Crows Explode is actually the third film in a series. The first two films, 'Crows Zero' and its sequel 'Crows Zero 2', both directed by Takashi Miike, take place in the same high school populated entirely by fight-hungry delinquents. This film has new main characters, but doesn’t completely sever its ties from previous films. It constantly mentions elements from the first two movies, and that might get confusing for those coming into it fresh. For those already familiar, 'Crows Explode' feels like a step down from the Miike-directed films. It has all the problems of the first two films, but lacks the panache that the director tends to endow on his pictures.
Kaburagi Kazeo (Masahiro Higashide) is a new transfer student at Suzuran All-Boys High School, a ruin of an institution basically run by delinquents. The students fight their way to the top of the pecking order. On his first day there, Kazeo distinguishes himself by knocking out one of the top fighters in the school. Though skilled in fighting, Kazeo wants no part of Suzuran’s fighting culture. But while he resists the call to fight, external forces are threatening to invade Suzuran and a neighboring high school. Soon enough, Kazeo is faced with a choice: leave peacefully, or defend his school with his fists.
Any pleasure derived from the previous 'Crows' films have little to do with the plot. They have always been needlessly complicatedfunctioning on the unique illogic of the world presented within these stories. It never does make sense, for example, that the Yakuza get so caught up in the internal conflicts of high school delinquents. In this film, all the nonsense is predicated on a Yakuza plot to acquire a piece of land. It’s a whole lot of trouble for very little gain, and the film pretty much abandons all logical thought as it pursues this narrative.
And like the previous films, it all takes a bit too long. This one is especially tedious, since so much of this film involves waiting for the hero to realize that he has to fight. These films are really built on fights, the whole thing just coming alive in these unique, delinquent-style rumbles. But with a character reluctant to fight, the film becomes significantly less fun. Also missing from this picture is the acceptance of the absurd that Takashi Miike brought along with him to the director’s chair. Director Toshiaki Toyoda seems more willing to take all this macho nonsense seriously, which is a mistake.
Toyoda adds a shade of realism to proceedings, which is pretty silly considering the world in which this film operates. This mainly results in the film being a lot more boring. The fights are fun for a while, but soon suffer from a lack of escalation. The film starts repeating itself after a while, the characters unable to distinguish themselves as fighters within this more realistic milieu. The acting is fine for what it is, as is the Tagalog dubbing. They cast handles the more soberly dramatic tone well enough, even though it doesn’t really help.
'Crows Explode' gets to be quite a slog after a while. The middle portion is a real struggle to get through, as the fights take a backseat to an overly complicated plot involving a multitude of small side characters with hazy motivations. It doesn’t help that this film requires at least some knowledge of what went on before, with characters from the previous films showing up with little explanation of who they are and why they matter. 'Crows Explode' should be more fun than it is, but it burdens itself too much with demands that no one really cares about.
My Rating:
