Like a dragon takes place in Kabukicho, a red light district from japan. It goes over the events from the first game but fails to tell the whole story. They do too many things at once and it weakens the plot. The place they start up in is confusing if you've never played the games. But it has its great moments I love. Goro Kishitani (the actor) carries the entire movie. He's so funny and likable but in an evil way. I hated the movie because of how it failed to tell a straightforward story, but I loved it because it had its funny moments and Majima Goro (the character).
Why this movie was bad. It had 4 plots, one about the main story with Kiryu, Haruka, and Majima, one about someone incompetent robbers trying to steal from a bank, one about a Korean sniper, and one about a couple going on a robbing spree. They could have done this successfully, but since it was executed poorly I would have loved to have the 2-hour experience be about the main plot. It's also bad because of the beginning and end, it starts up after Kiryu goes to jail and doesn't establish Nishiki, yumi and Kiryu's relationship beforehand, the ending was bad because of how the beginning sucked yumi blows herself up with the money but in the games, Nishiki takes the fall because of the regretful things he's done while Kiryu was in jail but you wouldn't know that unless you played the games.
This movie is great because of Majima Goro. Majima is the opposite of Kiryu. He's wild, beats his men when they don't have something interesting to talk about, fights Kiryu whenever he has a chance. I like how Majima gets hit and dishes them out is so hilarious. At the end, when Kiryu drinks a stamina royal from the games, I couldn't help but laugh. The way the city is shot feels so immersive, all the bright lights and dark city night looks' so good! The movie looks great, the colors are vibrant, and in the soap house shootout scene, the plain suits pop because of the bright pink and red background and it looks great! The costumes are cool. I liked the robbers' matching masks. My favorite camera movement was this one-shot scene with the Korean and drink guy. I loved how the camera pans around the door frame. Majima's suit and dagger were odd, the suit was black and yellow but wasn't a snake pattern. His dagger was a plain one and not the demon fire dagger from the games. Majimas dagger and suit have lore relevance but they can be overlooked.
In conclusion, this movie is great and awful, it's messy, confusing, and undeveloped. But I love it regardless of its flaws, it's funny to fans of the games and Japan looks beautiful. Majima was insanely funny and carries the movie whenever he's on-screen. The movie looks great for 2007. It had nice camera work with great angles, loved parts with hallways and zoom-ins. I'm excited to see the new Yakuza movie Sega has in the oven. I hope they improve on these ideas from this movie. Regardless of whether or not it's good, i'll watch it anyways.
Why this movie was bad. It had 4 plots, one about the main story with Kiryu, Haruka, and Majima, one about someone incompetent robbers trying to steal from a bank, one about a Korean sniper, and one about a couple going on a robbing spree. They could have done this successfully, but since it was executed poorly I would have loved to have the 2-hour experience be about the main plot. It's also bad because of the beginning and end, it starts up after Kiryu goes to jail and doesn't establish Nishiki, yumi and Kiryu's relationship beforehand, the ending was bad because of how the beginning sucked yumi blows herself up with the money but in the games, Nishiki takes the fall because of the regretful things he's done while Kiryu was in jail but you wouldn't know that unless you played the games.
This movie is great because of Majima Goro. Majima is the opposite of Kiryu. He's wild, beats his men when they don't have something interesting to talk about, fights Kiryu whenever he has a chance. I like how Majima gets hit and dishes them out is so hilarious. At the end, when Kiryu drinks a stamina royal from the games, I couldn't help but laugh. The way the city is shot feels so immersive, all the bright lights and dark city night looks' so good! The movie looks great, the colors are vibrant, and in the soap house shootout scene, the plain suits pop because of the bright pink and red background and it looks great! The costumes are cool. I liked the robbers' matching masks. My favorite camera movement was this one-shot scene with the Korean and drink guy. I loved how the camera pans around the door frame. Majima's suit and dagger were odd, the suit was black and yellow but wasn't a snake pattern. His dagger was a plain one and not the demon fire dagger from the games. Majimas dagger and suit have lore relevance but they can be overlooked.
In conclusion, this movie is great and awful, it's messy, confusing, and undeveloped. But I love it regardless of its flaws, it's funny to fans of the games and Japan looks beautiful. Majima was insanely funny and carries the movie whenever he's on-screen. The movie looks great for 2007. It had nice camera work with great angles, loved parts with hallways and zoom-ins. I'm excited to see the new Yakuza movie Sega has in the oven. I hope they improve on these ideas from this movie. Regardless of whether or not it's good, i'll watch it anyways.