Agitator (Tartan Video UK)

In this epic of Yakuza honour, betrayal and bloodshed, maverick Japanese director Miike Takashi creates a tale that is at once cool and muted yet unremittingly dark and brutal. Featuring all of the outrageous trademarks that audiences have come to expect from this twisted cinematic mind, AGITATOR adds a degree of intensity to the mix that needs to be seen to be believed. When a young Yakuza torments the customers in a rival crime family's nightclub, it is not long before his dead body is found. Soon, inter-family retaliation follows, resulting in the death of a prominent crime boss. Devastated by this turn of events, the temperamental Kanzaki vows to avenge his boss' death, and as bloody violence ensues, the body count reaches excessive proportions. Ranging from the darkly comedic to the violently stylish, this is a twisted trip through the tattoo-strewn, bullet-riddled world of the Japanese Yakuza that will leave you stunned and surprised. If only all gangster movies were this outrageous...