13 Assasins -Jûsan-nin no shikaku - Takashi Miike - 2010 - trailer

Can't wait for this Miike chambara remake:

 

Chûgoku no chôjin aka The Bird People of China - T.Miike - Japan - (1998)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0142181/

Plot by Imdb:"A salaryman and yakuza are each sent by their bosses to a remote Chinese village but discover more then they expected."

Once again, Takeshi Miike reinvents himself and surprises us where we expected him the less: on the human and poetic side. We are witnessing an incredibly sensible moment of humanity as we follow two Japanese caricatures characters: a salaryman and a Yakuza, both entangled in their respective hierarchy and "world order", during  their travel to an extremely remote part of China. As soon as their chaotic journey unfold, they begin to change and to reveal themselves as much more deeper characters. At first, it's still on the comedy or drama side but it takes a much more traumatic and psychological turn when they finally reach their destination: a "out of time" village of mountain people who have some strange rituals and beliefs.
Miike here reaches yet another level and goes closer to an absolute masterpiece.
This movie only could prove that all the hype around Miike as a stakhanovist shock director that doesn't care about emotions and meaning is wrong. He's all that, clearly but he always cares about the story and, more importantly, about his characters. As usual, photography is breathtaking, framing is fantastic and the general craftsmanship of the movie is top nocth. Not to forget, two great actors and a really beautiful story of the true metaphysical nature of human beings. Anyone who has ever being to remote natural locations and stayed there some time will get it instantly.
Clearly up there with the older Japanese masters, Miike-sensei has made with this movie, I think, a classic.

Trailer:

Zebraman 2 - T.Miike - (2010) - Trailer

Seems ultra cheap and interesting at the same time. Sho Aikawa is going back to his "Zeburaman" character for our guilty pleasure. Well, anyway, I'll check anything Miike.

Koroshiya 1 aka Ichi The Killer - T.Miike - Japan - (2001)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0296042/ 

Plot from Imdb: " Yakuza boss Anjo disappears with three hundred million yen. His loyal gang members, lead by the masochist Kakihara, start a search, but their aggressive and gory methods worry the other yakuza gangs. Kakiharas most frightening counterpart is the mysterious Ichi, a psychopathic killer with a dark childhood secret, who is controlled by a retired cop"

One of my favorite movie of all time. The one that blew my mind for good and made me understand that Miike was some sort of catalyzer for all the weird cinema I love. Adapted from a manga by Hideo Yamamoto, this movie also as an animated prequel, voiced by Miike himself. It seems that the manga universe of Sadomasochism and Yakusa's underworld fitted Miike's universe perfectly, as this movie is, really, without limits. It doesn't stop to violence, gore, trauma, graphic effects, weird imagery, strange behavior, iconic characters, it goes all the way to the cartoon-style just to get back to the violent and dry style of Yakusa's Eiga. It's a trip. I think that it also represent very well all the sources of inspiration that a Japanese creator like Miike can draw from: Graphic novels, traditional movie genre, experimental video style (Tuskamoto plays one of the main character), video games, porn, music video, etc...
The casting is perfect, Paulyn Sun is beautiful and speaks badly Japanese, Tsukamonto mentioned before is perfect as a non charismatic conspirator, Susumu Terajima (who plays in almost every Kitano movies) is a great unlucky Yakusa, Nao Omori as ichi demonstrate a great talent but the most amazing actor of all is, of course, Tadanobu Asano ! Where does the talent of this guy stops ? I've seen him in almost 10 movies and he's always great. His interpretation of Kakihara is one for the records.
In depth, the story is also rather interesting: amongst the ones that inflict or are victims of violence, Ichi represents the "neutral", the "traumatized" and "repressed" kid, witch enable others to control him. Don't be fool by the westerners indignation about the violence, it's not  what the film is about. It's about social control. A recurrent theme in Japanese cinema.
I saw this movie maybe 15 times and I'm still amazed by it. An absolute MUST-SEE !

 

 

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

Trailer:

Tantei monogatari - T.Miike - Japan - (2007)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1114757/

Clearly a minor Miike here but always nice to see some japanese weirdness in action. A very odd detective is dragged in a search for a murderer that paint with blood...Adapted form a Manga, it's a low budget, quickly done kind of movie, it feels fresh but at the same time, it doesn't really choose it's genre: horror, crime, comedy...A little bit of all this...