Takashi Miike DVD Reviews and Giveaway Contest!

Is it a review? Is it a contest? It’s both! Yessir, the good folks at Artsmagic have sent us some goodies and we’re passing the love along both in terms of information and by actually, y’know, passing things along. After being active in the UK DVD market for years Artsmagic has launched their new US imprint with a pair of excellent DVD releases showcasing the polar extremes of Japanese cult director Takashi Miike. With Full Metal Yakuza Miike runs the basic story of Robocop through his twisted blender of shock effects and exploitation to come up with something that could only have come from Miike’s perturbed brain. Then with Sabu Miike dials the weirdness back to zero and turns in a stunning period drama starring Tatsuya Fujiwara of Battle Royale fame. Want to know more about the DVDs and how you can win free copies to call your very own? Read on!

First out of the gate for Artsmagic is their release of Miike’s Full Metal Yakuza. Originally a v-cinema release in his native Japan – i.e. a low budget straight to video release – Yakuza takes the basic story of Robocop, runs it through a distinctly Japanese filter and then turns Miike loose upon it with all of his stranger tendencies given full reign. Thanks to films like Audition and Ichi the Killer Miike has built his reputation internationally primarily as a shock director, cranking out films full of shocking, bizarre, exploitative and often disturbing imagery. Full Metal Yakuza lives up to this reputation. This is a bloody film loaded with dismemberments, grossly sexual humor, a gang rape, and a wide range of often hilarilous, obviously low budget special effects. In short, this is not one to watch with your mother. It is, however, definitely worth viewing if you happen to be a fan of cult cinema.

Full Metal Yakuza tells the story of Kenzuke, a low level yakuza – the yakuza are the Japanese mafia – who is woefully unsuited to be a gangster but who joined anyway out of admiration for Tosa, one of the gang’s leaders. Tosa is sent to jail for seven years following a particularly bloody confrontation with a rival gang leaving Kenzuke to pine away for his beloved leader’s eventual return while being relegated to cleaning the gang’s toilets as this is about the only useful thing he can do for them. Kenzuke is sent to meet Tosa upon his release and the pair of them are gunned down in a treacherous move by rival forces within their own gang. Kenzuke is then rebuilt as a robo-yakuza by a mad scientist using metal implants and assorted body parts pilfered from Tosa’s corpse. When he realizes that his beloved Tosa was ambushed by rival gang forces and died trying to protect him Kenzuke sets off on the bloody trail to revenge. Is it high art? No, but it is mighty entertaining both on its own merits and as a parody of Verhoeven’s Robocop.

This is obviously a very low budget affair but Miike has such a good eye for action and composition along with an incredibly goofy sense of energy and a surprising knack for finding at least a semblance of humanity in his bizarre characters that it rises above its low budget and the limits of its genre to become a pretty worthwhile little film. Artsmagic has done an excellent job of presenting it, as well. Though the video quality betrays its straight-to-video origins at times through the occassional motion blur and by having all below-the-waist nudity blurred to appease Japanese censorship laws the actual widescreen transfer is solid. There is also an impressive assortment of extras including a feature length commentary by Miike scholar Tom Mes, a lengthy interview with the director plus additional interviews with the film’s editor and lead star. It really doesn’t get much better than this for an obscure little cult film.

With all the noise that people make about the shock value in Miike’s films the one thing that tends to get overlooked is that Miike is not just a shock director. He’s made his share of bizarre little films, yes, but he has also made his share of stellar more conventional dramas. They don’t get nearly the same amount of ink or attention as his stranger fare and DVD releases for his straight films are almost unheard of which I think is a shame because if people paid any sort of attention to this side of his work Miike would very likely have already found equal acclaim amongst the art house circuit. The Bird People of China alone should have been enough to secure him a place in the global art house circuit but nobody seems to take much notice of Miike films that do not involve copious body fluids. Thus I was very pleasantly surprised when Artsmagic’s sophomore release turned out to be Sabu, a period drama that Miike originally shot for Japanese television.

Miike’s gifts for composition, beautiful camera work, well balanced scripting and his ability to draw the best out of his actors are all on ample display here. Tatsuya Fujiwara – Shuya from the stunning Battle Royale – and Satoshi Tsumabuki star as lower class friends from childhood who are separated when Fujiwara’s character (Eiji) is falsely accused of theft and sent off to an island work camp. The rest of the film is largely a study of Tsumabuki’s – the titular Sabu – intense loyalty to his boyhood friend as he tries to uncover the truth about what actually happened and suffers the consequences for his single mindedness.

Artsmagic has again done an excellent job on the presentation here. The transfer is excellent and presented in widescreen. The disc also includes a making-of documentary as well as interviews with Miike and all of the film’s principal actors.

So enough talking already … how can you get your hands on these things? Well, buying them is always an option. But if you don’t want to go down that particular road just yet we’re prepared to help you out. Yes, we here at the Movie Blog are the giving sort and we’re prepared to give a copy of each of these films to one lucky soul. It might even be you. It’s the return of the caption contest, ladies and gentlemen. Take a look at the screen shot below, think of something witty to say about it and send it to me here. We’ll be accepting submissions until, oh, let’s say July 13th. Because it’s my birthday. And after I’m done eating my cake and opening my presents – because sometimes people like to give other people presents on their birthday – and quaffing my frothy beverages I’ll sort through all the entries and my personal favorite will be receiving two lovely new DVDs to call their own. So get to it.