Takashi Miike: Japan's Answer to David Lynch & Quentin Tarantino Combined

With the upcoming remake of Takashi Miike's 'One Missed Call," another in a neverending slew of American remakes of Japanese horror movies over recent years, I thought it about time to pay homage to one of the most bizarre, inventive and interesting directors working today: Takashi Miike. With a taste for bizarre characters, brutal acts of violence and a sense of the absurd any Takashi Miike film you may care to watch will more than likely challenge your movie-watching sensibilities. From the fabulously off-color opening title scene from 'Ichi the Killer' where seminal fluid no-less forms the movie title to the insanely enjoyable good-humored Horror/Comedy/Musical madness of 'The Happiness of the Katakuris' to the movie with possibly the biggest 'What the F***!' moment in cinematic history, namely the last 10 minutes of 'Deal or Alive,' Takashi Miike is always challenging the viewers perceptions of morality, reality and insanity. He could easily be cast with a schlock-trash title were it not for his beautifully choreographed visions of depravity and perversity. He seems to pull all of the most unmentionable and uncomfortable thoughts that lurk in the dark recesses of our collective consciousness and lays them out for all to see with sometimes shocking results.

His most well-known movie thus far (at least as far as Americans are concerned) would be 'Audition' from 1999' which contains what has become one of the most iconic scare scenes (or rather queasy-scene) of the last 10 years in the Horror industry. The closing scenes are right up there along with the Ringu's 'Sadako' crawling from the TV screen in the climax of Ring. 'Audition' is a slow-burn story of a lonely recently widowed man using a film-industry contact to set up a fake movie audition so that he might meet a girl who not only fits the fictional part of the movie but his own wants and needs. A great premise. This starts up as a suitably light-hearted affair with free-flowing comical elements as various slices of life come in for the audition and indeed he does eventually seem to succeed in getting the girl of his dreams. A shy seductress with fine features and an other-worldly stare. They strike up a bond and he feels only slightly-guilty about his disreputable behavior. Unfortunately for him she has a dark secret, a tormented past and a vengeful spirit that comes to full fruition in the last 20 minutes or so of the movie. The slow-burn here really heightens the final horror because you just know (for an hour or so); you just know he's going to have to pay for his deceitful ploy.

With 'Deal or Alive' we have the weirdest last 10 minutes of any movie I have ever seen. If I had left to make some tea and returned I could have been forgiving for believing that this was an entirely different movie. For what starts off as a pretty straight forward Gangster movie with Good Cop versus gangland boss turns into a stand-off between the two lead characters using weapons that wouldn't have looked out of place on Star-Wars leading to an apocalyptic boom of sorts that sends shock-waves around the earth (literally). I may have said at the time something along the lines of 'what the f***!' or perhaps 'Say the now, where, who??!' in any case my jaw was certainly open in wonder and awe at the sheer bravado and insanity of this ending. One day I shall dare to watch this movie again to see if I missed something.

'Ichi the Killer' from 2001 would be the 2nd most recognizable of his movies to American audiences. A vicious, tortuous manga comic come to life. With blood, semen and body parts flying this way and that along with the very best arterial spray scenes you're ever likely to witness this side of an Afghan Women's Rights Rally. Shock scenes aplenty here form hugely unlikely scenes of a man cutting a man in half (vertically) with a 2 inch blade on his foot to a woman having her two favorite extremities neatly sliced off to a man having his arm physically pulled off by one of the most hilarious villains I've seen in a movie. The 'Ichi' of the title is a suitably messed up individual. Shy, retiring, scared and depressed but with a penchant for murderous tirades making for a memorable character but is upstaged by the equally/if not more insane main gangster who's self-tongue severing scene is only the beginning of his nastiness. An insane blood-bath of a film that makes 'Hostel' or 'Saw' look a lot less what's the word........sick!

'The Happiness of the Katakuris' from 2001, saw Mr. Miike foray into the world of music and dance and heaps of 'David Lynch' like symbolism and weirdness with a dash of depravity thrown in for good luck. This is one of his lightest films in that it is good-humored and has a sense of absurd morality as a disjointed family try to make a go of a family run Inn in the middle of nowhere. Guests die, Bodies reanimate, love is lost then found and perversely entertaining musical numbers abound with remarkably enthusiastic performances by all concerned. This is a movie I can see being remade in Hollywood or even on the Broadway Stage as a brave new musical. I would certainly recommend this movie to anyone who likes musicals but wants something other than 'Sound of Music' or 'Grease'.

Famously prolific, sometimes making as many as six movies in a year amongst other TV projects he is at the vanguard of new Japanese cinema and is justly revered by all wrong-thinking movie-aficionado's around the world. 'Dare to be different' could well be his motto for he is always that. A disorienting and imaginative player on the cinematic stage I look forward with interest, excitement, fear and just a little trepidation to see what he pulls out of his imagination next.