Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but this was my initial reaction to IZO after seeing a screening of it at the London Film Fest last year:
"A shambles of a film, an absolute stinker beyond all proportion its poorly constructed with no character development whatsoever, an embarrasingly awful film that actually makes Tennen Shojo Mann Next now seem not such a bad film in comparison.
Put it this way - Junk is still the worse Japanese film i've seen - but its only marginally worse than Izo.
A waste of the £9.80 ticket, a waste of what looks like a big budget film (some nice cinematography and effects) and more importantly a waste of 145 mins of arse numbing pretentious twaddle with little to say and nothing to recommend.
So bad i wouldnt even recommend downloading it (its a waste of the transfer time). Rating : 1/5"
Just to add a little more info:
Kitano is wasted in this film with very little to do and to be honest looks bored throughout (though not as bored as i was) and basically after a moderately interesting opening and concept all we end up getting is badly choreographed sword fights every 5 -10 mins - random (overlong) musical interludes, and zero character development or plot.
Usually I love Takashi Miike movies but this was unbearable.