ichi-the-killer « WordPress.com Tag Feed

Albion Launch (Perth)

Amy Austere — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:34:12 +0000

Artwork by Caroline McCurdy.

Wenn es im Sommer schneit

nyxveritas — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:36:39 +0000

“When it snows in summer”

As in “when it snows in summer, I’ll give a fuck”.

So what is currently happening? Well apart from my body deciding it no longer wants food or sleep, not much. My parents are due home from Florida on Sunday and I cannot wait, as I miss them a lot.

The situation in the house is good, as long as I forgot the other two people Missi and I live with. I like it this way, even if I am called an over-reactor for the fact I’m annoyed at someone for not listening and they do not listen to the problem, which exacerbates it. In general, means I am much better off.

I do over-react to some things, like being touched by Darth Vader at Expo. I did nearly pass out, yes, and I did get to do it twice; that was the point when I realised I can never do that again until I am a size 10 and wearing a great costume. So I am determined to do it, I will do it and nothing is going to stop me.

Another topic in the “when it snows in summer” category is the idea of a love life. I’ve seen a lot of people recently starting to pair up again and whilst I am immensely happy for them I can in no way see that happening for me because, and this will sound strange, I have absolutely no desire for it. I may have my moments of extreme agitation solved with a bit of alone time but I find myself hiding away from anything to do with partners. I am notoriously bad with relationships, they ruin me and I am in no mood to play stupid buggers when I need to be concentrating on my life, my religion, my work and my assignments. I have to concentrate on getting better really.

I have such a headache lately; I’m not sure what the issue is. I also get Ichi-type pains through my mouth, which makes me think I’ve watched the film one too many times as I am now getting phantom pains of the needle through the bottom of my mouth. Makes me cringe, especially as it causes dribbling and I’m pretty much a fuck when it comes to that as is.

So, to conclude my little ranty rant today I will note something; I love German accents, the German language and the way they talk but dear god I cannot for the life of me learn it! So, I will learn Swedish, Polish, Japanese and Thai instead, slowly and painfully.

“Sushi Typhoon”: chorros de sangre, sushi y mucha mala leche.

massacio — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 13:51:26 +0000

Si algo se caracteriza en el cine de Takashi Miike, Yoshihiro Nishimura, Noboru Iguchi, Sion Sono y Yuji Shimomura, no es la profundidad de sus historias (en el caso de Miike si, ocasionalmente), ni sus relatos de tiernos amores orientales, sino lo bizarro de sus historias, sus carismáticos personajes y los litros de sangre que irrigan en la producción empapando con plasma a los interpretes de tan amplia, excesiva y entretenida opera gore.Nombraré alguna violenta obra de cada autor para que vayáis abriendo boca de lo que nos espera:

Takashi Miike es uno de los directores más prolíficos del mundo, conocido creador de obras híper violentas en el país nipón, un director de gran calibre y uno de mis favoritos, si buscáis por el blog hay algo de este señor.

El trailer de “Ichi, The Killer”, quizás la producción violenta más conocida del autor:

Yoshihiro Nishimura es le creador de la demente y genial “Tokyo Gore Police”.

Noboru Iguchi, una especie de director de “grindhouse” niponas que dirigió “Machine Girl”. De regalo subo el trailer de su último proyecto que aún no he tenido el placer de visionar, “RoboGeisha”.

Sion Sono es un director con unas peculiares líneas argumentales. Ejemplo: la magnifica “El Club del Suicidio”.

Y por último, Yuji Shimomura, realizador novel de “Death Trance”.

Bien, una vez que conocemos un poco la trayectoria de estos autores, diré que algún tipo de ser divino les ha unificado en un nuevo sello japonés llamado “Sushi Typhoon”, dentro de la productora, Nikkatsu Corporation, con la cual producirán la nueva oleada de bizarrismo violento cinematográfico en el país del sol naciente. El primer proyecto ya está en camino con el título de “Alien vs Ninja” dirigido por Yuji Shimomura, aún no hay trailer ni demasiada información y poner cualquier tipo de sinopsis me tacharía de egocéntrico, porque, ¡el título lo dice todo!. De momento subiré el cartel y cuando saquen el trailer a la luz lo subiré.

Fire Walk With Me.

Marco Sparks — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 02:47:59 +0000

“We think we understand the rules when we become adults but what we really experienced is a narrowing of the imagination.”

-David Lynch.

Browsing through the internet tonight, same as usual, nothing too sexy or exciting, and I click on one of the hundred thousand links I seem to click on that’s supplied by someone on tumblr: The Top 10 Best David Lynch moments.

I’ll say this for Lynch, he’s made a name for himself. And by that, I mean, he’s made his name a genre onto itself. Weird horror? Weird Americana? Esoterica existentialism? We could spend a decade defining it.

The other day I was actually talking with someone about cinema, about horror and sci fi directors, directors who step outside the norm a tad, and through the course of just bullshitting and casual riffing, I started comparing Lynch with Canada’s David Cronenberg. Another man who’s made his name into a genre all of it’s own. A man who’s every choice seems to be a weird one. And when he plays normal? It’s even weirder.

And I can think of no better example there than when he actually had a two episode acting stint in J. J. Abram’s Alias. Before that, he had several cameo roles in various movies, and weird ones too, of course, like Jason X, and The Fly, and Gus Van Sant’s To Die For.

The difference between these two directors, the difference than I can easily glean for you now, is that they’re both weird, but that with Cronenberg, I think he just lets his interests in body modification or transformation or infections of both the physical and psychological kind just run away with him. I love that wikipedia actually uses the term “venereal horror” to describe his personal brand of cinema.

But then there’s Lynch, who’s a weird guy, has weird tastes, likes to make weird art, and loves to cultivate his own weirdness. A lot of times, I think it’s just a part of his brand, his act, his personal style of show, but more times I get the impression of a man who walked off the reservation years ago, realized that he was leaving a certain kind of reality behind, probably smirked to himself, and kept going. His movies, his short films, his website and stunts are all just little polaroids that he shoots back to us from his journey.

Plus, I’m sure that even Morrissey thinks that David Lynch spends too much time on his hair.

I may be giving him too much credit there, but what’s the difference. Let’s talk about the major totems in his career…

Movies/TV shows of David Lynch’s that I have watched/enjoyed:

-Dune, the adaptation of the Frank Herbert “sci fi classic.”

-Twin Peaks, the TV show.

-Blue Velvet, or, well, most of it when I was a kid.

-Mulholland Drive, the failed TV that was resurrected into a film.

-About an hour and some change from Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, the movie follow up/prequel/general ephemera to the television show.

Twin Peaks the show was just 85 to 90% brilliant weird fun. A perfect television murder mystery before we were worried about semen stains and making lab work sexy meets the weirdness of small town America, and all of it recycled through David Lynch’s odd brain. There was a lot of elements to the show that were just weird for the sake of weirdness, but for the most part, I excuse it all because it never left the confines of the logic of the show. The logic of the show wasn’t necessarily easy to decipher, but once you get a legitimate idea of what’s going on with things like Bob, the arm, the doorknob, the talking backwards, the Black Lodge, and Laura Palmer in general, you just kind of get it. Also, one of the must frustratingly wonderful endings to a TV show ever.

Its’ the same for Mulholland Drive, which would’ve been murderously frustrating as a television show, but works perfectly as a film. It’s also hard to figure out at first, but give it some time, possibly a second viewing, and if needed, a friend to explain it to you, and you’ll get a tale of lost love and just brutal, puncturing sadness set against the glitz and flashy bizarrness of LA.

Dune is Dune. If you’ve seen it, you know what I’m talking about. If you enjoyed it, you were probably on a lot of drugs or just a really gross person. Or maybe you’re a hardcore Sting fan? I don’t hate the movie by any means, but I’ll happily say that the Sci Fi channel miniseries version of the book was vastly better.

And now we delve into the darker recesses of me with the films of David Lynch that I’ve never seen:

-Eraserhead, his first film.

-Wild At Heart, which I really should’ve seen by now, at least for Nic Cage, if nothing else.

-Lost Highway, which had a soundtrack that I loved, or kinda loved, back in the 90s.

-The Straight Story, a fairly straightforward story of a real life man that just seems that much more creepy because it was done by Lynch.

-Inland Empire.

-And the rest of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.

Do you remember back when Bravo was a cable network that played real art, really culturally significant stuff? Classic movies and TV shows. Friday nights, I remember, would be foreign cinema and that’s where I’d see things like All About My Mother or Run Lola Run because, I guess I had no social life. I remember they used to play old Poirot movies all the time, mostly the Peter Ustinov ones, which were all pretty good.

Anyway, the point of me asking that is one summer they started playing episodes of Twin Peaks during the weekdays. This is where I first latched onto the show, and I remember that they played something like two episodes back to back starting at 9 AM. Now, if you really consider the weirdness/juicy soap opera factors in that show, then 9 AM is a really insidious time to air the show, leaving you creeped out through the rest of your youthful summertime abandon during the day, but hey, whatever.

But I loved the show. As I said, on one hand you had this bizarre police procedural gone crazy, and then on the other, you had a fantastical soap opera element as the show started to explore the facets of the various characters of the small town of Twin Peaks. And of course I was left hooked by the ending of the last episode. It was the ultimate cliffhanger, when your hero survives the trip to the Black Lodge that is so horrific that you can’t look away, only to discover that he may not be our hero after all…

Some actors that had an early start or appearance in their careers in Twin Peaks:

Heather Graham.

Lara Flynn Boyle.

Sherilyn Fenn.

Madchen Amick.

And David Duchovny, in drag.

Anyway, so Bravo aired the follow up film, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me a week or two after the syndicated run of the show ended and I was so excited to watch it, knowing that it’d handle some of what really happened to Laura Palmer, the teen whose murder initiated the show in general along with tackling a lot of the back story and featuring appearances by people like Keifer Sutherland, Chris Isaak, and David Bowie. Of course. These are perfectly Lynch-ian actors, much like Kyle MacLachlan doesn’t seem like a human being himself, just a caricature of a human drawn by David Lynch to snicker at.

Anyway, I’ve seen more bits and pieces of the film here and there since then, but haven’t been able to good and proper finish watching since that night I first sat down to watch it (on TV, no less!) and encountered this scene…

…featuring “my mother’s sister’s girl.” Even as I embed that youtube clip for you, I’m not watching it. I hope it’s the right one. I can’t handle it, man. You may look at it and think it’s tame and laugh at me. You’re probably right to. But watching it back then, something about it creeped me out past my then limits. It crawled inside my skin and started doing things and I had to leave the room and I haven’t come back to that particular metaphorical room since.

Hope you don’t mind me rambling on about David Lynch here but it’s Friday night and if you’re reading this, well, then you’re probably as lost as I am. But I’m someone who has, I’d like to think, watched a lot of movies across the years. My tastes are massively pretentious, and I’ll be the first to admit it, but in dichotomy, they’re also extremely low bro, just barely scraping the floor of what a human can stand to watch. And going along with that, I’m a horror movie fan. Hardcore, for the most part. I don’t really like “gore” movies, but it’s not typically a matter of finding them unsettling, just uninteresting. But one of the few times I ever felt nearly sick to my stomach was during a viewing of the unrated cut of Miike’s Ichi The Killer inflicted upon me by Conrad Noir. That film is deliriously gross and there’s a fun campiness to it. But there’s also a scene where a character very slowly cuts out his own tongue and seems to enjoy doing it and I nearly had to tap out there.

I could compare that scene with a similar one in Oldboy where a character has to do something similar, but unlike Ichi The Killer, it makes sense for the story and it’s not done in a way that attacks the viewer. It’s part of the story, an act of desperation, and kind of makes sense, even though it is an unsettling notion in general. I’ll stop there because I know everytime I bring up the words “Asian” and “cinema” in the same sentence, Benjamin Light falls asleep.

My point is that there’s really gorey stuff that can get to you and there’s psychological horror like, for example, Irreversible. And there’s movies that dance drunkely on the line in between the two, like the entire Saw set. Speaking of which, can you believe they plan to make at least 8 of these movies? Jesus fucking Christ.

And then there’s the special David Lynch touch. There’s moments in his films that are gorey and there’s moments that are flashes of psychological horror. And then there’s something else, something beyond those two. To me, Polanski was a master of the rare art of taking the creepy parts of a film and making it feel like they were in the room with you, crawling up behind you with a sick glint of terror in their eye. Gore (nice first name, buddy) Verbinski’s remake of The Ring had flashes of that same vibe. There was gore there, and existential dread, but with David Lynch, there’s something more there, something scary. I almost want him to throw some tentacles and racism in his movies so that I could say that his film studio lives in Cthulhu’s butt, man.

Another example, from near the beginning of Mulholland Drive:

I had forgotten that Phil from Lost/Jimmy Barret from Mad Men was in that scene. And yet, he’s perfect in it. And the film is shot perfectly, with the camera just hovering around these characters in semi-tight close ups in the diner, lost in the dreamtime as it fluctuates into a nightmare. It’s a brilliant decision to make us feel the character’s shock and fear rather than drift into cliched screams and quick cuts, etc. And sometimes the most horrific part of a terrible thing is being told exactly how it’s going to go down before it does. It’s what makes the ending of The Blair Witch Project work despite itself.

“Every little detail is either feeding the mood or destroying the mood.” I love that quote, from the above discussion on his techniques. Lynch is obsessed with the aesthetics of any scene.

But that scene may not be indicative of how perfect of a David Lynch movie that Mulholland Drive is. The way it lures you in with it’s seemingly straightforward plot of a amnesiac girl on the run meeting up with the good-natured wannabe starlet moving to LA, a world where the real meets with the bizarre fantasies of the real, combined with the slightly amateurish way that Lynch sometimes does his films combined scene to scene with some masterful bits of directing and editing. Maybe the “No Hay Banda”/Club Silencio scenes show all of this a little better…

…which uses the spanish language a cappella version of Roy Orbison’s “Crying” perfectly, and beautiful performed by Rebekah del Rio, to give the two characters, Betty (Naomi Watts) and Rita (Laura Elena Harring), something magnificent to take in. In a lot of ways, the whole film plays out here in this scene, as the two women, newly lovers, watch the ridiculous elements on the stage before them, but our overcome by sadness from an event that they’re not aware has ever taken place. They’re oblivous to the fact that they’re merely daydreams of their real selves, whose relationship has ended in a violent tragedy. Just as the song keeps playing long after the performer’s dead body has been dragged from the stage, some dreams stick around long after one has woken and are poisoned by the harsh southern California sunlight and turned into nightmares.

For all his weirdness, and all his attempts at capturing and being the sole conquerer of the American weird film zeitgeist, David Lynch has never been and probably never will be more perfect than he was in Mulholland Drive.

And there’s a reason that this movie, despite it’s weirdness, launched Naomi Watts onto a career that ultimately could be called merely so so. It’s not the “so so” of it that’s important, it’s the launching. It’s not totally shocking to me that she would be the common denominator in this post, having worked with Lynch, Cronenberg, and was in The Ring. But she’s perfect in this Mulholland Drive, at one moment sunny as the weather and bursting with bright eyed optimism and at other times, dark and torn apart, nothing but raw hurting nerves as she cries and masturbates. It reminds me of myself whenever I write one of these diatribes for you people.

That said, I have Inland Empire sitting around on my shelf, just waiting to be watched. Anyone care to join me? Or to hold my hand in an attempt to make it all way through Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me? It’d be much appreciated.

But for now, I leave you in peace, with a final thought from David Lynch himself, about movies and iphones:

Ichi the killer - filmi, animesi, mangası

içten — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 22:22:52 +0000

Ichi the killer’ın animesini yeni izledim ve bu konuda yazmak istiyorum ama bazı çekincelerim var. Burda bazen animeleri övdüğümde insanlar merak edip izliyorlar, lütfen bunu izlemeye kalkmayın. Çünkü “Ben şiddet içerikli animeleri severim, Elfen Lied’i sevmiştim ” diyip izlerseniz sonra bana gelip “ay çok iğrenç” diye ahlaklı ve aklı başında insan pozları kesmenizi istemem. 18 yaşın altındakiler hiç izlemeye kalkmasın zaten. Baştan uyarımı yapayım dedim.

İlk önce Takashi Miike tarafından çekilen Ichi the killer (Koroshiya 1) filmini izlemiş ve çok beğenmiştim. Özellikle Kakihara karakterine bayıldım. Fakat anime ve manganın karşısında film Telletubbies gibi kalıyor (dersem biraz abartmış olurum ^^’). Film zaten mangadan uyarlanma ve mangası oldukça iç karartıcı. Film de epey psikopattı ama Takashi Miike konuyu mizahla yumuşatmış. Mangada takım elbiseli, siyah saçlı ve olabildiğince tiksinç bir karakter olan Kakihara filmde bildiğin şirin. Anime de (ichi the killer episode 0) filmden sonra yayımlanıyor. Ve eğlenceli bir ayrıntı: Animede Kakihara’yı Takashi Miike seslendiriyor

Ichi %100 sadist eğilimlere sahip bir genç. Aslında çok ezik bir insan ve zeka yaşı 6. Kimseye zarar verecek bir insan gibi görünmüyor ama arkasında bıçak olan botlarıyla tekme atarak etrafındaki herkesi doğruyor. Bir de Kakihara var. Kendisi acı çektirme olayına sanatsal bir bakış açısı olan bir mafya üyesi. Yanakları boydan boya yarık dolayısıyla sigara dumanını yanlardan üfleyebiliyor ve ağzını kocaman açarak acayip şeyler yapabiliyor. Filmde suratında huzurlu bir gülümsemeyle insanlara işkence yaparak sevgimizi kazandı. Ichi cinayetleriyle yakuza dünyasında ün kazanınca kendisine yeterince acı verebilecek birini bulamamaktan muzdarip Kakihara Ichi’yle kapışmak istiyor. Filmde Ichi’nin kendisi için gelmek üzere olduğunu anlayan Kakihara’nın “Oi oi korkuyorum ben vay canına” diye sevinmesi çok komikti. Fakat gerçekte (yani mangada) Kakihara’nın Ichi ile karşılaşması kendisi için hiç de eğlenceli olmuyor. Şurdan manganın o kısmını okuyabilirsiniz ama 21 yaşın altı verdiğim linke tıklamasın, tamam mı?

Animede Ichi’nin geçmişine gidiliyor ve nasıl bu hale geldiği anlatılıyor. Çok rahatsız edici sahneler içeriyor. Filmde ve animede bence asıl rahatsız edici olan yerler kanlı sahneler değil cinsel şiddet içeren sahnelerdi. Ama çok başarılı bir animasyon olmuş. Müzikleri de oldukça ilginçti. Filmin hayranları mutlaka izlemeli, filmi izlememiş olanlaraysa tavsiye etmiyorum.

Japanese Cinema

neocromagnon — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:49:16 +0000

I’ve been fortunate enough to have lived in Japan for two years.

During that time I watched many movies, I am not talking about the classics like the Kurosawa’s and such, I’m talking about going to the local rental video store and start picking movies without knowing anything about them. Just judging by the cover.

Find out some of my favourites after the jump.

Samurai Fiction

I’m sure Tarantino liked this movie as well.

Ichi the Killer

Incredibly funny, irreverent and gory. Don’t watch if you’re easily affected by gore.

Waterboys

The closest thing to a Ranma 1/2 feature movie we will ever get

Quill

Don’t watch it if -like me- you easily cry with the life cycle of a dog

Electric Dragon 80.000v

A really, really, really different superhero movie. Only Japan…

A Snake of June

The most disturbing movie I have ever seen. It will stay with your for a long time. Don’t watch it alone on a rainy night, if you’re human.

Ichi the Killer (Descarga directa)

Diego — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 21:57:00 +0000

“Todos los sucesos y personajes en la película son totalmente repulsivos. Cualquier semejanza con personas, vivas o muertas, es una triste coincidencia”.

Así rezan los títulos de crédito de ICHI THE KILLER. Muchas cosas se han dicho acerca de esta película desde que fue estrenada hace un año en festivales occidentales. Y no es para menos, ya que la extrema violencia y sadismo de la que hace gala ha mandado a más de un espectador disparado fuera del cine en busca del lavabo. En el festival de Toronto Midnight Madness 2001, por si acaso, pusieron bolsitas de papel en los asientos. En el festival de Londres del año pasado, un tipo a mi lado, paró de comer pistachos después de 10 minutos de haber empezado la cinta y delante mía, una señora, pasó toda la película mirando al suelo. ICHI THE KILLER cerró el festival de Udine 2002. A su comienzo, el teatro estaba abarrotado, al acabar y después de encenderse las luces pude comprobar que el cine estaba medio vacío.

Los primeros en esfumarse fueron los actores y directores invitados, entre ellos Miriam Yeung, protagonista de la ganadora del premio del público, Love Undercover. Pero para ser sinceros era sábado por la noche, la proyección comenzó a eso de la una y media de la noche y muchos de los asistentes seguramente no tenían otra cosa que hacer esa noche.

ARGUMENTO

Un conocido jefe de la Yakuza (la mafia japonesa) ha desaparece junto con un botín de 100 millones de yenes. Su mano derecha, el sanguinario y masoquista Kakihara, y el resto del clan, emprenden su búsqueda, ya que no creen que se haya fugado. Para encontrarlo utilizarán todos los métodos que consideren oportunos, ya sea torturando o matando. Así, Kakihara consigue averiguar que lo que pensaban que era una desaparición, es en realidad un asesinato, cometido por un hombre llamado Ichi, un esquizofrénico que cuando pierde el control puede hacer picadillo, literalmente, a cualquiera. Con esto, quiere resarcirse de los traumas de la infancia, aunque lo que consigue es lo contrario. Pero Ichi no esta sólo en esta lucha, le acompañan unos repudiados del clan, destacando a Jijii, que es la cabeza del grupo y quien incita al caos que se organiza. (FILMAFFINITY)

Ichi the killer: (Audio español, si la encuentro en japones volveré a subirla)
Parte 1
Parte 2
Parte 3

(Bajar las tres partes y unir con rar)

Publicar entrada

Ichi the Killer (manga)

readordie — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:27:43 +0000

Romantikus, valóban...

A hét elején kaptam kézhez a komplett mangát az egyik szobatársamtól, és ma vonatozás közben elkezdtem lapozgatni, hát meg is mondom 5 kötet fogyott el hazaúton, utóbbi ötöt meg most végeztem ki. Láttam a filmet is, meg az animét is, ami mellé készült, de a manga az igazi.
Hosszan lehetne fejtegeni mennyire lelkibeteg a két főszereplő (a képen), és mennyire beteg maga a képregény, és a megvalósítások, de szerintem ezen a ponton már szórakoztató, mint sem undorító Ichi története, aki igazából a gyermekkori elnyomás hatására lett szuper-gyilkos, Kakihara meg az abszolút gonosz. Olyan mint a Gurren Lagann-ban a spirálnépség. Elpusztíthatatlan, végtelen, teljesen őrült, nem lehet eltörölni. Aztán mégis sikerül, és ez még csak nem is a manga sarkpontja, noha Ichi-t Kakihara üldözi, találkozásuk mégis legelsőre a legérdekesebb.
No, mindegy, lényeg a lényeg, hogy kár, hogy eddig nem olvastam el, mert nagyon érdekes, és fordulatos. Már ha az fordulat, hogy valakire egyik jelenetben forró olajat öntenek, majd a másikban belecsapnak egy kést a koponyájába.
Hát eléggé gore jellegű, de tényleg érdekes, szóval ha van kedvetek lapozgassátok ti is. De ne lepődjetek meg, mert elég öncélúan erőszakos. (Szóval csak a téma “szerelmeseinek”.)

Trailer: Robo-Geisha

Eric Eisenberg — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 16:32:25 +0000

(Where is the rest of her?) Being a film blogger affords me some opportunities that I could possibly

"I thought about Vampire and his sexah eyes and his gothic black hair and how his face looks just like Joel Madden."

shawp — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 06:52:12 +0000

Yes, I am using Ebony as a pun (for both an awful fanfic character and an infamous black culture magazine). Throw in some cultural relevancy with MJ and we have ourselves a sub-par blog photo.

I am living in Tallahassee. I sublet an apartment from a friend for cheap. My girlfriend is living with me because her roommate is a terrible person. Let me elaborate: her roommate is a bigot and leaves too many passive-aggressive notes.

I have yet to find work. I go through periods of trying very hard and then cycle to depressed discouragement. I worked on an organic farm one Saturday for $50. I tried to keep that going, but it did not pan out (many tedious factors contributed).

When I went to Japan, my grandparents gave me an embarrassingly huge sum of money that has fueled me through this summer and also made me feel extremely guilty in a spoiled kind of way. My grandparents live humbly yet dig deep to help provide for me. I don’t even know what they’re saying half the time — half being a very generous estimate. I am determined to learn more Japanese.

Somehow, I have managed to entertain myself in Tallahassee.

According to my Twitter posts this has included:

Visiting my parents (did some crafting with my mother, did some golfing/racquet ball with my father).

Visiting Gainesville and finally being 21 (went to free beer/karaoke and actually got to participate in the hoarding of plastic cups).

Getting ready for Ireland (mentally as well as physically)

Watching Ichi the Killer, Up, The Watchmen, Delicatessen, Cash Back, Battle Star Galactica and The Office (confusing, depressing, not as quirky as Amelie, charming, worth some of the hype, reliable — in that order).

Applying for places like Target, Kmart, Jimmy Johns, Borders, etc. etc. (I only got an interview at Borders and I was the seventh one that day).

Staying up too late (like tonight).

Playing nurse for my girlfriend who had a 102 fever for a few days (which I don’t think I caught, thank God).

Jogging in the evenings on the rape trail (I am not worried about being raped because the trail is scattered with “rape poles”)

Twittering @pattons (Yes, I am caught in the craze)

and today…

I picked out a frame at Crank It Up and am going to start building my own bicycle!

I think there was some jamming on my guitar in there as well.

Oh, and my girlfriend and I turned into middle schoolers and read terrible Harry Potter fan fiction and laughed our asses off all night. It was way better than seeing the movie’s premiere and much cheaper.

Here is the infamous “My Immortal,” which I only now discovered:

http://myimmortalrehost.webs.com/

And here is a tongue-in-cheek Wikipedia-esque article about the above mentioned fan fiction:

http://encyclopediadramatica.com/My_Immortal

I think our middle school selves devolved pretty far. We started looking up words on Urban Dictionary.com and making really immature jokes. We also started our own Harry Potter fan fiction, to be published soon under a pseudo name. If you ever stumble across an awful piece of fanfic garbage full of lewd sex and violence, all involving the Harry Potter cast, it may well be ours.

Neither of us like Harry Potter.

Robogeisha

Zonya Nox — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 23:54:40 +0000

Me fascinan este tipo de películas y todo fue por culpa de Ichi the Killer

La cual es una de mis favoritas (yo ♥ Kakihara), y aunque muchos efectos de Robogeisha parecen haber sido sacados de algun episodio de los Power Rangers no dudare en buscarla…

Por cierto, siempre he querido una foto vestida de Geisha y esto me ha dado una que otra idea..

Listening: Love the giver – Claire Voyant

Mood: I’m still lazy

Library Loot: The post about the books I got from the library

uenohama — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 18:41:15 +0000

It’s been a pretty slow week so far. I have, however, gone to the library (today in fact) and burrowed two books:

This is based on the film Audition directed by Takashi Miike. The film wasn’t that great, although I do wonder if I hadn’t know anything about it would it have been better or worse. Takashi Miike is a reasonable enough director, his most famous film (at least with Western audiences) Ichi the Killer is ridiculously over-the-top, combining the frenzy and whirlwind cartoonish antics of a Bugs Bunny cartoon with a story involving gore and sadomasochism. Visitor Q is a film that will have to staring at the scene with utter disbelief at what you’re watching. However, I’m more a fan of his more subdued and reflective fare. His film The Bird People of China is utterly wonderful, combining the tranquil stillness of say, a Takeshi ‘Beat’ Kitano film with his own comedic slapstick. If you only think Takashi Miike films are just mindless gore then watch The Bird People of China.

If you don’t know what Audition is about then here is the synopsis:

Documentary-maker Aoyama hasn’t dated anyone in the seven years since the death of his beloved wife, Ryoko. Now even his teenage son Shige has suggested he think about remarrying. So when his best friend Yoshikawa comes up with a plan to hold fake film auditions so that Aoyama can choose a new bride, he decides to go along with the idea. Of the thousands who apply, Aoyama only has eyes for Yamasaki Asami, a young, beautiful, delicate and talented ballerina with a turbulent past. But there is more to her than Aoyama, blinded by his infatuation, can see, and by the time he discovers the terrifying truth it may be too late Ryu Murakami delivers his most subtle and disturbing novel yet, confirming him as Japan’s master of the psycho-thriller.

The second book is:

When I saw this book I knew I had to get it. I’m hopping it’s going to be so bad it’s good. The book is by Noire (whoever he is) and I’m guessing 50 Cent just put his name on it to get some more money. Supposedly, it’s an urban erotic appetizer, whatever that is. The synopsis doesn’t make it sound anything to do with eroticism or an appetizer. Perhaps the book is the equivalent of foreplay and no sex. Here’s the synopsis:

The seven Davis brothers made a promise to their mother on her deathbed: they would each make something of their lives. And they vowed they would watch over eighteen-year-old Zabu Davis, their baby brother. Intelligent, driven, and charismatic, Baby Brother had resisted the lure of Brooklyn street life and was headed for Stanford University on a pre-med scholarship. But on the eve of his departure for California, in a split second of blinding violence, his girlfriend is fatally shot and Baby Brother’s life is thrown onto a tragic collision course. Soon, his devoted brothers follow a path of blood justice that will rock the city streets. Baby Brother was their pride and joy. Now, he’s their reason to fight for vengeance.

It doesn’t sound that bad, cliché but the writing might be decent. We shall see. I’m not very confident though seeing as the author’s other book is another URBAN EROTIC TALE called, wait for it….THONG ON FIRE. Is that a medical condition? The synopsis is top notch too:

From the streets to sheets, Thong on Fire spins the torn-from-the-headlines story of Saucy Sarita Robinson-a sassy video vixen whose grimy street capers lift her up to the top of her game, then slam her down. HARD.

Hilarious.

Movie Review: Ichi the Killer

Steve — Tue, 19 May 2009 12:20:01 +0000

Fans of Japanese cinema will no doubt be familiar with auteur filmmaker Takashi Miike, though with a catalogue of work as large as his it’s perhaps just as likely you haven’t seen it all. Miike is notorious for the controversial nature of many of his films and many viewers are turned off by the decidedly adults-only content and unique brand of humour present in some of his more popular films. Others however may compare Miike to Quentin Tarantino, and beyond comparisons of skill it’s certainly easy to see the connection considering the polarising effect of both creators’ works. But enough of that, let’s get onto the film at hand: Miike’s 2001 yakuza thriller Ichi the Killer, based on the manga by Hideo Yamamoto.

I really need to get this out of the way first: Ichi the Killer is violent, sadistic, vulgar, challenging and at times downright distasteful. Despite this – and sometimes because of it – it’s also a whole lot of fun. This is most certainly not a film for the easily offended (that’s an understatement) and a bit of the old ultra-violence is only the beginning. There are multiple scenes of women being beaten, raped or both. In fact, Ichi opens with one such scene save for a short sequence beforehand. There is no denying that these scenes are uncomfortable to watch – it’s unavoidable by the very nature of the act – but Miike has been somewhat merciful and I wouldn’t call these the most horrific rape scenes ever put to film. Rounding out the depravity are numerous scenes of torture and disfigurement – one particularly nasty sequence involves hooks, needles and cooking oil – and even a couple of scenes of sexual sadomasochism. Not to mention that the film’s title is presented rising out of a small pool of semen (reportedly real semen provided by members of the cast and crew).

You can’t help but laugh as you squirm at ideas like that – I couldn’t, anyway – and while it’s not always easy to stomach, most of the blood and gore pushes into completely over-the-top territory that eases the impact. Characters are split in half, faces are sliced off; at times it’s more hilarious than it is disgusting and this is an enjoyable and welcome element given the undeniably sickening nature of some other scenes. Still, Ichi the Killer is more than blood and sex. It also features (deeply) black comedy that plays off the extremities and ensures that you’ll laugh at least as much as you wince. One of the finest examples of this comes as lead character Kakihara (played by Tadanobu Asano) cuts out his own tongue only to answer his phone a moment later. It’s a unique, twisted sense of humour that perhaps not many viewers will find appealing, but I must admit that I do.

Kakihara (Tadanobu Asano) is a true sadist.

The plot largely follows Kakihara as he leads his gang in search of their previous leader’s killer. Kakihara is brutal and sadistic in the truest sense, so psychotic and unpredictable that you’ll be almost mesmerised waiting to see what he’ll do next. The film also follows the eponymous Ichi (played by Nao Omori), a tortured and cowardly young man with psychotic tendencies who wears a superhero costume when out killing “bullies”. Ichi isn’t overly fond of killing though, and you’ll learn more about how he came to be the way he is as the movie progresses. This is a fairly intriguing side-note to the main story, which progressively winds Kakihara and Ichi’s stories into a climactic showdown between the two. The general plot is pretty standard yakuza fare, but the presentation is strong, the characters are insanely unique (quite literally), and the film as a whole is the work of a wild imagination.

Ichi the Killer is a difficult film to review and and recommend generally. It’s constructed and acted well enough – there are some nicely framed shots and interesting angles, the editing is mostly tight and Kakihara and Ichi are strongly characterised by Asano and Omori respectively – but while these technical positives make it a much better film, it’s the content that will make or break Ichi for most viewers. I enjoyed it, but I’ll guess that most people probably won’t. Even some fans of director Takashi Miike’s other work may find this a little too much to handle: it lacks the relative subtlety of a film like Audition and is, in my experience of Miike’s catalogue, his most visually savage work.

Ichi (Nao Omori) seems to think he's some sort of superhero.

But with all this said of the violence, I still found that it was not quite as horrific as many reviewers seemed to indicate in my pre-viewing research. Perhaps I expected too much, and I’d say with certainty that I’m glad I didn’t get what I was expecting, as Ichi effortlessly earns its R rating. The various scenes of rape are incredibly uncomfortable and there’s plenty of distasteful content, but most of the violence is so gloriously over-the-top in its excess and revelry that I found it hard not to revel along with it, at least a little bit. Ichi the Killer is not for everyone, but it is certainly a unique and enjoyable (albeit at times challenging) film for those with the stomach for it. If you think you’re up for the ride, I do recommend it.

Ichi the Killer is available on DVD and is due for release on Blu-Ray on August 11, 2009.

Tokyo Zombie

Cristina Blackwater — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 02:09:43 +0000

Tokyo Zombie (2005)

This is japanese movie directed by Sakichi Sato in 2005, and tells the story of Fujio (a guy with no special talents and a big afro) and Mitsuo (his bald mentor who’s an expert of Jujitsu). After they accidentally kill their boss, they decide to bury his body on Black Fuji, a mountain that’s a result of all the trash and dirty laundry piled up from Tokyo’s inhabitants. As it turns out, the mountain is full of dead bodies and a weird chemical reaction results into a full blown zombie attack, and their odd adventure begins..

Today i was really sick and as i was laying in bed i realized it was about time to update my site. As you might have noticed, i decided to talk about a Japanese movie for a change. The main reason why i did this is a special person who told me i shouldn’t miss it. The second reason is that probably comedy and laughter are a better cure for sickness than my usual korean ultra-violent drama. Not to mention the ZOMBIES! hello? Zombies are the cure for everything.

So if you ever asked yourself: can a zombie movie be awesome? hilarious? sentimental? post apocalyptic? just plain fucking weird? – and hoped that there would be one day where you could answer all these question with a YES, well then look no further. Because Tokyo Zombie has them all!

It might be also interesting to remind you that the main actor in this movie is Tadanobu Asano, who (other that being extremely hot) already starred in really good movies like Ichi the Killer and Survive Style 5+.. and that Tokyo Zombie also originally comes from a manga, and follows its pace. if you’re looking for entertainment, dark comedy, and flesh eating zombies all mixed up Japanese style, this is definitely the movie for you.

Ichi the Killer

nakatsu — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 21:18:51 +0000

Väldigt klent med uppdateringar på senaste tiden, jag vet! Varit mycket med tentor och grupparbeter i skolan. Förra inlägget råkade jag publicera utan bilder, och inte ens färdigskriven – men det fixade jag till idag. Tänkte uppdatera ännu lite mer nu när jag ändå är på gång.

Ichi The Killer

Originaltitel: 殺し屋１
Gjord: 2001
Sågs av mig: Februari 2009
Skådespelare: Asano Tadanobu, Tsukamoto Shinya, Omori Nao, Sun Alien m.fl.
Genre: Skräck, yakuza.
Land: Japan.

En svårbeskriven och groteskt våldsam film där vi stöter på yakuzamedlemmen Kakihara med ihopsydda hål i vardera kind, och seriemördaren Ichi som med ett sylvasst knivblad fäst på hälen delar människor på mitten. Om du gillar filmer med svårförstådd handling, gastkramande tortyr och hav av inälvor så är Ichi the Killer som gjord för dig – annars, nja… kanske inte.

Betyg:

Ichi the Killer - Review

Cello — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 12:45:50 +0000

Next week, this film gets its high def treatment for the first time by hitting the shelves on blu-ray format. Ichi the Killer solidified Takashi Miike‘s status as the go-to guy for Japan Cinema that relies on stylistic violence, gore, and over-the-top yakuza stereotypes. For a long time, I had heard about what a terrifically screwed up movie it was, but I had never had the opportunity to see for myself. More importantly, though, I knew after seeing it that I would be doing a review about it on this blog. Even by Miike’s standards of excess, ‘Ichi the Killer’ is not for the faint-hearted, with its frequent scenes of torture, dismemberment, rape and body horror.

The story of Ichi the Killer revolves around the Anjo Gang. It seems that Boss Anjo, who was last seen entering a hotel room for some “alone time” with one of his girls, has turned up missing. Not only that, but 300 million yen is missing with him. The other yakuza in the syndicate just assume he stole the money and ran off with the girl. Ichi then enters, who is a fragile-minded guy a charcter named Jijii has been using as a hitman. He’s no normal hitman, however, and has to be carefully manipulated into doing anything. Jijii managed to plant false memories in Ichi’s head through hypnosis convincing him that he was bullied throughout high school and the only girl who ever protected him was gang-raped right in front of him while he just stood there powerless to do anything about it. I guess you can see where this is going. The two sides of the coin link up and alot of violence and torture insue. Horray!

Yet tempting as it is to dismiss the film as little more than a stylish compendium of ultraviolent sensationalism made with Miike’s characteristic verve, this would be to ignore the film’s high level of sophistication and the incredible intellectual demands which it makes on viewers. It would have been really easy for most actors, upon reading the script for Ichi the Killer, to decide to play Kakihara with campy exuberance. Surely a sadomasochistic yakuza hitman who dresses like The Joker from Batman would be pretty excitable. Asano is not most actors, however, and plays the role with a scarily calm demeanor.

Unlike Kakihara, the role of Ichi had to be played over the top, and Nao Omori was up to the task. This film is a slick, fast-paced yakuza flick with a heavy dose of the absurd and a heavier dose of the grotesque. It is a furious, frantic and at times very funny piece of bravura filmmaking. Sure you’ll go in anticipating the violence but there really is more to it then that. I’ll let you be the deciding factor to judge that, all I can do is give this film a thumbs up. Recommended.

B-filmsregissör dramaskådis i japansk TV-serie

snagzon — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 09:36:00 +0000

Takashi Miike, som regisserat spännande original som Ichi the Killer och Visitor Q, ska enligt Tokyograph.com nu ha debuterat som dramaskådis. TV-serien han medverkar i är NHK’s taiga-drama Tenchijin, där han introduceraderas redan i avsnitt 6 som sändes i Japan för mer än en månad sedan. Det ryktas till och med om en viss svärdviftarscen med en viss Tsumabuki. Andra skådisar som Takashi Miike får spela mot i serien är gamla kollegorna Satoshi Tsumabuku, Shun Oguri och Kyoko Fukada.

Download Film Ichi The Killer Versi Asli dan Manga Gratis Server Lokal

Mas Badai — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 19:06:31 +0000

Cara masukkan subtitlenya: Download Filmnya dan Subtitlenya. Kalau sudah selesai, rename (ganti nama file) sama dengan subtitle. Misal: cj7.avi subtitlenya harus cj7.srt. Lalu play dengan player kesukaanmu.

Cara download: (Banyak yang menanyakan neh) simple kok, cukup klik link DOWNLOAD DISINI <—- Kata DISINI itulah yang anda KLik.

Tolong kalau memang ini berguna bagi anda, luangkan sedikit waktu untuk kasih vote atau komentar. Thanks…

ichi the killer

DOWNLOAD FILM DISINI

DOWNLOAD ENG SUBTITLE DISINI

Rename file .rar ke .avi (tidak di ekstrak)

Versi Manga

Ichi the Killer Manga

DOWNLOAD FILM DISINI

pass: 717680

ICHI THE KILLER

The film stars Tadanobu Asano as Kakihara, a sadomasochist yakuza enforcer who enjoys giving and receiving pain in about equal measures. Kakihara’s boss Anjo is murdered in a particularly gruesome fashion and a mysterious group arrives to clean up all evidence of the murder, stealing 300 million yen Anjo had in his room while there.

Directed by	Takashi Miike
Produced by	Akiko Funatsu Dai Miyazaki
Written by	Screenplay: Sakichi Satō Manga: Hideo Yamamoto
Starring	Tadanobu Asano Shinya Tsukamoto Nao Omori Alien Sun
Music by	Karera Musication Seiichi Yamamoto
Cinematography	Hideo Yamamoto
Editing by	Yasushi Shimamura

Controversial Movies: Art or Trash (Pt. 3)

spraym — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 06:06:43 +0000

This is part 3 in a 5 part series. Follow this link for part 1 and this link for part 2.

Hola hombres. It’s been a long weekend which started with a trip to “detox” which is like the drunk tank but you don’t get charged with public intoxication. When I get done with these controversial movies, I’ll give me two cents on the experience but until then, I want to keep the focus on cinema. For today’s movie, we are going to travel East instead of West to the land of Japan.

The Japanese are well known for having some pretty fucked up movies, especially for anyone who has watched anime beyond what is played on Adult Swim. But, as stated earlier in part 1, I’m going to leave anime out of this. Looking at other Japanese films, we have a couple genres which we see a lot of. First, we have the generic violence tweaked in a manner to mess with our heads. In this category, we have movies like Battle Royal in which around 30 teenagers are put on an island and have to kill each other until one is left. In 72 hours. Or they all die. No one said high school was going to be fair. I think a fat kid gets his first. On a side note, we Westerners invented that originally. It was called Lord of the Flies. And we killed the fat kid too because dead fat kids are make-you-shit-yourself hilarious. But I digress.

The other well known genre for Japanese cinema is gore flicks like Suicide Club which is made just to shock the hell out of you. How? Well, imagine 50 high school girls holding hands, singing a song in unison and being generally cute. Now, imagine that same group of girls jumping in front of a moving subway and spraying a blood wave 20 feet in the air. Shocked? Probably not, so here’s the clip!

If you drop your homework on the subway tracks, just let it go; cuz man, it's gone

Now that we have proven that Japanese movie makers are certifiably psychotic, you are wondering why I’m bringing up these movies. Well, it is to better understand the controversial movie I’m about to go over. It is a mix of that goofy over the top violent action combined with shit that just makes you wish you never got out of bed when you were 10 years old so the horrors of the world would have never entered your precious head.

Ichi the Killer

Woof, that creepy guy in the poster sort of scares me, but if you haven’t seen the movie, get a summary here.

I don’t know what is more shocking about this movie; the strong sexual overtones or the violence. To be honest, the violence in this movie is pretty campy. I mean, it’s gory and violent and people get hacked up worse than Kill Bill but honestly, it is so over the top and at times so poorly done, it is hard to be “traumatized” or at least turned off by the movie. One scene in particular when he cuts a prostitute(?) in half symmetrically, it looks like she’s glowing pink inside. The effect is terrible. I’ll bring up Cannibal Holocaust again because in that film, the cannibals chop a dude into pieces with stone axes and it looks sickeningly realistic and it was done with an 8mm camera and ~20 years prior to this film. For all the awesome CG work the Japanese do, it just boggles the mind why they would be so damn lazy on this effect. If you are going to chop a guy (and especially a woman) in half, then at least try to make it look good. It is the psychotic’s mantra: “you only go to hell once, so make it count.” (Editor’s Note: there is no psychotic’s mantra, only “Mike’s daily speech to himself in the mirror”.) Okay, so what else makes this movie “controversial” then?

Well, remember when I said “turned off by the movie” above? If not, then re-read it and start paying attention because there is one guy who is definitely getting turned on by this movie. Ichi, our main character, it seems has a little sexual problem. He can’t get off unless he’s murdering people. Imagine, gentlemen reading this, that you are 19 years old and unable to ejaculate unless you disembowel a room full of 30 year old men. Yeah, you’d be a world of hurt. And how do we know he has this odd sexual blockage? Ichi talks about it but the kicker is when blood sprays on the wall and it is shortly followed by a stream of ejaculate. Yep, he comes on the walls. Skeet, skeet, skeet! (Actually, that was supposed to be a caption for a image of the main title which is made out of Ichi’s semen but while looking for an image I ran into some disgusting shit that would probably get me arrested in most countries so I aborted).

Ichi’s odd fetish notwithstanding, there is also a good amount of rape in this film. A re-occurring theme of the movie is that Ichi was brought into his career of killing evil men because when he was younger he watched a girl he liked get raped and didn’t do anything to stop it (I won’t bring this up anymore to avoid plot spoilers). So, since that was his first “sexual experience” it is used to explain his violent ejaculation and I’m not talking about Scary Movie. Their handling of rape is pretty terrible because they always present the victim of the act as someone other than the actual victim of the rape. I could spend another couple of paragraphs going into what is wrong with this but it should speak for itself.

Probably the “funniest” scene is when Ichi is talking to a prostitute and she pretends to be this girl he saw get raped and did nothing to help and that she was turned on by the act and that she desires him and want to feel pain (for some Japanese reason). He gets overly excited about this and chops off half of her leg. She hops around on her non-stumpy leg, screaming and spraying blood until he finishes her off in the middle of a hallway. Is it actually funny? No but try to imagine the ridiculousness of the scene and you may chuckle. For those who have actually seen the movie, then maybe you laughed. I can’t be the only person.

Conclusion: This movie is pretty messed up. The violence isn’t realistic but the context in which it takes place most of the time is pretty random, relatively meaningless and over the top to the point where when they shipped the film to the censorship board, they must have included a picture of the director giving the bird. Combined with the sexual oddities of Ichi and the rampant prostitution and rape and you have a full fledged WTF movie. Fine, but is it art?

Well, this one is difficult. Yes, when it came to Caligula, I was pretty forward with my hatred for the lack of effort in making the violence realistic and contextually meaningful. With Ichi the Killer, it is pulling from the influence of anime and the original comic where this kind of crap is tolerated and in mimicking the source material, it does well. And even though it’s treatment of rape slightly pisses me off, I can’t fault Ichi the Killer with at least trying to do something different and within the grand scheme of things, it gives the movie an unique angle in which to view the protagonist. And also, like most Japanese films, there are some interesting themes and views on honor, society and modern life. That said, none of it really applies to a normal person and when you finish the film, those scenes seem generic within the realm of Japanese films and appear to be present for the sole purposes of giving transition between the action scenes. Even the scenes that try to be artistic come off as superficial and any true originality is kind of lost because of this. It definitely isn’t the worse movie you could watch on a Saturday afternoon but to reach a conclusion, I’m going to go with trash.

Part 4 will be coming soon (2/9 or 2/10) and prepare thyself for part 5 no later than 2/11. Although I said I wasn’t doing this in any order, I am saving my favorite controversial film for last.

What I Was Doing Whilst Typing: Listening to Man Of War. Remember kids, other bands play… Man Of War Kills!

Tempura, misogyny and torture, oh my!

rhyhimself — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 17:07:48 +0000

As promised, here’s the first installment in what I have opted to fondly name “Goreweek ‘09″: I review some of the most notorious films out there for your amusement.

Luckily, I’ve been blessed with something of an iron stomach. The first proper “horror” film I can remember seeing was Spawn, although this wasn’t my first actual “gore” film. That was Romero’s Dawn of the Dead. I remember feeling violently queasy after watching the infamous disembowling scene. This was at 12 years old. Since then my tastes expanded to the Evil Dead series and several obscure Japanese films. Thanks, Dad.

Today I’ll be reviewing Takashi Miike’s infamous “Ichi the Killer”. So sit back, relax and enjoy.

Although the film is indeed called Ichi the Killer (Ichi being the Japanese name for the number 1), the central character is a sado-masochistic Yakuza enforcer called Kakihara who is looking for his boss’s killer who just happens to be the eponymous Ichi.

I won’t spoil the whole plot for you, but here’s a little stab by stab lowdown as to just how viewing pans out for the viewer.

0.05 : A woman has had the shit beaten out of her and the film’s title has just formed out of a puddle of come. Delightful.

0.30: Can I smell Tempura?

TEMPURA?! WHERE?!

The film then descends into an orgy of violence, torture, misogyny and some really crazy fucking plot twists. believe it or not, the gore isn’t that bad. It’s campy, over the top, silly. And that’s the way it should be. I just can’t say that I feel all that comfortable with the portrayl of women in the film. One woman gets raped and beaten, then killed. Another one says she fantasizes about being raped… whatever. I’m split about the movie. It disgusts and compells me; because the scary thing is that Miike actually does know that he’s fucking with a lot of conventions.

If you’re a gore fan, I’d watch it, but take it with a pinch of salt. Good film though.

Ichi The Killer ฮีโร่หัวกลับ [ซับไทย]

doctorx23 — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 17:00:58 +0000

Ichi The Killer ฮีโร่หัวกลับ [ซับไทย]
1 2 3 4 5 6

Takashi Miike's Work is Reactionary

marcuswinter — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 20:04:08 +0000

I have made quite a disturbing discovery lately-Takashi Miike’s work is extremely reactionary. Yes folks, I’m afraid it’s true. My favorite dark horror director from back in my Satanist individualist days was a right-winger all along.

For those not familiar with his name or his work, Miike is best described as the Japanese Quentin Tarantino, though his works are much more about unbelievable violence and confusing non-linear plots than even Tarantino’s. American audiences who have not seen Ichi the Killer, Audition or The Happiness of the Katakuris may recognize him as the sunglasses guy from the movie Hostel.

Miike’s films often are a mixture of horror, sexual allegory and comic book gangster and superhero flicks. They often are very surreal and cartoony while at the same time being gritty as can be while never losing an ironic touch. There’s also usually a guy being cut in half or a woman being raped as well. This is the sort of pointless violence that is featured in all of his films.

I was contemplating his film Visitor Q the other day and it occurred to me that the film boils down to nothing more then a conservative endorsement of the traditional Japanese “family unit.” The violence and taboo-bashing contained within the film is not so much to celebrate the crumbling of the society that produces the family unit as a product, as I originally thought, but rather a validation of the necessity of family roles. Through the catharsis of violence and sexual deviancy, eventually everyone in the movie resumes their “proper” household place. The father goes back to being a provider, the mother a nurturer, the son and daughter as loyal, obedient offspring.

The sick images that Miike has indulged the audience in thus render themselves not as representations of the harmful psychological side-effects of bourgeois society, but as the moralist warnings of WHAT COULD HAPPEN and what has happened to disrupt that society. Things like this only make it more apparent that I can never go back to being a non-Marxist. There is simply no way I can forget what I have learned.