Dead a Go! Go!

Dead a Go! Go! A.K.A. デッド ア ゴー! ゴー! (Deddo a go! go!)

Release Date - 1999

Country of Origin - Japan

Directed by Daisuke Yamanouchi

Starring - Masato Horii, Tarô Iwate, Kazue Onada, Salmon Sakeyama, Eri Inazumi, and Nami Fujita

You know watching a movie without subtitles can be a pretty interesting experience. Regardless of what language the movie is in, watching it without any subtitles is pretty entertaining. You won't understand what the hell is going on but that's the beauty to it. It can help you learn a new language (although usually subtitles help this out even more), you can use it as a chance to be your own MST3K commentator, and even treat it as a silent film...well kind of. With some movies you don't even need subtitles, as the plot can be so simple to understand by the visuals. Some films will leave you begging for subtitles to make sense of all of the imagery (coughcoughluckyskydiamond). But then there are some movies where it's a bit of a combo of both. You don't really understand what is going on and would like subtitles for, and also be able to understand the film by the visuals. I bring this up because today's film on the reviewing block is a prime example of a film that while easy to get into by the visuals on the screen, it could really use some subtitles so you know just what the hell is going on.

Today we will be looking at one of Daisuke Yamanouchi's many films from 1999; Dead a Go! Go! (デッド ア ゴー! ゴー! /Deddo a go! go!). As just stated, the film was released in what was Yamanouchi's boom period of 1999, as he released many films that year, especially a good chunk of the ones we've all come to know, love, and shit our pants to. However while the other films released that year in Muzan-E, Red Room, and Girl Hell 1999 are praised quite a bit, Dead a Go! Go! is considered the black sheep of the bunch. In fact I've seen a good chunk of people call this one of if not his worst film. Obviously everybody forms a different opinion on movies, but this one seems to get an almost unanimous vote for being the worst. To be honest I can kind of understand why. This isn't his goriest movie, and while we have no problem watching his other films without the luxury of subtitles, this movie needs those bad. So one could say the disliking comes from not understanding the movie as well as it not delivering on the gore, something which it seems most Yamanouchi fans expect out of his films (or at least I see it that way).

But do those reasons justify the claim of it being his worst film? Well there is only one way to find out, and that's to watch it. Now if it isn't obvious this review will not be in depth. I own this on its original VHS release and that is obviously not going to have subtitles. And I won't lie this movie is confusing. So please stay patient with me as I try my best to explain just what is happening. Also I haven't been able to find images of the movie itself on the internet, so this is going to be an imageless review for the most part.

The film begins as a man in a business suit walks over to a noose with a crate under it. He gets on the crate and grabs onto the noose, he bringing it over his head some. The man then stops and turns to the camera, he beginning to talk. Once again due to lack of subtitles and a fluent grip on the Japanese language I can't really understand what all he is talking about. If I had to take a guess though I'd say it's probably about death, specifically suicide, which as we will learn is a big part of the movie. As he talks we're shown some stock footage (in a weird creamy like black and white) of people walking around. Yay.

After that we come to our first case. Oh I forgot to mention that Dead A Go! Go! is an anthology film. There's four stories to it that all deal about death. With each one you get an interview with the victim, a flashback showing how they died, and then another brief interview. In between each segment the host holds a vignette which shows us the viewer how to kill ourselves. Each one is themed to how the victim of the case we just saw die. So for example after watching the case of a man who was hanged, the host tells us the correct way to hang ourselves. He brings out diagrams and even demonstrates himself how to do so. These segments are actually pretty funny just due to the fact that we're being informed of how to commit suicide properly. It's dark as all hell but it's still funny. Then again, I’m a sick bastard with a warped sense of comedy, so maybe it’s just me who finds it funny.

Our first victim is a father. His back story is one of the easiest to understand (save for one detail) out of the bunch and is thus easy to watch without subtitles. It seems that before dying, our father here had a pretty shitty life. His wife while subservient seems like she's in a comatose state, almost as if she's a vegetable but can actually move around. Along with this he has a daughter who looks like quite the whore facially (I have never seen a Japanese woman wear so much makeup outside of dressing in traditional geisha wardrobe in my life). It seems the girl is in love with this big guy who eats nothing but honey buns. He also seems to be mentally retarded. For some reason the father does not like the fact that the two is dating. I don't know if it's because he's retarded or because he's pissed that somebody is eating all the honey buns.

Late that night the man writes his suicide note (Japanese lesson for you all, jisatsu is Japanese for suicide) and heads out to what I think is either the basement or the biggest garage I've ever seen. He goes to hang himself but hears a noise and decides to investigate. What he finds is shocking...to him. Turns out that whore face and retard like to come down here for dates. The father then watches on as the girl pulls down her boy toy's pants and sucks his dick off, the man just standing there and eating a honey bun as she does so. She stops after a bit and takes her clothes off, the girl then lying on the ground so that she can masturbate. After watching for a bit retard goes over to her and the two start to have sex, the retard sounding like a mix between a naying horse and a squealing pig throughout. As he watches on the father becomes hard and starts to masturbate. He ends up getting caught by the couple and after hitting the big retard with a wrench, arguing with his daughter, they attempt to kill him. He runs off but doesn't get that far since he forgot to pull his pants up, this causing him to trip over. The retard grabs the rope the old man was going to use to hang himself with, and with assistance from the daughter, choke him to death, they even pulling on the rope so hard that it causes one of his eyeballs to pop out. With his death, our first story of death comes to an end.

Now we move on to our second case, this one concerning a woman. When we first meet her, she is almost completely nude, she only wearing her underwear. Along with being nude, she sports gashes along her wrist and a gash across her neck. Once her introduction is complete, the film moves onto the vignette of the circumstances leading to her death. She goes to a hotel with who one can assume is a fellow employee (they both are dressed in business attire). The man quickly becomes friendly and starts to rub his hands along her body, specifically her breasts. I will say this; she is definitely more attractive than the old man's daughter who looked like a whore. The woman seems into it at first, but her tune quickly changes as the man shoves her against a wall and forcefully pulls down her underwear to suck and lick her ass (and presumably her pussy slightly). He eventually gets her own the bed, she wearing nothing but her skirt. She talks to him for a little bit, I assuming her stating that she'll pleasure him. After sucking on his dick for a little while, the film cuts to the two having sex, the woman definitely not looking all to entertained or pleasured, it almost looking like she's crying.

After their little somewhat forced love session, the two enjoy an after sex smoke (why do movies and television always seem to show people smoking after having sex? I just don't get it). Judging by her facial reaction, the man says something that appears to upset her. She goes into the bathroom, her underwear magically back on her (did she put them back on after they had sex?). She turns the bath on and sits on the side of the tub, her facial expression being dazed like. While the man enjoys some noodles, the woman takes out a box cutter like blade and slits her wrist with it. The man (now redressed) walks into the bathroom to check on her, he seeing her holding the blade to her wrist, blood pouring down her arm. She walks towards the door and thus to him, however he cowers away in terror, leaving her in the hotel room to die. She wakes up in the bathtub, its water turned red from her blood. She takes hold of her blade again and places it to her neck, she slitting it in a slow cut. With this, she finally dies, ending our second case of the movie.

We then come to the third story, which is the shortest of the bunch. Why? Well, it’s because of our victim. Our unfortunate soul turns out to be a box, the host insinuating that there are a person’s guts inside of it. There is no vignette shown, and thus this segment is more or less the host talking. This is a case of when subtitles would have really helped, as I can’t understand what the host is saying which I’m assuming is telling the viewer about the box and what not. Footage of a train is showed though, so one could assume that whoever died got run over by the train, and had their contents put in a box. Though it makes you question that if this place the interviews take place in is the afterlife, why wouldn’t the victim have their body back? For comedy’s sake, the box actually rumbles as a way of communication, and when the host tries to open it, it starts shaking violently and even starts to bleed. Due to how this case unfolds though, there is no demonstration of death afterwards, the movie moving straight onto the fourth and final case.

Our final victim comes to us in the form of a 17 year old schoolgirl (who I find to be more attractive than whore face and our other female victim). Like victim number two, it seems as if this poor girl died via cutting herself, the harm only to her wrist which we see is bandaged. When the vignette of her back story begins, we see her just after slitting her wrist, she staring at the wound as she bends he wrist back and forth. It turns out that our victim was bullied by two other girls from school, as our next scene is her in a boiler room being bullied (Yamanouchi has a thing for dark boiler/run down rooms doesn’t he). One of the girls slaps our victim around a bit before bringing her up to her feet. She knees her in her gut, causing her to throw up and fall to the ground. One of the bullies then grabs hold of our victim, the other girl licking some of the vomit off her face (eww). The girl who licked her then runs her hand against our victim’s thigh, she then being handed a stick of what I believe is celery by her fellow bully. She uses a box cutter to sharper the celery, causing one to think our victim will be struck with it. But nope, our bully has something else in mind. She pulls down our victim’s panties and proceeds to rape her with the vegetable. Yes you read that right; our victim is raped by celery. The fucking hell Yamanouchi?

She (the victim) returns home and goes into the bathroom, blood running down her leg. She turns on the faucet and washes off her genitals, as well as the blood. She ends up noticing a razor and takes hold of it, she sitting down on the toilet afterwards. As you might have guessed, she has suicidal intentions on the mind, and slits her wrist, blood shooting out immediately in a fountain like style (but not in the volume of a fountain), though she does bleed enough to cover the floor with her blood (it being helped by the water).

We then cut back to our interview room, the host and victim continuing to talk. Going off of the girl’s reaction to something the host says, it appears as if she may not really be dead. And this is where the film gets mind fucking weird. As the host approaches her, she backs into our previous victims, and then into a wall. The four approach her (the old man holding the box) as she talks. The box begins shaking violently, causing the hold man to drop it, guts spilling out. It also appears that our host has died, as we now see his head covered in blood.

The girl runs past them and appears in a cemetery (I have no idea how), she continuing to run through it and into the woods. Turns out the bullies are in the woods as well, the catching up to the girl and stopping her. After talking for a bit, our subject runs off in front of them, she now wielding the razor she used to cut herself. She slits the throat of one of the bullies, and….the movie ends there. Huh?

My Copy of the Movie

That my dear friends was Dead A Go! Go!. All I can say is that it is certainly not the easiest film to understand. At all. Not one single bit.

The main confusing part of it comes simply from how the movie ends. Up to that point, we the viewers have been led to believe that the film outside of the flashbacks is taking place in the afterlife. However with our final case, it appears as that isn’t the case, as our victim does not seem to be dead and even escapes the place where this whole thing is taking place. So this begs the question, just where the hell did this take place? Was the girl close to dying but then somehow came back to life? What was the point of the interviews (this is probably explained in the dialogue)? What the bloody hell is this all about! This is why I think viewing a subbed version of the film would help greatly, as then we could understand just what is going on more. But without subtitles, we the viewers are just left in a state of utter confusion by the end of the movie.

The individual stories themselves are alright I guess. I can’t really comment on them too much due to not being able to fully understand them. Going off of what we are given visually though, they just seem to be alright. Out of the bunch, the first one is the easiest to watch without any knowledge of Japanese. It’s a simple story of a father with a crappy life, with him being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Anybody can view something like that and instantly understand what’s going on (though I would like to know why he’s so upset about his daughter being with retard though). The one with the woman is alright, but not being able to fully understand what is going on hurts it. Why does she go from resisting her coworker to being up to having sex with him? More importantly though, why does she kill herself? Unless you know Japanese or we get a subtitled version of the film, we won’t know. The third story doesn’t really amount to anything considering how short it is, as well as the lack of full understanding. As for the fourth, before the mind fuckery of the ending comes into play, it isn’t that bad of a story. A teenage girl is bullied at school (not to mention raped) and is depressed about it, it causing her to cut herself. Simple as the ABCs. If the story would have just stuck with this, it would probably be the best of the four. However the fact that it turns into what drags down the movie in my opinion really hurts it. Until the final part of her interview, it’s a great little story. But the minute it’s revealed what is truly going on, it becomes an utter mess that DESPERATELY needs to be explained with subtitles (or learning the language). I will say this though, outside of the third story, each one is paced very well and features a beginning, middle, and end. All in all, the stories as a whole are alright. Individually, they’re fairly nice. But the ending just fucks it all up and ends everything in a chaotic mess. So really, I’d have to say it’s all simply alright as a combined story and nothing more.

But we don’t watch Daisuke Yamanouchi for the story right (right?)? We watch these movies for the insane gore effects! Well I’ll tell you something, there isn’t much. The movie never reaches the degree of violence the Red Room films or Muzan-E do. The bloodiest the movie ever gets is in the business woman and schoolgirl sections, with the schoolgirl one being the more extreme of the two considering how much blood sprays in that section, not to mention the fact she’s able to (with the air of the running water) cover the whole floor with blood. The effects in the first story are nice, the eye popping out definitely being the gross moment of the movie. The guts that fall out of the box are fairly nice, you can tell that they’re fake though (helped in no part by the moving tentacles of it). The host’s gore effect is also pretty nice. However as I’ve already said, the schoolgirl story is when the film is at its bloodiest. As a whole, this is definitely Yamanouchi’s tamest exploitation/sleaze/underground horror film, it being surpassed by all of his other work.

As for the acting, it’s okay. Nothing really too spectacular. I wouldn’t really say any actor or actress did better than another one, nor did any do worst than any of the others. So the acting in general is simply okay. Don’t watch this though expecting Godfather level acting though (would you really watch this with those expectations though? It’s a freaking exploitation film).

In the end, Dead A Go! Go! is simply a film that is alright. When compared to Yamanouchi’s other work (regardless of the gore), it simply isn’t one of his better films (though I haven’t seen his porn films, so I couldn’t say if it’s better or worst then any of those). Compared to something like Kyoko VS Yuki which featured a very simple plot, it simply does not measure up. The stories individually range from good to alright. However when combining them all to tell one single story, it falls apart all because of how the movie ends. If it wasn’t for that ending then the film would be really nice as an anthology piece. I would have actually liked to see a few more vignettes. Of the three shown, two of them dealt with suicide, so it would have been nice to have seen another one based around homicide or even accidental death.

The gore effects are alright as well. They don’t really get to extreme or spectacular, they for the most part staying realistic (unless you don’t count popping an eye out via strangling realistic). You won’t find a ton of blood or guts here. Blood only makes a few appearances, it only get excessive in one story. Guts are shown, but they are not done well, the lack of blood on them easily showing off how fake they are, it not helped even more by the fact that the guts move. Outside of that, you will not see any of Yamanouchi’s trademark over the top violence.

At the beginning of the review I said that in evaluating this as a film that I would also give my opinion on why the film isn’t as liked as Yamanouchi’s other works. It is my opinion that the reason is simple; it simply isn’t that good of a film. The stories are okay but not anything great. The effects are there but do not reach the standards people set up for the man. The acting is simply alright, and isn’t anything to write home about. Does the lack of ultra violence provide a good reason to not like the film? I say no, but that’s just me. What about the confusion? Definitely. I can tell you all that if I could see this subbed or even dubbed, I would have a lot more to say about the story, I even possibly being more positive about the ending since I would have it explained. However unless you know Japanese or somebody subs or dubs the movie, you will be utterly confused by the end.

At the end of the day Dead A Go! Go! is a fairly fun way to spend an hour. But the lack of an understanding of the language hurts it very, very much. And unfortunately this is a case where my not understanding the movie plays a big part of my rating of the film. It’s a shame, I think understanding this movie would make it more enjoyable.

C -

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