It was at London Film Festival in 2000 when I saw Miike’s film first time, which was Dead or Alive. I found it talented. Then I had a chance to interview Miike at Rotterdam Film Festival in 2001 when he brought Audition there. This film recorded the top Christmas DVD sale in UK. Miike is actually a shy guy. You don’t expect this man to create such over-the-top films. The Happiness of the Katakuris was bizarre too. He often treats extreme violence and sexual taboos as his subjects. Miike is recognised as an auteur now in Japan and commissioned to direct some serious Samurai film too. I am not sure the peak of his creativity has passed or he is still productive.
So, he strikes you as quiet and self effacing? In a way it doesn’t surprise me. David Lynch is the same way.
I really hope he hasn’t peaked: there was an artfulness to The Box, a change of style/camerawork that hints at greater things. I haven’t seen “The Happiness of the Katakuris” – I’ll hunt it down.
Sukiyaki Western Djaaaaaaaango! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S61ySyaJQSE
I recommend Dead or Alive. Hilarious!
Also: Happiness of the Katakuris, Izo, and Big Bang: Juvenile Love A.
I’d recommend Kurt Kren’s Action Films. Miike’s films aren’t that bad.
Kurt Kren : a revelation. Thanks.
Kurt Kren is awesome, as is Otto Muehl. they’ll definitely make you forget Miike in terms of shock value. EYE Magazine published a long essay i wrote on the Aktionists in 1997. i’m posting it on my blog soon. that was before i’d seen every film. i now have all of them.. except Rudolf Schwartzkogler’s Self-Mutilation.. which is as blunt as truth in advertising for a film is likely to get it seems. anyone have a copy?
Muehl, Kren, & co-conspirator Otmar Bauer are also in my all-time favourite film, Sweet Movie.
First, I love the thread title. I remember when I first sat down to watch Visitor Q (thankfully alone). Even though I was familiar with his unconventional style by then, I still found myself gaping during a few of the scenes. Miike is hit-and-miss, but that’s to be expected considering the rate at which he churns out films. I was lucky to be introduced to his work via Audition, which remains a favorite to this day. The way he calmly lulled the viewer into a seemingly ordinary romantic drama, then bludgeoned them senseless at the end, was masterful. Ichi is a rush, but overrated. Happiness of the Katakuris is terrific and full of a contagious upbeat charm, despite some of the subject matter. Fudoh is the earliest film of his that I’ve seen, and has some memorable moments (including a girl with the ability to fire objects out of her vagina). The City of Lost Souls disappointed me, but moves at a swift enough pace. Gozu is possibly my favorite film of his. Miike seems to be channeling David Lynch throughout, and somehow all the crazy elements work. One Missed Call no doubt gets bashed the most, with (not undeserved) cries of “sellout!” due to its obviously being another Ring rip-off, but Miike is working with someone else’s material, and I think he does a great job with a mediocre screenplay. Zebraman is good fun, in a Katakuris way. Again, the energy Miike creates makes up for a lot of the flaws. I also enjoyed his Box segment from the Three Extremes and found it more mature than a lot of his other work. Izo is a bit of a love-it-or-hate-it flick. Some will surely find it tedious in its philosophic ponderings, others will enjoy it for the same reasons. I was rather disappointed with his entry in the TV show Masters of Horror, titled Imprint. A lot of things were working against him, for starters, and it felt as though he just wanted to shock American audiences at the expense of story and character. Terrible acting, and forcing the cast to speak English only add to the problems, though I think these decisions were made by the network, not Miike.
Never heard of Kurt Kren…sounds like I need to check him out.
I was walking around block buster about six years ago when I came across Audition. I picked it up and a friend of mine that worked there walked up behind me “Kitty, Kitty, Kitty” I was like “What”, “It’s an inside joke”. So I rented that and borrowed a bootleg of ichi the killer from him. I watched them both back to back. I knew I just found something special. I never have liked the J-Pop horror stuff and had no idea this side of cinama existed. So I dove right in. He opened a whole world of diffrent films for me. He does not only do that type of film though but he can afford to putting out 3-5 films a year, you can be diverse and you should be. I here he’s better known outside of Japan, it’s hard to believe that people in his country are not paying attention to someone making such a stur. I love his films, but not all of them. As it should be. I just watched his Django and enjoyed the hell out of it.
DOA 2, Gozu, Audition, Ichi, HOK are his best.
E2ME… Kurt Kren… really f**ked up. Apparently back in the day when he would hand his 8mm films in for developing, he was thrown out and banned from the studio on grounds of moral indignation. They’re abstract as hell, but that only works in their favor.
For a change of pace, Bird People Of China although not a great film, is a good demonstration of what Miike can do cinematically when he actually takes himself seriously.
Hahaha, Visitor Q was an instant classic!
He’s a very prolific filmmaker, making anywhere between two to four films a year, which is a crazy output. I’m wondering if anyone has seen IZO at all? What did people think it was about?
Honestly, I had no idea what Izo was about but I did find it to be a whole lot of senseless violent fun.
A masterclass filmmaker for the 20th and 21st century. i was 1st exposed to hs work with ichi the killer bout 4years ago, consequently i was blown away with a story like nothing i had ever seen before. It was how he broke the boundries of wat filmmakers can go to. and he pushed them, and tht wat i love about his films. soon after i watched visitor Q and then found myself loving the extremeties of his work even more entertaining. then audition, dead or alive and so forth, just a shame tht most of his films are not widely availible for the masses, but a good look on the internet can spring a few surprises.
All hail the master of extreme asian cinema.
Although I don’t seek out his work as much now, I remember first catching Ichi the Killer and was blown away by the sheer inventiveness of it all. There was a huge movement I jokingly deemed the Japanese Shock Wave that followed the same brand of violence (although I believe it’s more accurate to say Kinji Fukasaku was at the front of the line). But watching entire bodies of work by other filmmakers who employed this style in comparison to Miike, you begin to see that Miike wasn’t some sort of one-trick pony.
With that said, he seems to be breaking out of that with his more current work. It’s more subdued, punctuated by brief flashes. I thought his entry in the Masters of Horror series (Imprint) was a pleasure and Sukiyaki Western Django, although flawed, was very bold.
Like the others above mentioned, he really has pushed what is visually acceptable in video. The picture quality of Visitor Q can initially throw you off because it seems like something a friend casually shot for his own amusement. Despite most of his films inherently being B-movies, his signature is undeniable. And I’m not one for quantity over quality, but for this day and age, his output is incredible.
His TV series “Tajuu jinkaku tantei saiko – Amamiya Kazuhiko no kikan” – ""MPD Psycho"""- is…Genius >> 6 × 54 minutes of Miike madness :D
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I saw Ichi the Killer a few years ago on a night where some friends and I held a mini festival of bad and violent cinema. Ichi was the last to be screened, and it blew me apart. I had never seen anything so coldly gratuitous and grossly violent in my life (actually I have, but it wasn’t a film). And yet, buried in it was an idea (the bullied, traumatized child as professional assassin) so brilliant that I became obsessed with Miike’s work and starting tracking down everything he’s created. I can’t really quite fathom the mash-up of elements that seem to inform his film-making: manga (Ichi the Killer, Multiple Personality Detective Psycho), contemporary psycho-sexual neurosis (Visitor Q, Audition) and surrealism and memory (The Box), all delivered with a low-budget aesthetic.
What do others make of him?