now understand, I consider the man to be the most inspiring, original, and no question the most productive filmmaker currently cranking out pictures today, but that's not to say that he's all sunshine and no rain- but what can you expect from a dude who has been involved in what, maybe 70 productions in his directorial tenure which started in the early nineties. And here you have one of his severe misses, which he rarely puts out, but here it is.



"Family" is a yakuza flick in which the plot is a muddled and weak and really isn't even worth mentioning. The film is just a series of grave conversations between gangsters, peppered with intermittent trying-to-be-stylish shoot 'em ups, seemingly interjected for the sole purpose of adding some action.



It's been said that the director was also cinematographer on this particular project, which was originally one movie but somewhere along the lines split into two, and this shows where some of the shot composition is rather lacking and uninventive, whereas other scenes it's very pleasing and innovative. But more so the latter than the former. And being shot on cheap-looking digital doesn't add a lick to the visual appeal.



The opening scene of a smack-filled, beat-up, half-nude girl having a gangsters' dirty feet rubbed on her head kicks the movie off with a certain depraved bravado that actually piques some interest but it's just all for naught.



It's difficult to rip so hard on this picture because I'm such a foaming-at-the-mouth fanatic for Takashi Miike but that's not going to keep me from being real about how below mediocre this particular piece is. Check out his "Kikoku" instead, not only one of his most personally accomplished masterpieces but one of the most phenomenal additions to modern filmmaking in recent years.



Oh yeah, I gave it the rating I did because in my mind it would be solidly planted somewhere in that nebulous place between two and three stars, so I just gave it the benefit of three stars out of respect to the man himself."