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FantAsia 2003: Ichi The Killer
Jul. 23rd, 2003 11:05 pmNow this - she says half-admiringly - is one fuxx0red movie. Half-admiring because it's not one of Miike's best, in terms of kinetic wow; it's not a musical, no one sprouts fluffy wings, there are no penii longer than people are tall, and so forth. Probably one of the most dramatically cohesive, unsurprisingly as it was based on someone's (hopefully short) manga. Certainly one of the sickest. Miike Takashi directs something like six films a year every year, mind you, and you have to have stainless steel innards to see them all, but I think that last statement is pretty safe.
(Come to think of it, he directed the MPD Psycho TV series. Never seen it, but can't think of anyone more obviously suited to the job.)
( The story. Do you *need* a story? )
One last paragraph of analysis. Ced noted that all the promotional material makes Kakihara out to be the main character (hero or even anti-hero being the wrong word). I’d argue that he is, not only because he’s an active agent whose downfall constitutes the core movement of the film, mirroring classical tragedy even if it’s nothing of the sort; but because he’s much more obviously a Miike character than the snivelling and psychically-fractured Ichi. Kakihara has a dumb, almost cute innocence to his psychopathy that’s often played for comedy, which is very Miike. If the man has an overarching thesis to all his films that I can discern, it’s that violence is a profoundly primal human impulse, and so those who are most prone to it are the most child-like and pure at heart. Little kids of all ages kill in his movies, and sprout white wings that drop feathers like snow. Then they get gruesomely beheaded, but what can I say?
(Note on the actors. Kakihara is played by Asano Tadanobu, who's sort of like the Japanese version of Johnny Depp - fringe hottie with mainstream appeal, married to cute singer (Chara, in Asano's case). If he looks vaguely familiar, it's probably because you saw him in Gohatto - he was the samurai who may or may not have been sleeping with prettyboi but got shafted for it anyway - and aren't recognising him under all the bleach and creatively utilitarian facial scarification. Jijii is played by Tsukamoto Shinya - the director of Tetsuo, of all people - who would be Kevin Spacey in the American remake that will never, ever happen. Pay attention, there's going to be a quiz.)
EDIT -- It occurs to me that the alternate-worldliness I fumble at defining in Miike's films is, essentially, magic realism. ...Or maybe magic realism's stunted demon twin, locked in the attic with nothing to do but watch television. But something like that. All his lurid absurdities make complete emotional sense, like the symbolic visual shorthand employed in manga. One watches Amélie and secretly thinks, why shouldn't vinyl records be made like crepe pancakes? Well, why shouldn't Kakihara be able to identify his gang leader's blood by licking a wad of yen bills stained with it. All of the other characters take it for granted.
(Come to think of it, he directed the MPD Psycho TV series. Never seen it, but can't think of anyone more obviously suited to the job.)
( The story. Do you *need* a story? )
One last paragraph of analysis. Ced noted that all the promotional material makes Kakihara out to be the main character (hero or even anti-hero being the wrong word). I’d argue that he is, not only because he’s an active agent whose downfall constitutes the core movement of the film, mirroring classical tragedy even if it’s nothing of the sort; but because he’s much more obviously a Miike character than the snivelling and psychically-fractured Ichi. Kakihara has a dumb, almost cute innocence to his psychopathy that’s often played for comedy, which is very Miike. If the man has an overarching thesis to all his films that I can discern, it’s that violence is a profoundly primal human impulse, and so those who are most prone to it are the most child-like and pure at heart. Little kids of all ages kill in his movies, and sprout white wings that drop feathers like snow. Then they get gruesomely beheaded, but what can I say?
(Note on the actors. Kakihara is played by Asano Tadanobu, who's sort of like the Japanese version of Johnny Depp - fringe hottie with mainstream appeal, married to cute singer (Chara, in Asano's case). If he looks vaguely familiar, it's probably because you saw him in Gohatto - he was the samurai who may or may not have been sleeping with prettyboi but got shafted for it anyway - and aren't recognising him under all the bleach and creatively utilitarian facial scarification. Jijii is played by Tsukamoto Shinya - the director of Tetsuo, of all people - who would be Kevin Spacey in the American remake that will never, ever happen. Pay attention, there's going to be a quiz.)
EDIT -- It occurs to me that the alternate-worldliness I fumble at defining in Miike's films is, essentially, magic realism. ...Or maybe magic realism's stunted demon twin, locked in the attic with nothing to do but watch television. But something like that. All his lurid absurdities make complete emotional sense, like the symbolic visual shorthand employed in manga. One watches Amélie and secretly thinks, why shouldn't vinyl records be made like crepe pancakes? Well, why shouldn't Kakihara be able to identify his gang leader's blood by licking a wad of yen bills stained with it. All of the other characters take it for granted.
