Wada, a salary man, is enlisted to venture off to China to investigate a potential Jade mine. After his arrival, Wada encounters a violent, yet sentimental, yakuza, who takes the liberty of joining his adventure through China. Led on their long and disastrous journey to the mine by Shen, the three men come across something even more magical and enticing.
What a delightful and complete surprise coming out of Takashi Miike! The first part of the movie is hilarious. I was thinking it would look like this if Herzog and Kinski were accidentally cast as the two protagonists in a Takashi Yakuza movie!
At the end, I decided that this film is very Fellini-esque. Sure, there's the obvious capitalist vs Nature struggle on the surface. But the story has something much deeper to say and it's been captured well by this team. And very much like Fellini, it's a deep look into human personal Weltanschauung.