yakuza demon - 6/10
...Another kinda-compelling, kinda-boring Miike yakuza film. I HIGHLY reccomend DEADLY OUTLAW REKKAH and FUDOH, those are topnotch films. I also reccomend the 4 hour AGITATOR cut, and part 1 of FAMILY. Also, his BLACK SOCIETY TRILOGY is probably his best work, period. Also, BLUES HARP is top fucking notch. That seems like a lot of great yakuza films by this guy, but trust me, in the grand scheme of things, it barely scratches the surface, and he's made some truely truely bad yakuza films to boot. BODYGUARD CHIBA 1-3 are horrible. GOZU turns the yakuza genre on its head, but its way way way overrated (2 1/2 hours long but only has about 20 minutes of compelling scenes). NEGOTIATOR is boring as hell. Also, Miike uses the "guy bursts into a room, shoots a guy in the head, and the blood sprays on the camera" thing in like 4 of his yakuza films. I continue to be confounded by Miike, overall; he will release absolute awful garbage (GOD'S PUZZLE), and then immediately followup with something super entertaining (YATTERMAN) and then something right in the middle (CROWS ZERO). It's been harder and harder to keep up with his new releases, since his fanbase keeps dwindling, so people aren't subbing his films, or releasing them over here. I did manage to see ZEBRAMAN 2, though, and while I enjoy the first one (despite its length -- can anyone explain to me why every Miike film is usually well over 2 hours long? And that's not counting FAMILY and AGITATOR, both 4-5 hours....), this one is garbage. I love the pop songs in it, and the ending scene, but it's just too ridiculous and crappy and tired and takes way too long to get going. Anyway, if you want Miike films, go with Dead or Alive 1 and 2 (avoid 3, it's horrible), Izo (his best film BY FAR), Visitor Q, Happiness of the Katakuris, and some of the yakuza films I just mentioned. I also have a great love for the underrated Bird People in China. Avoid Andromedia, Silver, Sabu, and especially One Missed Call. I've never really been into Ichi, it's always left me cold, though I do enjoy the cop-out/fuck-you ending. Audition has enough compelling stuff to make it worth a watch, but subsequent viewings also left me cold. I'd say Imprint is his absolute worst film, though he did make another short film called "Box" that is INCREDIBLE. But, yeah, here's his best work:
If you have the patience, and some mind altering substance, watch these back to back to back. I'm sure you can find 'em cheap.
Anyway, I watched these last week and forgot to write about them. I know there are some Aoyanama fans on this board so I figured someone would appreciate:
HELPLESS - 5/10
A decent Aoyanama film, topnotch direction and full of energy. Takes place completely over the coruse of one day, and mostly in a diner. The cover is misleading -- Asano is never shirtless, in fact he wears a Nirvana "Nevermind" shirt through the whole thing! This is Asano's worst film, and Aoyanama's worst, also, but it was also his FIRST film, which makes the restrained intensity of the thing all the more compelling. What a "first film" for a director! You know? I mean, the direction is, straight-up, topnotch, even if the story is a bit middling. There just isn't much going on, and nearly the whole film is just some people sitting in a diner, without anything else happening.
CHINPIRA: TWO PUNKS - 7/10
A lot better than HELPLESS, feels very influenced by Kitano. A straight to video yakuza film, the kinda that are a dime a dozen in Japan, but it's entertaining, and the soundtrack has a lot of weird, loud distorted guitar stuff on it.
FOREST WITH NO NAME - 6/10
Compelling as hell at first, but doesn't add up to much. About an hour of the film is Mike Hammer in a facility, trying to figure out why people are mindless zombies. These scenes are weird and don't add up to anything at all. Nothing is ever solved. Though the film does seem to revolve around the secrets of the forest, specifically the main character's obsession with a tree. In that sense, it is very similiar to Kiyoshi Kurosawa's CHARISMA. The scenes OUTSIDE of the facility -- only about 10 minutes of the film -- are TOP FUCKING NOTCH. The direction, the cinematography, the editing, the atmospheric-as-hell music, the weird characters... everything about these scenes are great. Still, this film doesn't feel like much of anything, it seems like there could have been a lot added to make this one feel a lot more interesting.
These were early films from Aoyonama, who later did classics like WILD LIFE, SAD VACATION, DESERT MOON, ELI ELI REMA SABATCHTHANI, and the masterpiece-above-all-masterpieces EUREKA. I HIGHLY reccomend those films, especially EUREKA (yes, Jim O'Rourke's song is in the movie). You will have your mind blown.
I've really really really been getting back into Japanese cinema again, has anyone ever noticed how incestuous the Japanese movie industry is? Like, despite there being a LOT of people in Japan, it seems like it's the same 30 people starring in every film? I don't always know there names, but there's that one dude with the fucked-up teeth who looks like Steve Buscemi, who's in SURVIVE STYLE 5+ and SCRAP HEAVEN and about 500 other films. He's a favorite! Haha. No, but seriously -- it isn't just Japanese films, it's Hong Kong films, Chinese films, etc. And these people
work hard. I am talking, 20-30 films a year. Pretty insane/awesome.