Half of the movie is spent on the childish drawing of a tertiary character that wasn't characterized, is not important to the so called plot and we don't care about! Takeshi's acting is wooden, lifeless, emotionless, and the same can be said of his relationship with his wife that he's supposed to love and really (no seriously) care about!. The plot is non-existent, the movie is bizarrely edited so that you can't tell what's happening now and what is a flashback. The main character's occupation is uncertain throughout and he's always followed by some secondary characters everywhere he goes for unexplained reasons.
My biggest gripe is that this movie suffers horribly from "tell don't show"! Characters blatantly spout exposition at each other and it seems very amateurish! We find out that yakuza toughs are part of yakuza because they say "You know how we yakuza are", we find out that a guy's wife and daughter have left him because he says that to a different character with a blank, talent-less face when that character presumably ALREADY KNEW that and he's only talking for the benefit of the audience!
There are numerous scenes where nothing happens for a long time, for no reason. To give 2 examples, we stare for 20% of the movie at Takeshi's blank, un-moving face and at the end we're treated to a 5 minutes scene where a girl is trying to fly a kite. Just her, running back and forth with some very exciting music in the background!
In conclusion, I have NEVER seen such levels of not understanding basic film making techniques and amateurism. Safe to say I won't watch any of the director's other movies!
