1999 · yakuza · crime · cult
Dead or Alive
Directed by Takashi Miike1h 45m1999
Ryūichi and his small gang of Triad vie for control of the Japanese underworld in a crime-ridden Shinjuku quarter while Detective Jojima tries to bring it down.
Our read: Dead or Alive (1999) reads as a heavy, breathless, inventive yakuza · crime · cult entry — extreme in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, cold in temperature, nihilistic in outlook, with a strong directorial signature.
Heavy, breathless, extreme yakuza / crime, inventive in texture. Nihilistic, mid-stakes, cold.
- heavy
- kinetic
- extreme
- inventive
- bleak
- cold
Watching Dead or Alive tonight? Spin for your lens.
Everyone on the couch spins once and gets one craft to watch for. After the credits, compare what you caught.
Your lens for tonight
?
Everyone on the couch gets one craft to watch for. Spin the wheel to get yours. Sound on: the narrator reads your mission.
Availability in the UK · via JustWatch
More info & search links
How Dead or Alive feels to watch.
Each axis is scored by hand, not from votes or genre averages. The bar uses the film's own colours.
What watching it is actually like.
“You want Miike yakuza chaos that careens from gritty to completely unhinged.”
Skip it tonight — Skip if extreme violence, sexual brutality, or surreal endings will wreck you.
Eight films that feel like this one.
Closest in the twelve-axis space, not “people also liked”. All films like Dead or Alive, with why →
Discussion
Make it a movie night.
Pick a mood, get a film the whole couch will enjoy, and give everyone something to watch for.
Pick tonight's film →