Review by Michael Gillen

This film certainly has its moments, there are some great scenes and great performances (and the soundtrack is fantastic too), but theres something about it that doesn't quite "gel", the story at times is a bit confusing and the ending is pretty under-whelming, but It does definetly have its moments, Joe Odagiri's performance alone is a good enough reason to watch the film (and Im not even a screaming fangirl).

Zatoichi was allways going to be a tough act to follow, Beat Takeshi returns with his wildly surreal "Takeshis'", in which Beat Takeshi (played by Takeshi) meets a man who strangely resembles himself (also played by Takeshi), he then proceeds to dream about what his lookalike's life is really like, tieing in people he knows into his dream, it may be somewhat bewildering but its a hilarious film in which Beat Takeshi pokes fun at himself, his stereotypical yakuza character and what the public believe him to be.

This is definetly not your run of the mill JRock CD, Its sheer madness, but theres not a single bad song on this album, if your a fan of the Beat Crusaders or are just looking for a different kind of CD then this is definetly a must have album, it's superb.

In my honest opinion Sambomaster are the best japanese band around at the moment, with most groups they rely on good looks and their legions of screaming female fans to buy their cd's, but not Sambomaster, to say the lead singer is odd looking is an under-statement but who cares when the music is this unbelievably good. This is simply a must own album from a band that deserve internation sucess.