Takashi Miike
Takashi Miike is an incredible asian director. The following are reviews of his films that I have seen and would suggest.
Art Films?
Visitor Q - Shock Rating ***** - Every scene in this movie
is beautifully orchestrated artwork. Visitor Q is an angel
of sorts which comes to stay with a shockingly dysfunctional family. Heartwarming in a freakish way.
Happiness of the Katakuris - Shock Rating **- This is my
favorite musical. A family buys a mountain inn with promises of
a road coming through. The few visitors they have all seem to die. Demented family fun with singing zombies and some
claymation madness.
The Bird People In China - Shock Rating * - A japanese
business man, a yakuza and a translator trecking through the
back country of China. If this sounds like a joke, wait until you see them take mushrooms and somehow give the translator
amnesia, then stumble into their destination - an ancient society who believes their ancestors could fly, wishing to be a part
of the modern world with the veins of jade in their hills.
Audition - Shock Rating **** - The first scene is a boy
walking to see his mother in the hospital and she dies on his way
down the hall. Years later, the father, who is a writer, decides to date again, and winds up holding an audition for
the screenplay he's written, with the intention of finding someone to marry. What seems like a love story turns into
a horrific multi-dimensional exploration into the darkest parts of love.
Yakuza
City of Lost Souls - Shock Rating *** - Brazillian hero,
Mario, is in Japan, with Kei, his Chinese companion on the run.
She used to belong to the kinky Chinese mob. Mario rips off the mob and the yakuza to escape the country. Claymation
kung fu cock fighting and ping pong to the death.
Graveyard of Honor - Shock Rating **** - A violent yakuza
killer winds up on the wrong side of the law and the yakuza.
This is a remake of a film made in the late 70s.
Gozu - Shock Rating **** - This is a horror film of sorts.
A violent
yakuza killer is being sent to his death, but ends up dying on the way in
a creepy small town where the dead come to life. His brother searches for
him on a strange adventure involving a bull headed man, the walking dead,
and his brother coming back as a girl. Very strange.
Ichi the Killer - Shock Rating ***** - A brainwashed killer
in a bladed
suit with the mind of a child dismembers bullies in the most gruesome ways
possible. Very bloody.
Dead or Alive - Shock Rating **** - A man with big hair and
his friends go up against rival yakuza gangs.
Dead or Alive 2 - The Birds - Shock Rating ** - The man with
big
hair is back, but now he's a demon, and runs into his childhood friend,
who is an angel. They work together assassinating yakuza to send money to children in africa.
Dead or Alive Final - Shock Rating ** - Both of the main
characters from Dead or Alive 2 are now cyborgs in 2536 after some
sort of holocaust, living in a city where the flaming homosexual mayor has outlawed children and mandated birth control.