Gozu review

Why you can trust GamesRadar+ Our experts review games, movies and tech over countless hours, so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about our reviews policy.

It's hard to imagine anything that could be more bonkers than the coke-snorting opening of Takashi Miike's Dead Or Alive, The Happiness Of The Katakuris' dancing zombies or the sex-war slashing of Audition. Until you watch Gozu, that is. This Yakuza horror-thriller takes Miike's genre-bending brilliance in a completely new direction.

It begins ordinarily enough when low-level gangster Minami (Hideki Sone) is ordered to send his mental boss Ozaki (Sho Aikawa) to the Yakuza graveyard in the sky. Things quickly go wrong, though, as the corpse vanishes and Minami's trapped in a crazy suburban town full of transvestite coffee-shop owners, lactating ladies and enough psychosexual tension to send Sigmund Freud somersaulting in his grave.

Spiralling towards an unforgettable conclusion, this can only be described as Asian cinema's answer to Blue Velvet... Only considerably weirder.

The Total Film team are made up of the finest minds in all of film journalism. They are: Editor Jane Crowther, Deputy Editor Matt Maytum, Reviews Ed Matthew Leyland, News Editor Jordan Farley, and Online Editor Emily Murray. Expect exclusive news, reviews, features, and more from the team behind the smarter movie magazine. 

Latest in Comedy Movies
Jenna Ortega as Astrid Deetz in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Beetlejuice 2 star Jenna Ortega would love to star in another classic horror comedy franchise: Gremlins
This is Spinal Tap
First Spinal Tap 2 teaser reveals release date for comedy sequel that’s over 40 years in the making
The Iron Mask
The 32 greatest swashbuckler movies ever made
Claire Danes as Juliet and Miriam Margolyes as Nurse in the movie Romeo + Juliet.
The 33 greatest movies based on Shakespeare
The Monkey
Horror movie marketing ups its game once again, as the team behind The Monkey sends a gross-out bus to drive around Hollywood
Shrek 5
Dune and Spider-Man star Zendaya is Shrek and Fiona’s daughter in the first meme-filled teaser for Shrek 5 and this is the happiest I’ve been since Shrek 2
Latest in Reviews
Razer USB 4 Dock in silver on a wooden desk
Razer USB 4 Dock review: "solid, reliable, and surprisingly well-priced"
Lenovo Legion Go S with FlyKnight gameplay on screen featuring player character holding bow and arrow with enemy ant in backdrop.
Lenovo Legion Go S Windows 11 review: “my heart aches for this mixed up handheld”
Talisman 5th Edition game components
Talisman 5th Edition review: "The characterful imperfections of the original game remain clear to see "
WWE 2K25
WWE 2K25 review: "A colossal package even if you never go anywhere near Virtual Currency"
Altered: Trial by Frost booster box and packs on a playmat
Altered: Trial by Frost review - "Satisfying enough to offer highly varied gameplay"
Three SteelSeries QcK Performance mouse pads on a wooden desk
I didn't expect to prefer a coarser mouse pad, but SteelSeries' new QcK Performance range has changed my mind