Bodyguard Kiba

This was a quite entertaining film. It's your average yakuza film. But a bit more Miike style. Comicy fighting and plot twists. Nothing too serious. Reminds me of Tintin as the characters travel around and every now and then there's some evasion.

If you're looking for high quality cinema that's for everybody, look it somewhere else. However, if you're a fan of Miike or looking for niche stuff, you're come to the right place.

There's next to nothing in terms of the visual brilliance he would later show, but Miike's film is a solid, exciting Yakuza/martial arts hybrid that moves along at a snappy pace and never outstays it's welcome.

Junpei, a low-level Yakuza, steals 500 million yen from his boss. While he's being interrogated, a stroke of good luck saves his life and lands him in prison for five years. Upon release, he hires invincible professional bodyguard Kiba to escort him to the hidden loot, so he can find his girlfriend and escape forever. Every step of the way the two are ambushed by angry Yakuza, and even angrier students from a rival Dojo who are mortified by Kiba's alleged comments that his Karate is more effective than theirs.

It's a fun ride, with plenty of action and neat twists. The plot allows for both martial arts and gun-play, so there's something for everyone to get their teeth into. The two main characters, Junpei and Kiba, have great chemistry, and they form a tenuous bond - Miike's brotherhood theme raising it's head, although it's explored better in later films.

Thoroughly enjoyable.

This is a fairly stock standard straight to video yakuza film. Although the actor playing Kiba is incredibly wooden, the rest of the cast make up for this. This is early Miike, so there's nothing terribly excessive yet, but it is competently told with some nice lighting, camera-work and stunt work. The Kiba sequels are pretty terrible though.

The pacing is really good in this one as well. I often find pacing an issue with Miike films, but the plot is quite tight, and the few unnecessary scene are short and often involve some entertaining stunts.

There is a really beautifully shot sex scene in this one as well, which is very surprising for a gritty v film