My Sleepover With Takashi Miike
 By The Fan Girl Next Door

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Sep 14, 2011, 3:15 PM

My Sleepover With Takashi Miike



Now, before you envision Takashi and I doing each others hair, having pillow fights, gossiping and eating cookie dough ice cream, let me explain. I offered myself a challenge, watch three Takashi Miike films I haven't seen back to back and write about them. One dark and stormy Friday night I did just that. I had a sleepover with Takashi Miike.

I had been warned by a good friend of mine about these movies. They were intense, disturbing and  his wife wouldn't even be in the room with him while he watched them. He said they would, "Destroy my soul". Of course this only made me want to do it more. I CAN'T say no. I have always been too curious for my own good. Sometimes I regret it and other times I wonder what the big deal was about.

In other words, bring it on Mr. Miike, bring it on.



I decided to start with THE HAPPINESS OF THE KATAKURIS. During the beginning of this black comedy I thought I had perhaps misunderstood my friend. Maybe the real challenge was to try and stay awake. It seemed too quirky to me and quirky is always in danger of becoming stupid. I felt it was destined to be poorly acted, silly fare. I'm glad I gave myself up to it because the humor and charm of this movie will really hit you, if you let it.

An eclectic family puts everything they have into opening a bed and breakfast after the father is laid off from his job. Times seem to be tight and the venture isn't as successful as they had hoped. When their first and only guest decides to kill himself in his room, the family goes into a tailspin. Instead of just calling the cops they decide to take care of the problem themselves by wrapping the body up in a tarp and burying it out back. It isn't the best way to start off a business but, What can you do?

Next, a sumo wrestler and his young girlfriend check-in to have a wrestling match between the sheets. Guess who dies while banging his girlfriend? Yeah. Oh, and guess who also dies from being smothered by the guy banging her? Yeah. Upon learning yet two more guests have died in the B&B, the father yells, "Why do you all come here to die?". Soon the father is shouting for more tarps and rope. Since the wrestler was a bit on the rotund side the family begins to argue about how they are going to get the body out. While this is going on the grandfather, the relaxed and more creative of the group, begins to measure the window and then the wrestler. The scene is actually very funny.

This movie does elicit several, "Say Wha..?" moments. This movie is out there. I had seen Miike's AUDITION so I was prepared for whatever insanity this movie would throw at me but I wasn't prepared for splashy musical numbers (Think MOULIN ROUGE with a body count), claymation and most of all, humor. The man who brought us AUDITION gives us something light, charming and kind of sweet. I compare it to Wes Craven who made LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, a completely brutal film, then turned around and directed MUSIC OF THE HEART with Meryl Streep.

So, the night was starting off right. This dreamy and morbidly funny movie was right up my alley.
Let's go down the checklist:

Sumo Wrestler Sex: Check
Goofy But Fun Melodrama: Check
Musical Numbers With The Undead: Check
Violent Claymation: Check


I was in good spirits and wondering what the hell my friend was talking about.

Then, I put in VISITOR Q.



With this movie it was about to get real messed up, real fast. It begins with a bunch of questions, one of which was, "Have you ever done it with your dad?". Luckily, for me, the answer to that is a big fat no but not so much for the pretty hooker negotiating a price with her father. The scene is graphic and made more disturbing by the father repeating, "This is wrong, This is wrong" while having sex with his daughter. She charges him for climaxing too soon (An "Early Bird" charge as she puts it) and discovers he is a few yen short of the negotiated price. While getting dressed he tells her he will get more money later and give the difference to her mother. Ugh.

Where is the happy singing family from the first movie I watched?

This one involves a family too but they are slightly different. Mom is a junkie who sells herself to get a fix. Dad is a failed TV reporter who, when he isn't having sex with his little girl, is being raped with his own microphone after some street punks don't like the fact he is taping them for a 'Man on the street' interview. There is also a son in this mess and he viciously beats the mother for no apparent reason. The scene with the mom pleading for him not to hit her face is made even more disturbing with the child replying, "Fuck your face!" Then, there is some strange guy living with them. There is no real explanation for his presence; he's just there.


Ultimately you learn that the extra housemate is there to put a stop to a family that is already set on self-destruct mode. There are so many things about this movie that make you want to cry and throw up at the same time. A scene with mom lactating for no apparent reason WILL make you gag. A scene with dad having sex with a girl who is dead and getting stuck inside her, yelling at her and demanding she tell him if rigor mortis is setting in, will surely offend. This scene is followed by the wife, who seems to be completely onboard with the madness, putting them both in a vinegar bath in an attempt to slide him out of the dead girl. She has heard that "Vinegar softens the skin". All of this depravity ends with the husband and daughter feeding on the mother's breasts. I liken this movie to walking down the street and being suddenly smacked in the face by a passerby who abruptly takes off. You're left wondering, "What the hell just happened to me?"

With this movie though it is easy to see how Quentin Tarantino has been so inspired by Miike, PULP FICTION in particular. Scenes seeming discombobulated but following the practice of 'what doesn't make sense now will make sense later'. VISITOR Q is original but watch it at your own risk.

Graphic Necrophilia: Check
Guy-On-Guy Microphone Rape: Check
Erotic Lactating: Check
Forced Pooping (Don't ask): Check



At this point I was totally disturbed. I wanted to run through a meadow with cute little puppies or watch a group of toddlers playing. Something innocent and sweet to counteract the assault of a movie I had just been subjected to. Could ICHI THE KILLER possibly bring me some kind of relief? I wasn't holding out any hope. The beginning of ICHI begs the question, "Is it really raining semen or am I losing my mind?" I am pretty sure it was briefly raining semen in the beginning of this movie. Oh well.

The Boss of a Japanese crime family is missing and it is rumored that he ran off with a girl and a whole lot of money, about 300 million yen to be exact. A syndicate guy named Kakihara isn't buying it. He has decided something bad has happened to The Boss and is going to get to the bottom of it.

Kakihara is a striking character with his brassy blonde locks, scars and flamboyant wardrobe. He has all the fashion sense of a Solid Gold dancer. He is a sadomasochistic lunatic who is 100% no good and doesn't mind getting messy when it comes to making scumbags talk. Suffice it to say that if he ever breaks out the tempura batter and starts deep-frying shrimp you need to get the hell out of dodge ASAP.

Entering into the fold is Ichi, a troubled figure who is programmed to kill people, violently. So violently in fact that even the heavies in the syndicate are sickened by the carnage he leaves. Kakihara feels he has found a demented soulmate in Ichi, that they are cut from the same blood-soaked cloth. He is like a kid on Christmas morning when he thinks about meeting him. Yes, he is afraid, but not of dying at the hands of Ichi, he is worried that Ichi will let him down by not being as bad ass as Kakihara thinks he is.

I wouldn't consider myself a die-hard feminist but I must admit by this point I was completely sick of the slapping, punching and raping of nearly every female character in these films. There is no empowerment of women whatsoever here. The only power they seem to be allowed to have is their sexuality and even that is used against them in revolting ways. There is one character in ICHI named Karen, she is The Boss's tough talking, no bullshit girl. It feels as if Miike will give this one some dignity, she won't be just another non-person whore for the male characters to play with. Yes, she is just as fucked up as all of them but she ends up meeting her maker in a most degrading way.

You really can't look away or blink because there are a lot of characters and storyline to keep track of. The violence is cartoonish but effective. A scene where Kakihara apologizes for an action that is viewed as disrespectful in the eyes of the higher ups ends with him cutting off his own tongue and handing it to one of the men. It is in this scene that you get the feeling that Kakihara doesn't mind doing it. To him it is the equivalent of the boss asking you to stay late at work one night. All in all ICHI isn't a bad movie but I think this movie is more popular for the other films it has inspired instead of just being a good movie on it's own. Let's visit the checklist:

Entrail Decorated Walls And Floors: Check
Heavy Arterial Spray: Check
Barfing Up Blood: Check
Karate Chopping A Minor: Check

Well, I seemed to have survived my night with Takashi Miike intact. I actually don't think he is a misogynistic pervert, not at all. I just think that is how some Japanese filmmakers roll, pushing the envelope, finding "the line" and then totally erasing it. Yeah the common theme in his movies are horrid flashbacks that consist of child abuse, rape and general unpleasantness but under all of that believe it or not is humor. Miike does have a sense of humor and when he whips it out it always takes you aback a bit.

I have come to realize that Takashi Miike is a strange and interesting place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there.


 

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