Team Unwinnable vs. Yakuza Weapon

Kurt Christenson:

Tak Sakaguchi exudes badass. Even as he sauntered out of the Japan Society on Saturday night to grab a smoke alone on a bench across the street, he carried himself with a grace and power that most of us will never know. But then, we haven’t spent the last decade making movies about slicing zombies, smashing faces, supernatural samurai slashing and post-apocalyptic baseball games. I heard a rumor that Ryuhei Kitamura discovered Tak while he was street fighting for money, which I really, really want to be true, and with one look at the man it’s not hard to imagine. When I see him I think of Bruce Willis in the late ’80s, or Jason Statham post-Snatch, but if it was a death match between Tak and all other action stars, I picture Tak being the one left standing. Either that or they all grab beers and laugh at us mere mortals.

Yakuza Weapon is more of what you expect from a movie starring Tak Sakaguchi: hyper violence and live action manga insanity. When you throw Sushi Typhoon into the mix (creators of some of the best over-the-top, gross-out, action movies in the last two years, and the fact that Yakuza Weapon is based on a manga by Ken (Devilman) Ishikawa, it’s a recipe for pure madness. And the film delivers, with the usual twists and turns messing with your preconceived notions, and showing you an epic explosion of blood, guts and amputated arms replaced with advanced weaponry that never need reloading. If you know Sushi Typhoon or Tak, you know what to expect. The rest of you are either future fans or will squirm like the bleach blonde that was sitting in front of me, whose boyfriend could only smirk.

The after-party was great as I shoved all manner of shumai, dumplings, kebabs and Sapporos down my throat. Pete, Olivia and I even got to hang out with perpetual Sushi Typhoon victim Arata Yamanaka while we tossed back free beers. You could tell he was super-psyched to be there and to be acting in these fun movies, including the movie remake of Karate-Robo Zaboragar, which he said he watched as a kid. There we were, drunk and connecting about fun flicks that entertained and made us scream, shout and grossed us out, celebrating insane Asian Cinema at this very upscale museum just steps from the UN building.

As Pete, Olivia and I (and Mark, a random NYAFF volunteer we adopted) drank more at the dive bar SNAFU, dancing to bad pop songs, chatting about dismemberment and disturbing films, I realized that this is what Unwinnable is all about: finding that family of like-minded geeks and building our own community, promoting our passions and spreading the word about fun movies like Yakuza Weapon – a gang of liked-minded lunatics who love what you love and can introduce you to even more of the good stuff. Long live Asian cinema, long live Team Unwinnable. This one’s for you, Tak!