Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

Dead or Alive 2 Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 3, 2017

Note: This film is available as part of the Dead or Alive Trilogy.

For those unfamiliar with Takashi Miike, perhaps taking a cue from St. Thomas Aquinas’ famous quote about belief could be of some aid. Aquinas wrote, “To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.” Taking that formulation as a foundation, one might amend it slightly to say “For those who have seen a Miike film, no explanation is necessary. For those who haven’t, no explanation is possible.” As I mentioned in the relatively recent reviews of Takashi Miike’s Black Society Trilogy, this provocateur’s filmography is extremely varied, as well as extremely numerous. Somewhat similarly to the Black Society Trilogy, a trifecta in name only (more or less), Miike’s Dead or Alive Trilogy offers only some relatively tangential linking elements (including its stars, again like Black Society Trilogy) while serving up Miike’s typically hyperbolic take on various underworld activities. In a way Miike tends to remind me at times of Quentin Tarantino, for he’s an artist with an obvious understanding of structure and film technique who nonetheless is more apt than not to throw caution to the wind and dispense with traditional methods of exposition and especially presentation in an effort to kind of virtually shake the audience into either submission or, perhaps, outright revulsion. Those with squeamish sensibilities are therefore probably best advised to approach Miike’s work with extreme caution, though those with a certain amount of fortitude will discover a filmmaker of such unusual talents that one way or the other his productions are unforgettable.

Leave it to Takashi Miike to begin a supposed yakuza film with a text card asking “Where are you?”, followed by a scene of Planet Earth emerging from the shadow of—well, what is that supposed to be? The moon? Kind of like the “cosmic” ending that Miike suddenly thrusts at the viewer in the closing moments of Dead or Alive, Dead or Alive 2: Birds offers a somewhat metaphysical take on the gangster idiom, and as such this may not be everyone’s cup of tea, even if you are a devoted Miike aficionado.

Much as with the first Dead or Alive, the basic set up to Dead or Alive 2: Birds is simplicity itself, which is not to say that Miike’s typically baroque presentational idiosyncrasies aren’t completely on display, because believe me, they are. While the foundation of this film is the hoary trope of two childhood friends rediscovering each other as adults and forging a new relationship, Miike twists and turns that premise in his typically hyperbolic way. The film begins with an over the top “performance” by a magician named Higashino (Shinya Tsukamoto), who is giving a magic infused demonstration of how he wants to bring down two competing gangs by using the smaller forces of a third aggregation. The magician does all of this with cigarette packages as props, all for the edification of Mizuki Okamoto (Show Aikawa), who it should be noted couldn’t care less and isn’t really paying attention.

Though it isn’t overly detailed, Higashino has hired Mizuki as a hitman to take out a mob boss, something that Mizuki dutifully goes to do, only to have his task interrupted when another hitman enters the fray and completes the murder right in front of Mizuki’s eyes. While it takes probably too long for this denouement to be offered, it turns out that this unexpected interloper is a childhood friend of Mizuki’s named Sawada (Riki Takeuchi). The two had grown up together in less than ideal circumstances (which Miike stages with perhaps a bit too much melodrama), and now, reunited as adults, they share a dislike for their chosen line of work.

That then leads to the completely peculiar middle section of the film, where the two attempt to make a new life for themselves on an island hideaway. As might be expected given the fact that this is a Miike film, that attempt leads to all sorts of patently bizarre scenes, including a sexually charged play put on for children and, ultimately, a descent into surrealism where the pair seem to be characters in Defending Your Life (I’m joking, of course—kind of).

Dead or Alive 2: Birds is filled with Miike’s sudden flourishes of psychedelia (like what I assume are supposed to be birds erupting all over the frame after the hit on the mob boss), but in a way this is a somewhat more tamped down Miike effort from a purely narrative standpoint. It has little connection to the first film other than its stars, but it shares that film’s tendency to simply go gonzo at a moment’s notice, something that will either endear it or make it positively annoying, depending on how much “Miike tolerance” individual viewers have built up.

Dead or Alive 2 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Dead or Alive 2: Birds is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Arrow's somewhat circumspect lack of information on this transfer's provenance may indicate some source related issues that couldn't be overcome, and while this effort is largely in line with the quality I outlined in the Dead or Alive Blu-ray review, I'm marking this transfer down just a bit because some of the odd color choices (which I'm frankly not sure accurately recreate the theatrical version) really tend to negatively affect detail levels. Look at screenshot 10, which is so bathed in blue that flesh tones look alien and fine detail is minimal at best. That said, other parts of this transfer look a good deal more natural, with much better detail levels. As with the first film, there is some variability in clarity, detail levels and especially palette reproduction (aside from the aforementioned blue situation, several scenes are bathed in a kind of sickly looking yellow-green tone). Also as with the first film, crush is evident in some dark scenes, grain is a little chunky (and yellow) looking at times, and compression has a few hurdles to overcome.

Dead or Alive 2 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Much as with the first film, Dead or Alive 2: Birds' LPCM 2.0 track offers a good reproduction of dialogue, effects (including lots of rain sounds in a long flashback sequence), and score. Fidelity is fine and there are no problematic dropouts or distortion.

Dead or Alive 2 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• DOA 2: Original Making of Featurette (1080i; 10:17) is an archival piece with some fun behind the scenes footage.


• DOA 2 Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1:25)

Dead or Alive 2 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Dead or Alive 2: Birds doesn't have quite the energy that the first film does, but it's bizarre in that typical Miike way, while also having a relatively straightforward narrative (which nonetheless includes some downright provocative material). Video quality is just slightly less detailed than the first film, but audio is fine. Miike regulars will probably get at least a bit of a kick out of this, while others may want to move on to something a little less out there.