Crows Zero Review

Genji, is the newest arrival at the Suzuran Boys High School, where other students fight each other for absolute supremacy. The school is divided into different gangs, each gang containing a principle leader. If one leader beats another, then the losers faction would belong to the winner. So, Genji takes it upon himself to try to unite the school under his leadership. But, there’s just one problem, Suzuran has never been completely ruled by one student. Bringing more complications to the table is Suzuran’s top fighter, Tamao Serizawa, who has never been defeated in battle. Based on the famous manga written by Takahashi Hiroshi.

Thoughts on the film

Ryan

With a great story, wonderful cast, and bone crunching action, master director Takashi Miike paints a masterpiece. Miike’s style, shot choices, and pacing are dead on perfect. Crows Zero is based on the hugely popular manga called Crows. Miike does inject some manga like trademarks into the film and they are a whole lot of fun. Crows Zero also delivers some amazing fight scenes. However, fighting is not all the film is about, it’s also about freindship and honor. Miike uses these themes extremely well, you may even feel your heart strings being tugged at in a few scenes. There is also some great dark comedy to be found in the film. One scene where Genji and a couple of his guys try to set up one of their friends on a date had me laughing out loud for a while. Also credit must be given to the amazing cast, there is not one bad performance in the bunch. This wonderful young cast have very bright futures ahead of them. Crows Zero is Takashi Miike’s biggest box office hit to date, and it’s easy to see why. From the acting to the action and genious dark comedy, Crows Zero is perfect. If you are a Miike fan do yourself a favor and check it out immediately. However do not purchase or rent the soon to be released Tokyo Shock version, it is cut by more than thirty minutes. Import Crows Zero to get the full masterpiece, you’ll be glad that you did.

Mark

Crows Zero is an outstanding feature film directed by none other than Japanese mastermind, Takashi Miike. With Crows Zero, Miike has delivered a man’s action film, gift wrapped with a bow on top. Miike proves once again just how flexible he can be as a film-maker, bringing a very polished film career to the director’s chair. He directs every scene with a sheer ferocity, all the while, giving us a great story on top of that. Crows is a must see for any Miike fan. His direction is magnificent, making Crows in my opinion, the best movie of his career. Acting wise, Shun Oguri is fantastic as Genji. He brings a great amount of strength and determination to the film. He also brings a great screen presence that gives the film a substantial boost in terms of his against type casting as Genji. But, the man who steals the show is Yamada Takayuki, who portrays Serizawa. Yamada brings an over the top quirkiness and charm to Serizawa. But, he can get serious when he has to, which is so awesome about the character. He can act like an jackass just because he’s such a badass character. But, I don’t want to leave out Takaoka Sousuke, who was also magnificently brash and cool as Izaki. He gets a great amount of screen time to shine in this one. To be honest, I was hard pressed to find any character in the movie I didn’t like and that’s another plus for this film. It’s loaded with so many great characters that by films end, you really don’t know who to root for. In terms of acting, Crows has the best cast of actors it could have ever hoped for. For all you action junkies out there, Crows Zero will definitely satisfy your need for action, due to it’s wickedly entertaining style and flare. Which is certainly going to please any fans of the manga. The fight sequences are fantastic and brutal. But, at the same time, there realistic. Also, the film has a great amount of funny wit. Crows Zero is the purest essence of modern film-making. It contains a remarkable mix of action, intensity, and riveting storytelling. It is definitely sure to be awarded cult status.   

Ryan

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Mark

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