Skunkyrate Gripping story with well-crafted characters

Borgarkeri A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Polaris_DiB Takeshi Miike is one of my favorite filmmakers, almost for no better reason than that he's the only filmmaker I've ever seen that can set off my gag reflex. Although he shows versatility as a director with dramas like Sabu and children friendly fare like "Zebraman", he is much more well known as the hyper-violent, hyper-gory, and hyper-kinetic director of "Ichi the Killer". "Graveyard of Honor" is another one of his extreme movies. It's not as fast-paced, or even as weird, as "Ichi", but boy, does it deliver.The basic plot is that a dishwasher ends up saving the life of a Yakuza boss when he knocks out an assassin that is shooting up his restaurant. The Yakuza boss thanks him by making him his right-hand man, but the dishwasher turns out to be pretty much a sociopath, showing no fear, regret, or capability for patience, thus resulting in a violent film full of miscommunication and misunderstandings. The best part is that none of the other characters really seem that willing to take him down, so his blunt approach to killing whoever he feels goes pretty much unchecked.However, the movie is pretty slight on the plot. Really, it's more like a continuing cycle of prison-violence-heroin, prison-violence-heroin. If that description gives some pause, especially considering that this movie is over two hours long, have no fear--it's the most interesting cycle of prison-violence-heroin ever filmed, because one of Miike's primary strengths lies in his use of hyperbole. When a character jumps to his death, he doesn't just splatter; a wave of blood washes over a wall. The fascination of the character himself is matched by the deranged trust that most of the other Yakuza place in him. We're almost as attached to him as his wife, who, it seems, he purposefully got addicted to heroin so that she would depend on him.It's also, like many of Miike's works, darkly comedic in a very sick way. Just don't expect to be laughing all that often, as it's more likely you'll be running to the bathroom trying not to vomit. It also sticks with you for a while, unless you're actually as desensitized as the main character is. If that's the case, I recommend finding a nice asylum to live in for a while.--PolarisDiB

lastliberal Goro Kishitani was a thrill to watch as the main character of this film. He was a totally amoral gangster that was inducted into the Yakuza by saving the godfather's life. In that sense he had no knowledge of the rules of the family and made some mistakes - one fatal.The rest of the film deals with his run from the family and the attempts of his prison brother, a high family member, to protect him. It just keeps getting more bizarre as he manages an escape from prison in a way that I would describe as vile and gross - but it worked! His treatment of women was the lowest. There are two or three rape scenes. There is certainly a lot of violence, but not gross violence.It was a fascinating story directed by Takashi Miike (Ichi the Killer, Hostel).

scobbah Anyone expecting "just another Miike flick" might get very disappointed, as I'd claim this remake, of Kinji Fukasaku's 1975 success, to differ quite much from Miike's other works. There's a lack of comic events here, while the amount of violence is steady and non-compromising straight throughout the movie. While Miike's other works may have a sort of balance between the cold terror of Yakuza violence and fun punchlines, dark and light or whatever you'd like, this piece is leaning way more to the darker side. No one gets away with anything, women and men, they're all facing their dramatic paths down the line.As I've mentioned above, the piece feels quite different, and at the beginning I thought it may even be bad. However, such a case didn't await me and afterward I thought it was all good. Different, but good. I prefer the other works of Miike, but that didn't disqualify this one to be a good view. Shattering, touching and filled up with non-sympathy. 7/10.

Pedro-37 Takashi Miike's remake of Kinji Fukasaku's 1975 film of the same name is a rather straightforward Japanese Yakuza thriller with a hefty dose of violence. However, this violence is less comic-style than in Miikes best work "Fudoh", "Dead or Alive" or "Ichi the Killer". The violence comes across as raw and real. This gives the film a gritty edge that reminded me more of the classic Yakuza flicks than of a Miike film. There are occasional outbursts of over-the-top-Miike-isms (the final "fall" of the hero, a throat-slicing etc.) but they are limited to a few scenes. Another Miike-trademark in the film will be as problematic as ever: The harsh treatment of women. The hero's first contact with his future wife and the beating of said wife later in the film did strike me as particularly unappealing. However, I felt that in "Graveyard of Honor", men and women get treated the same way - badly that is. No one gets away clean in this film and to label Miike a chauvinist (or whatever names circulate the web) would be more appropriate with some of his other films.Taking all into account, "Graveyard of Honor" is a surprisingly mannered Miike-outing. Definitely not my favorite because it lacks the over-the-top-appeal I came to love, but a strong motion picture never the less. A gritty gangster flick with raw violence and unsympathetic characters. Of course a must see for Miike fans.My rating: 7/10