The students of Suzuran High compete for the King of School title. An ex-graduate yakuza is sent to kill the son of a criminal group, but he can't make himself do it as he reminds him of his youth.
Direction
Miike treats brawls like musical numbers—choreographed, operatic, unhinged.
Production
Suzuran High: the most beautifully lit concrete hellscape in cinema.
Acting
Oguri's thousand-yard stare vs. Yamada's unhinged swagger—chemistry for days.
Director
Takashi Miike
Shun Oguri
Genji Takiya
Kyosuke Yabe
Ken Katagiri
Meisa Kuroki
Ruka Aizawa
Takayuki Yamada
Tamao Serizawa
Kenichi Endo
Joji Yazaki
Goro Kishitani
Hideo Takitani
Kenta Kiritani
Tokio Tatsukawa
Sousuke Takaoka
Shun Izaki
Yusuke Kamiji
Shoji Tsutsumoto
Shunsuke Daitoh
Hiromi Kirishima
Kaname Endo
Yuji Tokaji
Dai Watanabe
Bando Hideto
Motoki Fukami
Megumi Hayashida / Rindaman
Yusuke Izaki
Manabu Mikami
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The Crows manga author Hiroshi Takahashi makes a cameo as a ramen chef—Miike's nod to the source material's DNA.
Suzuran is based on real Japanese 'furyo' delinquent culture of the 70s-80s, but Miike amps it into mythic yakuza-cinema territory. The 'banchō' hierarchy mirrors actual organized crime structures, making these teens tragic prequel characters to their own doomed futures.
JP
