767 Ratings

Dead or Alive

Dead or Alive: Hanzaisha

Japan, 1999

Crime, Drama, Thriller

Synopsis

Tough gangster Ryuichi and his ethnically Chinese yakuza make a play to take over the drug trade in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district by massacring the competition. But he meets his match in detective Jojima, who will do everything to stop them.

Dead or Alive Directed by Takashi Miike

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Awards & Festivals

International Film Festival Rotterdam

2000

BFI London Film Festival

2000

Tokyo International Film Festival

1999 | Special Mention: Asian Film Award

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Cast & Crew

Critics reviews

…Miike characteristically punctuates this scene with a crass joke (a fart bubble arises from the pool while the gangster talks), but the demolition of this woman is wrenching, filmed by Miike with a sense of rapturous terror and humanism as jokiness gives way to tragedy.

Chuck Bowen

April 15, 2017

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Dead Or Alive’s beginning and ending constitute two of the most notorious sequences in a career full of them, and tend to overshadow the unhinged—though largely low-key—yakuza bloodbath drama they bookend. But… one side depends on the other. The opening provides the rest of the movie an atmosphere of anything-goes craziness. The dramatic portions, in turn, provide context for the wacky climax.

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky

March 27, 2014

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What are people saying?

Junda Mane's rating of the film Dead or Alive
Junda Mane

Features one of the most insane openings you will ever see in a film. Classic Yakuza exploitation from Miike.
October 22, 2015 11:29
- 3
- 0
Gondo's rating of the film Dead or Alive
Gondo

Every Takashi Miike film should have a big red warning sign at the beginning: Beware of the Miike! Entering at own risk!
January 27, 2013 19:32
- 4
- 0
Mugino's rating of the film Dead or Alive
Mugino

Possibly THE weirdest, jaw-dropping ending ever possible in cinema.
September 14, 2010 04:22
- 6
- 0
Michael H. CLAES's rating of the film Dead or Alive
Michael H. CLAES

KEPON NIPPON. Rappelle GODARD ou Gaspar NOE ou Tasheki KITANO parfois et de loin. Trashy punk et créatif. ==== Japanese punk. Reminds of GODARD or Gaspar NOE or Tasheki KITANO at times, and from far. Thrilling trashy & creative.
August 18, 2018 13:07
- 1
- 1
msmichel's rating of the film Dead or Alive
msmichel

The opening montage is the most impressive thing about Miike's first 'Dead or Alive' film. For all the film's depravity and mondo ending the overall feeling watching this one was boredom. A terrible performance by Riki Takeuchi only adds to the problems. Miike has made some very impressive films over the years...this isn't one of them.
January 24, 2019 19:05
- 2
- 0
Nicholas Gregory's rating of the film Dead or Alive
Nicholas Gregory

It's sad that the opening sequence where we know zero about any character or have a context for the action is more interesting than the proceeding 'actual' storytelling. When it's without action and strangeness, Miike loses his footing. Despite Lynchian moments and the brilliantly staged action scenes, they come too sporadically, while the film lacks in momentum to be good trash, and in intellect to be anything but.
May 17, 2018 23:35
- 1
- 0
Hunter Duesing's rating of the film Dead or Alive
Hunter Duesing

This movie has an opening that will melt your face, burn your eyes, and leave you shaking in awe. It has an ending that will blow your mind all over the wall behind you, leaving an icky mess for someone to clean up. Everything in between is best described with the words "boring as fuck."
August 03, 2010 23:08
- 1
- 0
Daniel S.'s rating of the film Dead or Alive
Daniel S.

The film doesn’t differ from most Japanese movies dedicated to yakuzas and anti-yakuzas police forces if one forgets Takashi Miike’s taste (superbad, I may say) for hyperviolence, gore, scatology and other candies. Recommended.
August 03, 2010 19:15
- 0
- 0

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Dead or Alive

Dead or Alive: Hanzaisha

Synopsis

Awards & Festivals

Cast & Crew

Takashi Miike Director

Riki Takeuchi Cast

Shô Aikawa Cast

Renji Ishibashi Cast

Hitoshi Ozawa Cast

Ichiro Ryu Screenplay

Yamamoto Hideo Cinematography

Kôji Endô Music

Critics reviews

What are people saying?

Junda Mane's rating of the film Dead or Alive

Gondo's rating of the film Dead or Alive

Mugino's rating of the film Dead or Alive

Michael H. CLAES's rating of the film Dead or Alive

msmichel's rating of the film Dead or Alive

Nicholas Gregory's rating of the film Dead or Alive

Hunter Duesing's rating of the film Dead or Alive

Daniel S.'s rating of the film Dead or Alive

In these lists

Related films

Reservoir Dogs

Ley Lines

Zebraman

Bad Lieutenant

Gozu

Jackie Brown

Audition

The City of Lost Souls

Dead or Alive 2: Birds

Dead or Alive: Final

Dead or Alive

Dead or Alive: Hanzaisha

Synopsis

Synopsis

Awards & Festivals

Cast & Crew

Takashi Miike Director

Riki Takeuchi Cast

Shô Aikawa Cast

Renji Ishibashi Cast

Hitoshi Ozawa Cast

Ichiro Ryu Screenplay

Yamamoto Hideo Cinematography

Kôji Endô Music

Critics reviews

What are people saying?

In these lists

Related films

Hara-kiri: Death of a Samurai

Takashi Miike Japan, 2011

Reservoir Dogs

Ley Lines

Zebraman

Bad Lieutenant

Gozu

Jackie Brown

Audition

The City of Lost Souls

Dead or Alive 2: Birds

Dead or Alive: Final