Zebra (2016)

Suga Kenta gave a kind of vulnerability to the role of a sociopath Aka so brilliantly I have no words. This is a seriously f*ckd up and convoluted film with an insightful script that uses extreme violence and sex to propel the audience right inside the lives of these characters, so forcefully, just like the characters you get trapped.

The dialog is so powerful --- right from the beginning, when Aka 'collects' Dora , well technically right after, Aka says to the girl he wants to 'show Dora there's a world even lower than this' meaning Dora hasn't seen sh*t in Aka's opinion even though Dora's life is no walk in the park.

But we all know the story is only just beginning.

And then Zebra -- Powerful stuff. That's all I'm going to say without any spoilers.

And it wasn't just Aka.

The same vulnerability, Ryusei Ryo gave to Dora's character who is pretty much consistently problematic but you still see his struggles. That resistance before he does something unspeakable.

The violence in the film is brutal and in-your-face but here's a kind of insane logic to the whole story that reels you in.

So, be careful but a must watch.

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I never been SOOOOOOO FRUSTATED!!!

This is a 2016 Japanese movie about Dora and associates running a badger game scheme to extort victims out of money. One day though, their target looks like an ordinary guy, but he turns out to be a yakuza.
The Yakuza hired Zebra, a company that works to give revenge for those who got unfortunate.

What I love is, this movie should be turned into drama instead. It can talk about the clients per episode, The premise is kinda similar to Jigoku Shoujo but way darker. If Jigoku Shoujo makes the sinner suffer to pay for their crime alone by taking them to hell, but the victim also has to pay for their grudge...., this one committed to never kills their target, but make sure they'll suffer tremendous pain for the rest of their life.
I love the scenes where Aka burned a penis of a rapist and another scene where Dora tattooed an idol's whole face and upper body coz he makes one of his juniors lose his ability to sing.

I'll talk about what I hate..., how messy this movie is.
The company that works in the darkness, like Zebra (if it really exists), for them, trust will be everything. I'm confused enough on why the Yakuza pays for Zebra service while he is supposed to have all of the resources to do this kind of dirty work.
My confusion falls even deeper coz Zebra betray the Yakuza (YKZ) coz they consider Dora can be a great collector. Zebra not only betray YKZ, but also prepared him tied up in a room for Dora to beat him up to death.... This also means that Zebra already planned to betray YKZ, right? BUT FOR WHAT PURPOSE!!!
Zebra is the most unprofessional low-quality company, lol. It sells its client information, even each member selling each other's personal information... the boss indeed has no skills in managing his HR.

Dora really has a very messy character. He is a man who is cruel enough to break a man's finger one by one and killed him with bare hands... He's not even asking about his friend's well-being, including Aya, after they got tortured, but doesn't have the heart to kill Aya, a woman who betrayed him.
Then the story moves into a scene where the company told Dora that the one who hired them to "destroy" Dora is not YKZ, but Aya.... for AGAIN an unclear reason... and AGAIN, Zebra betrayed its client by leaking their information to their target... how... "professional" this company is....

I lost my respect for Dora, and this movie when it creates a situation where Zebra has Aya's face destroyed, by who's order? Again unclear, let's say they do it for Dora..., though Dora never asks for it... Dora then "sells" a woman named Amikawa, to a stalker, just to make the stalker help him to kill Aya and stop her pain. Amikawa has a family with a comatose son and Dora drugs her and makes the stalker rape her in front of her husband, Koji, which leads her to kill herself...
I'm in confusion... If he only has his heart for Aya? Is he a psychopath? Dora even ignorantly said he never expect the woman will kill herself. HOW IN A WORLD?!!!! You drugged and raped a woman in front of her husband and excuse that you never expect she'll kill herself? This Dora doesn't even have common sense. Is he even have something called a brain?

So, what's in the movie about? Is it about Dora who gets betrayed by his own coworker? Then the movie is better to focus on his effort to chase for Aya.
Is it want to show Dora's journey to become a heartless person? Why? He is heartless already. He's even a bully.
After his wife's funeral, Koji seeks Dora then beats him up. At the end of the movie, the Zebra's boss said "Don't be defeated, learn the meaning of hopelessness" which then Dora made it happen by killing Amikawa's son and said "I have successfully collected"... Do I have to remind the writer who messed this up first? Koji is supposed to be the one who got his revenge. Dora is a low total low-functioning sociopath!
And what happened to the company's mission to "never do any murder?". I also wonder why Zebra never gives any penalty to Dora for making them lose their Doctor, also to Aka for selling Dora's information to Koji..., but hey, as I said above, the boss is way too unprofessional that all his people are just as unprofessional as he is.

Don't get me wrong, I love the psychopathy and sociopathy genres. The Silence of the Lambs, Old Boy (extremely genius), Basic Instinct, Saw... I love SMART WRITING about them. I love to see how twisted their minds are like in Criminal Minds, also the cool though it's unreal like Dexter.
This kind of idiotic, totally hate it

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