“This is one of the best movies ever made!

Upskirt karate rules!”

Ghidorah from Chainsaw Maintenance

THE MACHINE GIRL

2008/Director: Noboru Iguchi/Writer: Noboru Iguchi

Cast: Minase Yashiro, Asami, Kentaro Shimazu, Honoka, Nobuhiro Nishihara

Noburu Iguchi

The director of Sudakan Boy (which I have queued up to see soon) Noburu Iguchi basically delivers the gory goods in this TokyoShock science-fiction Yakuza revenge blood bath starring gravure model Minase Yashiro. Also in the mix are Japanese AV stars Asami and Honoka. Now I am far from an expert in these matters (though I have done ample research) but I am pretty sure the difference in the terms is that a gravure (a term for how photos are developed for glossy magazines) models pose provocatively but rarely nude or in explicit sexual situations. An AV (adult video) star on the other hand basically does everything you can image plus some things you never have and with the cutest, most innocent faces imaginable. Well there is no nudity in The Machine Girl so don’t get excited. What flesh we see is usually covered in blood and slimy internal organs. While the CGI effects have been criticized online here I have seen much worse and had no major problems myself. The film never looked like a video game to me. If more Japanese horror/action/school girl gore films were being done like this I would praise the genre more rather than berate it or struggle to find kinder words.

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IMPRINT

2006/Director: Takashi Miike /Writers: Mike Garris, Daisuke Tengan

Cast: Billy Drago, Youki Kudoh, Michie Itô, Toshie Negishi

I really liked the movie Audition by Miike and have seen a handful of his other works such as Visitor Q, Gozu, Ichi the Killer and something called Izu I think. I guess I am getting a feel of what his work is about and it seems to be primarily shock style cinema. That is, jolt the audience with freaky and offensive imagery with an emphasis on anything taboo and deviant and blasphemous. No subtlty. There is nothing necessarily wrong with that in my book. I guess nothing in his movies is any worse than some of the scenes from Saving Private Ryan in a way. I am an above average fan of splatter and gore cinema from way back. The problem I have with Miike’s films is the same problem I have with some one like lets say Dario Argento. I just have no friggin’ clue as to what the movie is supposed to be about. Audition and Visitor Q seem to have some effective linear narrative going on but the other movies I’ve seen just seem to abandon plot for well photographed but ultimately pointless scenes designed to simply disgust or offend the viewer. The movie itself becomes nothing but a vehicle for these disturbing images rather than the other way around. The plot and story simply become secondary to the shock scenes.

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AUDITION

1999/ Director: Takashi Miike/ Writer: Takashi Miike

Cast: Ryo Ishibashi, Eihi Shiina, Tetsu Sawaki, Miyuki Matsuda, Renji Ishibashi, Jun Junimura

I saw this a couple times in Seattle, once at the small Grande Illusions alone and once with my movie mate Matt and he just loved it. I can’t believe I had a copy of this movie here and turned it back to the shop because the subtitles did not work in English. Later I would realize that I simply did not know how to use the Chinese remote and that the subtitles most likely did work fine. I have some of Miike’s other films on DVD here like Visitor Q and Gozu and Ichi the Killer and some other Yakuza style adventure films that appear to be a long series, but I have not found a new copy of Audition. Damn me! Damn me to hell! Needless to say it is one great movie, a real stunner. It’s the kind of movie that if you were a girl and your boyfriend sat around watching it over and over you may want to question the direction the relationship is headed. It is hard for me to give a thorough review being as I have not seen the film in years. I prefer to critique a film within a day or so of the viewing, or a week at the most, while the images are still fresh and vivid. Suffice to say a fan of shock cinema will not be disappointed at all. But shock cinema (and Miike is a shock film maker, there is no doubt) is a little misleading here in this case as the movie is a finely crafted and well acted and, in my humble opinion, the best of Miike’s work that I have seen so far.

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