Kakihara surveys the damage in Takashi Miike’s ultraviolent cult classic ICHI THE KILLER
13 FROM TAKASHI MIIKE: ICHI THE KILLER (Takashi Miike, 2001)
Film Society of Lincoln Center
Walter Reade Theater
165 West 65th St.
Friday, March 18, 8:40
Series runs March 16-20
212-875-5610
www.filmlinc.com
Takashi Miike, who about ten few years ago had New York filmgoers rushing to Film Forum to see Audition — and then rushing to get out because of the violent torture scenes — did it again with Ichi the Killer, a faithful adaptation of Hideo Yamamoto’s hit manga. When Boss Anjo goes missing while beating the hell out of a prostitute, his gang, led by Kakihara (Tadanobu Asano), a multipierced blond sadomasochist, tries to find him by threatening and torturing members of other gangs. As the violence continues to grow — including faces torn and sliced off, numerous decapitations, innards splattered on walls and ceilings, body parts cut off, and self-mutilation — the killer turns out to be a young man named Ichi (Nao Omori), whose memory of a long-ago brutal rape turns him into a costumed avenger, crying like a baby as he leaves bloody mess after bloody mess on his mission to rid the world of bullies. This psychosexual S&M gorefest, which is certainly not for the squeamish, comes courtesy of the endlessly imaginative Miike, who trained with master filmmaker Shohei Imamura and seems to love really sharp objects. The excellent — and brave — cast also includes directors Sabu and Shinya Tsukamoto and Hong Kong starlet Alien Sun. The film is screening as part of the Film Society of Lincoln Center series “Shinjuku Outlaw: 13 from Takashi Miike,” being held March 16-20 in conjunction with Subway Cinema and also including such Miike films as Fudoh: The New Generation (1996), Agitator (2001), Crows Zero II (2009), and the awesome new 13 Assassins (2010). Miike was originally scheduled to appear at the Walter Reade Theater to introduce several screenings but has had to cancel because of the catastrophic events occurring in Japan.
Japanese director Takashi Miike’s first foray into the samurai epic is a nearly flawless film, perhaps his most accomplished work. Evoking such classics as Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, Mizoguchi’s 47 Ronin, Aldrich’s The Dirty Dozen, and Eastwood’s High Plains Drifter, 13 Assassins is a thrilling tale of honor and revenge, inspired by a true story. In mid-nineteenth-century feudal Japan, during a time of peace just prior to the Meiji Restoration, Lord Naritsugu (Gorô Inagaki), the son of the former shogun and half-brother to the current one, is abusing his power, raping and killing at will, even using his servants and their families as target practice with a bow and arrow. Because of his connections, he is officially untouchable, but Sir Doi (Mikijiro Hira) secretly hires Shinzaemon Shimada (Kôji Yakusho) to gather a small team and put an end to Naritsugu’s brutal tyranny. But the lord’s protector, Hanbei (Masachika Ichimura), a former nemesis of Shinzaemon’s, has vowed to defend his master to the death, even though he despises Naritsugu’s actions. As the thirteen samurai make a plan to get to Naritsugu, they are eager to finally break out their long-unused swords and do what they were born to do. “He who values his life dies a dog’s death,” Shinzaemon proclaims, knowing that the task is virtually impossible but willing to die for a just cause. Although there are occasional flashes of extreme gore in the first part of the film, Miike keeps the audience waiting until he unleashes the gripping battle, an extended scene of blood and violence that highlights death before dishonor. Selected for the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and nominated for the Silver Lion at the 2010 Venice Film Festival, 13 Assassins is one of Miike’s best-crafted tales; nominated for ten Japanese Academy Prizes, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay (Daisuke Tengan), Best Editing (Kenji Yamashita), Best Original Score (Koji Endo), and Best Actor (Yakusho), it won awards for cinematography (Nobuyasu Kita), lighting direction (Yoshiya Watanabe), art direction (Yuji Hayashida), and sound recording (Jun Nakamura). 13 Assassins is the centerpiece of the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s “Shinjuku Outlaw: 13 from Takashi Miike” series, running March 16–20 at the Walter Reade Theater and held in conjunction with Subway Cinema; Miike will be at the March 17 screening, which will be followed by a reception. [Ed. note: Miike was originally scheduled to appear at the Walter Reade Theater to introduce this and several other screenings but has had to cancel because of the catastrophic events occurring in Japan.]
This is one sick flick. Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi) has been lonely since his beloved wife died seven years earlier, and on the advice of his best friend (Jun Kunimura) he holds a fake audition to find himself the perfect romantic partner. He is immediately drawn to Asami (Eihi Shiina in her stunning film debut), but after they get together once, various events keep them from going out again, and Asami starts taking it pretty personally. So when they eventually do meet up…. This unconventional Japanese horror film, which won two awards at the Rotterdam International Film Festival, had some people running out of Film Forum faster than they lined up around the block to get in in the first place—the last half hour is so brutal, so grotesque, so disturbing, so violent that you should hang on only at your own risk. Audition was New York’s major introduction to Japanese director Takashi Miike, who has made more than ninety films since the early 1990s, including such fab efforts as The City of Lost Souls (2000), Ichi the Killer (2001), Izo (2004), and The Great Yokai War (2005), all of which are part of “Shinjuku Outlaw: 13 from Takashi Miike,” a five-day Lincoln Center tribute, held in conjunction with Subway Cinema, celebrating the New York premiere of his latest, the brilliant samurai drama 13 Assassins. Most well known for the graphic violence in his films, Miike also has a wild sense of humor and a knack for making audiences think, “Oh no he won’t,” and then he does. Miike will be on hand to introduce several of the Walter Reade screenings as well as the March 15 showing of Dead or Alive (1999) that is part of Japan Society’s 
