Izo is an assassin in the service of Hanpeida, a Imperial supporter, and after killing tons of the Shogun's men in 1865, Izo is captured and crucified. But killing him does not make him go away as his spirit and rage travels through history and ends up in the present day. From there on, Izo's jumps through time and space, going on a killing spree seeking revenge on all of mankind.
I was kinda excited about watching Izo, but at the same time I also had my fears that it would be too weird or just drawn out and boring. I had no idea of what to expect as so often is the case when it comes to Miike. I'm always interested in seeing his films and while I have really liked a lot of them, some has truly disappointed me as well, so I was hoping for the best with Izo. Luckily Izo turned out to be way better than I first had hoped for. It's weird but it's a good weird and not a too weird, and when thinking about it now it was a hell of an entertaining movie that I'm definitely gonna watch again in the near future. I also think that this is the kind of movie the needs to be seen more than once, as there's a lot to take in.
When started watching Izo, it didn't really feel like I was watching a movie on tv, but instead that I was watching a theatre play. The dialogue, the whole feeling, the settings and everything made it feel like it was more of a play than just a movie. Eventually that feeling disappeared, but it was a cool experience, something that does not happen too often and I guess it kinda added to the whole outcome of the movie as well.
 
Izo is a low-born samurai, filled with rage and vengeance, and even though he was crucified and speared to death, his soul would not die and later on made him wake up in present day Tokyo, Japan. From there on he travels through time and space, it seems like he's going to places completely random, and he cannot control where he'll end up next. For every new place he arrives at, there's always people who wants him dead, and he takes out his rage on them, killing them all, again and again. The further time goes, the more Izo himself turns into a demonic figure out to destory and seek revenge on the system that is Japan.
Even though the movie jump like hell between different periods of time and places, it's still easy to follow. Wherever Izo ends up, he also ends up killing the people there and that includes everything from a SWAT team in modern day, vampire salesmen in some cave, a school hallway full of teenage girls, and just tons of different people and characters. Some that just seems to be in his way, and some that know who he is and wants to kill him for a reason.
The body count is extremely high, I was actually counting halfway through the movie, but then lost count and felt that it didn't really matter just how many people Izo could slay, let's just say it's more than a lot. This guy even slices his own mother in half from the waist down. So be prepared for some true carnage and some really cool scenes involving gore and swordplay. Izo is a movie that has enormous amounts of violence in it, it feels like it's never ending and just goes on and on until the very end without ever really stopping to catch it's breath so to speak. Although, none of the violence and carnage is the least bit hard to sit through, even if it's entertaining and in your face, it's not very effective so it would make you feel anything or that it's hard to look at all the mayhem constantly going on.
This might be Miikeĺs weirdest movie to date, I'm not sure, but what I'm sure of is that I really ended up liking it. It goes on for over two hours and that might sound long, but there's never really a dull moment and it's constantly entertaining. You could look at Izo in two different ways, one is that it's just an entertaining movie and you watch it for the violence, the weird sexuality and the overall madness, and the other way being the first one but also trying to figure out the deeper meaning that is Izo with its political message and all.
I prefer the first way but with a little bit of thought to it as well. I don't think it matters if you're a Miike fan or not, this movie might be to weird for fans of his and for sure to a lot of other people out there. I really liked it, but I'm not sure if I can recommend it, it all comes down to what kind of person you are, that is if you'll like it or not.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Iz˘: Kaosu mataha fuj˘ri no kijin
MOVIE YEAR: 2004
DIRECTOR: Takashi Miike
WRITING CREDITS: Shigenori Takechi
GENRE: Action, Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Thriller
CAST: Kazuya Nakayama, Takeshi Kitano, Ryuhei Matsuda
COUNTRY: Japan
RUNTIME: 128 min
RATING: 9/10
Izo Website/IMDB Click here
Izo Trailer Click here
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