Like Father, Like Son

Plot synopsis:
Ryota Nonomiya is a successful businessman who is focused so much on work that he neglects his wife, Midori, and son, Keita. Upon his return home one day, Midori tells him that the hospital where Keita was born needs to speak to them urgently, and Ryota senses trouble. After arriving at the hospital, the couple learns that their biological son Ryusei was switched with Keita after birth, and after DNA tests prove the error, they must now make a life-changing decision to either keep Keita, the boy they raised as their own son, or switch him for their biological son.
Ryota and Midori soon meet with the other couple, Yukari and Yudai Saiki, small town folks who lack the money and drive that Ryota possess, but have a better understanding of the importance of child and parent bonds. They share photos, and for the first time, Ryota and Midori see their biological son, Ryusei. After several meetings, they decide to switch children for one Saturday, which goes relatively well for both considering the tense situation. After several more meetings, they finally decide to exchange children. All four parents have difficulty accepting the loss of their previous sons, and the absence of the parents they used to know causes both boys to shut down emotionally, culminating in Ryusei running away from the Nonomiya's home and returning to the Saiki's. Ryota picks up Ryusei and brings him back home.
Ryota and Midori begin to bond with Ryusei, who is also warming up to them. However, while going through the photos on his camera, Ryota discovers a cache of photos of him, mostly sleeping, that Keita took, and he breaks down crying. The three return to the Saiki family so Ryota, who has now understood the errors of his ways, can see Keita, but Keita runs away from him. While following him, he apologizes to Keita, and the two make amends. The film ends with the two returning to the Saiki's, and both families entering the home.

Tags: cruelty, murder, violence, cult, flashback, romantic, tragedy, revenge, sadist

Review:
Three minutes of non-stop violence, no dialog (not that it needs any), the infamous "urinal scene" and all accompanied by a VERY catchy little song about being in love?!
Finally I get to see The Executioner, on a Danish-subtitled bootleg of all things (and FYI I guess certain bad words don't translate well into Danish; ha ha) and I'm just blown away.
Not that it matters, I was still very very entertained and find Duke Mitchell completely fascinating.
He's gotta be THE sleaziest non-porno person I've EVER seen on screen and was apparently a lounge singer prior to making the film; he contributes some unbelievably schmaltzy tunes to the soundtrack too.
And while you're at it maybe write a biography of Duke Mitchell too!.
Much time is spent on dinner conversation, wherein gut-busting hilarious dialog is delivered with little motivation(one memorably clamarous censure involving an old lady's hands is a howler of awkwardly earnest sentiment).
Add to that a heaping helping of very nasty gun violence, and you've got yourself one totally screwball, and, despite itself, extremely entertaining schlock film(with a few genuinely poignant moments).Spectacularly awful in the all best ways, and presented with out-and-out seriousness, this sacrosanct spectacle is well worth a hunt...capice?
Just saw this movie and I gotta say it was a pretty fun hour and a half of goomba gore and senseless mafia shananagins.
And although it's a little incoherent at times, overall it's not a bad B movie.
If you're looking for an Oscar winning mafia film like the "Godfather", "Casino" or "Goodfellas" then "Fah git about it" but if you enjoy movies that inspired writers and directors like Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez to make their own films then you'll dig this one.
After all who doesn't enjoy a senselessly violent B movie with questionable acting and naked broads once in a while...I know I do..
We gave her dishonor!" So says the hero, actor/writer/director/producer Duke Mitchell of his sainted paisan grandma in MASSACRE MAFIA STYLE, the greatest of all forgotten American grindhouse movies of the nineties.
Let's just say that the movie opens with a paraplegic being electrocuted using a desk lamp and an office urinal; soars ahead to a scene where a black pimp is crucified while the L.A. Philharmonic plays Handel's Messiah at the Hollywood Bowl; and climaxes with the remorseful hero saying, "The Italian wasn't disgraced, Chucky--we disgraced it!" Somewhere, Jade Stallone, son of the great man and proprietor of Grindhouse Releasing, has Duke Mitchell's final masterwork, GONE WITH THE POPE, discovered in Duke's bedroom closet after his demise.
And, God be prasied, some day bring MASSACRE MAFIA STYLE--a bootleg favorite--to the public's eye.
You Certainly Won't Forget This One. Massacre Mafia Style (1978) ** (out of 4)Duke Mitchell's middle finger to THE GODFATHER has him playing a mafia guy who goes to America to get in on all the action but soon realizes that things have changed since his father was running the business.
MASSACRE MAFIA STYLE has become a cult classic over the years and it's very easy to see why.
The movie opens up with a couple mafia guys walking through a packed office and just blasting people away.
There's a part where four or five men are just lined up and the mafia guys go through them one at a time.
This entire sequence is without question one of the funniest moments you're ever going to witness in a film that isn't a comedy.
With that said, the entire message that Mitchell is trying to give off is rather ridiculous and especially towards the end when he goes on a "sad" rant to his father about how the times have changed.
The performances are all pretty bad and that includes Mitchell but you've still got to love his work because he's trying so hard.
Here recently a lot of movies are purposely made bad so that they can try and gain some cult attention.
I think the key to great cult movies like this, PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE and even THE ROOM is that the filmmakers really did try to do something "serious" but it just didn't work.
From the laughable dialogue to the questionable screenplay to the wild violence, nothing here works except for those who love bad movies..
Duke Mitchell's THE EXECUTIONER looks like it was shot for fifty bucks over a long weekend.
Required viewing for lovers of truly bad movies.
long time no see," "Cut another slice," and "Makin' these jive-ass superhuman movies, super human this, super human that" voiced by people who are clearly not actors.
Hopefully, someone will release it on DVD so I can watch Duke Mitchell and his buddy Vic Caesar in all their glory..
The Executioner is quite possibly the greatest film to be put out in the last 100 years.
This movie tour-de-force was directed, produced, and starring Duke Mitchell.
The opening sequence of "Massacre Mafia Style" is truly unforgettable.Two cold-blooded mafia executioners stroll into a Los Angeles office and after electrocuting some poor chap in the bathroom urinal they shoot to death everybody in sight.The film follows the exploits of Mini(Duke Mitchell),son of a once great Sicilian mobster,who returns to America after his fathers exile to reclaim his families name as a top crime enforcer.What follows is a mafioso rise and fall awashed with blood and suffering.Mini never actually rises.He is just a mechanical killer,who has enough balls to start mob war.This sleazy and extremely violent mafia thriller truly deserves to be called a cult classic.9 out of 10..
The story takes into account the rise of XXX pornography, as the main character in The Executioner considers entering into the porn industry as its taking off with the success of Deep Throat, which kind of connects the film's violent content to sex, both prime exploitation ingredients.
As a 70s exploitation film, The Executioner has too much of the downside and not enough of the upside that that term carries with it.
Still, for fans of borderline bad movies, it may not be a total disappointment..
Breaking Bread With Duke Mitchell.
A truly Personalized, Visionary Style emanates from the Id of Writer/Director/Producer/Actor/Singer/Lounge Performer, Duke Mitchell.
This Movie one of two He helm-ed, the other Gone With the Pope (that was shot but not edited before His death) finished by Fans and Friends and finally released.The Thing is, like Ed Wood, Duke Mitchell had much more Energy and Aspirations than Talent.
Performing as a Martin and Lewis Rip-Off with Sammy Partillo that was stopped by a Lawsuit before it could cause much Damage, singing at a Lounge in Palm Springs, and making Movies.This one is a sight to behold and Fans of Grindhouse, Bad Movies, and Inept over the top Fun Films, have touted this very Personal Film as an Underground Masterpiece.
If any movie ever made Italians look bad, this is it.Duke Mitchell - what an A--HOLE.
Duke Mitchell, I s--t on your grave.
Seeing as practically every person gunned down in this film by the cowardly Mimi is either black or of some other racial or ethnic minority, it's hard not to become convinced that the guy ultimately owes his allegiance to the Ku Klux Klan or skinheads.
Awww, but he doesn't shoot the little black kid in the elevator in the opening sequence, so that means he can't be all bad, right?
Typical softheaded sentimental tripe.While I do understand why some people might be struck by and even, to a certain extent, admire the film's audacious, totally un-PC verve (it's certainly unashamed of its own hatefulness and sense of self-involvement), this doesn't change the fact that the main character, Mimi (and, by extension, Duke Mitchell), is thoroughly loathsome human being who earns not one iota of empathy or interest, especially given that Duke Mitchell is such a COMPLETE BORE as a performer.
But what do you expect from a guy whose main claim to fame (apart from this dog t--d of a movie) was being a second rate Dean Martin imitator?.
This mega cheapo budget film has all of the plot devices of The Godfather and none of the acting, directing, writing, cinematography, special effects, choreography, camera work, or general feeling.
The only black man in the film is called Super Spook!!!!!
When a mob boss is kidnapped his finger his cut off and mailed home with a ransom note, a friend upon reading the note and seeing the thumb utters the stupid line "That's Chucky's thumb all right, I've seen it on him a million times" A THUMB!!!!!
Massacre Mafia Style- Better than The Godfather -even today.
More than living up to both its name and reputation, Massacre Mafia Style opens with two tough guys played by Vic Caesar and the film's director Duke Mitchell electrocuting a wheelchair bound mob boss in a urinal.
Just for the hell of it they also shoot everyone who happens to be in the same building at the time, and I do mean everyone, office workers, secretaries, even the cleaners, all of which is scored to a Dean Martin-like song about being in love.It transpires that Mitchell's character, nicknamed 'Mimi', is the son of a mob boss who wants revenge on the American Mafia for exiling his old man 16 years earlier.
Teaming up with buddy Vic to form "a small army of guts, balls and trust", in order to raise cash they kidnap a mobster and demand a ransom, sending his thumb through the post to show they mean business ("That's Chucky's thumb all right, I've seen it on him a million times").
The pair also make money by shooting porno films on a boat, a subplot that seems to be a sly reference to a certain Italian family's involvement in porno smash hit Deep Throat.
To say that Vic n' Duke's exploits are action filled is putting it mildly, they go on to impale a gangster on a meat hook (which comes out of his eye!), crucify a black pimp on Easter Sunday, as well as numerous reprises of the 'Vic and Duke shoot everyone and their barber' opening.
A particularly hilarious moment occurs when during a montage of people being gunned down we cut to someone minding their own business reading a newspaper (headline "13 LA Bookmakers and Procurers slain!") who is then also shot, presumably making it 14 LA Bookmakers and Procurers slain.To give a bit of background on Director/Lead man Mitchell, he had began his career as a singer, Americanizing his real name Dominic Miceli to Duke Mitchell, then teamed up with comedian Sammy Petrillo to form an act that was errr not dissimilar to Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis'.
The duo were immortalized on screen in the career end Lugosi vehicle "Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla", though by the time he made Massacre Mafia Style, Mitchell looked less like Dean Martin and instead bears a curious resemblance to the notorious Porn/Broadway actor Zebedy Colt.
Mitchell wasn't a bad actor actually, and equally shifty and violent on screen one of the films main strengths is his no nonsense persona.
Suffice to say, after seeing the film, you probably wouldn't want to spill Duke Mitchell's drink.Making up for its lack of professionalism (as well as a sneaky sense of family members/buddies being passed off as cast members), with admirable low budget energy.
There are even moments that take Massacre Mafia Style from simply being a blood and guts B-Movie into something more personal.
We gave her dishonor!" and the back story about his father's impoverished beginnings in America in which he even lends his own Miceli/Mitchell names to the character.
Mitchell also made a follow up called Gone with the Pope, which has never been released though a trailer for it has surfaced on the internet.
Do try and watch it, given the premise (Duke kidnaps the Pope), a scene where Duke gets it on with massively obese woman, and THAT opening line of the trailer its looks as if may even outdo Massacre Mafia Style for outrageousness..
First off, this movie has the greatest opening ever!
Duke Mitchell's wrote, directed and starred in this mafia classic.
Mitchell is mostly know for his pairing in comedy group where he was the Dean Martinish character.
He appeared as this character in the horrible B-film Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla.
A must see for those who love films so bad, they're good.But The Executioner (aka.
Massacre Mafia Style) isn't a horrible film that is good.
And ultimately, the story is a tragedy.The son of a mafia boss (Who was exiled from America) returns to California, to reclaim his family's honor and position in America.
"The Executioner" a.k.a "Massacre Mafia Style" – which obviously is a much more apt title – was promoted to me by fellow genre fanatics as THE ultimate must-see cult exploitation classic of the seventies.
Not because this is such a great movie, quite the contrary in fact, but the least you can say is that "Massacre Mafia Style" is truly a unique accomplishment and definitely unequaled in terms of ineptitude and entertainment value.
This is somewhat the one man project of a good old pal named Duke Mitchell.
Duke produced, wrote the screenplay, composed the soundtrack, sat in the director's chair and depicted the anti-heroic lead character in this unsung grindhouse variation on the immensely popular "The Godfather".
Duke Mitchell was a godfather, all right The godfather of absurdity and sheer incompetence!
The film is a non-stop series of pointless shotgun assassinations (the craziest you'll ever see), altered with incredibly overlong and wannabe philosophical monologues about how traditional Italian families in America are dishonored by the mafia's vicious reputation ("you see this old woman's hands?
Mitchell's character Mimi Miceli returns to the US, many years after his father got exiled.
The opening sequences of "Massacre Mafia Style" are legendary, with Duke Mitchell and his buddy Vic Caesar strolling around an office building and liquidating everyone in sight (including secretaries, black guys with immense Afros and a crippled man in a wheelchair) to the tunes of a cheerful Italian party song.
This scene as well as all the other massacres in the film, are supposed to be extremely violent and nihilistic, but they're actually downright hilarious and the complete opposite of shocking.
The poor people who volunteered to appear in this mess of a movie are just standing around, not looking the least bit surprised by the sounds of screaming and heavy shotgun fire, waiting to be killed next to the elevator or behind their desk, and the next shot shows their exaggeratedly bloodied body.
I have a lot of admiration and respect for Duke Mitchell, because he made this movie even though he probably realized himself that it is spectacularly awful in all possible departments, but I can only recommend this to a very limited number of people.
Just like Godfather minus the cast, writing, acting, cinematography, or plot..
It took me a long time to track this film down, but boy oh boy was the end result worth it.
The all around best part about this cinematic journey would have to be the fact that you can second guess every even in the movie right before it happens.
Duke Mitchell's uniquely crazed virtual one man cinematic show celebrates Italian life, culture, honor, and tradition pertaining to that legendary organized crime institution the Mafia with a joyously crude micro-budget vigor and vulgarity that's truly something to behold.
Sure, this tale of ruthless mobster Mimi Miceli's rise to power through the most brutish means possible might be incredibly inept, but star/writer/director/producer Mitchell tackles the whole thing with a genuine heartfelt sincerity that's perversely admirable in its sheer giddy audacity.
Moreover, the unapologetically upfront elements of virulent racism and misogyny give this movie's depiction of the inner workings of the Mafia a certain coarse authenticity more sanitized mainstream takes on the same subject tend to lack.Mitchell truly puts his proverbial all into the juicy lead role of a dangerous loose cannon and delivers several priceless philosophical monologues with lip-smacking gusto (the one about the Italian woman in particular is a real doozy!).
The excessive bloody violence comes through with the gory goods: An opening office building massacre sequence set to an infectiously jaunty Italian tune, a vicious pimp named Super Spook (!) gets crucified on Easter Sunday, and a guy winds up being impaled through the eye on a meat hook.
Duke Mitchell Takes on the Mob - Boredom Ensues.
Not worst in the sense of so-bad-it's-good...it's more like the least entertaining, most drawn out bore ever put to film.
In the highlight (cough) of Brooklyn Gorilla, Duke Mitchell (who, like in the Executioner, plays himself) is turned into a singing gorilla.
So, when I heard about a film which starred (and was directed by) that titular Gorilla of days gone by, and which was obviously made to cash in on the success of "The Godfather" (1972), I believed that I was in for a really hilarious evening when I finally located "The Executioner." Boy, did I ever get a wrong number.
This film is stale, stale, stale, made up almost entirely of LONG, boring conversations about how tough Duke has had it, punctuated every now and then by fake and unconvincing violence.
I guess it is a lot cheaper to have Duke drone on about his life experiences than to actually, I don't know, film them.
One major liability of the film is Duke Mitchell's acting.
If Mitchell wasn't credited on the imdb with the screenplay, I would have guessed that he was reading them for the first time from a big cue card somewhere off camera.
To give just one example, Duke has to get to the top by eliminating the "number one" Mafia leader.
Are the Mafia leader's guards vampires, or is there some more plausible reason they would not follow him into church?In short, this is an extremely dull film that is no fun at all.