i dunno. some people like the sonic movies. Is fine. I kinda liked the first silent hill. Most other game movies tend to just do nothing for me. Especially Uncharted (cos I absolutely love those games, the movie just felt like some weird cosplay thing... the short fan-film starring Nathan Fillion felt more authentic). If we can include anime movies then Street Fighter II always. Heck, it got me into a lot of cool music back in the 90s too like Alice in Chains and KMFDM. I dunno. I'm feeling very down cos of Kevin Conroy passing away today. Batman has died.
A long, complicated crime drama broken up by bat-shit crazy fights and weird NPCS asking you to do totally out-of-leftfield missions is basically the Yakuza games in a nushell.
ruclips.net/video/WuIDxjeIuVo/видео.html The launch trailer for the remake of the second game is probably the best short video I've ever seen to show off the general tone of these games.
Now I want to see a movie version of the Yakuza: Like a Dragon game. Just imagine Brandon reviewing the scene where the main character calls up a crayfish to help him in a fight.
Literally every Yakuza game has a ton of Miike energy and should be adapted to film. Would love to see the insanity of a movie following Kiryu's stints as an orphanage director or taxi cab driver, or the Yakuza 0 movie solely about Majima running a hostess club.
@@MidlifeCrisisJoe Miike should absolutely get another shot at the series, but as a period (maybe modern-ish, eventually) TV series, not as movies. There's a BIT too much going on, even just strictly adapting the main plots (and you wouldn't want to cut the side stories entirely, even if you don't adapt every side story), for a regular length movie.
Ah yes, Kazuma Kiryu. The most stoic Japanese guy ever. Also famous for actually never having killed anybody. Seriously. If they wanted to be accurate this would include a scene of Kiryu and Haruka going to a karaoke joint during a search break.
@@IvanDubsK7 does Karaoke appear in the two Kiwami games as well? I only experienced it because of Zero's Prologue and i visited many Bars and Restaurants but I don't know if you can do any jobs or substories before being expelled and meet Tachibana of the Metal Hand (...I went so bad in my first time that even Nishiki called out my flawed beginning)
@@ZoanBlade90 I’d disagree if I don’t hear another kiryu-Chan in my life I’d die happy 🤣 I love majima but damn the remake of 1 really made me want him to leave me alone
@@Dat_MrBlack yakuza 3 probably has my favorite story in the franchise.. But it has the worst gameplay.. Kiwami 3 is desperately needed.. That would probably become my favorite game in the franchise
Not in the original PS2 Yakuza 1, he only fought Kiryu 2 times under the order of Shimano. The "Majima Everywhere" mechanic and his reasoning to fight Kiryu anytime is new addition in KIwami remake.
The movie adaptation, directed by Miike, of a game series inspired by Miike's movies. Love this little gem, and Majima absolutely steals the entire show anytime he's on screen.
@@EarthboundX The other one I know is also "Yakuza: Like a Dragon", the remake. I think there's a spinoff game (Judgement?) that also has an English dub.
Nah, the best attack is summoning an eye patched maniac with your phone, who then Naruto runs down the side of a building, throws and then kicks a ludicrous amount of knives at your enemies, which are then stuck by lighting on the way down. The second best is taking a fistful of nails and shoving them into your opponents mouth, then hitting them in the jaw.
-Make Yakuza 1 movie -Pretty much forget all about the game's main antagonist, Akira Nishikiyama until the very fucking end of the movie -Make Goro Majima the main antagonist -Be batshit fucking insane -profit?
The Yakuza series is one of the most underrated/under the radar video game series out there. I was introduced to the series when the latest Yakuza game, "Like A Dragon" was released a couple years ago. I enjoyed that game so much, I went back and bought all the PS4 remakes of the series and both Judgement games, and I wasn't disappointed, at all.
Well it’s no longer underrated after 0 came out and with three more games coming out too starting with one everyone wanted to try out ishin yea It’s not what you think it is. Plus fandom is as wild as the game series is.
They WERE underrated for a long time, before 0 saved the franchise thanks to Sega finally localizing it for the west after years of being Japan exclusive. Now, it's doing better than ever before, thankfully. 🐉
Takashi Miike is really a phenomenon isn't he? The guy has directed hundreds of movies, from family comedies to ultra-gory horror films and everything in between. I don't know any western director who has a body of work, both in terms of variety and sheer numbers of movies, like him. And he's completely unpredictable when it comes to his next project. One year, he will direct an epic Samurai movie with a 20 minute non-stop, bloody battle sequence. The next year, he will do a dark gangster drama,six months later he's doing a rom-com or a children's movie, before making another extreme horror movie. The guy even directed a live-action JoJo 's Bizarre Adventure movie in 2017, WTF?!
@@charlesc.fuentes1033 Nah, Rodriguez doesn't even come close in terms of genres and sheer output of Miike. The guy has directed: - horror - gangsterfilms - rom com's - family films - character dramas - historical dramas - epic Samurai movies - love stories - classic comedies - action thrillers - road movies - video games adaptations - manga adaptations
The closest Western equivalent to Miike is probably Roger Corman, who also has hundreds of credits, though Corman stopped directing films in the 80s and mostly stuck to producing them, he did spend about 20 years directing a ton of B-movies before that. I wouldn't say Corman was ever as talented or interesting as Miike in terms of actual skill as a director, but they both share a strong work ethic and output, that's for sure!
The Yakuza games are amazing, highly recommend them. 0 is the best place to start, not just because it's one of the best but also because it'll make you care about the characters in the first game a lot more (even in the remake, you can tell it was designed in PS2 era from its structure). Also, haven't seen this movie, but whenever other Yakuza fans bring it up, they usually hate it since it wastes so much time on its own original characters instead of Kiryu and the like.
Some fans appreciate it but like brandon said it just waste time doing whatever the fuck it wants till ether plot relevant scene happens or fight scene and there stuff we do enjoy with the film lile actor playing both kiryu and majima being near perfect representation of the two. Overall they don’t hate the film they just hate how it was paced and how unfocused it was but love all the fighting scenes
The games have 10x the absurdity wrapped up in dozens of hours of compelling plot. By the first two hours of Yakuza, or Zero, Kiryu is a guy you’d feel honored to actually know.
This had to be one of the more funnier episodes, and that's saying something. Maybe my fav moment... **main character gets shot** Brandon: Oh, great, and I forgot to save. Now I'm going to have to start this whole movie over again. 😂🤣😂🤣 Yeah, I enjoyed this. Thank you, Brandon.
The Yakuza games are truly incredible series. One moment you are in the middle of an epic crime drama and in the next you are doing a side story where you help a S&M mistress how to properly Dom her sub. It's incredibly heartwarming. :D Goro mainly want to fight Kiryu because he enjoys it. No other reason. The movie is truly fascinating as an Yakuza fan. Goes into its own direction. The characters look the same but are very different people from the ones in the game. Except Kiryu, but he is a stoic hero archetype so it's fine. As for the basic plot. Kiryu goes to jail in place of his best friend for killing their Boss. Said boss was going to grape Hiruka's mom, so no tears shed there. When he comes out of jail she had gone missing, together with a lot of Yakuza money and his best friend has gone full evil. In the end the politican, that was helping the Yakuza launder their money was the big bad. Also he was Haruka's dad. Kiryu goes full bad ass, defeats his best friend and the politician. His best friend kills himself and the politician and the building explodes. Kiryu leaves the Yakuza life and adopts Haruka and several more children. It does not stick as you can guess by the number of sequels. Also you did not need to use the PS2 version of the game as reference. They remade the first two games in modern graphics.
Absolutely! The Movies of his golden Era are a treat. Gozu, Visitor Q, Itchi the Killer, Dead or Alive, Happiness of the Katakuris ... all fantastic weird Movies
A bit of trivia: "Kiryu", the family name of the MC, is actually the Japanese word for "Dragon". He's also the husband of retired vtuber Kiryu Coco (in her head), and of vtuber Kson Souchou (also in her head, and who has a remarkably similar voice to the aforementioned Kiryu Coco).
Because kson is kiryu coco. (Kson is her old vtuber persona before kiryu coco came to be after that nasty controversy she just went back to her old sona.)
If you think the stuff with Goro and that fight scene near the end are good, I'd definitely suggest looking into the games. They're awesome, really over the top and super stylish. I think you might like em!
As a fan of the Yakuza games, to an extent, I wasn't even aware this was a thing! if you get a chance, play Yakuza Zero to completion. All the benefits of later games, whilst at the beginning of the timeline.
I'm not usually going to talk about basically directors, actors or whoever having that one point in their career I mean if you want an entire basically someone example I could think about look at craig mazin early career before Chernobyl and The Last of Us TV show
The side stuff in the movie is it's version of the side stories in the game. In addition to the main story with the little girl, Kiryu will do little random things for citizens around town. Doesn't work in the movie to do it that same way cause Kiryu is busy, but doing them as just little side plots that tangentially tie in is pretty genius, IMO.
Man, you gotta get in on the Yakuza series. They all start agonizingly slow, but they're awesome. The main plots are hard yakuza stories, the side stuff is absolutely bizarre Japanese humor at its finest.
Gotta say, from someone directing hundreds of videogame B-flicks, you'd expect Asylum level quality, where instead this looks pretty competent and well done, at least from a visual point of view, as I have no means to evaluate the dialogue.. Cool vid!! 👍🏻🖤🏴☠️
The tattoo of the goldfish is actually of a carp. For context, a Japanese legend says that a carp that can swim up a waterfall may become a dragon. Kazuma Kiryu is the Dragon of Dojima, and Nishiki (the guy with the carp tattoo) seeks to rise to his level.
Hey Brandon, did you know that the exact name of this movie also the same as the recent 2020 game in the franchise (which transition from beat em up to turn based RPG) as well as among the first game in years to also have an English dub (including George Takei)!?
The only movie of his I own is his weird remake of the 70's anime Yatterman. Unfortunately I never got around to watching it. I'd love to see this channel cover it.
Wait you're a fan of the game franchise, and yet you didn't know the movie existed? How long have you known the franchise, as in how many Yakuza games did you played? Because a longtime fan of this franchise would've already known about this film, I find that hard to believe you didn't know about the film adaptation. You have Wikipedia, & Google, you would've known about this film already even before Brandon Tenold did a review. Disclaimer: I'm a gamer, but am familiar with Yakuza franchise, even I know about the film adaptation.
@@angelganon8213 Wait, I wasn't specifically talking about you given that you played all the game in one year. I was talking about people who know the franchise for a long time, and somehow didn't know about the film adaptation given that Wikipedia, Google, Reddit, Wiki/Fandom Inc exist for fans to get all the information. As I said, I'm not even part of the Yakuza fanbase yet I still know and aware of the film adaptation.
@@persomiissleepy Just because he's known for bloody dark movies that doesn't mean that's all he has a passion for. Imagine if I told you years ago Sam Raimi, the director of Evil Dead wants to make a campy Hercules show or a campy Spider-man movie.
Great video there dude! My first Miike film was City of Lost Souls, then Dead or Alive, and I started to research the guy and well, I have seen several more of his films and I own at least two of his films on DVD.
I never knew there was a movie based on the games! I'm actually tempted to see if I can find it, because I love this series. Even though story wise it seems a bit out there. Also I wouldn't worry about Toho on this one. If streaming the games has taught me anything I'd be more worried about Sega claiming it. They like getting a little claim happy over cut scenes.
In the game this is based the main dude sees himself as video gamr hero on an adventure quest. Which is why the game involves turn based combat like final fantasy or other Jrpgs.
Check out Yakuza Apocalypse. Not a sequel to this movie. Starts off as a pretty straight forward movie, with vampires as an allegory for Yakuza. Then the assassin in the frog mascot costume shows up and the film goes totally off the rails in typical Miike fashion.
Japanese people dubbed in French is a good laugh but....😂 3:50 GIGAAAA!!!!!! RISE!!!..... 🤣 6:11 Whaat!!!. 😳 11:59 Hey. 😅✌ 15:29 He goes Super Saiyan. 😎💯 I need to get some Stamina X.
I remember renting the original game back in the day, but I never finished it. Been such a long time since I've played that game. I don't think I ever heard of this movie, but I did hear of "Audition" from Bravo's "100 Scariest Movie Moments". As far as video game adaptations go, it does capture the look of the game well, but since I haven't played the original game in decades, its hard to tell how accurate the movie is to the game. May want to get the games somewhere down the road. Great episode.
Takashi Miike is also known among gamers for being a mild obsession for Travis Touchdown, a protagonist of Goichi Suda's wacky weird No More Heroes series of hack and slash video games. Ya know.
5:04 And from the looks of it, it is almost pitch perfect for what the franchise became later on. This series is bonkers. 7:32 Don't look at me, man. I got into this franchise thanks to Yakuza Zero. 15:36 *Kiwami!* (Intense!)
I remember having to hunt this down when it first came out and it was chore to find a copy. It also introduced me to greatness that is the Crazy Ken Band
Well, how about that, I aint even mad, this might be quite close to what Yakuza is, assuming we only play random sub-stories. Inaccuracies I've seen: Majima wouldnt use a gun, he likes beating people to death. Also he would appear more times out of the blue. Also not enough karaoke. Besides that, yep, this is decent.
A pretty common powerup drink you see throughout a bunch of video games is called 'bald bull.' Maybe after the punch out character but either way. Would have been a fun joke for anyone else who could recognize it.
I know that you did a video on Thankskilling before, for Thanksgiving. So I'm just going to ask if you've watched Thankskilling 3? Keep up the great work, Brandon!!!
It's funny because the film version of the first game is definitely the best videogame movie and your points are spot on, but the reasons that the film suffers are actually because Miike wanted to not adapt the game's plot fully. All the stuff with the bank robbers and the couple on the crime spree and the korean assassin was stuff he added to the story from basically nowhere, which would be fine if the average audience member could follow the Kiryu/Majima story going already, but it's literally impossible to do as the movie presents the information as if you have played the game and know it all already. It makes the film far stranger to someone who's never played the game than it really needs to be, because if you cut just one of those needless subplots, you'd have more than enough time to explain why the hell Kiryu is looking for Haruka's mother. Btw for those not in the know: Haruka's mother was Kiryu's lover before he went to prison, and the guy he fights at the end of the movie was Kiryu's best friend who actually committed the crime Kiryu went to prison for, so there's you know, important dramatic beats going on here that you *might* want to actually see adapted on screen. But on the other hand, you don't hire Takashi Miike unless you want him to Takashi Miike up your movie, which is what he basically did by adding 3 totally random subplots to a story that was already complicated enough while cutting out half that story so he could just shoot whatever wacky scenes he wanted to on the day.
Ok, all jokes aside, the Yakuza games are not GTA knockoffs. They're more like Shenmue, kind of like a spiritual successor. That comparison exists because of both bad marketing for the first few games and then using a different name for the games in the West. The games are called "Like A Dragon" in Japan, but were called Yakuza in the West, likely to invite that GTA comparison thanks to similar games like Mafia, due to the Publisher likely being uncertain about the early games being able to find success by their own merit. They heavily emphasize melee combat over gunplay, and you can't just beat up random people on the street unless they attack you first. Also, I don't think any story or character from any GTA game can compare to the story or characters from even the worst Yakuza game. Except for maybe the Yakuza game that had zombies as the main enemies. I don't know if that one's actually worse, as I never played it, but it changes the gameplay from melee attacks to guns and brings back formerly dead characters with cyborg parts, so it's a somewhat safe assumption.
On the one hand I'm sad this is not a video game review. On the other hand this movie was so accurate to the game that you basically did review Yakuza.
For someone going into this without playing the games your references were pretty damn accurate, minus the GTA references; when you play Yakuza and GTA back to back they’re nothing alike except the organised crime stuff
I think Takashi made this movie based on the fact that it is a video game adaptation and ASSUMED everyone had already played the game and knows all about the plot and subplot. Very rookie move.
I wonder if that Power Stamina X energy drink has a Western spokesperson like real energy drinks in Japan. Does anyone remember those "V" energy drink commercials that had Arnold Schwarzenegger in them?
I am so relieved that this is the video game movie you were talking about. Considering the movies you review, one would think you were going to review Super Mario Bros.
I'll check this out...maybe. I'm a big fan of Takashi Miife's way over the top, violence-ploitation flicks. Perhaps one day soon Brandon you can review the awesomeness that is..."Inchi The Killer...!!" & "Audition", two terrific movies!!
The baseballs look like giant golf balls because those are theballs a pitching machine uses at a batting cage (Majima's hideout is at the batting cages)
Interesting fact: In the video game, the little girl is suppose to be younger than portrayed here, plus she gets shot in a crossfire of a gun fight. What makes it more interesting is that throughout the entire game she's shown to have a very mature mind for her age, so when she get's shot, she doesn't cry. She only cries when she thinks her mothers dead, but she didn't even cry here either. It also doesn't explain how the dog got up there and survived the explosion either.
Wow I didn’t knew that there was a movie adaptation of Yakuza. Thanks for showing this movie,and I’d definitely gonna dig my way of finding this one rare particular movie. Now I know where the title “Like a Dragon” came from.
What do you think is the best movie based on a video game?
Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)
Postal
i dunno. some people like the sonic movies. Is fine. I kinda liked the first silent hill. Most other game movies tend to just do nothing for me. Especially Uncharted (cos I absolutely love those games, the movie just felt like some weird cosplay thing... the short fan-film starring Nathan Fillion felt more authentic).
If we can include anime movies then Street Fighter II always. Heck, it got me into a lot of cool music back in the 90s too like Alice in Chains and KMFDM.
I dunno. I'm feeling very down cos of Kevin Conroy passing away today. Batman has died.
speed racer
Hard to choose I would choose postal so dam funny. Please do more Takashi miike movies
A long, complicated crime drama broken up by bat-shit crazy fights and weird NPCS asking you to do totally out-of-leftfield missions is basically the Yakuza games in a nushell.
ruclips.net/video/WuIDxjeIuVo/видео.html
The launch trailer for the remake of the second game is probably the best short video I've ever seen to show off the general tone of these games.
Now I want to see a movie version of the Yakuza: Like a Dragon game. Just imagine Brandon reviewing the scene where the main character calls up a crayfish to help him in a fight.
CRUSTACEAN DAMNATION
Or when he's fighting Tendo he just starts spamming orbital laser.
Or summoning Ono Michio
Literally every Yakuza game has a ton of Miike energy and should be adapted to film. Would love to see the insanity of a movie following Kiryu's stints as an orphanage director or taxi cab driver, or the Yakuza 0 movie solely about Majima running a hostess club.
@@MidlifeCrisisJoe Miike should absolutely get another shot at the series, but as a period (maybe modern-ish, eventually) TV series, not as movies. There's a BIT too much going on, even just strictly adapting the main plots (and you wouldn't want to cut the side stories entirely, even if you don't adapt every side story), for a regular length movie.
Ah yes, Kazuma Kiryu. The most stoic Japanese guy ever. Also famous for actually never having killed anybody. Seriously.
If they wanted to be accurate this would include a scene of Kiryu and Haruka going to a karaoke joint during a search break.
Yea kiryu is so good he has a actual band that he will attend to as takaya kuroda which is his cover that only fans know
OTOMETAL MY LIFE _3 2 1 GO!_
Tbf, the movie came out in 2007 and Karaoke wasn’t introduced until Yakuza 3 which came out in 2009
@@IvanDubsK7 does Karaoke appear in the two Kiwami games as well? I only experienced it because of Zero's Prologue and i visited many Bars and Restaurants but I don't know if you can do any jobs or substories before being expelled and meet Tachibana of the Metal Hand
(...I went so bad in my first time that even Nishiki called out my flawed beginning)
@@ofaznadarxmkiii8476 Well yeah Karaoke is in both Kiwami 1 and 2, but those games came out way after the movie
I love how nishki doesn’t show up until the very end even though he’s the main villain and a main plot of the story he’s also kiryus blood brother
Zero and Kiwami were really upgrades.
except for yakuza 3. that game sucks
@@ZoanBlade90 agreed
@@ZoanBlade90 I’d disagree if I don’t hear another kiryu-Chan in my life I’d die happy 🤣 I love majima but damn the remake of 1 really made me want him to leave me alone
@@Dat_MrBlack yakuza 3 probably has my favorite story in the franchise.. But it has the worst gameplay.. Kiwami 3 is desperately needed.. That would probably become my favorite game in the franchise
Goro Majima in the game is generally trying to come up with any excuse to make Kiryu fight him, he's a bit wild
"Hey, you! Let's fight!"
"Dems fighting words."
He's not called the mad dog of Shimano for nothing
Not in the original PS2 Yakuza 1, he only fought Kiryu 2 times under the order of Shimano. The "Majima Everywhere" mechanic and his reasoning to fight Kiryu anytime is new addition in KIwami remake.
Dude straight up deflects a Bullet in Kiwami 2 with his dagger and his dance with the hard hat on was truly awe inspiring.
@@cnhnx l'm sure kiwami or zero was out at the time, besides I didn't specify which version
Takashi doing yakuza is the PERFECT fit. All we need is a musical number.
Well you'll be happy to hear there's a musical now
'Yakuza: Like a G6'?
"I sing for you"
The movie adaptation, directed by Miike, of a game series inspired by Miike's movies. Love this little gem, and Majima absolutely steals the entire show anytime he's on screen.
Fun fact: Goro was voiced by Mark Hamill in the game.
And he doesn't remember doing it. :)
I didn't know any but the most recent even had an English Dub.
A video game with a character named Goro in it. Where have I seen that before? 🤔
@@ckmishn3664 The first game on PS2 is the only one I know if that had an English dub, there are more?
@@EarthboundX The other one I know is also "Yakuza: Like a Dragon", the remake. I think there's a spinoff game (Judgement?) that also has an English dub.
I cannot recommend the Yakuza games enough. Nothing compares to the pure joy of hitting a random salary man with a bicycle.
Or a moped lol
Or punching a tiger in the face
Nah, try sticking their head in a microwave and tell the shop keeper to turn it on. My personal favorite.
What salary man just attacked you out of nowhere? Usually you fight other yakuza families….or drunkards.
Nah, the best attack is summoning an eye patched maniac with your phone, who then Naruto runs down the side of a building, throws and then kicks a ludicrous amount of knives at your enemies, which are then stuck by lighting on the way down. The second best is taking a fistful of nails and shoving them into your opponents mouth, then hitting them in the jaw.
-Make Yakuza 1 movie
-Pretty much forget all about the game's main antagonist, Akira Nishikiyama until the very fucking end of the movie
-Make Goro Majima the main antagonist
-Be batshit fucking insane
-profit?
The Yakuza series is one of the most underrated/under the radar video game series out there. I was introduced to the series when the latest Yakuza game, "Like A Dragon" was released a couple years ago.
I enjoyed that game so much, I went back and bought all the PS4 remakes of the series and both Judgement games, and I wasn't disappointed, at all.
Well it’s no longer underrated after 0 came out and with three more games coming out too starting with one everyone wanted to try out ishin yea It’s not what you think it is.
Plus fandom is as wild as the game series is.
They WERE underrated for a long time, before 0 saved the franchise thanks to Sega finally localizing it for the west after years of being Japan exclusive.
Now, it's doing better than ever before, thankfully. 🐉
Takashi Miike is really a phenomenon isn't he?
The guy has directed hundreds of movies, from family comedies to ultra-gory horror films and everything in between. I don't know any western director who has a body of work, both in terms of variety and sheer numbers of movies, like him.
And he's completely unpredictable when it comes to his next project.
One year, he will direct an epic Samurai movie with a 20 minute non-stop, bloody battle sequence. The next year, he will do a dark gangster drama,six months later he's doing a rom-com or a children's movie, before making another extreme horror movie.
The guy even directed a live-action JoJo 's Bizarre Adventure movie in 2017, WTF?!
That actually makes me want to watch the live action Jojo.
@@snapeinvader He also directed a live-action Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney movie if you can believe it!
🌺 So it's technically a japanese Robert Rodríguez?
@@charlesc.fuentes1033 Nah, Rodriguez doesn't even come close in terms of genres and sheer output of Miike.
The guy has directed:
- horror
- gangsterfilms
- rom com's
- family films
- character dramas
- historical dramas
- epic Samurai movies
- love stories
- classic comedies
- action thrillers
- road movies
- video games adaptations
- manga adaptations
The closest Western equivalent to Miike is probably Roger Corman, who also has hundreds of credits, though Corman stopped directing films in the 80s and mostly stuck to producing them, he did spend about 20 years directing a ton of B-movies before that. I wouldn't say Corman was ever as talented or interesting as Miike in terms of actual skill as a director, but they both share a strong work ethic and output, that's for sure!
The Yakuza games are amazing, highly recommend them. 0 is the best place to start, not just because it's one of the best but also because it'll make you care about the characters in the first game a lot more (even in the remake, you can tell it was designed in PS2 era from its structure).
Also, haven't seen this movie, but whenever other Yakuza fans bring it up, they usually hate it since it wastes so much time on its own original characters instead of Kiryu and the like.
Some fans appreciate it but like brandon said it just waste time doing whatever the fuck it wants till ether plot relevant scene happens or fight scene and there stuff we do enjoy with the film lile actor playing both kiryu and majima being near perfect representation of the two.
Overall they don’t hate the film they just hate how it was paced and how unfocused it was but love all the fighting scenes
The games have 10x the absurdity wrapped up in dozens of hours of compelling plot. By the first two hours of Yakuza, or Zero, Kiryu is a guy you’d feel honored to actually know.
This had to be one of the more funnier episodes, and that's saying something. Maybe my fav moment...
**main character gets shot**
Brandon: Oh, great, and I forgot to save. Now I'm going to have to start this whole movie over again.
😂🤣😂🤣 Yeah, I enjoyed this. Thank you, Brandon.
An brandon forget that was a cutscene. Bullets in cutscene can go ether way killing or injuring you in yakuza game
The Yakuza games are truly incredible series. One moment you are in the middle of an epic crime drama and in the next you are doing a side story where you help a S&M mistress how to properly Dom her sub. It's incredibly heartwarming. :D
Goro mainly want to fight Kiryu because he enjoys it. No other reason.
The movie is truly fascinating as an Yakuza fan. Goes into its own direction. The characters look the same but are very different people from the ones in the game. Except Kiryu, but he is a stoic hero archetype so it's fine.
As for the basic plot. Kiryu goes to jail in place of his best friend for killing their Boss. Said boss was going to grape Hiruka's mom, so no tears shed there.
When he comes out of jail she had gone missing, together with a lot of Yakuza money and his best friend has gone full evil. In the end the politican, that was helping the Yakuza launder their money was the big bad. Also he was Haruka's dad. Kiryu goes full bad ass, defeats his best friend and the politician. His best friend kills himself and the politician and the building explodes. Kiryu leaves the Yakuza life and adopts Haruka and several more children. It does not stick as you can guess by the number of sequels.
Also you did not need to use the PS2 version of the game as reference. They remade the first two games in modern graphics.
"Damn! Bullets. My...one...weakness."
More Miike please! With over 100 movies under his belt, you have a goldmine for material!
Absolutely! The Movies of his golden Era are a treat. Gozu, Visitor Q, Itchi the Killer, Dead or Alive, Happiness of the Katakuris ... all fantastic weird Movies
Ah bullets arent bad unless you are in cutscene in which case it does become a weakness when plot wants it to be
how about a miike month
A bit of trivia: "Kiryu", the family name of the MC, is actually the Japanese word for "Dragon". He's also the husband of retired vtuber Kiryu Coco (in her head), and of vtuber Kson Souchou (also in her head, and who has a remarkably similar voice to the aforementioned Kiryu Coco).
Because kson is kiryu coco. (Kson is her old vtuber persona before kiryu coco came to be after that nasty controversy she just went back to her old sona.)
@@evandaymon8303 Whoooooooshhhhhh
Your forgetting that there siblings and their dad is the third mechagodzilla kiryu
If you think the stuff with Goro and that fight scene near the end are good, I'd definitely suggest looking into the games. They're awesome, really over the top and super stylish. I think you might like em!
The final fight in Kiwami 2... Damn good.
Finally, a Takeshi Miike movie!!! He also did a Jojo adaptation, and you must watch Yakuza Apocalypse.
As a fan of the Yakuza games, to an extent, I wasn't even aware this was a thing! if you get a chance, play Yakuza Zero to completion. All the benefits of later games, whilst at the beginning of the timeline.
Miike also created a Tokusatsu Magical Girl Franchise named Girls x Heroine.
Tekashi Miike director of gruesome ultra violence, Yakuza films, and for some reason magical girls.
@@persomiissleepy Didn't Japan also feature several high school death game franchises?
So it still kinda fits together as franchises? XD
I'm not usually going to talk about basically directors, actors or whoever having that one point in their career
I mean if you want an entire basically someone example I could think about look at craig mazin early career before Chernobyl and The Last of Us TV show
Considering I was obsessed with all things Japanese back in the early 2000s, I wonder how I missed this one.
As I watch anime sometimes I think this is an accurate rendition of Japanese culture.
When Brandon said "goldfish gang" I know somebody in the comments is gonna say "actually it's a coi fish which is part of Japanese culture" 😄
@@MrDman21 koi*
@@jimekblom1631 👍🏽
The side stuff in the movie is it's version of the side stories in the game. In addition to the main story with the little girl, Kiryu will do little random things for citizens around town. Doesn't work in the movie to do it that same way cause Kiryu is busy, but doing them as just little side plots that tangentially tie in is pretty genius, IMO.
Yeah he said that in the video. Gabriel is not that bright
Man, you gotta get in on the Yakuza series. They all start agonizingly slow, but they're awesome. The main plots are hard yakuza stories, the side stuff is absolutely bizarre Japanese humor at its finest.
"it's a video game movie, how bad can it be?" Famous last words 🤣
14:23 No, it is actually called "Stamina X" in the game. The extra N is just a typo in the subtitles.
Gotta say, from someone directing hundreds of videogame B-flicks, you'd expect Asylum level quality, where instead this looks pretty competent and well done, at least from a visual point of view, as I have no means to evaluate the dialogue.. Cool vid!! 👍🏻🖤🏴☠️
Baka Mitai intensifies or 24 Hour Cinderella depending on your taste.
He should have said Tarentino was a big fan of the movie and then showed the foot smashed and said "not anymore" A poor showing.
Bah...that would make Tarantino like it more.
4:30 Trust me, you don't need an excuse for people to act weird in a Yakuza game.
The only thing that seems to be missing is a karaoke scene. This might be the best video game adaption ever.
Karaoke wasn’t introduced until Yakuza 3
Could you imagine this director making a movie based on a visual novel game about lawyers?
The tattoo of the goldfish is actually of a carp. For context, a Japanese legend says that a carp that can swim up a waterfall may become a dragon. Kazuma Kiryu is the Dragon of Dojima, and Nishiki (the guy with the carp tattoo) seeks to rise to his level.
You didn’t give the subtitles for the bank robbers’ argument, but it sounded like:
“Tastes great!”
“Less filling!”
“Tastes great!”
“Less filling!”
I confused Yakuza with Jacuzzi and now I'm in hot water with the Japanese mob.
I'm hoping we get a sad karaoke scene
This movie was an absolute joy to watch. You can watch it for free on RUclips
link?
@@lennoxshepherd3905 here ya go! ruclips.net/video/1mjeUfJT8I8/видео.html
@@yogisie thanks!
The funny thing is no matter how over the top the movie is it's still just a fraction of what the games are and I think both are amazing
Goddammit, Brandon, I was about to go to bed and you just HAD to upload this.
With the French dubbing, I was expecting Inspector Clouseau to show up.
Or Gerard Depardieu's Obelix lol
Hey Brandon, did you know that the exact name of this movie also the same as the recent 2020 game in the franchise (which transition from beat em up to turn based RPG) as well as among the first game in years to also have an English dub (including George Takei)!?
"A GTA knockoff" Except charming, fun and good?
You mean the GTA radio chatter wasn't fun? :P
Don't screw this up, Amazon..
Random guns lying around the streets WOULD be unrealistic. This is Japan. Not amerikkka.
Like a Dragon. Fought for the very first time! Like a Draaaagon. Breathing fire, but it's not all mine.
I wonder what the movie version of Yoshitaka Mine from yakuza 3 looks like
Easily the channel with best outro music of all RUclips. Also good jokes, but that bass, damn!
Super Saiyan vs Ultra Instinct
ps the "nose" joke at the end was priceless. lol
4:47 Cute. The blue Buckets have the SEGA logo on it, which was the company that made the game
Fun fact! Takashi made an actual cameo in fellow eccentric, Suda51’s no more heroes 3 and potentially might be making a NMH film
The only movie of his I own is his weird remake of the 70's anime Yatterman. Unfortunately I never got around to watching it. I'd love to see this channel cover it.
Like a Dragon
Breathin fire for the very first time!
Like a DraaaAAaaaAAAAAgon!~
‘Scareface directed by John Waters’ was one of the funniest things I’ve heard, I nearly spit my coffee out lol
Okay, this movie is insane. Big surprise.
"13 Assassins", btw, is also one AWESOME (and nuts) movie. Beautifully filmed.
As a Yakuza fan, I cannot believe I never knew this existed.
It’s free on RUclips to watch the movie
Wait you're a fan of the game franchise, and yet you didn't know the movie existed? How long have you known the franchise, as in how many Yakuza games did you played? Because a longtime fan of this franchise would've already known about this film, I find that hard to believe you didn't know about the film adaptation. You have Wikipedia, & Google, you would've known about this film already even before Brandon Tenold did a review.
Disclaimer: I'm a gamer, but am familiar with Yakuza franchise, even I know about the film adaptation.
@@mdo7 I just beat all the games this year and didn't know about this movie
@@mdo7 thats not really a valid excuse man not everyone researches everything to that extent
@@angelganon8213 Wait, I wasn't specifically talking about you given that you played all the game in one year.
I was talking about people who know the franchise for a long time, and somehow didn't know about the film adaptation given that Wikipedia, Google, Reddit, Wiki/Fandom Inc exist for fans to get all the information.
As I said, I'm not even part of the Yakuza fanbase yet I still know and aware of the film adaptation.
AUDITION is one of the creepiest, "what -did-I-just-watch" movies I've ever seen, and that's sayin' somethin'.
Takashi Miike also directed a live action Phoenix Wright movie.
And a live action JoJo movie :3
The Phoenix Wright movie was actually pretty good!
And the live action Yattaman film (for some reason IDK...)
@@persomiissleepy Just because he's known for bloody dark movies that doesn't mean that's all he has a passion for.
Imagine if I told you years ago Sam Raimi, the director of Evil Dead wants to make a campy Hercules show or a campy Spider-man movie.
Now that you're talking about Takashi Miike, you should review Sukiyaki Western Django! The movie had Quentin Tarantino himself making a cameo!
Great video there dude! My first Miike film was City of Lost Souls, then Dead or Alive, and I started to research the guy and well, I have seen several more of his films and I own at least two of his films on DVD.
I never knew there was a movie based on the games! I'm actually tempted to see if I can find it, because I love this series. Even though story wise it seems a bit out there. Also I wouldn't worry about Toho on this one. If streaming the games has taught me anything I'd be more worried about Sega claiming it. They like getting a little claim happy over cut scenes.
In the game this is based the main dude sees himself as video gamr hero on an adventure quest. Which is why the game involves turn based combat like final fantasy or other Jrpgs.
There are a few uploads of this on youtube in pretty good resolution
@@kaizenchaosprimordial8945 This one is based on Yakuza 1. You're thinking Yakuza 7 "Like a Dragon".
@@MagnaRyuuDesigns I'll have to see what I can find.
Check out Yakuza Apocalypse. Not a sequel to this movie. Starts off as a pretty straight forward movie, with vampires as an allegory for Yakuza. Then the assassin in the frog mascot costume shows up and the film goes totally off the rails in typical Miike fashion.
That's the one where one of the characters turn into a Kaiju, and the vampires "overheat" right?
@@sigmacademy I think that sounds right. It has been a number of years since I saw it. If correct, that would make it even more up Brandon's alley.
Japanese people dubbed in French is a good laugh but....😂
3:50 GIGAAAA!!!!!! RISE!!!..... 🤣
6:11 Whaat!!!. 😳
11:59 Hey. 😅✌
15:29 He goes Super Saiyan. 😎💯
I need to get some Stamina X.
I've seen listings for other Miike movies Yakuza Apocalypse and Yakuza Demon. Are these sequels or related to this movie?
I remember renting the original game back in the day, but I never finished it. Been such a long time since I've played that game. I don't think I ever heard of this movie, but I did hear of "Audition" from Bravo's "100 Scariest Movie Moments". As far as video game adaptations go, it does capture the look of the game well, but since I haven't played the original game in decades, its hard to tell how accurate the movie is to the game. May want to get the games somewhere down the road. Great episode.
KIRYU-CHAN!
The baseballs are batting cage balls. They are made of hard rubber so they can take multiple hits without falling apart.
Takashi Miike is also known among gamers for being a mild obsession for Travis Touchdown, a protagonist of Goichi Suda's wacky weird No More Heroes series of hack and slash video games.
Ya know.
5:04 And from the looks of it, it is almost pitch perfect for what the franchise became later on. This series is bonkers.
7:32 Don't look at me, man. I got into this franchise thanks to Yakuza Zero.
15:36 *Kiwami!* (Intense!)
I remember having to hunt this down when it first came out and it was chore to find a copy. It also introduced me to greatness that is the Crazy Ken Band
Well, how about that, I aint even mad, this might be quite close to what Yakuza is, assuming we only play random sub-stories.
Inaccuracies I've seen: Majima wouldnt use a gun, he likes beating people to death. Also he would appear more times out of the blue.
Also not enough karaoke.
Besides that, yep, this is decent.
If your looking for another Takashi Miike movie to watch I would recommend Crows Zero 1&2 they're probably the best live action manga/anime movies
A pretty common powerup drink you see throughout a bunch of video games is called 'bald bull.' Maybe after the punch out character but either way. Would have been a fun joke for anyone else who could recognize it.
I know that you did a video on Thankskilling before, for Thanksgiving. So I'm just going to ask if you've watched Thankskilling 3? Keep up the great work, Brandon!!!
It's funny because the film version of the first game is definitely the best videogame movie and your points are spot on, but the reasons that the film suffers are actually because Miike wanted to not adapt the game's plot fully. All the stuff with the bank robbers and the couple on the crime spree and the korean assassin was stuff he added to the story from basically nowhere, which would be fine if the average audience member could follow the Kiryu/Majima story going already, but it's literally impossible to do as the movie presents the information as if you have played the game and know it all already. It makes the film far stranger to someone who's never played the game than it really needs to be, because if you cut just one of those needless subplots, you'd have more than enough time to explain why the hell Kiryu is looking for Haruka's mother.
Btw for those not in the know: Haruka's mother was Kiryu's lover before he went to prison, and the guy he fights at the end of the movie was Kiryu's best friend who actually committed the crime Kiryu went to prison for, so there's you know, important dramatic beats going on here that you *might* want to actually see adapted on screen.
But on the other hand, you don't hire Takashi Miike unless you want him to Takashi Miike up your movie, which is what he basically did by adding 3 totally random subplots to a story that was already complicated enough while cutting out half that story so he could just shoot whatever wacky scenes he wanted to on the day.
Ok, all jokes aside, the Yakuza games are not GTA knockoffs. They're more like Shenmue, kind of like a spiritual successor. That comparison exists because of both bad marketing for the first few games and then using a different name for the games in the West. The games are called "Like A Dragon" in Japan, but were called Yakuza in the West, likely to invite that GTA comparison thanks to similar games like Mafia, due to the Publisher likely being uncertain about the early games being able to find success by their own merit. They heavily emphasize melee combat over gunplay, and you can't just beat up random people on the street unless they attack you first. Also, I don't think any story or character from any GTA game can compare to the story or characters from even the worst Yakuza game. Except for maybe the Yakuza game that had zombies as the main enemies. I don't know if that one's actually worse, as I never played it, but it changes the gameplay from melee attacks to guns and brings back formerly dead characters with cyborg parts, so it's a somewhat safe assumption.
I'm working on a screenplay so be ready when I finish the rest because it's going to be a what the fuck moments, literally.
YES!!! There’s the Gigan scream!
13:15 The giant golf balls are for the pitching machine. Their uniform surface doesn't wear on the wheels as much as an actual baseball's laces do.
On the one hand I'm sad this is not a video game review. On the other hand this movie was so accurate to the game that you basically did review Yakuza.
RIP, Kevin Conroy, the voice of Batman from the BATMAN Animated Series passed away today at age 66.
For someone going into this without playing the games your references were pretty damn accurate, minus the GTA references; when you play Yakuza and GTA back to back they’re nothing alike except the organised crime stuff
Here's hoping for more Miike! I recommend "Deadly Outlaw: Rekka" personally.
I think Takashi made this movie based on the fact that it is a video game adaptation and ASSUMED everyone had already played the game and knows all about the plot and subplot. Very rookie move.
I wonder if that Power Stamina X energy drink has a Western spokesperson like real energy drinks in Japan. Does anyone remember those "V" energy drink commercials that had Arnold Schwarzenegger in them?
I am so relieved that this is the video game movie you were talking about. Considering the movies you review, one would think you were going to review Super Mario Bros.
Well, when you named the director - might need to see the movie :D Loved his other stuff.
I'll check this out...maybe. I'm a big fan of Takashi Miife's way over the top, violence-ploitation flicks. Perhaps one day soon Brandon you can review the awesomeness that is..."Inchi The Killer...!!" & "Audition", two terrific movies!!
Miike! Awesome! If I can make some less-mentioned suggestions - Izo, As The Gods Will, or Zebraman?
The baseballs look like giant golf balls because those are theballs a pitching machine uses at a batting cage (Majima's hideout is at the batting cages)
The song that plays when kiryu is walking around Tokyo is the same song that plays in yakuza 2 right when kiryu is stabbed
13:17 I think those might be hockey balls.
Oh, that's right, you're Canadian: field hockey balls.
Miike should be the only one who does video game adaptions. His style fits the craziness of the games.
Love Miike. Love Brandon. ♥️
While he made himself rare, I still think the years with #BrandonTenold were better than most of the reviewed movies ever were! 🤣😍🤣
Interesting fact: In the video game, the little girl is suppose to be younger than portrayed here, plus she gets shot in a crossfire of a gun fight.
What makes it more interesting is that throughout the entire game she's shown to have a very mature mind for her age, so when she get's shot, she doesn't cry.
She only cries when she thinks her mothers dead, but she didn't even cry here either.
It also doesn't explain how the dog got up there and survived the explosion either.
The baseballs look like giant golf balls because those are the rubber type of balls used in pitching machines in batting cages
Wow I didn’t knew that there was a movie adaptation of Yakuza. Thanks for showing this movie,and I’d definitely gonna dig my way of finding this one rare particular movie. Now I know where the title “Like a Dragon” came from.