Takashi Miike

[lsanderson]

The Happiness of the Katakuris (Katakuri-ke no kofuku) was good at the Walker last night. Musical zombie ghosts and claymation aside, there’s something worth watching at the core of Takashi Miike’s movies. I’m not sure I know what it is yet. It may merely be that since Fellini’s death, I’ve missed that magic in movies. Of course, there’s also cute Japanese men…

Comments

[jbru.livejournal.com]

My friend John Tynes had this to say when I passed the link about the showing on to him:

I bought a used copy of Ichi the Killer on DVD a while back. Ray and I watched it, and when it was over, I threw the DVD in the garbage on behalf of all humanity.

I've seen a half-dozen or so of this guy's movies. Some are reasonably good yakuza movies with surreal, surprising twists. But he's also a hateful sadist who (most notably in Ichi) reserves particular cinematic glee for the battered, bloodied corpses of mutilated women.

So it's sounding like Happiness of the Katakuris is maybe some of the best of his work. Sounds fascinating. How long is it running at the Walker?

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

They're running one more movie, Ichi the Killer on Wednesday night. They've ran three already, Katakuris was Thursday night. I missed the movie last night.

They are in general, mean, nasty, vile and pregnant with ideas. Almost animee made into film, they have do shock, and may be trash, but like a John Water's movie, there's something glittering and valuable amongst the garbage. Not, however, for the squeamish.

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

Actually, he likes slashed, gushing male corpses too. Men beating women, women beating men, men beating men. All in all, quite spectacular with buckets o' blood. Probably the most unsettling movie I've seen. Ichi the Killer. And lots of slashing and simulated sex. The audience was heavily male, although a fair sprinkling of girls. Mostly younger, with a slight tendency toward grung.