Graveyard of Honor (Japan, 2002)
Directed by: Takashi Miike

Starring: Goro Kishitani, Narimi Arimori, Tetsuro Tanba


Takashi Miike is currently the world¹s most amazing director, and his staggeringly relentless output is wildly varied. From gory thrillers to vehicles for pop stars to musicals, everything that comes rushing out of his brain bears his distinctive mark. But even for Miike, GRAVEYARD OF HONOR (shot in 2002, along with six other Miike movies) is a change of pace. A raw, unsettling biography of a yakuza addicted to violence, it¹s shot handheld, using long takes and extended scenes to play like a Japanese version of Cops with a heart of stone and a jet black soul.



Ishimatsu is a dishwasher who saves a yakuza boss from a gunman (played by Miike himself). The boss offers him a job and Ishimatsu figures, “Why not?” Bad move. Hooked on mayhem, unable to predict the easy-to-understand consequences of his nihilistic actions, on a path straight to hell and trying to take as many people with him as possible, Ishimatsu¹s addiction to the trigger destroys his enemies, his friends, and ultimately himself. 

Ishimatsu is a feverish, upsetting creation. Unfortunately, Ishimatsu is real.

Based on a novel about the life of postwar gangster, Rikio Ishikawa, GRAVEYARD OF HONOR is a remake of famed director Kinji Fukasaku¹s Graveyard of Honor and Humanity. Updated to the ‘80s, Miike¹s movie hits doubly hard since in 2002,  Fukasaku (who is also the director of Battle Royale) passed away.

 Gritty, harsh, hardcore — all those words miss the mark. There¹s only one word for Miike¹s exploration of the deepest, darkest, sickest depths that a man addicted to violence will stoop to. 

This movie is demonic.