Takashi Miike

I wasn't sure if this should go in reviews or here, but i'm sure it'll find its place.

Anyway, Takashi Miike. I was hoping someone (Holden) could talk about his best movies etc.

I want to see Gozu and Zebraman, they good?

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I've only seen two of Miike's flicks, Koroshiya 1 (Ichi the Killer) and Ôdishon (Audition). They have intense and slick visuals but precious little by way of story or character. I wasn't sickened by the subject matter, which is full of over-the-top bloody gore, but I was bored by the storytelling.

I haven't seen any of his others, and frankly I'm in no rush. Why don't you watch 'em and fill us in?

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I haven't seen Zebraman, but I've watched Gozu,I didn't like it.

Fudoh: The New Generation, worth watching.

Dead or Alive, one of my favorites by Miike.

The City of Lost Souls, liked it.

Audition, loved it.

Dead or Alive 2, skip this one and Dead or Alive 3.

Ichi the Killer, a must see for sickos!

The Happiness of the Katakuris, Takashi Miike does a musical?
For some reason it works.

I've seen a few and a few snippets of others.

Btw, Holden, i've seen both Audition and Ichi the Killer.

Visitor Q is sick, very hard to recommend.
Happiness of the K's is awesome.
Ichi- some gruesome moments, bad cgi in parts
Audition the most accomplished of his films i've seen.

Loner, i was hoping Gozu would be as good as it looked, how bad?

Dead or Alive are films i fancy seeing, thanks for warning on DOA2.

Zebraman.......

Audition, The Happiness of the Katakuris are the greatest of him/
Graveyard Of Honour is real great yakudza saga/
Visitor Q will surely make you feel sick, but any moviefan ought to see it to know how far the imagination of a director can go/
The Guys From Paradise and One Missed Call are not worth seeing at all/

How could I forget about Visitor Q?

The bathtub scene was over the top.


It seemed like Takashi Miike was trying to make a David Lynch movie.

The film was slow and boring up till the ending.

i agree about Audition being the most accomplished one. i'd add Dead or Alive: Hanzaisha (1999), Dead or Alive 2: Tôbôsha (2000) and Dead or Alive: Final (2002) as must see.
as far as Bizitâ-Q is concerned, i'd say it is necessary to have such movies, breaking taboos whenever and wherever possible. and that the States, like Europe, have stayed behind on this, far behind Japan. (i mean, in movies at least)

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Visitor Q isn't a bad film as such, but anyone who enjoys the content has issues. I agree in terms of what's shown, it's a film that movie fans should see.

Anyone seen any of the other Love Cinema Volumes? (Vistor Q being the 6th Volume)

Following this thread I went and watched Itchi the Killer. I really dont know what to say. I dont know If I liked it or not. But I know I probably wouldn't watch it again. It was a bit too dragged out. I felt the end was a bit of an anti-climax too.

The end of Ichi sucked. The manga has a much more sensical and interesting climax and finale.

Audition is okay, I generally liked the lead actress, but again didn't care for the ending.

Full Metal Yakuza sucked but I'm willing to discount that one as a cheapy straight to video project.

I'm open to seeing more of his films but I don't care enough to actively seek them out. I like excess, but his films don't say anything to me; I'd see em if a friend had them or if they showed up at my library or something, but otherwise I've got better things to watch. So far I sort of place him with Bunuel as an over-rated wise ass director.

I'm not a huge Miike fan, but I will say that you should see The Happiness Of The Katakuris (available at Amazon). Easily my favorite Miike film of the ones I've seen.

I've seen Audition and Ichi and feel Miike is one of the most overrated directors out there... Style over substance is his modus operandi and unless you appreciate gore for the sake of gore you won't be entertained.

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I dont think it's fair to judge Miike on Audition and Ichi, as far as i know they are his most excessive films. Just watch Happiness of the Katakuris and i'm sure this image will change. I've ordered Zebraman of eBay and from what i've read it's got no gratuitous violence and is a comedy.
Personally i didn't like Ichi the Killer, it's excessively excessive.

Those are the two films people have constantly recommended to me as being the highlights of his career so far... thus the judgement

I don't have a problem with the excesses of Ichi and didn't really find Audition to be very excessive for the most part anyway. Frankly, if we're gonna make this a fight between "style" and "substance", I'd probably take the side of style anyway. I generally love Shinya Tsukamoto's films, for example, and I don't think anyone could argue that Tetsuo is a very deep movie... but Tsukamoto's stuff has a type of energy and inventiveness that Ichi and Audition were missing, for me.

Shoot, I didn't really want to come off as someone who dislikes Miike or was knocking him unfairly. I did like Ichi and Audition, they're just not films would ever want to watch again. Let you know if I ever see Katakuris though.

edit~ I should also point out that I wasn't really a big fan of the Ichi manga either, by the way.

Anyone who has this visoin of excess in Miike's films, i recommend Bird People in China. It's almost the anti Miike film. Go see.

My favorite and the Miike film I'd recommend far, far, far above all others is IZO. IZO is an utterly insane existentialist work. It says so much about humanity and the way it just tumbles from vignette to vignette is wonderful. It's not for everyone, the violence is steady and consistent (though not to the level of sickness seen in other works of his) and most viewers would call it stupid for not having a conventional plot, but I highly, highly recommend it. And the guitar man is just freaking awesome. Not a clue as to what he was singing about, but he sounded great...

http://www.izo-movie.com/trailer/1000k.html

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Looks pretty good, i only noticed it before cuz it has Beat Kitano in. May have to try and track down a copy now. Where you see it OG? I found it used and new on amazon.com, but nowhere on region 2, any help?

Audition is a good movie that builds up toward the end which therefore meets satisfying needs

i also think Ichi the Killer was a good movie,

BUT so far the best Miike Film i have seen would be Happiness of the Katakuris! Creative FUN and WEIRD! and it's all in a MUSICAL!

Local video store I love had a copy of it. I haven't been able to find a region 1 online either.