Visitor Q, Fudoh and The City of Lost Souls are all that’s available right now.
So can anyone tell me anything about any of these – WITHOUT SPOILERS – that would make me want to see one of them? Or should I just work my way through all three based on them being from the director of Audition?
The more I think about Audition, the more I appreciate it, so I’m perfectly willing to just see all three based on Miike’s name.
“…dikkidikkidikkidikkidi…”
-Tom
Fudoh is a Yakuza gangster film. Visitor Q is about a, ahem, “dysfunctional” family (I won’t say any more). I’ve never seen The City of Lost Souls.
If you have the stomach for it, anything by Miike is worth watching.
Yeah, I own the DVD. Probably one of Miike’s best films – not all of his stuff stands up. (see here for my early recommendation that must have been ignored.)
Enjoyable movie.
Visitor Q, much more so that Audition, requires a lot more knowledge of a person to make a recommendation. Its disturbing, shows things on screen that I could probably have gone on living without seeing… yet at the same time its satire is spot on. Getting someone to laugh while being disgusted, the sign of a great accomplishment in filmmaking.
Hmmm… without spoilers. Well, this might be a spoiler, but since its the title card for the first scene in the film, and as such, is the first thing you see, I dunno. I think your reaction to this line pretty much should tell you if you want to see Visitor Q or not…
“Have you ever done it with your dad?”
This buzzed in my head for a while after seeing Audition for the first time, as well.
Scott
I picked this up on DVD and watched it last night. BEGIN SPOILERS
From DeCrypt’s comment in another thread (I avoided this thread due to spoilers) I was expecting something much, much scarier. Aside from the bag thing not much startled me in this film. Then as I lay in bed last night trying desperately to fall asleep it hit me how scary the movie actually was. No movie has scared me like this before. I don’t know how to describe it really, but I never thought something seemingly non-supernatural could leave me scared. The Eye (just making this comparison since it’s the most recent scary movie I’ve seen; has nothing at all in common with Audition) had lots of scary moments, but doesn’t leave you with that creeped out feeling for the next few days. I couldn’t get the image of Asami sitting in her apartment out of my head lastnight. It’s a really chilling image the way it’s composed, where it’s implied that she sits there endlessly in the same position waiting for her prey.
Reading reviews of the film, one thing that strikes me as odd is that most people claim it only gets creepy once Asami disappears from the hotel room, and up until that point it’s pure lighthearted romantic comedy. For me, the creepiness begins well before that with the first shot of Asami sitting in her room before the auditions even take place. When Shigeharu calls her for the first time it’s made perfectly clear that bad things are in store for him. I don’t see how anyone could make it all the way to the hotel scene before they decide this movie isn’t When Harry Met Sally.
My initial opinion is that the torture does take place. I’m becoming more open though to the idea that everything after he slips into bed with Asami is a nightmare or something. I guess if you take away any scenes featuring Asami where Shigeharu isn’t present then that’d fit. But I do get a sense of satisfaction by thinking that Asami really does live with a mangled man stuffed in a laundry bag.
I’m looking forward to multiple viewings of this one. I wish they had used some more ambiguous art for the region 1 DVD packaging; showing Asami wearing black rubber gloves and wielding a needle gives a lot away, as do the quotes that were like “This movie is Carrie!!!”. But I guess no one would buy this film without having heard a lot about it first so it doesn’t really matter.
Can someone please post links to trailers of these horror movies? Thanks.
***************OBVIOUS Spoilers below
Bringing back an old thread, but I watched this last night, and I am still having phantom pains in my ankles.
I became interested in Miike when I learned that he was an influence for Quentin Tarentino, and to date, I have seen this and Gozu (which has given me a strange aversion to milk.)
Getting back to Audtion though, I think that he actually does go and talk to the old man, and look for the proprietor of the Stone Fish, and the drugging doesn’t take place until she breaks into his house just prior to the torture. I think the bizarre cut scenes, the altered dinner scenes and his waking up to in bed to “it was just a bad dream” are just hallucinations due to the awful pain he was experiencing. I think the altered dinner scenes where she discussed her abuse resulted from his mind trying to rationalize why she was torturing him (the abusive childhood, etc) and perhaps forgiving her?? Since the beginning of the movie (when he looks over her file) he has some strange reverance for her (the fact that being unable to continue with ballet was like her dying).
The guy in the bag, is definatley the “Record Exec” that had mysteriously gone missing.
I subscribe to Zip.ca (Canada’s equivalent to Netflix), and have added every Miike title they have (quite a few thankfully).
Very unsettling movie…and Miike is definately one twisted individual.
“…dikkidikkidikkidikkidi…” indeed.
Whatever you do, don’t read anything about Happiness Of The Katakuris (assuming that’s on your list) before you watch it. It’s much, much better if you have no idea what to expect.
Miike is really hit and miss. He’s famous for saying that a movie only has to have one great shot in it to be successful, and many of his unfortunately take that to heart. Still, there’s nobody else quite like him: part Fassbinder, part Peter Jackson.
Thanks for the heads Up. Here are all the Miike movies that I have on my list:
Any definately NOT worth seeing?
Andromedia (1998) NR
Audition (1999) E (already seen)
Dead Or Alive (1999) E
Dead Or Alive 2 (2000) E
Dead Or Alive Final (3) (2002) NR
Fudoh: The New Generation (1996) E
Full Metal Yakuza (1997) NR
Gozu (already seen)
Happiness Of The Katakuris (2001) R
Ichi The Killer (2001) E
Kintaro, The White Collar Worker (1999) NR
The Bird People In China (1998) NR
The Black Society Trilogy: Ley Lines (1999) NR
The Black Society Trilogy: Rainy Dog (1997) NR
The Black Society Trilogy: Shinjuku Triad Society (1995) NR
The City Of Lost Souls (2000) E
Sabu (2002) NR
Visitor Q (2001) E
Yakuza Demon (2003) NR
Young Thugs: Innocent Blood (1997) NR
Young Thugs: Nostalgia (1998) NRYeah, every single one of those except Audition. Seriously, Takeshi Miike is crap, with Audition tearing open a brief anomaly in space-time in his otherwise infinite continuum of juvenille mediocrity. Happiness of the Katakuris - badly made, nonsensical, disgusting, sucks. Ichi the Killer - badly made, nonsensical, disgusting, sucks. Gozu - badly made, nonsensical, disgusting, sucks. Et cetera.
The only one outside of Audition I’d be tempted to recommend is Dead or Alive, which is badly made, nonsensical, disgusting and sucks, but has the most hilariously inexplicable last five minutes in cinematic history. My Dad spent three nights trying to watch it, each time only getting twenty minutes into the movie before zoning off. Finally, he was going to get up on it, so I said: “Okay, you get the gyst, right? “Realistic” “thriller”. Has girls being gang raped in kiddie pools of their own feces. Guy being fucked up the ass then having his throat slit. A subtle tissue of human emotion being weaved by the dual, intertwining threads of the main protagonists joys, sorrows and triumphs - masterfully relayed by their respective thespians, who are theatrical geniuses. Ha ha ha… no, I’m just kidding you, I just wanted to put that in there so you knew what NOT to expect in the rest of the movie. Okay, take it as read that the rest of the movie just goes on like that, and also take it as read that nothing that happens for the rest of the movie explains the ending. Got it? Now, skip to the last chapter.” After that, my Dad actually sat my mother down to watch the last five minutes of Dead or Alive.
The list is missing Izo (2004), which I loved, but seems to be a love-it-or-hate-it movie. At least a quarter of the crowd left the theatre when I saw it at the Stockholm Film Festival while I almost felt giddy with joy.
OH SHIT
I haven’t read the rest of this thread but I’m 2/3rds the way through the movie and am getting really FREAKED OUT. The dude just went into the abandoned building he thinks is the former ballet studio.
Oh yeah. I’m alone and watching this. What was I THINKING.
Bah, that wasn’t that bad.
This is many years late but: don’t expect all Miike’s films to be like Audition. Don’t expect them to even share similar levels of weirdness and trangressive violence to movies like Ichi the Killer, Gozu (my first exposure to Miike) and Fudoh. Miike is an enormously prolific director (I think I recall reading that he makes something like six movies a year) with an astounding range. And, for my tastes, astoundingly successful at it. There’s only one Miike film I have seen that did not work for me on any level (and I have seen a couple dozen) - I think it was called Sanjuro and was a period piece about a guy in prison that was so slow and dull I couldn’t keep going.