Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival
2002
by Russell Edwards
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Part 4: Japanese films at PiFan 2002
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| There was evidence that Miike Takeshii had already got the jump on Chris Yoo with his Japanese musical remake of
The Quiet Family known as The Happiness of the
Katakuris. This remake of the film about a family run hotel with a climbing body count was part of a seven film retrospective on this
prolific filmmaker (Miike averages this number of films per year). Time didn't allow access to all of these
films but I did manage to fit in three. |
Happiness of
the Katakuris |
| Beginning with The Agitator an epic yakuza picture about a gang war (of course) set off by a rising star of one of the gangs. I've got to admit that given that his films are generally so cheap in appearance, I often have trouble associating
Audition as one of his films, but it was a very short leap from
Audition to Ichi The Killer based on a manga by Yamamoto Hideo. |
Agitator |
| Asano Todanobu gave a stunningly audacious performance as a sadistic yakuza assassin with criss-cross scars on his face, pierced lips and blonde-hair as well as great taste in clothes, in search of a more sadistic lover to fulfil his masochistic side and the identity of an even more brutal torturer known only as
Ichi. If violence is your bag then this collection of
disembowelments is a must-see. One of the most confrontingly violent films I have ever seen, it nevertheless continues the sensation that Miike is not just in the film business to make splatter. There is - I think - no doubting his emotional integrity even if some of the images are undoubtedly
misogynist. |
Ichi the Killer |
| In a somewhat gentler mode, he made The Bird People In China which has a Japanese jade trader transferred to inland China to fill in for his dead
predecessor. Following the trail is a yakuza who wants the gang's cut of the jade trade. There were a few edgy Miike moments, but largely this was a hilarious and ultimately moving film, that differs from his other films
considerably. |
Bird People of China |
| Japanese films are overwhelmingly popular in Korea and each were well-attended. However it seems that the audience were not indiscriminate.
Suicide Club a flick which kicked off with 54 schoolgirl girls jumping in front of a subway train was an out and out splatter film which failed to successfully tie up all its elements. Lacking the wit of its humorous predecessor
Battle Royale this film got lost in a mess of internet innuendo and a pop group and seemed to suggest that a pop group of 12 year olds were responsible for the outbreak of suicides. A couple of Lynchian moments (like the hooded guy who used a wood plane to shave off a layer of skin for a stitched rope of human skin) was not enough to get past silly moments like a Charles Manson wannabe who did Tim Curry impersonations. The local audience seemed to agree with me as the applause was cursory at best. |
Suicide Club |
| Also on the topic of mass suicides was the Glowing Growing which had two teenage boys making a pact to commit suicide together. Imbued with the humanity that
Suicide Club lacked this film featured warm performances and fit neatly into the genre of the Japanese youth road movie that has been so popular in the last few years. While the ending was ultimately unsatisfactory, it is worth checking out. And showed a depth of emotion and insight uncommon in this type of film. |
Glowing Growing |
| In Sunless, his cinematic essay about Japan and Africa, Chris Marker remarked that in Japan censorship doesn't spoil the show; it is the show. Likewise in this story of a pair of manzai comedians known as
The Bleep Brothers. Manzai is like a tagteam match of comedy with no clear straightman (Takeshi Kitano was one member of a manzai team called The Two Beats hence his nickname Beat Takeshi). The two brothers (played by two actors who couldn't have looked more dissimilar) showed what happened when a couple of strip show comedians get exceedingly coarse on TV at the instigation of a TV producer who must be a distant relation to Kirk Douglas in
The Big Carnival. Unfit for TV consumption their act is bleeped and when this proves popular beeps are put in even when the words are appropriate viewing. Some nice observations about ambition, this film is likely to turn up on SBS. |
The Bleep Brothers |
| The best Japanese film of the fest however was Dark Water, Hideo Nakata's follow up to
Ring. I actually saw this late one night at Berlin with David Stratton and I'm here to tell you that we were both jolted right out of our seats. Good scary fun about a young mother and her little girl who move into a water (and ghost) infested block. |
Dark Water |
