For most of the 'teens I was a Takashi Miike completist. It was relatively easy to keep up because I was in Seattle, a place with a lot of off kilter cinemas, and I managed a movie rental store where I decided what titles to buy on disc.
When the store closed, and I began working for an independent film distributor, I had to concentrate on the distributor’s titles, which I curated and blogged about. I did a lot of filmmaker interviews, long form criticism, and capsules by the hundreds. And my off-work film consumption was largely concentrated on old movies: I had a century to catch up with. I watched any title that TCM showed that I hadn’t already seen, and many that I had. All told, around a thousand movies a year.
After owning a plant store, I’ve been retired for about 10 years, so I’m back to my 1K+ movies a year habit. There are many days when I scan what’s available to stream and come up empty: I seem to have run out of movies. Of course that’s impossible, but I’ve been going back and revisiting a lot of movies that were significant for me when I first watched them.
Currently, that’s Miike’s stuff. (I may post about other retrospectives, but probly not.)
I was lucky enough to see Odishon (Audition) at its US premiere. It was my first Miike and I went in with zero expectations as to where this vaguely creepy romcom would end up. Truly, that’s the only way to watch it: totally blind and open to whatever happens.
Yesterday I watched his Dead or Alive Trilogy: a masterpiece of Yakuza surrealism. Tonight I’m revisiting Ichi the Killer. I need to find an innocent victim to watch Odishon with me, so I can relive the experience vicariously.
Anyone else here a fan of Miike? Any other completists among the teeming millions?
I’ve seen about 7 of his movies, none after Gozu (2003). The opening five minutes or so of the first DOA, as well as its mind-blowing ending, are fantastic film-making, but the middle is, charitably, uneven. The two sequels were largely worthless.
Miike is renowned for extreme scenes (e.g., the electrified soup ladle up the ass death scene in Gozu), but imo, these tend to make his films add up to less than the sum of their parts. Ichi, the Killer was gratuitously unpleasant and not remotely close to my idea of “entertainment.” It’s a film which didn’t need to be made or watched.
Slow pacing, Twilight Zone-ish premises and incomprehensible endings finally convinced me his cinema was not for me. I see much of his output since Gozu has been sequels and remakes. Generally speaking, I am of the belief that no one who is as prolific as Takashi Miike can be all that good.
I agree about most of his later work; the pure iconoclastic excitement had largely diminished. I don’t remember DOA3, will probably rewatch today.
And i agree that DOA1 seems like a very dull standard cop movie bracketed by sheer explosive brilliance. But in DOA2 I like how the hitmen turn into angels and then into little kids, once they team up to use all their murder for hire payments to provide healthcare for third world children. Intentionally cliche, like Dancer in the Dark. Tongue in cheek sincerity.
I rewatched Gozu yesterday. I remembered being excited about it in 2003, but real excitement has a sell by date. I ended up turning it off.
My next scavenger hunt will be for Zebraman, Katakouris, and Bizita Q. Well see if they have anything more substantial than surprise.
Odishon is a great microcosm for his body of work as a whole: thrillingly, hypnotically astonishing the first time you ses it, but that experience is lost in future viewings. The thrill is gone.
Funny: i list it among his best. It’s simultaneously about the absolute worst things a family can do or experience, and a heartwarming portrait of a family that loves and supports each other. Almost Sirkian in its perpendicularity between text and subtext.
Finished the DOA trilogy. The first one still justifies itself, the decond is worth the time it takes to watch it, but I got nothing from the third this time around.