A couple of years ago a friend recommended a strange little Japanese film called Audition, a film that seems ordinary until halfway through where it becomes a sort of horror film, with extreme scenes of violence. It turned out to have been directed by Japan’s leading independent filmmaker, Takashi Miike. I know this because in an interview Tarantino praised Miike and Dead Or Alive in particular, and later after researching about this director on the internet, I found out he directed Audition. So in my ongoing effort to improve my Japanese by watching movies, I rented DOA. The first 6 minutes contain more action than many films. It is a sort of montage sequence not unlike a movie trailer that introduces the main characters and setting. There are some very disturbing sequences scored to a rock-n-roll soundtrack as a naked girl plunges to death with a bag of coke in her hand it is snatched by a hood, who is later has his throat slit while sodomizing a man in the toilet-stylized blood shoot out all over the wall and rape victim. Cuts to a stripper in a club, and gangland murders are interspersed-culminating in the murder of a boss after he has eaten 4 or 5 bowls of ramen, thus once he is shot, the ramen noodles fly out the gun shot wound in more stylized violence more akin to manga than films. It’s the kind of approach Tarantino took in his Kill Bill films. After the opening sequence, it follows a more conventional narrative film structure. There are some parallels to Hanabi, in that the detective introduced wears a black suit and white shirt with sunglasses. Furthermore, one plot strand is very similar as well: a basically honest cop on the take to pay for his daughter’s medical operation. Even though the middle section is pretty conventional there are some scenes that stand out because of the their cruelty: one a petty hood gets a dog excited so that they can photograph it having sex with a bored looking nude woman, as the detective gets information from the petty hoods. In another scene, they bust a gangster after making one of his girls give him head. But the final show down at he end of the film is the mother of all showdowns, and matches the opening sequence for audacity. There’s one thing for sure, Miike makes films unlike anything else out there.
Miike also has a lighter side, but so far I have enjoyed all of his films that I've seen. If you liked the Dead or Alive Trilogy, you definitely need to check out Ichi the Killer. I am in the process of creating a featured director section for Takashi Miike at Rain City Video...so far, I'm only missing a few titles. Also check out Gozu and Visitor Q, which are pretty fucked-up films. Miike certainly merits his own section, and I think he'll get the top shelf for a few weeks. Anyone who finds themselves in the Ballard area should come check it out if Pat's comments intrigued you at all.
Posted by: Ray Lee | February 09, 2005 at 11:20 AM
At the moment I've only seen the two I've mentioned, but I'm intrigued enough to see more. I also rented Dolls by Takeshi Kitano and will write up a reivew later.
Posted by: MC | February 10, 2005 at 05:49 PM
So when you rent movies now (DVDs?), they come with English subtitles?
That's an advantage I didn't have 10 years ago.
Posted by: Arie | February 11, 2005 at 03:16 AM
I've heard that some of them do, but all of the DVDs/videotapes I refer to unless otherwise specified (ordered from Amazon.com) are Japanese only, so I do my best, then check summaries on the internet. This film was actually watched on VHS without subtitles as was Dolls.
Posted by: MC | February 11, 2005 at 06:18 AM