Takashi Miike is an incredibly talented filmmaker. He’s made about a dozen truly wonderful movies. Problem is, he’s made over 80 films in total. “Crow Zero II,” his latest endeavor, is a huge step up from its predecessor, but it is not one of his best.

“Crow Zero II” tells the story of six Japanese gang members with boy-band haircuts who form tenuous alliances as they each try to become the biggest gang in town. When the truces break down, everyone punches everyone else.

I watched both “Crow Zero” movies and even looked up the Wikipedia article on the manga on which they are based, but I couldn’t tell you why anyone was punching or being punched. Toward the end of the film, I had to use the bathroom. On my way back into the theater, I walked into the wrong hall, twice. Once I finally found my way back to my seat, I realized that the same two characters were still punching one another with no discernable progression in the fight. In his more violent mode, Miike might have turned these fights into limb-ripping orgies or arterial spray, but for some reason, he decided to tone down the gore factor in a movie that exists entirely to facilitate sequences of gratuitous violence.

I think these gangs are supposed to be from rival schools, but no one ever goes to class and there are no teachers. So really, the gangs just wear school uniforms and have weird barracks full of torn-up desks and graffiti. On the bright side, a lot of the graffiti is in hilariously improper English.

In less capable hands, I doubt I would have made it to the 30-minute mark in “Crow Zero,” much less seek out “Crow Zero II.” But Miike is a wonderfully adept visual stylist, and the strength of his composition elevates what really should be lowest-common-denominator material. Even as the fights grow more repetitive and the double and triple crosses become increasingly ludicrous, his deft touch keeps the viewer from entirely checking out.

I suppose each of the gang members has a semblance of personality, but between bad subtitles and even worse dubbing, the only character who made any sense is the badly scarred gang leader who is shy around girls. Between “Crow Zero” and “Crow Zero II,” he pre-ejaculates while speaking to women no less than six times. Needless to say, cutting back and forth between “Kill Bill”-style violence and Farrelly Brothers-style gross-out gags makes for an awkward fit.

I cannot rightly recommend “Crow Zero” or “Crow Zero II” to anyone other than the most hardened of Otaku. Miike has made literally dozens of superior movies, but at the same time, the film is not without its charms. If you’ve already seen “Ichi the Killer,” “Audition,” “Visitor Q,” “Izo,” “Dead or Alive” 1-3 and “One Missed Call” and you get really bored, I suppose you could do worse.