Gozu

Saw Gozu, a bizarre thriller/comedy about a yakuza who must kill his old mob-friend who is going insane. The friend kills a dog, in the opening, because he suspects this football-sized lap-dog of being a yakuza-hunting attack dog. So, this is sad, but what can our hero do? He brings his friend out to a small town where the murder is supposed to happen. Unfortunately, while the protagonist is making a phone call, his friend vanishes. This begins a nightmarish descent into small-town weirdness.

Some is straight-forward creepy craziness, such as the hulking, mute hotel-worker who makes lights dim as he approaches, but some is more comical-seeming. At one point an American woman is giving the protagonist directions. She speaks very halting Japanese and is revealed to be literally reading from queue cards. This is too weird to be taken seriously. The protagonist reads along with her incredulously before running off. This is a Takashi Miike film, so some level of bizarreness is expected. This has his usual mix of comedy and horror. There's some great Lynch-ian grumbles on the soundtrack, with sudden bursts of feedback and static indicating that weirdness is about to go down.

I think the film was primarily about putting weird shit on screen, but it also seemed to obliquely explore some latent attraction the protagonist had for his friend. They examine each other's genitals and homosexuals and anal penetration are used to horrify the audience. This may be just used for shock value but the film makes more sense to me as the protagonist struggling with his feelings for his friend. There's also some strangeness involving the titular minotaur who, I guess, lurks in the center of this small-town maze of craziness (and feelings!) It's very strange - definitely worth a look.