Anyone have any thoughts, I'd love to talk about him.
I was actually about to start a thread bout Miike. I just saw Happiness Of the Katakuris the other night, and it's hilarious! I can't believe the range this guy has, going from something like Ichi The Killer to a musical horror family comedy.
I think my favorite film of his is 'Visitor Q,' which is basically a REALLY fucked up version of 'American Beauty.' Some of the stuff in it is really hard to watch (like all of his films), but its sense of satire is pretty close to being profound. That last image is unforgettable (as is the necrophilia-centric climax).
Yeah I just got Visitor Q the other day. It's good. It's crazy too. I think my favorite that I've seen is Audition. It's the most accomplished and clean looking of all the ones I've seen. It has a classy feel to it, but mixed with the carnage it's great. Like good cronenberg turned up. Have you seen the Dead or Alive movies? I still haven't seen those, but I'd really like to.
Quote from: SubstanceDI'd love to talk about him.
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Have a nice conversation!
I saw Rekka: Deadly Outlaw, it's supposed to be his latest - says imdb -
Jitsuroku Andô noboru outlaw-den: Rekka (2002)
good for some laugs - like all of them - but it isn't a real improvement on Audtion or Ichi the Killer... unfortunately that is...
but this guy is a madman btw, he made like 13 flicks in the last two years! Workaholic - sick fuck - or what?!
The only film ive seen from him was Odishon, and didnt think much from it. I thought it was boring, and the torture scenes just too graphic. I did like the moments when they are on the phone and the bodybag moves, and the editing that is kind of confusing, but still it came very highly recommended and i was letdown... Can anyone recomend something else from him that i might enjoy more?
In my opinion, "Dead or Alive" is by far Miike's best film. The beginning as well as the end are really - and that is the only appropriate description - mindblowing. It was the first of his films I saw and I could hardly believe what I witnessed there.
His movies are mostly beyond any stylistic and narrative patterns, often beyond rationality and always a perfect example for extremely bad taste. Nevertheless, I recognize his genius and adore his pictures full of blood and full of art.
I dunno what I could say about Takashi's Audition but I enjoyed watching it and I' ve planed to see more of his films.. Well I could have had a good start last week cuz there was 4 of his films showing such as Ichi the Killer and Man in white but I didn't go see them at the theater... which is not good.. I wasn't very fond of watching Visitor Q but now that I read this topic, I wanna see it now! ^^
and erm.. has Ichi been released to video? I guess Visitor Q did, ne?[/b]
I happen to own it on region 2, all in all it is a nice edition, if you like the film. I have to say that, altough I appreciate Dead Or Alive, Visitor Q and Audition very much, I didn't like this one.
There are some remarkable "ingredients" (Ichi's tongue falling in the bottle, his dandy-like clothing, his "mouth" etc.), but the film has a very different style than Miike's other works. He is obviously trying to imitate Tsukamoto's style, who plays also a part in the movie.
In Ichy the Killer, I couldn't recognize Miike's morbid sense of humour, his cynicism, his unconventional yet elegant narrative schemes.
On the other hand, I enjoyed Graveyard of Honor a lot. One of his more recent works, it is a good example for the excellent screenplays his best films are based on. It has far less violence than his, previous films, whereas the characters are beautifully developed.
I saw a book of Miike Takashi tonite, I didn't have any cash on me to buy it but I'm planning to take it tomorrow! I think It' s all his work to the most recent! ^^ It's 25 $ I think it's a deal..
I'll check my local anime and japanese movie video club, they'll probably have some movies of Takashi, like Visitor Q.
Quote from: Mazokuhas Ichi been released to video?
There will be three Region 1 DVD releases of "Ichi The Killer" on November 18th:
*An Unrated Version: (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000CABGW/102-3600945-4934542)
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*A Director's Cut (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000E6FMQ/102-3600945-4934542)
*A 'R' rated version (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000CABGU/102-3600945-4934542)
Okay, I'm confused. What the hell is the difference between the 'uncut' and 'director's cut' versions?
Seriously. They've one-upped Anchor Bay, who at least wait a few months in between their release of alternate cuts.
Relies on too much shock value. I didn't finish watching Audition because I felt like precious moments of my life were wasting away. I found myself glancing off and staring at other things during Ichi the Killer. It took a decapitated, sliced, exploding body part to get me to pay attention again. :twisted:
i did like Audition, is an excellent example of complex narration and i liked the mocking tone of Miike about machismo
Audition was one of those films for me that i decided to invest myself in and was gladly reqarded. The way that mIike weaves this very benign slow story into a hellish nightmare is exceptional. I can honestly say that it is the first film I have watched through my hands since I was 8.
The first time I watched Ichi i found the pacing bad and that it was just one gimmicky shock after another. It seemed way too over-the-top on the violence scale and just sophmorically gross. But upon further viewings I got into the very comdeic underside of the film. Once I got past the gore I realized its a very very funny movie. And although it is vicious in a lot of scenes it's not as if Miike was just trying to do a gross out. he balances those scenes with laughter so it never quite becomes unwatchably vulgar.
For the most disturbing scene in any Miike movie is the dog porno readiness scene in Bead or Alive. What has Miike got against dogs anyway? There is that scene in DOA, the scene in Audition and they talk about violence to dogs in Ichi. Is it perhaps that Miike is just exploiting our acceptance of violence against humans and abhorrance of violence against domesticated pets?
Quote from: analogzombieThe first time I watched Ichi i found the pacing bad and that it was just one gimmicky shock after another. It seemed way too over-the-top on the violence scale and just sophmorically gross. But upon further viewings I got into the very comdeic underside of the film. Once I got past the gore I realized its a very very funny movie. And although it is vicious in a lot of scenes it's not as if Miike was just trying to do a gross out. he balances those scenes with laughter so it never quite becomes unwatchably vulgar.
I kinda wanted to check out Ichi, but I've heard bad reviews and have decided not to waste my time with it.
Visitor Q is a great film and is similar to your description of Ichi. It takes extremely taboo subjects and makes them funny. Sometimes I couldn't believe I was laughing. I don't know if it stands up to repeated viewings though. I tried watching it a second time and wasn't as amused.
Visitor Q is ne that's on my 'to watch' list, as are the rest of his movies. i find Miike's work fascinating while utterly boring at the same time, weird but I can't describe it any other way. ichi is worth a rental and two viewings, just to digest it all. Heck, the title sequence alone is worth a NetFlix rental.
Fudoh was my 1st Miike experience and I have been hooked ever since. I have now seen about 25 of his films now and overall he is quite the film maker.
if you can see Blues Harp, Graveyard of Honor (remake of Kinji Fukasaku's film) and Bird People in China.
Oh, and for any Takeshi Kitano fans that don't already know, Takashi Miike directed Kitano in of of his newest films, IZO, so keep an eye out.
Layin' it down MacG style...
Here's Variety's review of Miike's new flick. Sounds great!
ONE MISSED CALL
In his first pic since "Audition" that doesn't look as if it was put together during a spare weekend, Nipponese pulpmeister Takashi Miike mines the Asian psychothriller vein to fine effect in "One Missed Call." Blatantly hitching a ride on the Japanese "Ring" and South Korean "Phone," with copious refs to "Dark Water," film combines scares and chuckles with good production values, making this a quality pickup for Asian-oriented distribs with ancillary labels attached. Local biz since mid-January has been way above the Miike norm, grossing $10 million in its first month, partly thanks to popular actress-singer Kou Shibasaki.
Shibasaki, who played the sadistic bitch-on-wheels in "Battle Royale," here plays the nice-but-disturbed Yumi Nakamura, who has some kind of phobia (explained only later on) linked with peepholes. At a restaurant, her friend, Yoko, gets a call with a strange ringing tone. The cell phone display tells Yoko the call came from her own number, dated three days hence; it contains just a spooky scream. Exactly 72 hours later, Yoko gets the same call and plunges off a railway bridge.
Yumi finds out from some schoolgirls that one of their group also died the same way, and that the deadly call is said to come from "a woman who died, full of hate." When another friend, Kenji, is sucked into an elevator shaft, and one more, Natsumi (Kazue Fukiishi), gets the same advance call, Yumi starts to be concerned. It seems the dead woman's spirit transfers itself from victim to victim through their cells' phonebooks.
To this point, film has largely played as a straight-arrow psychothriller, with only the occasional hint -- one scene where Yoko's severed arm punches out a text message on her cell -- of Miike's usual extreme playfulness. But when the panicked Natsumi agrees to go on a trashy TV show that will be broadcast at the exact time of her flagged death, the movie becomes a much tastier blend of shocks, satire and suspense.
Third act is focused wholly on Yumi, who has hooked up with a funeral director, Hiroshi (Shinichi Tsutsumi), who's trying the solve the riddle of the death of his sister, found with a red candy in her mouth. The solution to the entire saga lies in Yumi's own past.
Film loses some its juice in the overlong finale, redolent of "Dark Water," in which Yumi and Hiroshi do battle with the evil spirit. But for much of the going, Miike juggles the Asian psychothriller portfolio (elevators, clock hands, vengeful ghosts, buried family traumas) with gleeful skill. The beautiful, lynx-eyed Shibasaki makes an OK heroine, without ever being called on to really act. Visual f/x are fine -- especially inventive in Natsumi's death. At Berlin screening caught, audience responded with several genuine cries of shock, rare nowadays.
Camera (color), Hideo Yamamoto; editor, Yasushi Shimamura; music, Koji Endo; art director, Hisao Inagaki; sound (Dolby Digital), Atsushi Nakamura. Reviewed at Berlin Film Festival (Forum), Feb. 14, 2004. Running time: 111 MIN.
I've only seen Audition and Ichi The Killer. Liked Audition, didn't like Ichi.
something really messed up happened to me yesterday. i saw visitor q
one of the funniest movies i have ever seen
Title: Young Thugs Innocent Blood / Nostalgia
Starring: Koji Chihara
Released: 28th October 2004
SRP: $24.99
Further Details
Artsmagic recently announced plans to release two of Takashi Miike's Young Thugs titles, they are: Young Thugs Innocent Blood and Young Thugs Nostalgia. Both releases are unrated, all region NTSC discs and feature a Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround track. Again, both have scene selection, filmographies, original trailers and an exclusive interview with Takashi Miike. With Young Thugs Innocent Blood there's a documentary entitled Osaka History and Culture, whist on the Young Thugs Nostalgia the documentary is Osaka People.
Has anyone seen Sabu? If you rent from Blockbuster, and if your blockbuster is anything like mine, don't be misled by the label "Unsuitable for children under 17" 'cause apparently, no one watches the films before they label it.
"Another by Miike? It MUST be nasty!"
Of course, even without that sticker, I'd probably have thought the same thing myself. But Sabu is a jidai-geki and adaptation of a (popular??) coming of age novel by Shugoro Yamamoto. It was a tv-movie and hardly violent. A few fists to the face, but it's kept realistic (I suppose) and, in comparison to some of his other films, rather bloodless.
There's nothing taboo here or anything remotely offensive. It's a tale of two friends who love the same woman and the trials and tribulations they get themselves into, yada yada yada.
I could be off alittle, though. Apparently when I was watching this I was a) extremely tired and lacked all ability to focus, or 2) I've fallen into that horrible American prejudice of "they all look alike." I swear Sabu and his friend switched actors halfway through and resulted in confusing the snot out of me. I wasn't the same for the rest of the movie as I was trying to figure out how I got confused.
I usually love the Japanese period dramas, but for some reason I found this kind of boring. Maybe it was because I was expecting rough and tumble samurai ginsu-ing each other into a thousand pieces.
*shrug*
Not the usual Miike fare, but decent none-the-less.
I finally got to see 'One Missed Call,' and my thoughts definitely echo the variety review I posted above. Considering the story and rehashing of soooo many elements (I mean seriously, it's Ringu, but with cell phones), there is absolutely no reason why this movie should be any good. This movie is a blatant Ringu/Phone/Grudge/Dark Water wannabe in every respect-- and it smashingly works. Consider me shocked. Each act takes it's own spin: 1st is very Final Destination, you see the young picked off one by one. Act 2 is the tv-show segment, which is a definite highlight (Miike dropped the ball in one respect, what happens on the show should have caused mass hysteria, but I digress). Act 3 is the mystery/confrontation of the ghost/cause and here he really pulls out all the stops. Every trick in the book comes out, and the movie just does not let up. Tons of scares, tons of surprises-- totally bonkos. And despite my reservations about the whole cell-phone angle (how can a Nokia be scary, exactly?), surprise surprise, Miike finds a way...
i've only just seen Audition. where do i go from here? can any miike fans recommend my the next few best movies i can see?
I'm probably the person to ask, considering I own a shitload of them, and have seen most others (sooooo many are finally getting R1 releases).
Must see:
Ichi the Killer
Happiness of the Katakuris
Dead or Alive
Vistor Q
Fudoh: The New Generation
All of the above have US releases and are unrated (albeit, some flicks are harder to find than others). 'Gozu,' is coming to dvd in a few weeks, I missed that so I'll blind buy it. I hear 'Zebraman' is great too.
All of those are great (except for Fudoh, which I haven't seen), but I'd put extra emphasis on Happiness Of The Katakuris and Visitor Q, which are my favorites. I can't wait for Gozu. I was pissed it never opened outside of the coasts.
Saw 'Graveyard of Honor' today, which I guess is a remake of Fukasaku's film that I keep meaning to see. It's an amusing movie in one respect: this film features the most spectacularly unsympathetic main character ever. It's shocking. The lead is a dishwasher who foils a hit on a yakuza boss not b/c he cares, but b/c the hitman is causing a ruckus (and oh yeah, the assassin is Miike himself, blasting people 2-gun-slo-mo-Woo-style!). The dishwasher is instantly brought into the family as an 'uncle,' much to the dismay of others, and there the real trouble starts:
- Uncle invites a woman on a date, then rapes her.
- Uncle hacks up a man who welched on a debt, then shows up at the woman's window and rapes her again.
- Uncle goes to prison and makes a friend, but then when he gets out, he systematically destroys every relationship he has, and horribly exploits his only friend.
- Uncle gets hooked on heroin and kills everyone for all the wrong reasons.
See what I mean? Ultimately, you can't say this is a great film and respect yourself in the morning. While there are several entertaining bits (if you make it to the ending, there are some spectacular death scenes), the lead is so damned deplorable, all you can do is sit back and watch the mayhem unfold. Sure, there are some points made about the downfall of the economy at the time, and the absurdity of honor and yakuza mannerisms... but still... goddamn! More absurd: when a decent disc is finally released, I know I'll end up buying it just to fill my Miike collection (as of today, I picked up #20!).
I saw "Happiness Of The Katakuris" (quite a while ago) and it was completely insane, great. So have I seen his best film and will only be dissapointed by his others? Are they all so creatively over the top and...surreal, maybe?
No, you haven't seen the best one, just one of many best ones. See above for recommendations.
And no, not every movie is a surreal, over-the-top shockfest. Sometimes he delves into different types of genres (crowd pleasing comedy, magical realism, drama), though he has made an alarming number of Yakuza pictures. I'm not going to tell you that every movie is perfect or a masterpiece, but I find an enthusiam in his work that is undeniably charming and fascinating. This guy will try anything, whether it's gutsy/ambitious filmmaking or unforgettable shocks.
like i said, it has been a while since i've seen that film and it completely blew my mind (i think i made a thread about it)...and i'm always looking for new directors to obsess over. i haven't skipped over the other posts, so i'll definitely see if i can find his other films, though it'll probably be difficult. maybe i'll blind buy one; i haven't done that in a while, and it's always exciting.
edit: found the thread i made on it and i come off as an.....idiot, maybe....it was during my heavy drinking days, but W2ndA did reply to it.
Just watched Ichi The Killer: Episode Zero, the animated flick. It clocks in at a scant 45 minutes (I swear 7 of those were the end credits) and the animation is pretty cheap looking. HOWEVER, if you are a huge fan of Miike's film (like me), you might enjoy it for the fact that the short does give Ichi's origin story-- an interesting slow burn. Also, amusingly enough, Miike himself provides an audio cameo as the voice of Kakahira in the opening. So in short: worth a rental if you're a fanatic, the purchase price is a little steep considering the length.
Working on seeing more of these... the Uncut DVD of Ichi is amazing, definitely check it out... and Audition is pretty fun if you're a bit patient hehe. I have Visitor Q but haven't had a chance to check it out quite yet, and just rented Dead or Alive.
oh man though, how can you now love Ichi?
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On Takashi Miike’s first press tour in the United States I was lucky enough to meet up with him at the Mayflower Hotel in Manhattan. Miike is very much as I pictured him. He is a small wiry man with wild multicolored hair who smokes a lot of cigarettes.
Most people know Miike as the mad Japanese filmmaker who makes confusing, frenetic and violent films such as Ichi the Killer and Audition. His latest, Gozu, is no different. The plot involves a gangster who goes insane, gets himself killed and then his body disappears. Now his brother, Minami, must find him while avoiding the man with a cow head who licks him and the hotel owner who sells her breast milk by the bottle. Gozu is being released July 16th into theaters.
Please be aware that Miike speaks little English and this interview was conducted with the help of a translator.
Daniel Robert Epstein: You do so many projects. How did you decide to do Gozu?
Takashi Miike: It started with an idea from the executive producer of Gozu named Harumi Sone. He’s an old man who used to be a very popular actor in Japan but he recently hasn’t done well as an actor. Most of his roles he gets are old men in the Yakuza who get killed.
He decided to produce a movie so that he could act in it. He ended up having his son, Hideki Sone, play the main role. That’s the power of him convincing me to make Gozu.
DRE: You're not credited with writing many of your films. How easy is it to take a script and turn it into a distinctive Miike movie?
TM: I work with people that don’t control me. The kinds of people that approach me, give me the freedom. It’s lucky that I get that situation all the time so I can be me in any film I make. But at the same time as a director I have to see what images I get just from reading the script and it all passes through my mind. That is why every movie looks like my movie.
DRE: What film of yours would you compare Gozu to?
TM: In a way, Visitor Q [released in 2001] and Gozu are very similar. Both my budgets on those films were so low but that gave me so much freedom.
DRE: In the press notes for Gozu you call yourself crazy. Have you ever been to a psychiatrist?
TM: [laughs] I go to the dentist not a shrink.
DRE: Your films don’t make a lot of money in the United States but the people that do know of them are usually obsessed with them. Have you met any of those American fans?
TM: When I made certain films for straight to video I never thought that international film festivals would take the work. When I went to film festivals in foreign countries I was so happy that my movies got to be seen internationally. I myself enjoyed watching my own work with a large audience that appreciated it more than I expected.
DRE: Your films often seem like actual nightmares and very human at the same time. Is it difficult to balance that?
TM: I don’t try to keep things balanced. That is the way I am and since this work comes from me, it ends up like that. I never intentionally try to do anything but that is the way I see the story.
DRE: Do you understand your own films?
TM: I understand what is going on in them. I believe that even when the actors are killing themselves onscreen that hope can be wrested from the film. I tried to leave images of hope in Gozu so the audience can understand.
DRE: I believe much of what comes from Japanese art is due to the end of World War 2 when the atomic bombs were dropped. Do you believe your work can be traced back to that?
TM: It’s very natural that I got influenced from that post World War 2 culture because that’s where I was born. I think you are right about that influence.
DRE: Many people on SuicideGirls are fans of Ichi the Killer. What was your inspiration for that movie?
TM: It came from a manga. But I believe that Ichi the Killer came out perfectly because of the people I worked with. It came out really well and I’m very happy with it.
DRE: What made you want to adapt a manga?
TM: When you do something like that, it can be a big box office hit. Also it was a challenge.
DRE: I discovered Shinya Tsukamoto’s work a long time ago and you collaborated on Ichi the Killer. Will you work together again?
TM: I am fond of Tsukamoto’s work. Many people say that my work and Tsukamoto’s have similarities but I don’t think that is true. It’s a different style of filmmaking. But I like to work with Tsukamoto as an actor and I’m sure we will again.
DRE: Gozu is definitely disturbing and many people vomited in the theater while watching Audition. Is that a reaction you relish?
TM: People that say that both Gozu and Audition have a crazy last sequence. But in a way they are different. In Audition nothing happens for the first 60 minutes, which was intentional because I wanted to bore audiences. It goes very slow and there is no story. I intentionally speeded up the story for the last half hour.
For Gozu the craziness is only the last 15 minutes. People wondered what was going on and why the main character was doing what he was doing. But when you see the man struggling to come out of the woman’s vagina the audience becomes of part of the birth. You feel happy when he finally comes out so the audience is on the woman’s side.
DRE: What are your favorite English speaking filmmakers?
TM: David Lynch, but who fascinates me the most is Paul Verhoeven. No modern director can make a movie like Starship Troopers.
DRE: What about David Cronenberg?
TM: I like Cronenberg.
DRE: Do you have any tattoos?
TM: Yes, how did you know?
DRE: [laughs] Where are they?
TM: It’s two scorpions, one on each of my shoulders.
DRE: What were you like as a teenager?
TM: I was just a regular kid who went to see cartoons. I also used to go outside to capture frogs and then throw them away. I played with a lot of fireworks as well.
DRE: Even though English is not your first language, have you thought about making a film in America?
TM: Maybe in the future if I get the opportunity here I would because it would really be interesting. It would be a good chance to stretch and see if I could make a film in a place where I don’t really belong.
DRE: How are you able to make so many films?
TM: The movies I am offered I have no reason to say no to. I was busier when I was an assistant director. In Japan the director’s fee isn’t very high so I always wondered how American directors make a living with the amount of films they do. For me, it’s very natural to make that many movies.
Gozu was out on DVD last weekend, I got my copy at Best Buy
its been out on dvd since atleast christmastime when i picked up a copy at best buy and stared at it for a while.
edit: yep, November 23, 2004
I saw Izoat the Philly Film Fest this weekend. If it wasn't forty minutes too long, it would have been a masterpiece - as it is, it's an awesome ninety minute movie with forty extra minutes of ultraviolence that get a bit redundant.
Has anybody seen One Missed Call yet? This review (http://theavclub.com/cinema/index.php?issue=4119&r=12) makes it sound intriguing, and since I've never seen any of his films (but am curious to), I think it'd be fun to see the first one in the theater, as opposed to on a TV set.
That is, assuming it plays here for more than two days, so I can actually get to the the theater to see it.
Any reviews of the movie (esp. from Miike fans) would be appreciated.
2LB
Quote from: Weak2ndActI finally got to see 'One Missed Call,' and my thoughts definitely echo the variety review I posted above. Considering the story and rehashing of soooo many elements (I mean seriously, it's Ringu, but with cell phones), there is absolutely no reason why this movie should be any good. This movie is a blatant Ringu/Phone/Grudge/Dark Water wannabe in every respect-- and it smashingly works. Consider me shocked. Each act takes it's own spin: 1st is very Final Destination, you see the young picked off one by one. Act 2 is the tv-show segment, which is a definite highlight (Miike dropped the ball in one respect, what happens on the show should have caused mass hysteria, but I digress). Act 3 is the mystery/confrontation of the ghost/cause and here he really pulls out all the stops. Every trick in the book comes out, and the movie just does not let up. Tons of scares, tons of surprises-- totally bonkos. And despite my reservations about the whole cell-phone angle (how can a Nokia be scary, exactly?), surprise surprise, Miike finds a way...
Quote from: Weak2ndActThis movie is a blatant Ringu/Phone/Grudge/Dark Water wannabe in every respect-- and it smashingly works.
Now see, that's what the AV Club review made me think as well (sorry I missed your earlier post). I am definitely going to make an effort to see this when it reaches Atlanta.
2LB
Not sure if this is of any relevance, really, but I found This (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0002LE9NQ/qid%3D1117217558/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/104-6057299-1963923) at Borders today and got it in the 3-for-4 sale they're having along with The Happiness of the Katakuris (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000083C5D/qid=/sr=/ref=cm_lm_asin/104-6057299-1963923?v=glance) and 2 others that aren't Miike. Anyone know if it's indeed "Special Limited Edition Collector's Set"?
All the reviews of the 3 films look great, a real change from his usually intense style to focus more on characters and emotions (not that he hasn't before, but,).
--God I hope Omaha, Lincoln, or Des Moines gets One Missed Call
i just watched Gozu. i should've stuck with your recommendations weak2ndact, cause i didn't like this at all. though in retrospect, i think i really liked audition and will buy it at some point. also: the transfer looked like SHIT. the movie is 2 years old! it looks like it is 30 years old! what the fuck?
Huh, maybe I'm the wrong guy to ask-- I like Gozu. Though the ones I did recommend are the most universally well-liked.
I'm going to watch MPD Psycho 1&2 soon, will report back on that.
Has anyone seen any of the other Dead or Alive movies besides the first one? I liked the first one, but haven't even heard anything at all about the other two.
They're certainly not sequels-- just the same combo of the lead actors in vastly different flicks. Two's fun, three's a letdown (a no-budget Blade Runner rip). Two is worth seeing alone for the mathematical grid of a midget being shot in the head from three perfect angles-- you'll understand when you see it.
I'm just finishing up watching through the Black Society Trilogy again (Shinjuku Triad Society, Rainy Dog, and Ley Lines) and really want to recommend it. It's a lot classier than Miike's other stuff (that I've seen, being Ichi, Ichi Episode Zero, Gozu, Audition, and Visitor Q) and generally better.
Japan helmer makes Eastern oater
Miike pic 'Sukiyaki' will be shot in English with Japanese cast
Source: Variety
TOKYO -- Takashi Miike, best known abroad for his extreme horror and yakuza pics, including "Audition," "Ichi the Killer" and "One Missed Call," is looking to the American West for his next, "Sukiyaki Western Django."
Scripted by longtime collaborator Masa Nakamura, pic revolves around the struggle between two gangs to takeover a 19th century Japanese frontier town.
All-star cast includes Kaori Momoi ("Memoirs of a Geisha"), Koichi Sato ("Starfish Hotel"), Masanobu Ando ("Big Bang Love: Juvenile A"), Yusuke Iseya ("Memories of Matsuko"), Hideaki Ito ("Umizaru 2 -- Test of Trust") and, in a guest spot, Quentin Tarantino.
Dialogue is in English, a rarity in the Japanese biz, though Miike shot his 2006 horror "Imprint" in English.
Filming will wrap by early December; Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan will release next summer.
Production partners on the ¥800 million ($6.8 million) pic are SPEJ, Sedic Intl., Geneon Entertainment, Dentsu, TV Asahi, Shogakkan and A Team. Overseas sales may be handled by Sony, but a final decision has yet to be made.
Inspired by the spaghetti Westerns of the 1960s, Akira Kurosawa's classic "Yojimbo" and the 12th century feud between the Heike and Genji clans that has generated dozens of stories, plays and pics in Japan, "Django" is a freeform amalgam of East and West.
The 19th-century Japanese town where the action unfolds -- an open set built in the hills of northern Yamagata Prefecture -- is a jumble of buildings in Western and Japanese styles that exist only in art director Nao Sasaki's imagination.
The interior of the saloon features a buffalo head, cattle horns and other Western memorabilia on the walls, but the huge painting of an eagle behind the stage could have come straight from a shogun's castle.
The costumes, by Michiko Kitamura, also mix East and West, with Hideaki Ito's gunman-for-hire dressed like a character from "Deadwood," complete with a wide-brimmed black hat, while Koichi Sato's Heike gang leader looks like a videogame version of a samurai warrior, down to his red hair and blood-spattered breast plate.
Why an Eastern Western?
"My father was a big fan of spaghetti Westerns -- I used to enjoy watching them with him on TV when I was a kid," Miike told at press conference held in the town saloon. "I've long wanted to make a Western of my own."
But instead of a retro genre tribute, Miike told reporters he wanted to do something "that defies common sense, that's anti-Hollywood." Thus the decision to cast Tarantino, "who is trying to change Hollywood," he explained.
Pic is Miike's latest frontal assault on the international market.
His last was "Imprint," which was skedded to air on Showtime as part of its Masters of Horror series by well-known horror helmers but was pulled when Showtime execs judged it too extreme.
Kadokawa, Miike work on 'Puzzle'
Duo team for romantic comedy
Source: Variety
Producer Haruki Kadokawa and cult fave Takashi Miike have linked to make "Kamisama no Puzzle" (God's Puzzle), a sci-fi romantic comedy based on a prize-winning, bestselling novel by Shinji Kimoto.
Hayato Ichihara ("Juon 2," "Rainbow Song") stars as twins -- one a diligent student and one who is drifting through school and life. They join forces with a pretty, brilliant, dropout (Mitsuki Tanimura) to unlock the secrets of the universe and build one of their own.
Principal photography is set to start at the Nikkatsu Studio in Tokyo on Aug. 22. Release is aimed for the summer of 2008, though a distrib has yet to be locked in.
Speaking to reporters at Nikkatsu on Friday, Kadokawa said he first read the 2002 novel while in prison on drug charges and that, though the theme seemed heavy, he saw "a strong comic element in the material" that he plans to underline with "a large helping of CG effects."
Kadokawa's last two pics, the 2005 WWII epic "Yamato" and 2007 Ghenghis Khan biopic "The Blue Wolf: To the Ends of the Earth and Sea," have been large in scale and ambition, with the former earning Y5.09 billion ($46 million) at the Japanese B.O. "Kamisama no Puzzle" is a far smaller project, but given that the helmer is Miike, an international fanboy icon for such taboo-smashing pics as "Audition" and "Ichi the Killer" and the J-Horror hit "One Missed Call," the pic is sure to draw buyer attention.
Miike, Oguri set 'Crows Zero' sequel
Japanese action film to shoot in July
Source: Variety
TOKYO -- Producer Mataichiro Yamamoto is prepping a sequel to "Crows Zero," an actioner about school gang wars that earned $24 million in Japan in 2007.
Helmer Takashi Miike and star Shun Oguri will reunite for the sequel. Filming is skedded to start in July, with release set for next year. One other main cast member from the first pic, Kyosuke Yabe, has also signed on.
Produced by a consortium led by the TBS network and distribbed by Toho, "Crows Zero" is based on a comic by Hiroshi Takahashi that has sold 32 million copies in Japan.
Oguri plays Genji Takaya, the son of a yakuza boss, who enters gang-ridden Suzuran High School to do what Dad couldn't in his day -- unite all the school's gangs under his rule.
TBS is repping "Crows Zero" at Cannes.
Producers team on 'Assassins' redo
Thomas, Nakazawa to make Miike pic
Source: Variety
Producers Jeremy Thomas and Toshiaki Nakazawa are teaming to make helmer Takashi Miike's samurai pic "Thirteen Assassins."
Project, which is set in the shogun era and follows 13 assassins who come together for a suicide mission to kill an evil lord, is based on Eiichi Kudo's 1963 film of the same name.
Thomas' U.K.-based Recorded Picture Co. will co-produce with Nakazawa, who produced the foreign language film Oscar winner "Departures."
Hanway Films, which Thomas founded in 1998, will handle international sales. Toho has acquired Japanese rights.
Principal photography starts July in Japan's Yamagature Prefecture.
Nakazawa previously worked with Miike on Quentin Tarantino starrer "Sukiyaki Western Django" and "The Bird People in China."
Thomas has a long history of working with Asian directors and on Asian subject matter.
He raised most of the money for Bernardo Bertolucci's $25 million "The Last Emperor" independently, at one point even scouring phone books for sources of finance, and also obtained permission from the Chinese authorities to lense in the Forbidden City. Pic, which was released in 1987, won nine Academy Awards, including best picture.
Shout! Factory has just announced that Takashi Miike's cult horror classic Audition is coming to both 2-disc DVD and Blu-ray on 10/6 (SRP $24.99 and $29.99). Both will include an introduction with director Takashi Miike and star Eihi Shiina, newly-recorded audio commentary with Miike and screenwriter Daisuke Tengan, new interviews with cast members Ryo Ishibashi, Eihi Shiina, Renji Ishibashi and Ren Osugi, international trailers and a booklet with an essay by Tom Mes (author of Agitator: The Cinema of Takashi Miike). Both are mastered from a new 1080p high definition transfer from the inter-negative, and feature a new 5.0 digital soundtrack mixed from the original Japanese audio elements. Miike doesn't do commentaries very often, so having this new one is awesome.
Japanese cult director in Venice with samurai film (AP)
VENICE, Italy - Japanese cult director Takashi Miike says he remade the 1963 classic "Thirteen Assassins" to help Japan's younger generation learn about the past.
The film is set about 150 years ago, toward the end of the samurai period. An esteemed samurai, Shinzaemon Shimada, played by Japanese superstar Koji Yakusho — best known to international audiences for his roles in "Babel" and "Memoirs of a Geisha" — calls on 12 other elite warriors to end the sadistic rule of Lord Naritsugu.
"I wanted the audience to realize that this story is not taking place in the remote past, but rather in a recent past when our grand-grand parents lived," the director told a news conference Thursday ahead of the film's premiere in competition for the Golden Lion. "It is our story, the story of our everyday life. In Japan, contemporary history is something children do not know very well."
The movie is a remake of Eiichi Kudo's black-and-white classic of the samurai genre.
Stylish and intricately choreographed, the story line presents the noble ideals often associated with samurai, for example, when early in the film Shimada says the greatest honor he could achieve as a samurai would be to die a "noble death."
"Fate smiles on me," he says when the opportunity to face off against Lord Naritsugu comes his way.
The film also relies on Miike's trademark use of violence. He also gives each samurai a distinctive personality, deepening interest in the characters.
The film comes to Venice competition with a strong production pedigree behind it. Jeremy Thomas, the project's executive producer who met Miike in Venice a few years ago, worked on Bernardo Bertolucci's 1987 Oscar-winning film "The Last Emperor."
The film's other executive producer, Toshiaki Nakazawa, was behind the film "Departures," which won the best foreign film Oscar.
Miike was last in Venice with the 2007 film "Sukiyaki Western Django," in which actor and director Quentin Tarantino had a cameo.
Tarantino, a big fan of Miike's films, is president of this year's jury, which will decide the winner of the Golden Lion on Sept. 11.
I just thought I'd say something so you wouldn't be the only one posting here once a year as you have been since 2006.
I know some people who attribute a vaulted level of respect for his type of editing and style respect. Like Alfred Hitchcock before, to them, his style and continuous dedication to it is an overwhelming benefit to cinema. Brian De Palma had some years of constant work within a mode of style, but he's fallen off from being able to work. Martin Scorsese now reminds me of that kind of professional workhorse for his trade, but for lots of world cinema goers, I know Takashi Miike is the best modern example. I am strangely nonplussed by him.
i've liked everything I've seen from him but that's that. he has a lot of street cred I guess because his films are so easily identifiable as weird, maybe because of the violence...he works a lot. I don't know. I'm not turned off at all but I don't rush to see something new by him.
Takashi Miike Film Lines Up Graphic-Novel Adaptation 'Lesson Of The Evil,' Wants To Have It Ready For Venice
Source: Playlist
Curiously missing from many top-ten lists of last year was Takashi Miike's "13 Assassins," his sweeping ode to the samurai epic with enough stunning imagery and action to match its thematically rich story. The prolific director is occasionally known for tossing off films with a whiff of exercise and effort (read: "Ninja Kids!!!"), but that film displayed such mastery behind the camera, including a final 45-minute battle of incredible geography and flow, that one couldn't help but be blown away. Now, Punch Drunk Critics has dug up news of his latest project, an adaptation of the best-selling graphic novel "Aku No Kyoten" ("Lesson of the Evil"), and those who are new to Miike's wonderfully diverse filmography are sure to be surprised while his other fans crack a giant grin.
The adaptation, set to shoot in April this year, marks the reunion between actor Hideaki Ito and Miike, last seen working together in the fun-but-flawed "Sukiyaki Western Django." In the new film, Ito plays Hasumi Seiji, a popular high school teacher flawed by psychopathic tendencies, who notices a rise in bullying and bad behavior among the student body. Naturally, he decides the best punishment for the offenders would be to kill them all, most likely in increasingly horrible ways not fully explored in "Ichi the Killer."
Regardless of the subject matter in Miike's films, there is always a delightful mix of black humor and visual insanity coursing through his work, and "Lesson of the Evil" sounds like a prime playground for those elements. The film is aiming for a November release in Japan after a premiere at the August Venice International Film Fest, and considering Miike will probably shoot two or three films on the side during that gap, that's an easily obtainable goal for the director.
Such quality distributors as Magnet Releasing (who distributed "13 Assassins") and Alamo Drafthouse were created specifically for this sort of fare, so those stateside can probably expect a VOD/limited theatrical run early next year, which is about par for Miike's films these days.
Tom Hardy To Star In 'The Outsider,' Takashi Miike's English-Language Debut
BY MIKE FLEMING JR | Deadline
EXCLUSIVE: Tom Hardy will star in The Outsider, a Silver Pictures' film that will mark the English-language debut of Japanese director Takashi Miike, who's in negotiations to direct the Andrew Baldwin script. The film is based on an original idea by John Linson, who will produce along with Art Linson through their Linson Entertainment banner. Joel Silver, Andrew Rona and Steve Richards will produce for Silver Pictures. The project, originally set at Warner Bros, will be independently financed to shoot in Japan early next year. It's an epic story set in post-World War II Japan, chronicling the life of a former American G.I. who becomes part of the Japanese yakuza.Hardy has become the go-to guy for everything, with startling diversity. The Warrior star is right now circling a chance to play Elton John in Rocketman, the Michael Gracey-directed project that just got Lawrence Bender aboard to produce, with UTA in the process of setting up distribution, having landed financing in Cannes. After The Dark Knight Rises, Hardy next stars in the franchise reboot Mad Max: Fury Road. He also stars in the Dennis Lehane-scripted and Michael R. Roskam-directed Animal Rescue opposite Noomi Rapace, Matthias Schoenaerts and James Gandolfini, and in the Daniel Espinosa-directed Child 44 for Scott Free and Summit.
New to Hollywood films is Miike, who has helmed more than 60 Japanese-language films including Ichi the Killer, 13 Assassins and Audition. The Linsons are executive producers the FX series Sons of Anarchy, and their features include Lords of Dogtown and Fight Club.
Silver Pictures is about to start The Gunman, with Sean Penn and Javier Bardem starring. Next up for Silver Pictures is the airline thriller Non-Stop which stars Liam Neeson and Julianne Moore and hits theaters February 28, 2014. CAA reps Hardy, along with United Agents.