Like a Dragon

Prepare for one very hot, very action-packed night in Miike Takashi’s Like a Dragon. Based on the hit PlayStation 2 game, the film delivers with all the violent, fast-paced fisticuffs and wry, loony gusto one could hope from the maverick director. With madcap gangsters, silent snipers, and a plethora of colorful characters running around, Like a Dragon is a bewilderingly entertaining throw ’em up mix of hardboiled drama, giddy action, black comedy, and pure Miike magic – all squeezed into a feverishly layered story that plays out over one night in the sleepless streets of Shinjuku. Kishitani Goro (Returner) and Kitamura Kazuki (Samurai Commando Mission 1549) star as feuding gangsters, along with a superb supporting cast that includes Korean actor Gong Yoo (My Tutor Friend), Arakawa Yoshiyoshi (Yaji & Kita: The Midnight Pilgrims), Shioya Shun (Pacchigi!), and Aikawa Sho (Zebraman).
In the sweltering heat of Tokyo summer, the night begins with a hapless bank robbery and the disappearance of ten million yen belonging to the Tojo gang. Meanwhile, yakuza Majima Goro (Kishitani Goro), decked in a gold suit and with more than a few screws loose, is out to fight rival gangster Kiryu Kazuma (Kitamura Kazuki). The somber and seemingly indestructible Kiryu, however, has just left his gang and has in tow a little girl (Natsuo), whose mother he is trying to track down. In another part of Shinjuku, Satori (Shioya Shun) and his girlfriend (Saeko) decide to start holding up stores for fun, and mysterious Korean hitman Park (Gong Yoo) haunts the rooftops looking to off the culprit behind the Tojo heist. As the night passes, Majima and Kiryu cross paths repeatedly, in a series of increasingly bloody and bombastic stand-offs that bring them straight to the top of the Millennium Tower.