Director Addison Heath
Starring Kenji Shimada, Skye Medusa, Saya Minami, Glen Maynard, Cris Cochrane & Rob Stanfield
Rated R
Score 5/6

Ichiro Kataki, a violent Yakuza gang member travels to Melbourne, Australia after his beloved sister Yuko is brutally murdered by a group of criminals. Hell bent on vengeance he teams up with Cassidy Arizona, a lady of the night with a vendetta of her own.

Some of you probably remember that a little while ago I asked for a list of suggested movies that I should review and I have actually had a chance to review one of the movies on the list Mondo Yakuza by Black Forest Films which was suggested by Cris Cochrane.

I’ve said it before but I always get a little excited by Australian films no matter what they are mainly because they don’t always get the opportunities most movies do and I have admit that it was a fluke chance that a couple weeks before asking for suggestions of movies to review I came across Mondo Yakuza on a DVD shopping expedition and it has been waiting in my pile of DVDs just waiting for me to watch it.

I am completely unfamiliar with Addison Heath as a director and the entire cast of Mondo Yakuza were unfamiliar to me, though there were a few stand out performances Kenji Shimada, Skye Medusa and Glen Maynard. I also liked the fight scene between Ichiro and Dean, it was one of the better endings for a given character that I have seen for a while. Addison delivered a movie that is beautiful to watch (I would also like to add the moment with the sparkler at the beginning of the movie was surprisingly tastefully shot I really was not expecting the pixelization and might I add it was a good way to approach things) and that even though it’s a violent movie its not like other movies in its genre as Mondo Yakuza relies more on splatter then gore. Though it should be noted that this movie has an R rating the violence is less impactful then something like Kill Bill, though that could be put down to a difference of budget between the two movies, I will admit that going into this I was hoping for something more on the Kill Bill side of things but liked what I got and I loved the fact that this was shot in black and white, its left me with the opinion that I should watch more black and white movies then I do. I would also suggest that people who can be overly nit-picky about the movies that they watch (and cannot shut that part of their brain off) do not watch this because there was a couple of moments that had me thinking ‘Hey, Wait …. Hang on….?’ Now these moments can easily be dismissed by grindhouse vibe that it so openly embraces.

Hey, Cris which one of Addison’s movies should I review next? And Addison should we expect a Mondo Yakuza sequel?