11
Mar/11

SHINJUKU OUTLAW: SHINJUKU TRIAD SOCIETY

11
Mar/11

Kippei Shiina stars as a cop on the edge in Takashi Miike’s SHINJUKU TRIAD SOCIETY

13 FROM TAKASHI MIIKE: SHINJUKU TRIAD SOCIETY: CHINESE MAFIA WAR (Takashi Miike, 1995)
Film Society of Lincoln Center
Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th St.
Thursday, March 17, 4:30
Series runs March 16-20
212-875-5610
www.filmlinc.com
www.subwaycinema.com

“Shinjuku is not the best post,” detective Tatsuhito Kiriya says in Shinjuku Triad Society: Chinese Mafia War. Boy, is he not kidding. Takashi Miike’s first major theatrical release after a series of television and straight-to-video projects, 1995’s Shinjuku Triad Society serves as an excellent introduction to the controversial auteur, who is prone to a bit of the old ultra-violence in his films. The fifty-year-old Miike grew up in various parts of Japan but with direct ties to Korean and China, influencing the race battles that drive the Black Society Trilogy, which begins with Shinjuku Triad Society and continues with 1997’s Rainy Dog and 1999’s Ley Lines. In Shinjuku Triad Society, Kippei Shiina stars as Tatsuhito, a cop-on-the-edge desperate to bring down Taiwanese gang leader Wang’s (Tomorowo Taguchi) Dragon’s Claw crime syndicate, turning personal when Tatsuhito’s brother, Yoshihito (Kyosuke Izutsu), starts working for the brutal warlord. The dark, lurid film showcases Miike’s penchant for the extreme, including a ripped-out eyeball, organ selling, slashed bodies, rape, and beheadings. Miike also flips the genre on its head by featuring a lot of gay sex, as Wang has a decided preference for pretty boys. Shinjuku Triad Society, which also features Ren Osugi as Yakuza boss Uchida and Airie Yanagi as sly, dangerous prostitute Ritsuko, is screening March 27 at 4:30 as part of the Film Society of Lincoln Center series “Shinjuku Outlaw: 13 from Takashi Miike,” being held in conjunction with the fine folk over at Subway Cinema. [Ed. note: Miike was originally going to be at the Walter Reade Theater to introduce several screenings but has had to cancel because of the catastrophic events occurring in Japan.]