Blues Harp

The intros are among some of the best pieces of cinema Takashi Miike produced around the late-Nineties and Millennium period. The brutal baseball attack to kick-off "Fudoh: The New Generation" and the film within a montage that introduces us to the "Dead or Alive" Trilogy. Coming a year earlier than the latter, 1998's "Blues Harp" also shows a whole condensed into a rock montage, with clips from throughout the film interspersed with Atsushi Okuno's performance on stage to get the octane levels up. Seeing Miike's lower-budget works as forerunners for ideas in his larger-scale pieces, "Blues Harp" is another, more minor, work that would see similar themes explored later on.

Chuji, born in Okinawa to a Japanese prostitute and African-American soldier, is a barman in a dive bar and music venue in the US navy base town of Yokosuka. A low-level drug dealer, he chances upon Kenji, an ambitious young yakuza in the alley behind the bar, saving Kenji from a beating from his rivals. For this, Kenji is eternally grateful, and chooses to lookout for Chuji as much as he can.

But Kenji is also a man out for himself, and wishes to dethrone is family head, using an affair with his wife to give him the opportunity to seize power. Chuji also sees a bright future ahead: his dabbling with a harmonica, encouraged by the house band, gets heard by a talent scout who wants to offer him a record contract, his bosses' approval pending; as well as his girlfriend announcing she is pregnant.

Things come to a head on one fateful Thursday. Yakuza (and their women's) double-crossings rife, Kenji's plans are soon thwarted and the jealousy of his younger "brother" sees him use Chuji's drug dealing past to blackmail him into being the lacky in Kenji's plans, potentially damaging his future music career, and future full stop.

While a violent film, this is not typical Miike: here the violence is more straight, compared to the more extreme and comic cases seen in his other films. At face-value, this is a fairly standard yakuza tale of backstabbing, teaching us to never trust a yakuza. But the character of Chuji, played by Kiroyuki Ikeuchi, adds a little something extra to the film.

Mixed-race, Chuji represents something of a changing face of Japan. Kenji comments that Chuji is an old-fashioned name, but his lifestyle is anything but. A more Westernised, low-level street dealer, he is a far cry from the organised, "business" face of the yakuza. An early incarnation of the slacker staple now frequent in Japanese cinema, as critiqued my Mark Schilling, he lives in an area populated by graffiti, immigrants, back streets and the homeless, and dreams of a career in blues music. Adopting a homeless, black US soldier as a surrogate father figure, he is a lost soul in an industrialised cityscape emerging from the Nineties decline.

Kenji also offers a twist on yakuza meat and drink, with his affection for Chuji more than simply friendship. Catching an early glimpse of his young rear end, Kenji's hidden homosexuality manifests in his looking out for Chuji and aggressive teeth-brushing following each sexual encounter with his boss' wife, showing a touch more subtlety from Miike.

Music is also important to "Blues Harp" with live performances essentially shown in full alongside storylines, with a mix of rock, blues and hip hop on stage at the bar where Chuji works.

But, as an earlier work in Miike's post-V-cinema career, this is a film not without its flaws. The less established cast, incorporating musicians, naturally, doesn't always mean particularly classic acting. Chuji can come across more funny than funky in his live performances, Ikeuchi perhaps overdoing his blues harp miming a little.

But typical of this era, it also sees Miike experimenting throughout, with ideas and themes that would be reprised later in his career in bigger-scale projects. As such, while not a particularly standout work, this is in some ways Miike at his best, and more low-key works such as "Blues Harp" would have been welcomed in a career that has often gone to extremes.

Blade of the Immortal

"Over-the-top" and "excessive" are two phrases that can be pointed in the general direction of director Miike Takashi: the high-octane montage that greets us to the “Dead or Alive” trilogy; the comical blood-splatting of “Ichi the Killer”; the extensive battle scene of “13 Assassins”. All are examples of pushing cinema to its limits of taste, morality and viewer boredom threshold.

The third is an interesting one. His late Nineties and early new millennium films were often notable for their excessive violence, however, this violence was often creatively twisted into place alongside other, often stronger elements. The nature of relationships and power balances between characters in “Ichi the Killer”; the slow-building tension of “Audition”; the nostalgia of…”Nostalgia”. With the budgets more limited, Miike would seemingly earn his stripes and get creative, but now with the budgets and hype much greater, has excess simply become self-indulgence?

Based on the manga, “Blade of the Immortal”, the supposed ninety-ninth film of Miike’s now one hundred not out career, starts with Manji (Takyu Kimura) with a price on his head, fighting off a hoard of bounty hunters, while trying to protect his younger sister. A troubled, masterless samurai, Manji duly fights them all off, but at the cost of numerous wounds. Pouring blood worms into his wounds, a mysterious old woman heals Manji, giving him the curse of immortality, though the same cannot be said for his sister.

Switching forward fifty years, Manji has been living a desolate life alone and un-aged, but is sought by the young daughter of a dojo master killed by the Itto-ryu: a school determined to resurrect the skill of sword-fighting as a necessary evil, unlike the simple physical education it has become. Wary at first, Manji vows to help Rin (Hana Sugisaki) get her revenge, largely, it seems, because she resembles his young sister. Bloodshed ensues as the Itto-ryu (and others) challenge Manji to battle one-by-one, soon discovering his immortal powers.

The Itto-ryu also seek to become the Shogun’s fencing school of choice, but find themselves deceived by the Shogun’s army resulting in a three-way stand-off between Manji and Rin, Anotsu (Sota Fukushi, the head of the Itto-ryu) and the Shogun’s vast forces…and some other side story characters thrown-in again at the end to further the silliness. What results is a perhaps overly-long sword fight between hundreds of men and a couple of women in the vein of "13 Assassins".

On balance, there is probably more bad than good with "Blade of the Immortal". Over-indulgence perhaps the main problem. While we expect this to be a slash-fest with arms chopped-off galore, when this is the main crux of the film, it becomes a little tedious. An obvious comparison, "Ichi the Killer" centred around two main characters and their sadomasochistic relationships with those who hold power over them. The gore is an amusing and fun distraction, rather than the main draw.

Here, Miike chooses to go for long, drawn-out fight scenes that offer little after the first thirty seconds other than just adding to the body count. Little is particularly developed in terms of characterisation, other than Manji coming to terms with immortality being a fate worse than death and his explanation to Rin that revenge only leads to bloodshed - something Miike adequately shows. Villain Anotsu delivers a surface-level monologue midway through the film, but beyond this, the audience is given few clues as to whether to love or loath him.

Extended fight scenes is nothing new to Miike, with "13 Assassins" having the mother of all battles, but this was an epic battle to which the film had been building, rather than a extended slash-fest, having already had some earlier slash-fests.

The film looks pretty in parts, with some good cinematography and the special effects fit the bill. But as a bigger, more anticipated release than perhaps his films in the Nineties received, the bigger scale has come at the cost of creativity. His peer Shinya Tsukamoto still works to limited budgets, but still creates some inventive and interesting works.

Manji is referred to as the "Hundred Man Killer" and Miike is now a one hundred production director. But with his recent trajectory, his career seems not so much immortal, rather a slow death.

Yakuza Apocalypse (BFI 59th London Film Festival)

Takashi Miike isn't quite as prolific as he used to be at his height around fifteen years ago. Now, he works to a casual two or three films a year, rather than his exhausting six or seven on the early Naughties. But, has the drop in quantity resulted in a upturn in quality?

Miike films have always been up and down in terms of quality, switching from bigger budget films, like 'Audition' and 'Ichi the Killer' to low-rent, low quality dross, such as 'Silver' or 'Family'. But this was always Miike's charm. The switching of budget, writers, cast, styles and genres resulted in a lot of experimenting, with ideas from the bad benefiting the good.

Now established and of international renown, his films come with anticipation and expectation - maybe to his films' detriment. He could make a bad film before, and no one would realise. Now if he does we'll all hear about it. Recent films, such as '13 Assassins', 'For Love's Sake, 'Hara-kiri' and 'Lessons of Evil' show a more established director, trusted with bigger budgets and international film festival screenings. And while these have their moments, they are not quite as fun and inventive as his earlier works.

'Yakuza Apocalypse' is his latest film to come with a hint of anticipation as to what might be. With his need to cover each and every genre, we now see him take on the vampire film, set among the yakuza. Kamiura is a local yakuza boss, with the respect of those around him. But he has a secret: he's a yakuza vampire, if there is such a thing. This, however, attracts some unwanted attention, and he is destroyed by his rivals. Though before his demise, he bites his loyal lieutenant, Kageyama, transferring his powers unto him. Seen as a Matrix-style 'The One' , he sets about getting revenge, though by this point, ordinary civilians have turned into yakuza vampires themselves, creating a world of chaos where the old, everyday yakuza have no place.

Being a vampire film, this is of course very silly, with moments that make me largely avoid ever watching films of this ilk, actors tested in their ability to give the most stupid of performances with a straight face. This does add a sense of fun to the film and comparisons to his Nineties films 'Fudoh' and 'Full metal Yakuza' can be made, taking a more zany and comic-book approach to the yakuza genre. Indeed, 'Yakuza Apocalypse' very much feels like it could have been a manga, and I'm surprised one hasn't yet been made - to the best of my knowledge, anyway.

However, the aforementioned films had a bit more edge to them than 'Yakuza Apocalypse'. There's something about the handheld camerawork and straight-to-video feel of these films that suits the more outlandish style, rather than the big sets and production values of his more recent films. The kappa and costumed characters are fun, but feel a bit weird for the sake of being weird, perhaps over-used to the point where it can become a bit farcical. The final fight scene between Kageyama and 'The Raid 2's' Yayan Ruhian is unnecessarily overdrawn, with little real action and suits as a disappointing end, a far cry from the unexpected and instant conclusion of 'Dead or Alive'.

But if you take away any serious attempts at analysis, this is a fun film, with a little bit of everything thrown in. The cast is full of known people, with Hayato Ichihara looking suitably half alive as Kageyama throughout and appearing-everywhere-now Kiyohiko Shibukawa expressing his full range of bemused faces.  

At his best, Miike's films are easily watchable over and over. His more recent films, while enjoyable on first viewing, are less repeatable, and so it will remain to be seen whether 'Yakuza Apocalypse' sits nicely alongside his extensive catalogue of experiments that, while varying in quality, always create curiosity. 

  

Tokyo Tribe (58th BFI London Film Festival Part II)

I've been to Tokyo, and it is just like this...if 'this' is 'Grand Theft Auto: Tokyo'. The first Japanese film I've seen at the LFF since 2012 (withdrawal), Shion Sono's latest film is certainly an experience.

I first came across 'Tokyo Tribe', that is to say the strangely titled 'Tokyo Tribe 2', while in, erm, Tokyo. Bored, and looking for a new anime series to entertain, I searched my local 'Book Off' and came across something that looks like it might combine both anime and hip hop in a way that only 'Samurai Champloo' could do before it. On the cheap (for Japan), I purchased volumes 1, 2, 4 and 5 of the DVD collection, being that 3 and 6 were unavailable on that day. Being that I was in Japan, there was no need for English translations on these bad boys, so I could merely watch the interesting images and listen to the fat beats which were contained within.

Loosely, the plot centres around the Mushashino Saru gang, a group of fun-loving kids that hang out at a diner. But, being just one of twenty-three gangs in Tokyo, all representing their 'hood in their own unique way, they soon find their peaceful lives caught up in gang wars. It's 'The Warriors' in Japanese.

The anime of Santa Inoue's manga comes with GTA-style breakdowns of the characters, the gangs, the locations, the eateries involved in this semi-fictional Tokyo world. I like the anime (not that I understand it, wakarimashita?!), with the music and style; seriousness and comedy, but mainly the ending credits, which always need to deliver in an anime series. So, now comes the live-action version from bum-crampingly-long film director Sono: a man that might have one said that both Miike Takashi and Kitano Takeshi are both 'dead', but also might have not.

When turning a cartoon into a live-action, it's always interesting to the approach that will be taken. Sono certainly takes some interesting ones here. The first notable one is that this being a hip hop anime, 90% of what is said is 'rapped', with a combination of actors trying their best and some Japanese wordsmiths making up the cast. What starts off as interesting, soon starts to feel like a potentially irritating gimmick, before you settle into it and it becomes natural. After two hours of this, you will only want to speak in rap-form...in Japanese.

The second noticeable element is that of bling. Hip hop is always something that I feel is very anti-Japanese. Despite my love of both Japanese culture and hip hop, the loud, brash, bragging rights world of hip hop simply doesn't fit with that image of polite and respectful Japanese. But, being a man that regularly listens to Japanese ragga on vinyl, this cross-culture exists, and my Japanese hip hop collections is ever on the increase. But the US gangsta ethic feels a little strange in Japanese, with many of the gangs coming straight out of a comic book. But this is straight out of a comic book, and so some poetic license needs to be allowed here.

When watching characters in animated form, it is acceptable for them to be larger than life and somewhat unbelievable, but you're always unsure how to take them when they're actual humans. The sick and twisted characters certainly are that in Sono's 'Tokyo Tribe', and the gang colours come across as much hilarious as threatening.

Reality is not the name of the game here, with 'Tokyo Tribe' feeling very much like a game of 'GTA': not feeling in anyway based on real-life, but a dream world men wish they lived in, but would run from as soon as it was in their face. This is, therefore, pure silliness in a can...of film, the film's farcical conclusion in-line with the rest of the two hours.

There are good and bad elements in this film: The good include the rapping, which is interesting and gives the film a rhythm, though maybe not a linear plot. while the rappers in the cast can obviously hold their own, novices, like actor Shota Sometani take on a lot of rapping and while not blessed with talent can pull it off for the duration. There is certainly a lot of invention here as well, with creative set designs in-line with the manga and anime.

But with all that rapping and less-than-coherent plot, this is at times a little long and at times disjointed. But, much like Miike Takashi - a man he will inevitably be compared to - before him, Sono is a creative director that will keep churning them out, not dwelling too much on how films are received, working on what new and crazy things to do next...

Tokyo Tribe, never ever die...

East Side Stories

Ah, the folly of youth. So goes the theme of this year's Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme. Yes, serving as an introduction to Japanese film this year is a selection of films about those often overlooked in film humans: young adults. With eleven films on offer, I ventured to a modest three of them (that's 27%), somehow choosing the ones that featured young men that are unable to get laid.

Otakus in Love (Koi no Mon)

You always get those films that essentially feel like a bit of a laugh for a group of film-makers to get together and make, and probably get a bit drunk. 'Otakus in Love' is one such film. Written and directed by Suzuki Matsuo(you know him; the one who played the twins in 'Ichi the Killer') and based on a manga, it also features 'Ichi the Killer star and director Tsukamoto Shinya in a supporting role and 'chi the Killer director Miike Takashi in a fairly non-existent role.

To say this film is silly would be accurate: Aoki is a young otaku seeking employment, often failing, trying to fund his bizarrely confused dreams of being a manga artist. At another failed job attempt he meets Koino, a fellow otaku and failed manga artist who finds his strange ways hotter than hot. But, being nerds, their falling in love is fraught with confusion as to what they should be doing, in an on-off relationship, which obviously wins in the end -it is a rom-com after all.

There is nothing particularly impressive on display here, nothing to set the world on fire or win any awards. It is stupid fun made by a group of people that have collaborated in the past, featuring cameos and in-jokes that are more for the makers rather than the consumers. But the story does enough in terms of laughs and entertainment to succeed. 'Otakus in Love' shows a part of Japanese youth: that of writers of fan-manga and cosplay, though probably tells us more about the lives of the film-makers rather than Japanese youth itself.

Love Strikes (Moteki)

'Love Strikes' was introduced at the programme by director Hitoshi Ohne and lead actor Mirai Moriyama. On the first day of the London Tube strike, this lead to hilarious anecdotes of having to run from a bus from Brixton to make the film start (which was subsequently delayed). For some reason, the version screened had had someone fiddling with the contrast settings on it, with moments of the film looking like the result of some appalling make-up work. Ohne acknowledged this and urged the audience to use its imagination in enjoying the film.

'Love Strikes' is a film that certainly has a lot of imagination. Like 96.4% of contemporary Japanese films, it's based on a manga, though the film version takes it to another level. Fujimoto is a 'second virgin' working at an online pop culture magazine, a source of much politically incorrect humour for his work colleagues. On meeting a fellow music nerd, a female one, on Twitter - regularly referenced throughout the film - he then hits a period of moteki: a purple patch with women. But, in his desperation to be with his first love, Miyuki, he finds that success with women brings him problems he has no idea how to handle, leading to more pain, frustration and angst than being hapless with women ever did. But, being another rom-com (aren't all films about youth?!), all works out fine in the end.

With music an important element in the film, director Ohne throws in various emotional musical numbers, directed as karaoke routines, complete with introductions and sing-a-long lyrics. All this provides much hilarity. Interestingly, one of the highlights of the film is the closing credits, based on the social networking sites often referenced throughout. At times, the realism in 'Love Strikes' is strong, showing the stresses and strains that social media and mobile communications put on young people in love, with Fujimoto often becoming obsessive over the most trivial of things. (Though with Fujimoto's character being thirty-one years old, it's difficult to know how youthful this really is.) However, all this angst seems to be written off with the happy ending, which detracts a little from some of the film's more serious points. Though with its various pop culture references and cameos by leading J-Pop stars, such as everyone's favourites Perfume,  'Love Strikes' proved to be 'big in Japan'.

The Story of Yonosuke (Yokomichi Yonosuke)

You know that weird bloke you went to uni with? You know the one? It was me. Well, this is what Yoshida Shuichi clearly had in mind when he wrote the novel 'Yokomichi Yonosuke'. Seemingly semi-autobiographical, it tells the story of Yonosuke, a hilariously-named student from Nagasaki, arriving in Tokyo in the late Eighties to start university. A seeming odd-ball, played by a different-haired Kengo Kora, in his own unique way, Yonosuke touches (not in a bad way) everyone that he meets, with the various young students he comes across (not in a bad way) shown to be later reminiscing about their friend from university a decade and a half later.

Telling the story on one's life can take a long time, and 'The Story of Yonosuke' is a long film and seems to start slowly. But unfolding like chapters in a book, switching between the past and the present, the film is broken up enough into digestible chunks that mean it doesn't drag or bore, something that would have harmed and otherwise good film. But luckily, it doesn't, and 'The Story of Yonosuke' is a strong piece about nostalgia.

Watched a decade after graduating from university, one can definitely relate to the characters looking back at their old friend - one probably not seen for many years - with Yonosuke a recognisable individual which one would meet at a seat of learning, but would be left on with memories of years later. What did happen to that weird bloke? He's writing this.     

The purpose of the Japan Touring Film Programme is to serve as an introduction to Japanese cinema, though probably often finds itself preaching to the converted. But, while quite a specific selection viewed, one thing that came across is that despite being on the other side of the planet and doing things in their own, unique way, die jungen of Japan face the same obstacles as us over here in the U-of-K: turning masturbation into sex, of course.

Hey you: do you live in Belfast, Bristol, Dundee, Edinburgh, Newcastle (I have), Nottingham or Sheffield? Yes? You poor piss-stick. But the Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme is heading your poor, depressing way. 

Once Upon a Time in Japan

February comes but once a year, and so does the Japan Foundation’s annual touring film programme. ‘But what be the theme this year?’ none of you shout in any kind of urgency. Well, to give it its full title, this year’s programme is: Once Upon a Time in Japan: Reinventing the Past through the Eyes of Japanese Contemporary Filmmakers. It’s just like loads of period pieces.

A whooping ten films are on offer this year, including the first animated offering the Japan Foundation has put forward. But are films looking at old-fashioned times in Nihon any good? I went to take a look at four examples…

Hula Girls (Hura Garu)

Being that this is a film with ‘girls’ in the title, but not also featuring the words ‘nudey’ or ‘wrestling’, this is clearly one that will require tissues for other reasons. Set in a Sheffield-equivalent, but nowhere near as depressing, ‘Hula Girls’ looks at the change in post-war Japan in the 1960s, focusing on a small mining village that is soon to see its mine closed with the company looking to move into the spa and entertainment market in-line with changing times.

She was only the coal miner’s daughter, but she knew a lot about shaking her ass. Looking to keep the community alive, a Hawaiian-themed spa is set to open, and for that we need girls dancing, with some locals signing up, much to the village elders’ dismay. Fighting their parents and lack of talent, the girls work hard to find a new place for themselves in a changing Japan.

Sang-il Lee’s ‘Full Monty’ has a lot of tears and maybe a little too much sentimentality in parts, demonstrating why you shouldn’t always go to see films with ‘girls’ in the title. But with enough good focus on changing ways and big town vs. small town differences, the film glides along nicely enough in two hours.

Ninja Kids (Nintama Rantaro)

Anything involving youth and the ninja must be good. ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja/Hero Turtles’ for example. Add the direction of one Miike Takashi and you’re on for a hit. Silly title (in the Western world, anyway), mental director: you’re in for 100 minutes of stupidity.

Based on the manga ‘Nintama Rantaro’, this is Miike for kids, once again switching styles and techniques from one film to the next. In a plot that doesn’t really hold much purpose, hero Rantaro must race against some bad-ass, but naturally incompetent, ninjas with the help of the rest of his ninja academy bitches.

Based on a manga, Miike chooses to go for a cartoon style, with fake bruises and repetitive background scenery. Fun is the aim of the game, and the film features an impressive adult cast for some downright silliness. Showing that he can appeal to kids as well as sweaty teenagers wanting blood and guts and some occasional tits, this is another box for Miike to tick on his ‘yeah, I can do that’ CV.

Mai Mai Miracle (Maimai Shinko to Sennen no Maho)

I’m not sure if I was fully in the mood for ‘Mai Mai Miracle’ when it came round. Feeling a bit worse for wear, I wasn’t quite ready for the inevitable screeching that comes with a nostalgic anime.

Running around a field all day, mental nine year-old Shinko imagines a past with a lonely girl that lived in the village a thousand years previous. Roping another girl to join in with this fantasy world, the pair run around all day in the small village.

Directed by Miyazaki protégé Katabuchi Sunao, it is easy to compare this film to ‘My Neighbour Totoro’, so easy that it almost seems a bit unnecessary having made this film. A lot of similar ideas and style are taken from it with little much added over 20 years. Not enough seems to be made of the ‘trips’ to the past, making it feel like a little side rather than a main focus of the film. But, like I said, I wasn’t probably quite in the right frame of mind when watching and could have easily said the same about Totoro if shown that at the time.

Bubble Fiction:  Boom or Bust (Baburu e go! Taimu mashin wa doramu-shiki)

To end, something silly. The year is 2007 and the Japanese economy is about to collapse, again. In order to try and prevent the original bubble burst at the start of the 90s, inventor Mariko goes back to the year 1990 in her time-travel washing machine that she accidentally invented (no questions asked) to try and get the Finance Ministry to change its policy and thus prevent economic disaster for years to come. With her mother trapped in the past, Mariko’s daughter steps into the washing machine to bring her mother back and save the day and all that stuff.

‘Back to the Future’ style stuff all round, with wacky kids dancing to the latest hits, like MC Hammer’s ‘Can’t Touch This’ and having crazy haircuts. It’s a light-hearted, mainstream comedy that never takes itself too seriously despite tackling a serious subject.

The fourth (I think) Japanese Foundation Touring Film Programme I have attended,  there were no great films on show this time around, but a good standard overall, with the ones seen of the more comic variety.

The tour now moves on to Sheffield, Birmingham, Belfast, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Bristol and Nottingham, where you’ll all like films set in the past, you backward sherbet-sniffers. 

56th BFI London Film Festival

Another year, another London Film Festival I miss due to having to work and being too slow to get round to booking tickets and finding anything I want to see already sold out. But not this year. With greater daytime freedom and more forward planning, I managed to make it to five of the 200+ films on display this year, confounding expectations by going to films from three, count them, continents.

But, as ever, let’s start in Japan. At the grand, old NFT I went to see ‘The Samurai That Night’, a tale of a widower seeking revenge for the hit-and-run killing of his wife five years previous. Nakamura has become a depressive, living in a dream world since his wife’s death, lacking any emotions or drives beyond one thing: vengeance. The killer of his wife, now free, starts to receive daily death threats in lead up to the five year anniversary of the event. Obvious where the threats came from, friends and family try and stop the final showdown before it’s too late.

The Samurai That Night

The film builds nicely, creating a sense of suspense, with a good performance from the lead, Masato Sakai. But, with any film that builds so much towards a finale, it is always tricky to execute an ending suitable for what has come before it. Here, the ending feels a little confused in parts and leaves you guessing as to what the final outcome will be, but in the end, probably does just enough to satisfy, concluding that death is that old metaphor for change.

1960s, high school musical set in Kabukicho, Tokyo…it has to be…it must be…it is Miike Takashi, once again making you wonder what the Hell he is going to do next. With the recent ’13 Assassins’, he proved his ability to work with a larger budget and now returns with the pop music video ‘For Love’s Sake’ (currently winner of the largest number of film titles award). Absolutely perfect Ai loves the downright arsehole Makoto, who saved her when she was younger. Returning the favour, she persuades her endlessly bourgeois parents to pay for his education and thus save him from being sent to a young offenders institute. But, of course, the plan fails; Makoto wanting to prove he is the world’s biggest arsehole at every opportunity.

Cue massive dance routines, horrendously catchy J-Pop songs and a teenage boy beating the shit out of a girl while she sings of her love for him. A script in Miike’s hands can truly become anything, and here again he proves his uniqueness even among Japanese directors. As with many of his films, it’s probably a little too long, a bit bumpy in parts and is at times purely stupid for the sheer joy of it, but proves that despite the high number of films he produces each year they are still of a reasonably high quality.

I’ve never been to Cine Lumiere before – part of the part of the Institut Francais, where clearly everyone is very tall and likes leaving the pubic hair in the urinal – but here the chance was given to actually speak to a real-life Japanese director and receive a long, comprehensive response via an interpreter. 

Miwa Nishikawa introduced her fourth film ‘Dreams for Sale’, where a couple, down on their luck after their restaurant burnt down, try to rebuild their lives as the husband seduces vulnerable women into parting with their money in return for some face-stroking, massage and good old coitous. The more the money flows, the more ambitious they become, seeking more and more money. As you can predict, their greed stretches a step too far, with dire consequences.

Dreams for Sale

The film raises interesting ideas about the concept of truth and deception, with the director wanting to – in her interpreter’s words – ‘explore how people reveal their true selves in times of crisis.’ An all-star cast play out the story, and having been the student of Kore-eda Hirokazu, Nishikawa is clearly a director for the future: a female director that ‘doesn’t necessarily want to make films about women.’

Next we head west to Africa, Senegal to be exact and a film featuring American rapper/poet Saul Williams. Meaning today, ‘Tey’ is Senegalese director Alain Gomis piece about a man that has one day left on this Earth. Having returned from America, Satche wakes surrounded by friends and family before wondering almost aimlessly round the city before returning to his wife and children to end the day.

Being That Williams is an American, and so having no knowledge of any foreign languages, the dialogue is kept to quite a minimum in this one. There is no particular narrative other than that of a man wondering on his last day on Earth, unsure as to what to do and where to go. He bounces from family to groups of friends to women to senior dignitaries to his family home.

Tey

There are some interesting crowd scenes within the cityscape as he moves around, though there is little that is really said nor concluded for me throughout to have any real impact. It is an interesting enough film, but is a little unsatisfying come the end. You can state that this is a film of an introspective look back at a life and places of the past, and it is to an extent, but with little explanation as to context this could be any day in a life on Earth.

North we now go and to that place called London. Tom Shkolnik’s debut ‘The Comedian’ is a film about London and relevant to anyone that has met someone living in the Hackney area. Ed is a call centre worker, not a comedian, that is his evening passion, but something that is not dwelt on too much. With his comedy career still not taking off and his depression at call centre work, he becomes involved in a bisexual love dodecahedron involving a young bartender/artist, his ‘musician’ flatmate and a colleague from the call centre. But all soon crumbles and he is left to look at what is next for himself.

Using close up camerawork and fast editing, ‘The Comedian’ throws you right into the middle of situations, creating a realistic atmosphere lacking in music but high on emotional outbursts and confrontation. Shkolnik’s London is one of unrealised dreams, heavy drinking, mundane work life and confrontation, which works to good effect, featuring various characters and scenarios common in the modern day capital.

The Comedian

‘The Comedian’ is an ironic title, featuring little in the way of actual stand-up routines, focusing more on the day-to-day realities of the many ‘artists’ throughout London, where people are more likely to say what they want to be than what they actually are.

Finally having got round to seeing some of the offerings from the festival – that I can remember anyway – it’s good to see films fresh, rather than having to wait years for them to reach British shores. The five films I went to see were all different but interesting and leave me making sure I will bother to get round to booking tickets next year. 

At Home with the Agitator

Having finally got round to viewing the Kitano Takeshi films that I’d purchased while in Japan, I was then inspired to re-watch some of my old DVDs from another favourite Japanese director: Miike Takashi.
Having purchased Tom Mes’ critique of the overworked director’s offerings many moons ago – but never getting round to actually reading it – coupled with the recent release of ’13 Assassins’ (the film, not some rouge murderers), this seemed like as good a time as any to hold a bit of a Miike retrospective.
I set about drunkenly purchasing some further Miike films online (not all of them, of course, as they would take a whole year to watch) and made my way, one-by-one, through the films in my collection over the next couple of months, turning pages through Mes’ book along the way.

Starting, in no particular order, with ‘Visitor Q’ – a brilliantly insane place to start any look at Miike’s work – when an unnamed man randomly comes to stay with life’s ultimate dysfunctional family. This did mean, however, that this retrospective did start with an awkwardly filmed sex scene between a father and his prostitute daughter; which is as good a place to begin as any. Spending time with each member of the family one-by-one, they gradually put their differences aside and become a closer dysfunctional family, rather than the constantly arguing one of the film’s beginning. With very much a home-movie feel, the results feel more like a budget soap opera than a feature film, but feels appropriate for a piece on mini, domestic drama, with the subject matter exaggerating television’s attempts to show troubled families.


Returning drunk from the Wu-Tang Clan, I then watched the tale of a Brazilian-Japanese on the run from the yakuza and triads alike: The City of Lost Souls. As in many Miike films, here he looks at foreigners in Japan, this time one of my least favourite nationalities: the Brazilians. With various nationalities thrown together in Tokyo, here we see how major, cosmopolitan cities can be turned into moral-less battlegrounds, with no guiding influence dominating over another.


Miike’s first direct-to-cinema film – after years of V-cinema releases – ‘Shinjuku Triad Society’ is the first in his ‘Triad Society/Black Society Trilogy’. Looking at the life of a somewhat corrupt cop as he tries to take down Shinjuku’s triad and yakuza worlds (there’s a theme here!), many themes that would run throughout Miike’s work are apparent. Bloody violence, sick and twisted characters and foreign influence, notably Chinese, are all here, with a number of subplots throughout, making this quite a clever and accomplished ‘bigger-budget’ debut release after years of obscure and meagre works.


Speaking of obscure and meagre works, the ‘Bodyguard Kiba’ films are examples. Much like TV movies running alongside major, theatrical releases, the V-cinema market of straight-to-video releases in Japan is where Miike started his directorial career. Here, you can find genre-fodder, with action, comedy, erotic, whatever films are made without any real budget or intelligence, designed for Saturday nights in with beer and popcorn.
One of the few available with English subtitles in Bodyguard Kiba. Designed to be a kung-fu action piece, this this is very much a film that proves the only nation capable of making good kung-fu films is China. With wooden acting from the lead, he serves merely as his name suggests: a bodyguard to a more important character. Fairly predictable and easy to follow, there are, however, some early signs of future skills on display here.
‘’Bodyguard Kiba’ was followed up by two sequels, only one of which is available: Bodyguard Kiba II: Apocalypse of Carnage’. Here, neither apocalypse nor carnage are apparent, nor indeed is the slightly bigger budget on the original. What is evident is bad dubbing and bizarre scenes I’m not sure even Miike himself is aware what they were meant to symbolise. Fortunately, ‘Bodyguard Kiba III’ is unavailable on DVD. One can only imagine how bad this, and some of his other V-cinema releases, must have been.


It was at this point that I started reading Tom Mes’ book on Miike’s work: ‘Agitator: The Cinema of Takashi Miike’, while waiting for the Eurostar to Paris. The only serious review of Miike’s work, in English at least, the crazy Dutchman takes an in-depth look at each of his films (up to 2002), begging, borrowing and stealing copies of each made up to that date. Starting off with an analysis of the themes running throughout Miike’s work, Mes then makes his way through the V-cinema years up to 1995, before examing each of his works from ‘Shinjuku Triad Society’ onwards. Well-researched, comprehensive and in chronological order, this is clearly a much fuller account of Miike’s work than mine.


Now, this is where the fun starts. Not wanting to blow my load too soon, I decided to hold off ‘Dead or Alive’ for a moment when bored. What better time than when in Paris?! Probably my favourite opening six minutes of a film, you barely need to watch the rest when the opening features: noodle-splatting shotguns to the belly; a crazed man snorting metres of cocaine; a pair of breasts; and the slitting of a homosexual rapists throat.
Luckily the rest of the film, while not as fast-paced, is equally as good as the introduction. Hard-working detective pursues a Chinese-Japanese as he and his gang wreak havoc in Shinjuku and Yokohama. As each torments the other’s life, it ends with a who-can-get-to-whom-first chase, culminating in a completely farcical ending, intentionally, of course.




As a drastic change of pace, I switched to one of Miike’s other, better-known works: ‘Agitator’. Based on Murakami Ryu’s book of the same name, it follows the story of a middle-aged producer, who, with the help of his casting director buddy, decides to hold a fake audition in the hope of finding an attractive new wife.
Starting off as a slow-moving love story, with many traces of mainstream cinema, as the film progresses, it gradually takes a sinister stance, building and building into a strange dream sequence, ending with a disturbing finale. Along with ‘Ringu’, this was one of the first in the wave of J-Horror films to flood the UK around ten years ago, becoming a minor classic. Highlighting this is the fact that on revisiting my DVD copy, I realised that the liner notes were written by non-other-than Joe ‘Adam and Joe’ Cornish of recent ‘Attack the Block’ fame. The words ‘balls, balls, balls, footy, footy, footy’ seem quite apt here.


As the Miike trilogies are linked more by theme than plot or characters, ‘Rainy Dog’, the second film in his Triad Society trilogy, is barely linked to ‘Shinjuku Triad Society’, the trilogy opener. Rather than Chinese in Japan, we now see a Japanese in Taiwan, alone and cut-off from his previous life back home. Working as a hitman for Triads, his skills soon attract more attention than he would care for, with murder and betrayal leading him to become a wanted man.
With his probable son dumped on him and a prostitute companion following him along the way, it leads to inevitably tragic consequences. Interesting characters and the majority of the film in Mandarin give the film an authenticity; and the wandering, loner – typical of Miike’s protagonists – showed this is a good follow on from the trilogy’s first film, and Miike’s development as a big screen director.


What have we here? A cry-baby hitman that shoots his load at the thought of killing someone; and a yakuza with a penchant for cutting his own face up. Oh yes, must be ‘Ichi the Killer’. Along with ‘Audition’, this is probably the Miike film most known around the globe, and is probably the standard by which expectation of Miike films are set. Incredibly graphic violence, to the point of comedy, flood the screen, making it one for the gore hunters seeking to be shocked by outrageous scenes for entertainment.
Thankfully, this goes beyond simple soft snuff porn. Here we see Miike with bigger name actors with a relatively all-star cast, led by Omori Nao and Asano Tadanobu as the leads. Also, the films switches between fast action scenes and slow-paced character development, blending an interesting mix of styles, creating a sinister edge to the bright lights of Shinjuku’s Kubiku-cho district.
The undoubted bigger budget clearly brought the need to draw audiences in, which this did when released ten years ago. Though financial success here is coupled with artistic merit, as clearly one of Miike’s best works. Though the extent it would lead audiences to view his more challenging works is probably the tragedy here.


His difficult second album. Here we have a case of a film’s title being perhaps its biggest hindrance. Similar only in name and leading actors, ‘Dead or Alive 2’ is nothing like its predecessor.
While the opening scene of ‘Dead or Alive’ fits more in six minutes than most directors do in their entire career, here we see fellow director Tsukamoto Shinya telling a story using cigarette packets. One wouldn’t be surprised to see audiences disappointed that it lacks the same explosive opening.
What is seen here is a completely different change of pace. Two hitmen return to their orphanage home on the small island where they grew up., escaping the wreckage of a recent job. Showing a soft side, both care for children, putting on a play for the current residents of the orphanage before using the money from subsequent hits to fund vaccines for children in Africa, leading to an unusual montage of murders with images of starving children in Africa.
A clear homage to the nostalgia of youth and the loss of innocence in adulthood, ‘Dead or Alive 2’ is hardly a stand-out piece and seems more a filler track on the album of Miike’s career. Not that it would be a bad album…


Hearing the words ‘Takashi Miike’s Agitator’ conjures up an image of a deranged killer that derives sexual pleasure from performing disturbing acts on the nerve endings of his victims. The film’s tagline ‘thank you and fuck you, Brother’ are more telling of the film’s content.
In an uncharacteristically extended film, the relationship between older and younger brothers within a yakuza family is explored. Many acts by older brothers are often cruel, including faking their own death to force them to a surprise birthday party and abducting them from their delivery boy jobs to drug and tattoo them. Though the loyalty and admiration the younger brothers hold for their increasingly dangerous brothers is also looked at, inevitably leading to their demise.
A character piece in a violent setting rather than a violent film, ‘Agitator’ again shows Miike’s range of film-making skills, though always giving his own, unique twist. Avoiding over-the-top graphics and special effects, ‘Agitator’ shows how Miike can work with a story and deliver strong acting performances – a film in which he himself appears – as well as choreographing violent displays and shocking his audiences.


Not just content with making straight-to-video films and silver screen entertainment, Miike has also turned his hand to a number of TV series. One such series is MDP (Multi-Personality Disorder/Detective) Psycho. Now, when I watch a television show (which is becoming and increasing rarity), I like to have some understanding of what’s going on.
Watching MPD-Psycho, I had little idea as to what was actually happening. The story surrounds a police detective hunting down a personality that switches between individuals, leading them to commit increasingly strange, yet visually impressive, murders. This means that people’s personas can change mid-episode, making it as difficult to understand as possible.
The plot is not the only weakness here. Poor, slapstick comedy is thrown in for an obvious TV audience to try and keep channel-flickers in, and episodes conclude with long, complicated and detailed explanations of the episode to fill all the inevitable plot holes.
But, while the storyline is confusing and far from engaging, it is a visually impressive and very creative series, using techniques and styles that would be more typical in an anime series than a live action one. Though while interesting to look at, it’s not fully worth sitting through all six hours to enjoy.


‘Blue Harp’ was a film I knew little about before reading Tom Mes’ book. Indeed, I don’t think I’d even heard of it before opening it. But the more and more I read about it, the more and more I became intrigued by it. I was, therefore, glad that I was able to find a copy from Germany that had English subtitles.
Again looking at foreigners in Japan, here we have Chiiju, a half-Japanese, half-Afro-American barman-turned-harmonica player in a small, industrial town near Yokohama. After helping out of a scuffle, he befriends yakuza, Kenji, a closet homo-gay who is plotting to kill the head of his family. The pair have plans to make it big in their respective worlds and dream of a better life, in what could almost be described as a commercial set up for the film. Indeed, there is little in the way of strange imagery and gore here, appearing as a very conventional piece.
But being Miike, there has to be something different. Mainly set around the club where Chiiju works, in-between shots of Kenji getting beaten up, we are treated to shots of bands performing live, giving a music video feel to a lot of scenes. Released in 1997, it is like watching early-90s MTV when they still put out some decent stuff. Though like music videos, it can skip on details and character development in places.
A film that could easily get lost in the vaults, I liked this and it is another example of how Miike can at times be his best when creating something a little different from even his own work.


‘Ley Lines’, the third and final part of the Triad Society trilogy, is perhaps the most artistic film Miike has directed. With grainy images and deep colours covering the shots, ‘Ley Lines’ feels very much influenced by Wong Kar-Wai’s ‘Happy Together’, filmed two years previously. In fact, the choice of music and slow, areal shots also create a feeling of Wong’s work.
Like ‘Happy Together’, ‘Ley Lines’ again follows the theme of Chinese in a foreign country; this time obviously Japan. Two orphan brothers and a friend leave their hometown for Tokyo, quickly getting themselves into trouble with prostitutes, petty crooks and the Triads.
The three have a distinct naivety when entering the big city, clearly displayed when attacking the triads for money to fund their escape to Brazil. While the characters are naïve, Miike’s directing isn’t, visually brilliant to look at in places, ending the trilogy on a high.


With making as many films as Miike does, there will inevitably be some moments that are easy to miss. Films that neither stand out, nor are particularly bad; neither unique, nor copycat; neither adding nor subtracting from the overall body of work.
‘Deadly Outlaw: Rekka’ is one such film: A film that will neither win much critical acclaim, nor box office success. Essentially a shoot ‘em up with no real plot necessary, it follows Kuni as he seeks revenge for the murder of his father. Bang here, bang there, bang everywhere. Barry Scott could have starred in this.
Written by yakuza, with a soundtrack by a psychedelic rock band, there are more side features than interesting parts in the film itself, and unnecessarily long slow motion shots serve little purpose in plot or style. Still, he’s made worse.


‘Fudoh: The New Generation’ is something of a changing point in Miike’s career. While theatrical releases preceded it, after ‘Fudoh’ he would makes these much more regular. This is also a stylistic change. Feeling like more of a budget release, but also has a good structure, and features elements that would appear in later, better works.
With his yakuza father murdering his older brother, Fudoh junior sets about creating his own gang, with his group of children soon becoming the strongest power.
Fun more than anything, ‘Fudoh’ represents the new generation of Miike films.


Another Dead or Alive film, another different story and setting, yet the two main stars once more. Here Takeuchi Riki and Aikawa Sho are in the year 2346 in a typically apocalyptic future where a crazed ruler has set strict childbirth laws, creating a band of rebels fighting for what’s right.
A pretty standard premise, done many times before, though Miike does use some interesting ideas. In the Yokohama of the future (or Hong Kong, the real life set – it is the largest Chinatown in Japan, at least), Chinese culture rules, with most of the film in Cantonese. Indeed, Japanese is only spoken by the two leads, with everyone else speaking Cantonese and English, yet all understand each other, showing a possible future of communication.
But it’s in the making of the film that the problems arise. Filmed on location in a very-obviously-Hong-Kong Hong Kong, it’s difficult to take it as a Japanese landscape. The viewer, therefore, feels lost and confused as to where they are and what is going on. A key character dying halfway through the film shows how the plot never really ever fully develops.
‘Dead or Alive – Final’ is very much the final film in the trilogy. Clips and references to its two predecessors arrive at the film’s climax, which is as equally strange and perplexing as the aforementioned. But while it has a couple of interesting ideas, the film never really gets going and so the trilogy’s conclusion is a welcome one.


When Miike had established his reputation and became a regular theatrical director, he should have probably left his V-cinema past behind. But as a director that continually works, he inevitably ends up back where he came from: Directing poorly conceived pieces.
‘Family’ is a return to his past life: A small budget piece about three yakuza brothers. Despite being made at a time when he was making bigger budget films, it seems strange that he would make something that is so obviously bad. Written by regular collaborator, Hisao Maki, while Miike chooses to direct so many films he’s written, the fact that the budgets are so small and he doesn’t try anything too outrageous shows the weakness of his friend that is clearly a bad influence.
This is simply one in a line of bad collaborations of easy, uninteresting gun shooting, with someone he should leave behind.


Being a director that tackles many different styles, Miike would have to inevitably do a musical: It’s the test of any true director. ‘The Happiness of the Katakuris’ is that musical; the story of four generations of one family setting up a guest house in the country. Any guests that they do get end up dead. Though no fault of the host family, but seeing it as bad for their already failing business, they choose to bury the dead as if they were never there at all…and, obviously, sing about their feelings.
Based on the Korean film ‘The Quiet Family’, Miike puts his own unique spin on things, with songs that are simultaneously bizarre, camp, enigmatic and terrible, but always entertain. The film is packed with strange moments – particularly any that feature supposed British-Japanese Navy Captain Richard. Essentially, anything goes here, but with Miike, that’s a good thing.


Perhaps coming of the back of the success of his previous films ‘Audition’ and ‘Ichi the Killer’, Miike Takashi’s ‘Box’ was included as part of the ‘Three…Extremes’ collection, featuring three shorts from the ‘Asia Extreme’ market of China, South Korea and Japan.
The final segment after ‘Dumplings’ from China and ‘Cut’ from South Korea, ‘Box’ is perhaps the strongest of the three offerings and very much an arthouse piece. The international success clearly brought a larger budget for a short with it, with the camerawork, acting and style much more conventional than other Miike works. No fast montages, special effects or extreme violence; this is a very slow-paced and considered work, feeling quite like Takeshi Kitano’s ‘Dolls’.
This does, however, perhaps see an end to the peak in Miike’s popularity. Releases throughout the world seemed to die down after the flood of his films that came to be released when J-horror became a buzz word. In fact, ’13 Assassins’ was perhaps the first full UK release that Miike achieved, with films in between either poorly received or just not picked up by distributors.


One film that surprisingly didn’t get a UK release is ‘Sukiyaki Western Django’: An English-language (his first) Western featuring Quentin Tarantino. Marketing opportunity misse;, or just a film not worth watching?
Making a samurai-cum-western with an almost entirely Japanese cast that’s filmed in English is quite an ambitious move. English is clearly the cast’s second language, with delivery often exaggerated, giving rise to overacting. Whether intended or not, this is so comical it’s farcical. The film then becomes difficult to follow and seems to end up as a random set of gun fights thrown together with little purpose. It’s very much like watching a Tarantino film. What really is going on here?
Maybe Miike is mocking films of this nature, in how they aim for outlandish ideas and shots to make the actors look like cool icons rather than characters in a story. If this is a joke, it’s a ninety minute long one to sit through, and not worth the punchline. Post-modern film-making goes for over ambitious ideas and concepts that often detract from the basics of good film-making. The director is good, the cast is good, the film’s style at times is good, but all seem to fall down in a film that is stylistic concept rather than a story with characters.


On first seeing ‘The Bird People of China’, I struggled to believe it was a Miike film. While featuring a yakuza character, it, stylistically at least, features few Miike hallmarks. Though thankfully, this is as much a Miike work as any. Miike himself described his making of the film as proof he could make a ‘normal’ film.
Wada, a typical salaryman, is sent to China, to a rural village where jade has been discovered, in the hope of saving his company’s debts. Unknowingly, he is pursued by a typically aggressive yakuza, determined to ensure the company repay their debt to his organisation. While in the village, both go on a voyage of self-discovery, learning from the peaceful villagers and their idiosyncratic ways.
As in other films, the exploration of a negative desire for wealth is present, as is the locating of characters in a foreign setting. But what is most interesting here is how humbling the film is, with little in the way of experimental techniques displayed. While definitely a Miike film, this could have been directed by mainstream, big budget director, being a strong and accomplished piece early in his theatrical career.


Being from Osaka, earlier in his career, Miike made many films set in his home town. The sequel to a film he didn’t direct, ‘Young Thugs: Innocent Blood’ is similar to all Miike franchises in that each bears no resemblance to the next.
Four friends leave school to venture into the brave new world of violence. A common theme among Miike films, here the idea of lost innocence is, as guessed from the title, explored in depth. Relationships are broken, friends are made and lost and finally death when entering the real world.
Along with ‘The way to Fight’, the ‘Young Thugs’ films are deemed those most autobiographical of Miike’s films, being that they are about growing up in Osaka. Not ground-breaking in anyway, , ‘Young Thugs: Innocent Blood’ is a nice little film that probably has a few more personal touches than his other features.


After ‘Ringu’ there was a wave of copycat J-horror films, looking at as many aspects of modern living as possible, filling us with fear of all objects. ‘Ringu’ assaulted the television; subsequent films took on the Internet, mirrors, wigs, among other things. Miike’s dip into mainstream J-horror was to look at the world of mobile phones in ‘One Missed Call’.
People are receiving voicemail messages from their future selves at their point of death. The unfortunate parties then have a countdown until their point of demise. What becomes immediately apparent is that this film is ‘Ringu’. The countdown to the point of death, the modern media communications destroying us, the character types, the curse of a woman scorned; everything here is the same as the ground-breaking film by Nakata Hideo.
This is almost a Hollywood film – indeed, it did receive a remake – being that is very much a formulaic piece, throwing in typical popcorn moments. Being such a typical film makes this untypical of Miike. While it is a fairly accomplished, mainstream piece, it lacks the real spark and creativity you’d expect from him, though this comes with the territory of a bigger budget. Lacking the suspense and originality of ‘Ringu’, this is one that can be missed.


With a name like ‘Full Metal Yakuza’, Miike obviously felt the need to make it a bit more light-hearted in contrast, creating a film that can only be described as ‘camp as Christmas’. While the violence and token rape scenes are present in abundance, when we are given a rest from these, we are treated to some interesting costume choices and effeminate movements.
When killed along with his older brother whom he idolises, Hagane is brought back to life in Robocop form by the uber perverted Tomorowo Taniguchi. With his new penis of suitably large size, Hagane seeks revenge on those that killed him, culminating in a bizarre final scene.
An earlier work, Miike clearly decided to throw a lot of different ideas into the mix that would feature in other films, forming a blueprint for later works.


Sometimes, pieces of art are made that are designed to be strange. People will look at them and just say ‘that’s weird.’ ‘Gozu’ (translated as ‘Cow’s Head’) is one such film where weird seemed to be the key objective.
On realisation that he’s gone a bit mental, a yakuza, Minami, is tasked with killing his big brother and put an end to his strange course of behaviour. Accidentally ‘killing’ him en route to a yakuza dumping ground, it is when approaching Nagoya that things start to go strange for Minami-san, a bit like Gary Linekar’s football career.
Starting with a hilarious dog murder, ‘Gozu’ is a non-stop barrage of strange events and characters; some funny and inventive, others simply bizarre and incomprehensible. It would be easy to compare ‘Gozu’ to David Lynch’s ‘Twin Peaks’. And so I will: This is very much like David Lynch’s ‘Twin Peaks’.


The fact that it keeps becoming apparent that watching a Miike film doesn’t always feel like watching a Miike film shows that he is an extremely versatile director, and not just an out-and-out gore monger. ‘Sabu’, a period piece is quite a soft and gentle film about a man dedicated to his friend, originally made-for-TV, but lauded enough for a wider release.
It showed Miike could make more traditional, period dramas, as most Japanese directors do. But mainly it is an example of how varied Miike’s oeuvre is, taking on various genres, styles, techniques and approaches; with a very nice look and feel for a period piece.


To finish off this retrospective, I thought I’d leave the film that Miike describes as his favourite of his own films. ‘Young Thugs: Nostalgia’ is again a sequel that bears no relation to its predecessor, looking at an even younger group of youths growing up in Osaka.
The title obviously relates to Miike himself looking back nostalgically at his upbringing in Osaka. While not written by the director, it is obviously a piece that he felt was close to his own childhood and so created a film that is equally funny and tragic, with a group of young children taking on adversity with youthful enthusiasm and innocence.
While definitely not his best film, it is the one he clearly sees as most personal to him and one no doubt he looks back on with fondest memories


In Tom Mes’ book, he opens with a quote from Woody Allen, suggesting ‘I’ve always thought that the best way to make films was like a kind of blue-collar film maker, where you just work: you make a film and then another and another, and it’s not a big event, you just keep making them.’ This is without doubt the best way to describe how Miike works. Over the couple of months, I have watched 28 of the 85 directorial credits he has to his name over a 20 year career. At over four films a year, if one film doesn’t work, he can instantly forget about it with the next. Indeed, Miike himself stated that his fear of how films will be received can often see him jump straight into his next work; much like the way Tim Vine is with jokes.
This does, however, mean that he can experiment a lot within his films, as actions have no real long-term consequences. He’s proven himself a strong director, so can stray into different and new areas whenever the mood takes him. To stop himself from getting bored, he tries Westerns, horrors, musicals, samurai epics, gangster, comedies, kung-fu, mainstream attempts, TV series, science-fiction; he tries it all.
With the sheer number of films that he’s made, it is inevitable that some are going to be of poor quality, and indeed many experiments fail. The proportion of his films that can be described as good is, therefore, smaller than that of other directors, but those directors would never take the risks that Miike does. While he may not make consistently great films, he rarely makes a boring one and there is always a level of intrigue raised in watching his work.
His role as director is very much one that is self-aware; his choices and techniques directly influencing how a script will come to life and be received. Whoever wrote the script, whoever may act it out, it is very much Miike’s film, and it will take the direction he chooses.