Tag Archives: Takashi Miike

Rate This Movie SYNOPSIS: In the ruthless underground world of the yakuza, no one is more legendary than boss Kamiura. Rumored to be invincible, the truth is he is a vampire-a bloodsucking yakuza vampire boss! Among Kamiura’s gang is Kageyama, his most loyal underling. However, the others in the gang view Kageyama with disdain and ridicule him for his inability …

Rate This Movie SYNOPSIS: The Katakuri family has just opened their guest house in the mountains. Unfortunately their first guest commits suicide and in order to avoid trouble they decide to bury him in the backyard. Things get way more complicated when their second guest, a famous sumo wrestler, dies while having sex with his underage girlfriend and the grave …

Rate This Movie SYNOPSIS: A sequel to Three, Three Extremes is based around the common theme of the ‘monster’. In Fruit Chan’s, not for vegetarians, Dumplings, the secret to eternal youth lies out of special dumplings made out of the crushed bones and ground down flesh of aborted foetuses. The monster in Park Chan-wook’s Cut is a deranged fan of …

Rate This Movie SYNOPSIS: Based upon the manga by Hisao Mali, Silver centres around the exploits of Jun Shirogane (Shinobu Kandori), a karate expert and undercover police officer who conventionally has also undergone FBI training in the US. After her family who worked for the Secret Service are brutally murdered, she agrees to infiltrate a group of criminals known as …

SYNOPSIS: A down-and-out school teacher receives the calling to become the real life personification of an old television superhero, Zebraman. REVIEW: The image that opens Zebraman is a lady sitting in a hair drying machine in what appears to be the sidewalk outside of a bathhouse, when suddenly, a zebra walks by. The text on the screen reads “anything goes.” …

THE ONE-MAN MADNESS JUGGERNAUT: TEN OF TAKASHI MIIKE’S BEST Takashi Miike is one bad-ass little man, and he is one of the most prolific filmmakers in all of cinematic history. A typical year will have him releasing roughly 5 movies, which is absolutely astonishing when you consider that he’s working across all genres, all formats and in multiple languages. His …

Rate This Movie SYNOPSIS: People mysteriously start receiving voicemail messages from their future selves, in the form of the sound of them reacting to their own violent deaths. REVIEW: I’m sure I can’t be the only one who, upon seeing the words ‘directed by Takashi Miike’ flashing up on the screen, thinks: ‘Brace yourself. This is going to be pretty …

Rate This Movie SYNOPSIS: Zebraman awakens fifteen years in the future, unclear on what has happened to him, and quickly discovers that the evil Zebra Queen has a hold on Tokyo. REVIEW: In 2004 Takashi Miike tried his hand in directing a film suitable for the whole family and so, Zebraman, a tale of an ordinary school teacher turned superhero, …

SYNOPSIS: A troubled and perverted family find their lives intruded by a mysterious stranger who seems to help find a balance in their disturbing natures. REVIEW: “The sea’s so endless. You can’t see anything.” Prolific filmmaker, Takashi Miike, often delights in putting off the audience with controversial subject matter and this film is no different.  Modeled loosely after Pasolini’s Theorum, …

SYNOPSIS: As the Gods Will is a movie starring Sôta Fukushi, Ryûnosuke Kamiki, and Shôta Sometani. A group of high school students are forced to play a game of death without knowing who, why or how. REVIEW: I’ve reviewed a couple of Takashi Miike films now, and granted I’ve only carved into a mere fraction of his extensive catalog, but …

SYNOPSIS: A star, Miyuki Goto (Ko Shibasaki) plays Oiwa, the protagonist in a new play based on the ghost story Yotsuya Kaidan. She pulls some strings to get her lover, Kosuke Hasegawa (Ebizo Ichikawa) cast in the play, even though he’s a relatively unknown actor. Other performers Rio Asahina (Miho Nakanishi) and Jun Suzuki (Hideaki Ito) lust after Miyuki. Off …

Rate This Movie SYNOPSIS: Filmmaker Takashi Miike takes inspiration from Hideo Yamamoto’s manga, Koroshiya 1, to tell this bloody and bleak tale about the Japanese yakuza. Blond-coiffed Kakihara’s “mentor in crime” disappears, and Kakihara vows to find out who’s responsible. He’s also on the lookout for Ichi, a sadistic killer who may be able to inflict the level of pain …

SYNOPSIS: “In Tokyo, Shigeharu Aoyama is a widower that grieves the loss of his wife and raises his son Shigehiko Aoyama alone. Seven years later, the teenage Shigehiko asks why his middle-aged father does not remarry and Shigeharu meets his friend Yasuhisa Yoshikawa, who is a film producer, and tells his intention. However, Shigeharu has difficulties to approach to available …

South Korea’s 18th annual Pucheon International Film Festival (PiFan) — perhaps the largest film fest in Asia dedicated to horror, science fiction, fantasy, and similar genre films — will be held this year from July 17 through July 27. I will be covering the festival for both Horrornews.net and the Horror News Radio podcast. Each July, PiFan presents more than …

Celebrate the day! Being a long time follower of cult films over the years, I figured it was due time to create an appropriate Top 20 list of Cult Film Directors for readers who might “still” be seeking out worthy films to indulge in (Director collectives..that is). I knew creating this list that not every favorite cult director would make …