All the Tired Horses

A new article I wrote for Sound on Sight.

Pleasures of the Flesh (1965, Nagisa Oshima)

Pleasures of the Flesh (1965, Nagisa Oshima)

Pleasures of the Flesh (1965, Nagisa Oshima)

Death by Hanging (1968, Nagisa Oshima)

Japanese Summer: Double Suicide (1967, Nagisa Oshima)

Japanese Summer: Double Suicide (1967, Nagisa Oshima)

Japanese Summer: Double Suicide (1967, Nagisa Oshima)

Japanese Summer: Double Suicide (1967, Nagisa Oshima)

Takashi Miike view tally: 27

Films I may be watching in the near future:

The City of Lost Souls
Blues Harp
One Missed Call
Full Metal Yakuza
Crows Zero II
MPD-Psycho (miniseries)

Big Bang Love, Juvenile A (2006, Takashi Miike)

Big Bang Love, Juvenile A (2006, Takashi Miike)

Big Bang Love, Juvenile A (2006, Takashi Miike)

I think one of the worst things you could say about a Takashi Miike film is that it’s uninspired. Sadly, that word sums up pretty well some of his earliest movies, when he was a direct-to-video film maker churning out unmemorable Yakuza action flicks. I recently watched two of these, Bodyguard Kiba (1993), and its first sequel, Bodyguard Kiba: Apocalypse Carnage (1994). They are at their most entertaining during their competently - though a little unexciting - action sequences, which sort of fuse martial arts into their urban setting. Any attempts at characterizations fall completely flat. I got fed up with the poorly paced narrative and found myself waiting for the next fight. And this is some years before Miike developed his unique aesthetic.

Unfortunately, I do realize I have more films like this in my future, considering I plan to watch every Takashi Miike film available online. He’s one of my favourite film directors and I want to go through the good, the bad, and the ugly of his filmography.

Current Miike Progress: 26 films seen (out of 84ish)