Takashi Miike on DVD

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Michael · #1 Post by **Michael** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 2:42 pm

You're more than welcome to discuss Takeshi Miike or any of his works here on this thread.

I ran across the new DVD of Bird People In China at the local Best Buy and I was amazed that I had never heard of it.. and most of all, it was directed by the only and only Miike!

How is this film? Any good? Comments please!

Jun-Dai · #2 Post by **Jun-Dai** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 3:14 pm

Well he does direct like 4 films a year (only a fraction of which ever see the light of 35mm or dvd stateside).

yoshimori · #3 Post by **yoshimori** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 3:29 pm

This one's about chinese (iirc) villagers who build giant wings in hopes of flying, like their ancestors.

It's well-crafted, leisurely-paced, relatively subtle. In other words, atypical Miike!

Pinback · #4 Post by **Pinback** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 3:35 pm

It's a very fine film. Subtle and sensitive, the only other Miike film I've seen comparable to it is Dead or Alive 2. Miike, like the violent yakuza in the film, seems to be pacified by the material. One of his best, I think. His absolute masterpieces are still Audition and Gozu, though.

kazantzakis · #5 Post by **kazantzakis** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 4:18 pm

PS:
I didnt spellcheck this for those who care.

Michael,
this is a quintessential Miike and proof that he can direct more than surreal insanities like Gozu. Here he shows skills for character development, pacing, caricature and humor, melancholy and nostalgia, tenderness etc. Probably one of his most skilled films and much more "honest" (if less impressive than Audition). Similar to his Young Thugs: Nostalgia. But it is still a mixed bag. Some of the "emotions" or "moods" he builds he immediately rushes to ridicule or at least lighten.

It seems to me on the basis of this film, Miike's output has not progressed much in recent years.

The dvd is good quality. Tom Mes' commentary was not worth the time to listen to through out. I think he even fell asleep.

Michael · #6 Post by **Michael** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 4:57 pm

Thank you!

Couldn't ask for a better holiday gift from you folks. I think the keyword is "honest" as kaz described in the previous post. This is making me very excited to go and grab the DVD now!

dvdane · #7 Post by **dvdane** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 5:43 am

His absolute masterpieces are still Audition and Gozu, though.

Actually not. Not even by Miike himself, who hates how the west has misinterpreted Audition.

The Bird Men of China is one of the two films, the other being Nostalgia, which are considered to be the best of Miike. Now that the shock value of Miike has ebbed out, more and more of his good films are coming to the west, allowing people to see a less than 110% extreme Miike.

Here he shows skills for character development, pacing, caricature and humor, melancholy and nostalgia, tenderness etc.

He actually shows that in all his films. Miike has a great sense of subtle elements, especially towards character and location and how the two are linked.

I also liked Tom Mes' commentary. Admitted, he does not talk the entire time, nor serves every aspect on a plate, but he always has a point and always takess the viewer behind the scene. I spoke with Tom recently about these commentaries and he told me, that for him it was about making Miike more approachable for fans. And he certainly does that.

Returning to the story, this is amongst the most poetic works of Miike. It is very down to earth, is surprisingly disciplined (even though many, many scenes are improvised) and the story is very gripping. His use of visual symbolism is very straight forward, and is open for many internal interpretations. It is the basic alienated saleryman plot, but with a major twist. Simply a superb film.

I would recommend you watching the film without the commentary or reading up on it to begin with, to interpret it my yourself, then use the facitslists.

bcsparker · #8 Post by **bcsparker** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 3:08 am

I am a recent convert. My first Miike film was ICHI THE KILLER. What a way to start! I've since seen the DOA TRILOGY, GOZU, and DEADLY OUTLAW: REKKA (an underrated classic). I love Miike films. It's great to have a director that doesn't believe in taboos.

"Takashi Miike - Like the Japanese Tarantino, Only Faster!" -

They forgot to mention better, too.

kazantzakis · #9 Post by **kazantzakis** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 12:55 pm

I am dying to know: What's great about Revok.com?? Certainly not their selection, they only offer a whopping 101 DVDs for sale. At best this is another of a zillion of sites that sell dvds. At worst it is ran from someone's basement.

Audition should be coming out soon on a SE dvd in the US.

I have not read Mes' book. The more Miike I watch the less interesting he becomes.

Henrik wrote:
Here he shows skills for character development, pacing, caricature and humor, melancholy and nostalgia, tenderness etc.
He actually shows that in all his films. Miike has a great sense of subtle elements, especially towards character and location and how the two are linked.

Come on Henrik, you have pointed it out yourself in the past, he doesnt always take things seriously. Can you argue that something like Full Metal Yakuza, Fudoh or the recent One missed call care that much about characterization, pacing or precision? They have their own merits and they rarely fail to entertain but the first two (along with the likes of Visitor Q and Katakuris) seem to employ more caricature than character and more thematic and stylistic extremes than actual substance. Not that the camp nature of Gozu or the hilarious parody in One missed call are not effective in a different way.

I do agree that a number of his films show the merits of Bird People. Nostalgia is one, Sabu perhaps. And certainly Audition.
I am not sure where this misinterpretation lies. The film openly lends itself to a feminist oriented reading, not in the sense that the woman slaughters men, but in the fact that it essentially uses the thematic motif of Pygmalion. There is one narrative from a male's point of view. It concerns one female, largely. We see the male reconstruct the female's identity from bits of information that often seem unrealistically priviledged. Arent these feminist dimensions?

bcsparker · #10 Post by **bcsparker** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 6:34 pm

Edited - not relevant

Martha · #11 Post by **Martha** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 6:37 pm

Folks, please take the revok.com discussion to the dvd trades/stores area of the forum and let this thread return to all Miike, all the time.

Gracias.

kazantzakis · #12 Post by **kazantzakis** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 6:56 pm

Even better, here

we already have a thread dedicated to bootleggers...

Pinback · #13 Post by **Pinback** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 8:10 pm

Any chance of correcting the spelling of Miike's name in the subject line...from Takeshi to Takashi...?

colinr0380 · #14 Post by **colinr0380** » Tue Jan 11, 2005 11:58 am

It seems that the 6-part MPD Psycho... aka Multiple Personality Detective Psycho - Kazuhiko Amamiya Returns is going to start being released soon. This was made in between Audition and City of Lost Souls and I was wondering if anyone could place this in context in Miike's work and give any comments on whether they think it is worth seeing?

In terms of his films, I really enjoyed Sabu (2002) which was surprisingly restrained compared to some of his other work, but I should also say that I enjoyed Ichi The Killer and Gozu quite a bit at the other end of the spectrum!

Michael · #15 Post by **Michael** » Sun Feb 06, 2005 5:23 pm

I finally picked up Bird People today.. planning to watch it shortly. I also came across Gozu. How is that one?

Mr Pixies · #16 Post by **Mr Pixies** » Sun Feb 06, 2005 6:15 pm

Michael wrote:I finally picked up Bird People today.. planning to watch it shortly. I also came across Gozu. How is that one?

Gozu, it's interesting....Same writer from Ichi the Killer, has a similar feeling that Ichi has. I was kinda bored by it, but it stayed with me a long time after.
I recommend you watch it between late morning/ early noon.

dvdane · #17 Post by **dvdane** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 6:22 am

Gozu is a great film. Utterly absurd, very Lynchian in some scenes.

The title means "Cow Head" and refers to the naked man with a cow head, who with his cum-like dripping tongue licks the face of Minami, and is the projection of Minami’s homophobia.

There are several references to Minami's homophobia thruout the film. First there is his boss, who constantly talks about fucking women and who wants to check Minami's penis, and who finally transforms into a woman, who takes Minami's virginity and afterwards give birth to his boss. Then there is the motherlike figure, who produces breastmilk in surplus.

It is the least accessible film by Miike. Normally his symbolism is pretty open, even when camouflaged, like his use of alleys in the Black trilogy, but here it really needs attention.

There is an interesting element in Gozu, namely the use of yellow filter. In Bird Men of China, Miike uses the yellow filter once they arrive at the mountain, to suggest a seperation from reality and into myth. This may be the same case in Gozu, where the filter is applied as Minami begins his search for his boss.

Michael · #18 Post by **Michael** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 9:50 am

Gozu is a great film, indeed!

I ignored Mr. Pixie's advice and watched the film at midnight alone in the completely dark house. Incredibly effective I must say! No it's not because it's a horror film - at least not in the traditional sense. It is the kind of film that will ultimately burn right into your subconsciousness. Miike's use of camera (composition and everything) is amazing and brilliant as always. Gozu is so shockingly absurd and funny.. I laughed quite a lot but it's also creepy and bizarre. The film is basically one guy's journey to....I'm not even sure what or where. But dvdane brings up a very interesting point - homophobia - which makes perfectly sense to me now. (dvdane, I thought it was Minami's brother, not his boss. His boss is the one who has the ladle up his ass. His brother has the thing for red panties.)

I love Gozu! Heading to watch Bird People...

colinr0380 · #19 Post by **colinr0380** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 10:59 am

Michael wrote:I thought it was Minami's brother, not his boss. His boss is the one who has the ladle up his ass. His brother has the thing for red panties.

Isn't it like a yakuza heirarchy? You have the 'big boss', then under him Ozaki, then under him Minami. The big boss decides after the 'trained yakuza attack dog' incident that Ozaki has to go and chooses Minami as one of Ozaki's underlings to do the job. It also points up the conflicting feelings Minami has about killing his boss, who has saved his life, and his feelings of needing to distance himself from his steadily crazier boss (as well as the homophobia) and his duty to the absolute head of the organisation,

SpoilerShow

who in the end he accidentally kills anyway because the big boss is messing with his girl/Ozaki!

Michael · #20 Post by **Michael** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 11:24 am

Oh okay. I'm totally ignorant about the whole yakuzi thing. So Minami calls Ozaki "brother" out of respect because they're members of the same clan. Right? I wasn't sure if they were really blood brothers but their relationship does feels very incestuous.

Despite the film's over the top absurdity, Miike's magic is getting you on the ride, making you believe in his world which feels all too real.

colinr0380 · #21 Post by **colinr0380** » Mon Feb 07, 2005 12:49 pm

Yes, I'm not certain but I think it is a "blood brother" type thing. Another example of this use would be that Takeshi Kitano's yakuza film of 2000 was called Brother.

Thinking of the relationship with the boss in Gozu, I can't help thinking back to Full Metal Yakuza from 1997, where there is a similar situation with the boss and the new recruit under him who is a coward and poor lover to his girlfriend, but completely in thrall to his boss. The organisation has the boss killed in a coup and the new recruit also dies in an attempt to save him, but in a take-off of Robocop is resurrected by a mad scientist using parts of his boss (including his boss's circumcised penis, which he comments on! Which is ironic thinking ahead to Ozaki's interest in Minami's manhood in Gozu!). He then ends up having to destroy the head of the organisation and the other gang members when they come after him. It seems interesting to see the two films together, working with similar themes, although I think Gozu is much better (Full Metal Yakuza is fun but drags a little in the middle).

Michael · #22 Post by **Michael** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 12:48 pm

Young Thugs: Nostalgia

The DVD came in my mail yesterday. I was blown away by the sheer beauty of Young Thugs! My god, Miike made this?!? I had no idea that he could make something like this...so mind-bogglingly beautiful and funny. Every detail, frame, and movement vibrates with painful honesty. Nothing's wasted. For those of you who are familiar with Miike's violent opuses (and I should say, any of you), you will be OVERWHELMED by Miike's most luminous, sweet nostalgia.

When this forum's '90s list comes around, don't be surprised to see this film placed as #1 on my list.

Michael · #23 Post by **Michael** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 5:39 pm

Bird People is okay. Not as great as I thought. I probably wouldn't stick to it til the end if it wasn't for the photography and location (possibly Miike's most beautiful work to look at). It drags way too long in numerous parts. The last shot unfortunately fails to inspire as it apprently tries to.

I actually prefer Young Thugs: Nostalgia a lot more. It could even be Miike's masterpiece. Gozu comes next. And then maybe, Audition.

Pinback · #24 Post by **Pinback** » Thu Feb 10, 2005 5:45 pm

Michael wrote:
I actually prefer Young Thugs: Nostalgia a lot more. It could even be Miike's masterpiece. Gozu comes next. And then maybe, Audition.

Michael, I'm even more eager to see this film now: I'd say we have similar tastes (as I said earlier in the thread, I'd put Audition and Gozu above all of Miike's other stuff).

Close behind, and getting better with every viewing, is The Happiness of the Katakuris, which is off-beat even for Miike, combining as it does murder, musical numbers and claymation. An outstanding effort though. I'd love to see the Korean original, The Quiet Family (the first feature by A Tale of Two Sisters director Ji-woon Kim), of which this is a remake.

I've also enjoyed Fudoh: The New Generation for its delirious silliness and profound energy, and was also drawn to The City of Lost Souls, which was better than I thought it would be. The only massive letdown I've felt was Agitator: I was promised a fascianting epic, but it seemed to drag really really badly. I hate describing films as boring, but apart from a few standout moments, I'd have to say it was...

Michael · #25 Post by **Michael** » Thu Feb 10, 2005 6:14 pm

Michael, I'm even more eager to see this film now: I'd say we have similar tastes (as I said earlier in the thread, I'd put Audition and Gozu above all of Miike's other stuff).

My goodness! What are you waiting for ?!

Miike claims Nostalgia as his favorite. Imagine that! Look at his very enormous body of works and Miike's claim alone should be enough for you to check out Nostalgia. BUT it's nothing like Gozu or Audition. Nostalgia is a very beautiful, celebratory film.. seen through the starry eyes of young boys. None of the sentimental crap that we see in so many coming-of-age stories. One of the most over-used, abused genres.. but Nostalgia feels so refreshing and new. Every scene drips with so painful honesty that it hurts. And it's still hilarious in the twisted Miike style. Miike succeeds in conjuring up the nostalgic feelig superbly and the feeling will stay with you long (most likely forever in my case) after it ends. Every character (no matter how secondary, even the strippers & their lonely goldfish!) will also stay with you. I long to go back to this film again and again..just to spend time with those crazy, beautiful folks. All feel so real. Perfect film.

Gozu.. I love this mind blowing film.. Gorgeously directed. Plenty to chew on. Plenty of images burning in your memory eternally. Best film about homophobia and how many films are like that?

Audition is a fine film. I thought of it as Miike's masterpiece for a couple of years and the last shot of the two "fallen" lovers on the floor trying to communicate is among the most masterful, powerful shots I"ve ever seen. When realizing the whole point/message of that shot, every bone in me chilled.