Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Measured
- Intensity
- Strong
- Complexity
- Labyrinthine
- Violence
- Brutal
- surreal
- anarchic
- uncanny
- midnight movie viewing
- cult film night
What critics said
Critics broadly found the film creatively unhinged and compellingly absurd, while divided over its deliberate incoherence and narrative discipline.
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
Ozaki's disappearance leads Minami through increasingly impossible encounters, including the appearance of Female Ozaki, without settling into rational causality.
Minami's assignment to eliminate Ozaki is rooted in Japanese underworld hierarchy, but the mission mutates into surreal and comic ordeal.
Female Ozaki's presence radically complicates the missing gangster's identity and drives the film's psychosexual ambiguity.
Minami travels away from the original murder mission while roadside locations, inns, and strangers accumulate an increasingly ominous unreality.
Films like Gozu, and why
Lost Highway
surrealist nightmare logic, crime grotesquerie, and darkly comic psychological disorientation
The Happiness of the Katakuris
absurdist horror, bizarre transformations, and provocative erotic surrealism
Dead or Alive
unhinged yakuza violence, genre destabilization, and anarchic comic energy
Inland Empire
strange small-town encounters, dreamlike mystery, and unsettling comic surrealism
Movie Details
- Director
- Takashi Miike
- Release Date
- 2003-07-11
- Runtime
- 130 min
- Rating
- 6.8 / 10 (246)
Cast
- Show Aikawa
- Yūta Sone
- Kimika Yoshino
- Shōhei Hino
- Keiko Tomita
- Harumi Sone
- Renji Ishibashi
- Kenichi Endo
- Kanpei Hazama
- Masaya Katō
Where to watch in United States
- Streaming
- Screambox Amazon Channel, Cineverse Amazon Channel
Streaming options come from TMDB and change over time.
Common questions
- What is Gozu about?
- A junior yakuza's murder assignment becomes an anarchic, psychosexual nightmare when his intended victim vanishes during a road trip.
- What is Gozu like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of Gozu as measured, its intensity as strong and its storytelling as labyrinthine.
- Is Gozu violent?
- Yes. Ember rates the violence in Gozu as brutal.
- What did critics think of Gozu?
- Critics broadly found the film creatively unhinged and compellingly absurd, while divided over its deliberate incoherence and narrative discipline.
- Which films are like Gozu?
- Films with a similar feel include Lost Highway, The Happiness of the Katakuris, Dead or Alive, and Inland Empire.
- How long is Gozu?
- Gozu runs 130 minutes.
- Where can I watch Gozu?
- In United States, Gozu streams on Screambox Amazon Channel, Cineverse Amazon Channel.
