SCFZ poll: Takashi Miike
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The Bird People in China
Shinjuku Triad Society
Big Bang Love
Seen 6
Shinjuku Triad Society
Big Bang Love
Seen 6
negotiator is actually incredible. will try to write something more about it later but it might be top five for me...
that's flip gettin down and dirty with his 40 miike's, rec'ing negotiator like the super champ that he is. i've been lagging behind with movies, so i still gotta finish rainy dog, and really wanna see ley lines before this is over with. maybe i should stop posting here, and start watching...
yeah, i completely agree, it's been a while since i watched a lot of miike, but that might be the first one i go back to. i put it fifth on my ballot, but i might put it higher because some of the things i voted for don't need the support
negotiator...it's just a perfectly directed film? ignatiy gets to a lot of what makes the film work on his write up on the old mubi notebook site. but there is a melancholy, even an anger, that i think he kind of skirts around.
rainy dog. implications: a story about the past, and how it always comes back to haunt us. past loves. past hates. a japanese hitman exiled in taiwan must care for his longlost son, who follows him around like a cloud, always in the background like the hitman's conscience, forcing him to confront the (ugly) things he does. a call girl enters into the picture, completing this newfound surrogate family of misfits and outcasts. they then find themselves on the literal margins of society, holed up in a concrete hovel on a beach strewn with the rest of civilization's garbage. none of them can escape what preceded them. a very elemental film, even if we're just talking about the rain. and just like shinjuku triad society shared much in common with doa (1), this has dead or alive 2: birds written all over it, and vice versa. will certainly be updating my prelim ballot before the deadline. ley lines is up next!
watched negotiator a second time, edited ballot to put it at number one
hey thoxans, did you still want an extension? i assume you'll at least be adding to your ballot after watching a few miike this week, so i'll hold off on tallying the poll until i hear from you, and an extension is cool if you want one of course
yes pls. finishing up ley lines today, at which point i'll update my ballot
cool, just let me know when you're done!
ley lines. miike's ozu film. also, if shinjuku triad society was his nitty gritty crime flick, and rainy dog was his western, then this was his nouvelle vague flick. his quartet of outsiders. miike's all bout dem fuxked up family units. watching his two trilogies so closely together was the absolute highlight. so many parallels in the differences they share that it makes them all part of a singular experience having nothing in common yet wouldn't work without every single one being a part of it except it would but it wouldn't tho it would. prelim list updated accordingly
it won't change my overall list but i watched one of the least discussed films of miike's prime period, the two part man in white from 2003 (it's basically one long film split in half by producers like the richard lester musketeers or kashyap wasseypur).
what's fascinating to me is that it's the exact same plot set-up as yakuza demon or deadly outlaw rekka - gang leader/surrogate father is killed, young gangster goes beyond bounds of obligation to avenge in ways that conflate honor/filial obligation and thirst for violence as end to itself.
here miike adds a kind of skipping handheld video as one of his key gestures, and amplifies the doomed melancholy even further than in yakuza demon. all sense of heroism is quite drained out by the end, where more or less every character of note dies violently. have heard agitator (in its directors cut) and graveyard of honor are the crown jewels in miike's crown but even these three make pretty convincing goodbye to the genre.
while the winning film was predictable, quite a few of the less heralded miike films made the top ten, so i'm happy we didn't just come up with a standard list of the best known films:
results
1. Audition (1999) -- 23 pts
2. The Bird People in China (1998) -- 16 pts
3. 13 Assassins (2010) -- 15 pts
4. Ley Lines (1999) -- 14 pts
5. Big Bang Love, Juvenile A (2006) -- 12 pts
5. Ichi the Killer (2001) -- 12 pts
7. Gozu (2003) -- 11 pts
8. The Negotiator (2003) -- 9 pts
9. Dead or Alive 2: Birds (2000) -- 8 pts
10. Dead or Alive (1999) -- 6 pts
11. Visitor Q (2001) -- 5 pts
11. Rainy Dog (1997) -- 5 pts
13. Shinjuku Triad Society (1995) -- 3 pts
13. Deadly Outlaw Rekka (2002) -- 3 pts
13. Hara-kiri: Death of a Samurai (2011) -- 3 pts
16. For Love's Sake (2012) -- 2 pts
16. As the Gods Will (2014) -- 2 pts
18. Izo (2004) -- 1 pt
18. The Happiness of the Katakuris (2001) -- 1 pt
18. Graveyard of Honor (2002) -- 1 pt
results
1. Audition (1999) -- 23 pts
2. The Bird People in China (1998) -- 16 pts
3. 13 Assassins (2010) -- 15 pts
4. Ley Lines (1999) -- 14 pts
5. Big Bang Love, Juvenile A (2006) -- 12 pts
5. Ichi the Killer (2001) -- 12 pts
7. Gozu (2003) -- 11 pts
8. The Negotiator (2003) -- 9 pts
9. Dead or Alive 2: Birds (2000) -- 8 pts
10. Dead or Alive (1999) -- 6 pts
11. Visitor Q (2001) -- 5 pts
11. Rainy Dog (1997) -- 5 pts
13. Shinjuku Triad Society (1995) -- 3 pts
13. Deadly Outlaw Rekka (2002) -- 3 pts
13. Hara-kiri: Death of a Samurai (2011) -- 3 pts
16. For Love's Sake (2012) -- 2 pts
16. As the Gods Will (2014) -- 2 pts
18. Izo (2004) -- 1 pt
18. The Happiness of the Katakuris (2001) -- 1 pt
18. Graveyard of Honor (2002) -- 1 pt