Director Takashi Miike dons a surgical glove and pulls out his final segment in the controversial D.O.A series from the homophobic cavity of Japanese Cinema. Set in a future Yokohama in the year 2346 AD with a languid , ‘ Blade Runner ’ , window dressing laced with a plot that echoes George Orwell’s , ‘ 1984 ’. This society is minus Rutger Hauer’s synthetic Roy Batty character , but does still have original stars Riki Takeuchi and Show Aikawa hitching along for the Final chapter.

Super cop Riki Takeuchi is the samurai sword wielding Officer Honda who’s intrinsic world collides once again with that of Show Aikawa as Ryo , two souls reborn to reenact an ongoing struggle for righteousness. Honda plays it by the book but with an inner moralistic struggle against the system he is a part of , whilst the Replicant Ryo is a Six Million Dollar Man equivalent gene pooled with Television’s Auto Man with a one puff cigarette vacuum inhalation habit.

In this Miike visionary paradox world , sex , marriage , kids and family are not allowed to exist and in fact inhibited by a suppressant birth control drug , issued to a society governed by the sexual deviant leadership of Mayor Woo. Portrayed by Richard Chen , Woo’s penchant for young males gives a bizarrely accurate interpretation to the designation of Dictator. Woo is determined to also cleanse the city of its gang of freedom fighters as led by the liberating young lion Fong , who’s girlfriend also just so happens to be pregnant with his child.

Seeking emancipation to a paradise believed existent beyond the political propaganda , of a land devastated with a vestige of sand and wind , Fong and his followers kidnap Honda’s son Takeshi. The young boy Takeshi is also like an adoptive child to Woo and so an exchange for the freedom of Fong’s detained followers is set up between the opposing factions. Ryo assists Fong in a play that is reminiscent to that of Sergio Leone’s Man With No Name character from , ‘ A Fistful Of Dollars ’ , applying his services not for money but for altruistic virtue.

The first exchange of fighting styles between Honda and Ryu is frenetic and not only introduces an infusion of Action but also some entertainingly well done special effects. A point of view shot bullet is intercepted by a tubular piece of discarded drain with humourous outcome as it flies skyward and takes out a bird , ending any migration plans for the seasonal thereafter.

In typical Miike fashion proceedings are never allowed to dull and the Action sequences do occur with suitable regularity , along with many recognisably anticipated interjections of computer generated lenticular images that peel right out of a comic book. The Manga madness in motion is always a marvel to behold for where else can such daftness be revered with such pleasure than in a Takashi Miike film , all Amped up with splashes of violence and spurts of blood.

With Woo’s svengali scourge tweaking the Replicant strings he pulls with loquacious delight in the face of his favoured Officer Honda the reality behind such positional privilege is revealed. When Honda’s wife suddenly contorts with a Stepford Wives rendition of Michael Jackson’s Thriller dance routine he questions his true existence , and is left to challenge Woo’s might as he seeks out to retrieve his son Takeshi.

Nothing can prepare for the audacious final stand off between Honda and Ryo as Director Takashi Miike unleashes upon his audience what they have come to expect from him in true frenetic , fusion fuelled fashion. Blow for blow more impact than a bevelled glove fisting and round for round more succulent than George Foreman’s Lean Mean Fat Reducing Machine , that’s guaranteed to keep your buns warm on the sofa as part of the amazing package deal. Almost a caricature of its two overtly over the top hyper charged predecessors and perhaps not how fans of the same would have liked to have ended upon , but then Takashi Miike is no conformist to such derivative compliance. Therefore , ‘ Dead Or Alive: Final ’ , is a runaway roller coaster daring to strive to entertain passengers both old and new , and in so doing delivers a thrilling enough gauntlet of Fun.

The end visual kicker is the Bastardised offspring from a fantastical crossed parentage of Robocop and Porn star John Holmes , that with more than a metaphorical miscreancy violates Woo’s world whilst rearing his last Replicant. Freakzilla is in the house and D.O.A has come full circle !.