Nipple-targeting seagulls. Old men rapping in a bathhouse. Drugs smuggled as Italian pasta. Welcome back to The Mole Song’(🦗)s world. The third and final part of this series of manga adaptations, by IFFR regular Miike Takashi, is once again loaded with delicious madness.
(🍺)Following Undercover Agent Reiji (IFFR 2014) and Hong Kong Capriccio (IFFR 2017), this time the enemy are Italian mafia smuggling their ‘speed-a-roni’ into Yokohama’s port. Yakuza boss Papilon, fearing for his business, wants to stop them from entering, and so do the Japanese cops: Reiji works for both as an undercover agent. All these complications this give cult director Miike a playground for crazed subplots.
At times fooling us into thinking it’s an ordinary action thriller, The Mole Song: Final is a cocktail that smashes together slapstick comedy, farcical fantasy and puppet animation, with Reiji – played again by the energetic and engaging Ikuta Toma - always at the centre of the tornado that just keeps on spinning.
Copyright © 2009-2025