DEAD OR ALIVE: FINAL

The year is 2346 AD, the place is Yokohama.

A young boy approaches Ryo (Sho Aikawa, GOZU; PULSE) while he eats his dinner in a restaurant garden. The boy says he's hungry, and Ryo presents him with several bowls of rice - telling the kid he'll kill him unless he eats them all.

Despite his best efforts, the kid's meal is cut short when a group of armed police surround him, led by officer Honda (Riki Takeuchi, BATTLE ROYALE 2; DEAD OR ALIVE). Ryo helps the lad escape the trigger-happy cops - at this point it becomes apparent that Ryo is a replicant: a cyborg with super-human speed and strength.

Eluding the police after a lengthy chase, the boy takes Ryo to a shambolic house where he lives in hiding with a small community. The group is led by lovers Fong (Terence Yin, LARA CROFT TOMB RAIDER: THE CRADLE OF LIFE) and Jun (Josie Ho, THE DRUMMER).

They tell Ryo that for several years the town has been under the control of Mayor Woo (Richard Chen), who forces the inhabitants to take a drug that stops them from procreating, or even thinking for themselves. Fong and Jun have formed a rebel group who dream of escaping the town to have children and raise them somewhere less dictatorial.

Meanwhile, Woo has captured two of Fong's group and imprisoned them for procreating. His right-hand-man Honda watches in quiet disapproval as Woo tells them they are to be exiled to a place with no services or supplies, as punishment.

But when negotiations for their release between Fong and Woo go wrong and culminate in a bloody shootout, Fong's crew flee in a bus. They discover a little boy on the back of the bus - by coincidence, it's Honda's son.

Ryo suggests that Fong's gang should offer to trade the boy for the safe release of their friends. Some of the group disagree, preferring to ask for a ransom, but eventually it's determined that an exchange is for the best. The only thing is, the rebels weren't anticipating an ambush when they go to meet their liberated allies ...

Ryo and Jun make their own way in the world following the ambush's gory aftermath, while Honda continues to relentlessly hunt the replicant - all the while becoming more and more jaded with his corrupt boss' ways ...

DEAD OR ALIVE: FINAL is visually sumptuous - it looks like a car commercial for the most part, with it's golden horizons and Tony Scott-esque polished style.

In terms of plot, it feels needlessly busy and confused. At the core, there's not much going on at all, so it should all come across as being quite simple - but director Takashi Miike (AUDITION; VISITOR Q; ICHI THE KILLER) has a tendency to throw in quirks, ideas, jokes, political correctness, weirdness, montage clips and more, for no specified reason other than to disguise the lack of substance on offer.

The film, in keeping with its predecessors, builds towards an outrageous finale. The final scene - which I won't spoil - is broad (tasteless) comedy: it's the first overt inclination of how you're supposed to react to this movie such is it's inconsistency in tone and content.

For all the film's blustery MATRIX-style action scenes and thumping rock soundtrack, it's the quieter moments that work the best. When Honda's son is taken in by Fong's crew and befriends another little boy, the film shows a little of it's heart. It's things like this that Miike does best, and unfortunately there's not enough reflective moments to enjoy in FINAL.

The film is presented uncut in it's original aspect ratio, and is enhanced for 16x9 TVs. It's a sharp, colourful picture for the most part - not quite the standard recent Tartan Asia releases have been, but good nevertheless.

The main dialogue is Japanese, and the soundtrack is available in 2.0, 5.1 and 5.1 DTS mixes. All are good, solid mixes. Optional English subtitles are also on hand.

Animated menus include a scene-selection menu allowing access to the main feature via 16 chapters.

The only extras on offer (if you can call them that) are trailers for a few other Miike films: GOZU, THE HAPPINESS OF THE KATAKURIS, AUDITION, DEAD OR ALIVE and DEAD OR ALIVE 2. No trailer for the main feature, oddly.

Not the best film from Miike's mega-prolific stable, then. And not a particularly great release from Tartan Asia Extreme either.

Review by Stu Willis