Rent Shinjuku Triad Society (1995)

Tokyo Noir, No Manners: Miike Turns the Volume Up - Shinjuku Triad Society review by griggs

It feels like Miike starting to really stretch his legs: ambitious, grubby, and uninterested in playing nice. On paper it’s a neat hook — two brothers on opposite sides of the law — but in Miike-land nothing stays neat for long. Shinjuku Triad Society is also the first stop on his “Black Society” run (with Rainy Dog and Ley Lines), and you can sense him testing how far he can push things.

What grabbed me is his interest in outsiders. The queer night world isn’t just wallpaper: gay nightlife, male prostitution, lives operating under the streetlights — people with their own circumstances, not just “shock value” décor. And Miike doesn’t flinch. When it turns sexual or violent, the camera stays put. The result is nasty, but oddly level: it refuses to look away from anyone, even when they’re behaving like monsters.

My snag is simple: the story doesn’t always bite. The brother dynamic (cop Kiriya versus his lawyer sibling in the triad’s orbit) is a strong setup, but the film keeps detouring into set-pieces, so the momentum goes patchy. If you’re up for pretty rotten people getting punched, kicked, and shot in stylish squalor, it delivers. I just wanted a bit more pull behind the havoc.