Take the first Pirates of the Caribbean film, add a dash of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and a lot more rum. Shake well and you'll have something resembling Dead Man's Chest, a bombastic sequel that's enjoyable as long as you don't think too hard about it. The film opens with the interrupted wedding of Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley), both of whom are arrested for aiding in the escape of Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) in the first film. Their freedom can only be obtained by getting Captain Jack's compass, which is linked to a key that's linked to a chest belonging to Davy Jones, an undead pirate with a tentacle face and in possession of a lot of people's souls. If you're already confused, don't worry--plot is definitely not the... Learn More
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My fiancee is a huge fan of Japanese cinema, but for the most part is a huge fan of the work of possibly the most certifiably insane man to ever get behind a camera, Takashi Miike. I too am a fan of his work, mostly because he's broken so many boundaries in filmmaking that the society needs to create new boundaries just so he can break them.
To say he's a cinematic genius is a bit of an understatement. He has done so many films it's hard to really know what his style is, since he never does the same thing with each film, each time he always does something a little different. I'm fairly certain that as we live and breathe that Miike's name will stand next to some of the other great extravagant filmmakers like David Lynch or even David Cronenberg.
If you want the full sledgehammer-to-the-stomach effect of Audition, stop reading this review now. Just watch it and take the consequences. At first glance, Takashi Miike's jack in the box of a movie works like a romantic comedy: amiable widower Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi) decides it's time to find a new wife, and a friend suggests holding a fake audition to find the right girl. It soon becomes clear that there is something wrong with Aoyama's choice. This is no ordinary Fatal Attraction-style thriller, however; Audition slowly and carefully builds into a wrenching exploration of both deep male fears and the stereotype of the cute, submissive Japanese woman. Audition is by no means an easy movie to watch--even hardcore horror fans may have trouble--but it... More Info About This DVD Actor(s): Ryo Ishibashi - Eihi Shiina Director(s): Takashi Miike DVD Release Date: Released the 23 August 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Love him or hate him, you have to admit that Takashi Miike has a vision all his own. It's possible that Yakuza Horror Theater: Gozu (literally translated, "gozu" means "bull-head") is the ultimate expression of that vision, for here Miike is taking his V-cinema Yakuza-thriller roots and combining them with the outright weirdness that has informed his later work.
Teaming up once again with screenwriter Sakichi Sato (Ichi the Killer), Miike delivers a tale of a Yakuza underling who is tasked with taking his insane superior to a "Yakuza dump" in Nagoya and have him killed. The underling, Minami (Hideki Sone, who'd previously teamed with Miike in the Jingi Naki Yabo series of V-cinema flicks), still holds a great deal of respect for his... More Info About This DVD Director(s): Takashi Miike DVD Release Date: Released the 23 November 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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This film is a very beautiful, nice piece which will put you under its spell. One thing that I didn't realise before I got the film was how funny it was. Whilst it is generally a touching story, there are moments of hilarity which really lift the film. These mainly come from Renji Ishibashi, one of Miike's most frequently used actors.
Difficult to reccomend to Miike fans. There is no violence in this movie (well, there is a tiny bit, but not for a miike fan). I would reccomend it to someone who likes "art films" quicker than I would your average Miike fan. But to all those who like "nice" films once in a while, this one is very, very nice. More Info About This DVD Director(s): Takashi Miike DVD Release Date: Released the 16 November 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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For those who enjoyed the cyborg-revenge plot of Robocop but felt it was a little light on the violence: fear not. The bloodbath that Verhoeven's film touches on, Takashi Miike's Full Metal Yakuza delivers in spades. Not surprisingly, Full Metal Yakuza is a complete hyped-up retelling of Robocop in futuristic, gangland Japan. The plot is simple. A low-rent gangster accidentally gets killed by the yakuza that are attempting to whack his boss. After a mad scientist reconstructs his body, RoboYakuza is out for revenge. What follows is an avenging tour-de-force of violence and gore that oftentimes dips into the realm of the extremely uncomfortable. Though lacking the artistic merits that made Ichi the Killer, Fudoh, and Audition, interesting... More Info About This DVD Director(s): Takashi Miike DVD Release Date: Released the 25 May 2004 Usually ships within 24 hours
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