So we're back, with 5 more Miike movies I've seen since I last wrote of movies I've seen by him. The last list was only a few months ago. It's amazing what having no steady girlfriend can do for watching movies you want! As ever, this can continue on, so if you like it, read it. Tell your friends. Or don't, I don't make any money out of this. The second part can be seen here while the first can be found right here. Please note that I'm trialling a new 'Weird-O-Meter' to indicate how weird a movie is. Spoilers abound.
Plot In One Sentence: A Mafia tough and his soon-to-be executed boss make an unexpected, lengthy stop at a bizarre strip mall.
Thoughts: I avoided this one because it keeps cropping up in the 'most insane movies' lists I see. Resultantly I dismissed it as less than essential and put it to the back of my mental list. After having seen it, I mostly agree that there are better Miike movies around. I went in expecting either gore on the scale of Ichi the Killer, or of bizarre flights of fancy that I'd even Miike himself hadn't reached before or since. In either case, I was both impressed and unimpressed by this: make no mistake, it's demented. Barring a few jarring moments of insanity and / or violence, this is a strangely philosophical deconstruction of both the road trip and the yakuza movie genre.
What makes it interesting is the interplay between the characters and how they react to some very unusual situations. The movie is populated with unnerving characters, and climaxes with perhaps the most unexpected birthing scene of all time. The use of the Minotaur on the movies poster, and DVD cover, I was surprised to find that it is only incidental. It's still odd, and unexplained, but a minotaur only making a fleeting appearance is somehow a genuine concern in a Miike movie. Overall this is a interesting, and strangely soothing movie, and also batshit insane: it is, in fact the closest that Miike has come to replicating David Lynch. For example, I haven't yet referred to the bizarre case of mistaken identity (straight from Lynch's 'Lost Highway') or, of all things, a homemade volcano stand used to house a ladle fetish - or the guy with psoriasis who acts as some sort of spiritual interpreter for the gangsters. Bizarre, and possibly essential. Real marmite stuff, and I liked it.
Score on the 'Weird-O-Meter': ****
Thoughts: This is a remake of a 1962 original. The original is one of my very favourite movies, I've had an 'in praise of' about it in draft for well over a year now. It's the reason I bought a Blu-Ray player. The remake was conceived, I imagine, as a more sobre piece on samurai code to the excellent remake of '13 Assassins,' which shares much of the scenery and cast as this movie. together, they should form a diptych, both movies showing the inherent foolishness of the inflexible loyalty of the samurai code.
However, having seen the original, this remake is pointless, as it lacks the intensity, political machinations, and performances of the original. With only slight differences in story, and this time in colour, and with added 3D, it merely seeks to reinforce the superiority of the superlative original. The 3D is largely pointless also, as most of the action is static until the thrilling conclusion. While both movies highlight the futility of the inflexibility of the Samurai code, the remake lacks the depth of the original, which had a political poignancy over Japan's failure to come to terms with its role in WWII. Largely pointless.
Score on the 'Weird-O-Meter': *
Plot In One Sentence: A family commit various crimes and social faux-pas, while an enigmatic, unexplained visitor enters their lives.
Thoughts: I have decided to view this as an allegorical, disgusting take on modern life. It leaves literally no moral stone unturned, as we see incest, rape, necrophilia, voyeurism, lactation, murder. Yet at the same time it can be seen as an allegory for the struggles of family life, with its conclusion being seen to reinforce the nuclear family, an almost conservative social view after an hour of mayhem. As an allegory, it showcases the daily concerns of families and family members, only magnified to insane levels.
For example, the Oedipal distance between mother and adolescent son takes the form of brutal beatings; the fathers reluctant acceptance of his daughter as a sexual being manifests itself through prostitution and incest; the mild things that housewives have to do to take their mind off their lot becomes heroin addiction and more prostitution. The head of the family, the father, has to deal with sexual boredom, social unpopularity and poor career decisions evident in most families, are here used to give a showcase of murder, voyeurism and then a hideous necrophilia scene, with some of the darkest comedy ever seen. This is deranged, but blackly funny. Almost the very definition of 'not for everyone.' Short, sweet, deranged, immoral and quite possibly brilliant. a hugely black comedy, and possibly the worst movie ever to watch with your parents, or on a first date.
Score on the 'Weird-O-Meter': ****1/2
Thoughts: A pretty poor, generic J-horror genre movie without even the typical flairs of Miike. It's disappointing, and hardly even chilling. It's also far too long for a genre movie. I think it didn't help seeing it so close to seeing The Grudge, The Ring and Dark Water, but it's not great even without those other movies around. A definite low point and strangely prosaic genre exercise, despite a couple of gruesome deaths. Inessential.
Score on the 'Weird-O-Meter': **
Score on the 'Weird-O-Meter': *1/2
There you go, some more stuff coming up, but I also have to prepare for my next job, which is, again, overseas, so I'll be busy. Hope y'all is fine.
1. Gozu [2005]
 |
| A lively tongue-ing. [source] |
Plot In One Sentence: A Mafia tough and his soon-to-be executed boss make an unexpected, lengthy stop at a bizarre strip mall.
Thoughts: I avoided this one because it keeps cropping up in the 'most insane movies' lists I see. Resultantly I dismissed it as less than essential and put it to the back of my mental list. After having seen it, I mostly agree that there are better Miike movies around. I went in expecting either gore on the scale of Ichi the Killer, or of bizarre flights of fancy that I'd even Miike himself hadn't reached before or since. In either case, I was both impressed and unimpressed by this: make no mistake, it's demented. Barring a few jarring moments of insanity and / or violence, this is a strangely philosophical deconstruction of both the road trip and the yakuza movie genre.
What makes it interesting is the interplay between the characters and how they react to some very unusual situations. The movie is populated with unnerving characters, and climaxes with perhaps the most unexpected birthing scene of all time. The use of the Minotaur on the movies poster, and DVD cover, I was surprised to find that it is only incidental. It's still odd, and unexplained, but a minotaur only making a fleeting appearance is somehow a genuine concern in a Miike movie. Overall this is a interesting, and strangely soothing movie, and also batshit insane: it is, in fact the closest that Miike has come to replicating David Lynch. For example, I haven't yet referred to the bizarre case of mistaken identity (straight from Lynch's 'Lost Highway') or, of all things, a homemade volcano stand used to house a ladle fetish - or the guy with psoriasis who acts as some sort of spiritual interpreter for the gangsters. Bizarre, and possibly essential. Real marmite stuff, and I liked it.
Score on the 'Weird-O-Meter': ****
2. Hara Kiri: Death Of A Samurai [2012]
Plot In One Sentence: A unemployed samurai seeks to commit Hara Kiri and recounts his version of events, which tie into the death of his beloved son.  |
| "Pick up the sword." "not this year" - Fight for seven minutes in an alleyway.[source] |
Thoughts: This is a remake of a 1962 original. The original is one of my very favourite movies, I've had an 'in praise of' about it in draft for well over a year now. It's the reason I bought a Blu-Ray player. The remake was conceived, I imagine, as a more sobre piece on samurai code to the excellent remake of '13 Assassins,' which shares much of the scenery and cast as this movie. together, they should form a diptych, both movies showing the inherent foolishness of the inflexible loyalty of the samurai code.
However, having seen the original, this remake is pointless, as it lacks the intensity, political machinations, and performances of the original. With only slight differences in story, and this time in colour, and with added 3D, it merely seeks to reinforce the superiority of the superlative original. The 3D is largely pointless also, as most of the action is static until the thrilling conclusion. While both movies highlight the futility of the inflexibility of the Samurai code, the remake lacks the depth of the original, which had a political poignancy over Japan's failure to come to terms with its role in WWII. Largely pointless.
Score on the 'Weird-O-Meter': *
Plot In One Sentence: A family commit various crimes and social faux-pas, while an enigmatic, unexplained visitor enters their lives.
Thoughts: I have decided to view this as an allegorical, disgusting take on modern life. It leaves literally no moral stone unturned, as we see incest, rape, necrophilia, voyeurism, lactation, murder. Yet at the same time it can be seen as an allegory for the struggles of family life, with its conclusion being seen to reinforce the nuclear family, an almost conservative social view after an hour of mayhem. As an allegory, it showcases the daily concerns of families and family members, only magnified to insane levels.
For example, the Oedipal distance between mother and adolescent son takes the form of brutal beatings; the fathers reluctant acceptance of his daughter as a sexual being manifests itself through prostitution and incest; the mild things that housewives have to do to take their mind off their lot becomes heroin addiction and more prostitution. The head of the family, the father, has to deal with sexual boredom, social unpopularity and poor career decisions evident in most families, are here used to give a showcase of murder, voyeurism and then a hideous necrophilia scene, with some of the darkest comedy ever seen. This is deranged, but blackly funny. Almost the very definition of 'not for everyone.' Short, sweet, deranged, immoral and quite possibly brilliant. a hugely black comedy, and possibly the worst movie ever to watch with your parents, or on a first date.
Score on the 'Weird-O-Meter': ****1/2
4. One Missed Call [2003]
Plot In One Sentence: People get a call from the future of themselves dying, it then comes true.  |
| Just one of the reason that mirrored ceilings in bathrooms will never catch on. [source] |
Thoughts: A pretty poor, generic J-horror genre movie without even the typical flairs of Miike. It's disappointing, and hardly even chilling. It's also far too long for a genre movie. I think it didn't help seeing it so close to seeing The Grudge, The Ring and Dark Water, but it's not great even without those other movies around. A definite low point and strangely prosaic genre exercise, despite a couple of gruesome deaths. Inessential.
Score on the 'Weird-O-Meter': **
5. The Bird People Of China [1998]
Thoughts: Compared to some of Miike's more intense movies, this is immensely pensive and subdued; proof indeed that he can do thoughtful, character-based pieces. It is both interesting and interestingly subdued. The movie hinges on the voyage of discovery, and the conflict between technology and primitivism - a key factor is when the salaryman's Walkmans batteries die out. In essence it displays the conflict between the Japanese 'West' and the remote Rural Chinese 'East'. Of great importance to the movies plot is the rather cheap looking plane still crashed into the river, which is now all that is left of a WWII British pilot, other than a granddaughter, a secret song (a now-garbled version of a Scottish ballad) and the secrets of flight. This secret now manifests itself in some of the rituals of the village, and is evidence of the transmission of myths in community building. There are some great performances, particularly by the three main characters (the translator is played by none other than the wonderful Mako), and there are only a few Miike-ish glitches (the turtle powered raft for one, and the movies climax) but is otherwise a thoughtful, largely spiritual movie. Interesting, and quite beautiful, recommended.  |
| Almost impossible to get a picture of this, so you're stuck with this red-rimmed abomination. [source] |
Plot In One Sentence: A salaryman heads to China on a business trip, where he is joined by a translator and a yakuza member, and they are all bewildered by an unspoilt mountain village.
Score on the 'Weird-O-Meter': *1/2
There you go, some more stuff coming up, but I also have to prepare for my next job, which is, again, overseas, so I'll be busy. Hope y'all is fine.
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