Crows Zero (US Version) DVD Region 1

Shun Oguri (The Neighbor No. 13) stars as Genji Takaya, the latest arrival at Suzuran Boys High School, where delinquents battle for supremacy because hey, that's what delinquents are supposed to do. The backstory to his battling ways: once upon a time, his gangster father (Goro Kishitani in a cameo) tried to beat all the gangs and unite the school, but he was unable to do so. Genji is here to complete his father's quest, not only to impress Dad but also to prove his abilities, but the going is tough. The first-year and second-year gangs are pretty rough already, but top man Tamao Serizawa (Takayuki "Train Man" Yamada) is a veritable beast - that is, when he isn't acting goofy or making a minor ass of himself. Regardless, Genji has his work cut out for him.

Crows: Episode 0 possesses a storyline that's largely indistinguishable from the umpteen "punks fighting in school" manga lining bookstore shelves. There's action, attitude, and also a healthy dose of humor that pokes fun at the macho posturing these frequently metrosexual Alpha males exhibit. Miike gets the tone of his comic adaptation correct, serving up deadpan comedy with ultra-serious posturing that consistently proves amusing. The whole plays as sort of a minor satire on more serious youth gang films, while also providing all the bells and whistles that commercial filmmaking requires. The rock soundtrack, messy but obviously manufactured production design, cartoony characters, and hilarious hairdos make this an obvious manga adaptation for the masses, and Miike never attempts to make the material more than it should be. He keeps everything entertaining and light, and mostly downplays any egregious melodrama.

Not that it's balls-to-the-wall fun in Crows. The film hits a second-act skid where more character details and comic book themes surface, and they're so typical of the genre that they only register out of familiarity and not actual effectiveness. Genji's love interest, a pretty rocker named Ruka (Meisa Kuroki) barely makes an impact, and the trials of low-rent Yakuza Ken Katagiri (Kyosuke Yabe), who helps Genji on his quest to conquer Suzuran High, never strike more than a perfunctory emotional chord. Ken looks to help Genji because he, too, attended Suzuran, and helping Genji is a way of making his pathetic life take on some meaning. There's also your standard brotherly man-love subplot about honoring your buddies - which is hardly surprising for a film of this genre. The performances are sound and the themes solid, but again, there's not much new or special here.

What is special is the film's sheer entertainment value. The comedy arising from the cartoonish characters and their deadpan serious attitudes is quite welcome, and the over-the-top fisticuffs are tops. People pound each other silly in Crows, but not to a level that's grotesque or disturbing. They just punch and kick each other one hell of a lot, with pauses to posture and pose in an exaggerated, but still quite cool manga manner. Miike's action is rendered in an ultra-slick way - with strobing shutter effects giving the action a music video look - and is far less extreme than one might expect from a man with his filmography. But this is Miike in commercial mode, and he handles his source material exceptionally well. Crows is not a movie to take seriously, and indeed the whole production seems so pointedly unrealistic that taking it seriously would probably indicate some fault on the part of the viewer. This is a thoroughly commercial picture that possesses enough cultural cachet to make it appear special, and that should be enough reason for Western fans of the Japanese cultural invasion (i.e., anime, manga, bishonen heroes) to get excited. In all likelihood, fans of the original manga won't be unhappy either.

by Kozo - LoveHKFilm.com