Crows Zero

Takashi Miike is a legend. No doubt about it. The 52 year old Japanese director is probably best known for his 2001 Ichi The Killer, however he’s also done this, Crows Zero and the sequel Crows Zero II, amongst his 89 other directed films.

The story revolves around the Suzuran Senior High School for Boys, nicknamed “The School of Crows”, which is the poorest achieving, most violent school in the country.

The boys group together in factions either by class or year, each faction with a leader at the front. The goal of all the boys is something that no-one has achieved so far: unification. No one faction has ever ruled supreme over the entire school.

That is until our man arrives, Genji, transferred from another school he immediately attempts to take over the school and lead the unification.

The story is a little surplus to requirements to be honest. The action comes thick and fast and the movie has a feel of the Fast and The Furious series mixed with Battle Royale.

There isn’t much more to say about this movie. Some of the action scenes are very well shot, handy-cam but not zoomed in so you can still see what’s happening.

The main issue, and this is probably a personal thing, was that I actually wanted the main protagonist, Genji, to fail. I much preferred the character who was the current leader most likely to unify things Tamao Serizawa, I don’t really know why, he seemed a little more human.