A prostitute plunges to her death clutching a bag of drugs, a furtive men's room tryst climaxes in a geyser of blood, an after-dinner shotgun blast graphically puts a new spin on bulimia, a stripper writhes, a mysterious knife thrower takes aim and a gangster snorts a line of white powder stretching to infinity... and that's merely the first ten minutes. From Taskashi Miike (Audition, Ichi the Killer), comes a film of such kaleidoscopic mayhem and frenzied violence that it defies hyperbole. Burlesquing and surpassing every other full-bore, double-barreled Asian crime thriller, Dead Or Alive conjures up a harrowing urban fever-dream.

In Tokyo's crime ridden Shinjuku district, emotionally and financially bankrupt Detective Jojima (Show Aikawa) plays referee in a gangland turf war pitting the Japanese Yakuza Mafia against a bloodthirsty band of Chinese immigrant gangsters. But Jojima's obligation to his terminally ill daughter and ruthless Chinese mobster Ryuichi's (Riki Takeuchi) sentimental devotion to his ersatz family of misfit assassins threatens to add their own corpses to the landslide of fresh bodies littering Tokyo. Miike depicts Dead Or Alive's gruesome acts of excess and debasement with shockingly graphic relish, allowing his vision to escalate beyond even a cartoonish level of audacity.

Directed by: Taskashi Miike (Audition, Sukiyaki Western Django, Ichi The Killer)

Starring: Show Aikawa, Riki Takeuchi, Renji Ishibashi, Hitoshi Ozawa

Extras:
Interview with Takashi Miike
Trailers

ES020 - Color - NTSC - 2.0 - 105 Min - Aspect Ratio 1:85:1 - 16:9 Anamorphic Widescreen - Region 1 - 1999

Release date: May 17, 2011