Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Movie Downloads Have Offbeat Movies Like The Dead Or Alive Trilogy

By Arline Vincent

The Dead or Alive Trilogy belongs on your must see movie downloads list simply because it's so crazy. You've seen action movies, you've seen over the top action movies, but you've never seen anything quite like these three flicks from Mike Takashi . Every one is out to top the last in terms of sheer craziness.

The first film in the trilogy, Dead or Alive, was conceived simply to get two of Japan's biggest cult legends together, Sho Aikawa and Riki Takeuchi. These two are sort of the Japanese cult film answer to DeNiro and Pacino, so Dead or Alive is sort of the Japanese cult answer to Heat. It was also focused on solving one of the primary problems with that movie: The anti-climactic ending.

We won't spoil that ending for you, but save to say that it certainly solves the whole anti-climax problem. From beginning to end, the whole movie is like one big super climactic showdown. Every minute you're going to be seeing something you've never seen before, something you can't believe you just saw, and something you wish you hadn't seen.

Dead or Alive 2 is both a sequel and not a sequel. The two leads are recast as two entirely different characters, but they sort of parallel the original two characters. In the original, they were a cop and a gangster after one another's throats. This time, they're best friends. They grew up together in an orphanage and now work as hitmen who donate all their proceeds to fighting disease in third world countries.

The first movie in the series has a very negative edge to it, it's very harsh. This one is all heart, it's very positive, so it's interesting to see the whole thing flipped on its head. It also deals a little more responsibly with the cost of violence on a person's soul.

The third film, Dead or Alive Final, goes in the science fiction direction, more specifically, cyberpunk, with replicants and evil dystopian governments. While it might not be the most exciting of the trilogy, it's worth seeing so you can check out how it ties the whole thing together in such a strange way.

If you like the Dead or Alive trilogy, you should also check out Deadly Outlaw Rekka, which feels like the fourth film in the series in spirit. It has the same sense of over the top craziness and stars Riki Takeuchi in the lead role.

The trailer for the first movie in the trilogy proudly declares that Miike is the mad dog of Japanese film, and it's true, that's not just hyperbole. The guy makes something like four or five movies a year, and has created over one hundred total over the course of his career. Not all of them are of the same quality, but for just one in ten movies to be great, that's ten great films, which is more than most directors ever get a chance to put out.

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