If one was to make a Low Ten of Miike’s films, “Waru: Kanketsu-hen” would have a very high place in the list, since it managed to be even worse than the original (which would also be included in the list alongside “Silver” and a number of other Hisao Maki-written films), something that can only be perceived as a true “accomplishment”.

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As the film begins, Himuro is nowhere to be found, with his woman even visiting his grave, and Sakuragi roaming the streets trying to investigate a new case about a bunch of right-wing terrorists with ties to the corporate world. Eventually and expectedly, Himuro reappears, to almost everyone’s joy, and resumes his duties as a teacher of kendo, while having to face a young man who is also a master of the sword, yakuza members, and eventually scores of enemies near the finale of the film. A transsexual, Americans, and a number of other people are involved in the story for no apparent reason, while Hisao Maki, who also wrote the manga the film is based upon, this time plays God, literally.

The script is true mess, even worse than the first part, with Maki outdoing even himself. Most of the characters serve no real purpose apart from extending the story and falling victims to Himuro, while the script progresses not with cinematic methods, but mostly through narration and monologues, in a rather poor effort to mimic the style of “Yakuza Papers”. In this setting, it is not surprising that the otherwise impressive cast perform their roles almost in boredom, with Sho Aikawa and Ryo Ishibashi highlighting the fact in the most evident fashion.

There are however, a few good aspect in this raging mess, mostly deriving from some stylistic choices, particularly in the way the transsexual “arc” is shot and the scene Himuro and his comrade fight scores of enemies in a rugby field, with the ending panoramic shot being the most impressive in the whole movie. The fact that Himuro is not present from the beginning also works somewhat well, but even this positive aspect is eventually drowned in the sea of faults the film exhibits and the sole element that remains positive throughout the movie is the guitaristic score

“Waru: Kanketsu-Hen” is definitely among the worst films Miike ever shot, with its lack of quality becoming even grander when one considers the date it was shot, since, by 2006, Miike has already shot a number of his greatest films (Audition, Gozu, Agitator etc).