GOZU

At the least, this is not your papa-san's yakuza movie, as a young Japanese gangster named Minami seeks the lost body of a revered colleague he might have accidentally killed. What begins as a Lynchian crime piece becomes a Cronenbergian detective thriller and then a genuine head trip. Director Takashi Miike (Ichi the Killer) is a master of mood, and of tonal shifts; while his film's oddness sometimes feels self-conscious, he seamlessly negotiates switchbacks between horror, comedy and simple uneasiness, the last usually conveyed by characters overtly lurking at the edges of the frame. Gozu is populated by grotesques, freaks and weirdos who baffle and alarm Minami as much as they do us; as with any effectively surreal film, its best passages are indelible and its deeper meanings completely up for grabs.