Takashi Miike must be one scary motherfucker, and no mistake.
The plot, or as much as I could glean:
A morally bankrupt detective in Shinjuku, the 'place to be' in Tokyo apparently, is assigned to watch over a new Triad gang muscling into the territory and prevent a full scale Mafia war erupting. When the boss of the new Triad employs the brother of said detective to act as his lawyer, things can only get personal.
And blood will surely flow.
That's about all I could work out in this confusing, ultra-violent though ultimately entertaining tale of Japanese mob culture.
No surprises with Miike at the helm that pretty much every taboo you can name is tackled here, with nerry a flinch from behind the directorial lens: anal male rape to coerce confessions, throat slashings, rent boys, vaginal cavity searches, blow jobs in public toilets and more violence than you could wave a medieval mace at make this one not for the weak of stomach.
And this is proper violence, kids, not that sanitised, Hollywood fetish version that we were brainwashed with in the eighties and nineties from American efforts.
This looks like it hurts.
A lot.
Whilst not as accomplished as some of his later work - Audition and Ichi the killer being two firm favourites when we have the grand kids over in this house - this is still dizzyingly engaging, though there is the suspicion that you are watching against your better judgement, trying to look away but too morbidly curious to actually manage it.
If you want intensity, can cope with subtitles (yes, I'm looking at you Thick McThick of Thicksbury Avenue) and aren't averse to sampling the cinematic offerings of radically different cultures, this should be right up your dirty pipes.
4 out of 5
Showing posts with label brutal violence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label brutal violence. Show all posts
Saturday, 24 July 2010
Kick-Ass (2010) Dir: Matthew Vaughn
A surprising and effective inversion of the superhero genre, which has moments to genuinely shock.
Dave Lizewski is your average adolescent. He's into comics, thinks his only superpower is being invisible to girls and has two equally dweeby mates.
One day an idea dawns on him.
Why couldn't he be a superhero all of his own?
OK, he's got no superpowers, but he can knock up a nifty costume so he duly sets out to fight crime wherever he sees it. Trouble is, his first encounter with the criminal fraternity ends badly.
Very badly.
A knife wound to the stomach and a hit and run, landing him in hospital. But that doesn't stop him, and it's not long before his alter ego, Kick-Ass, has become a viral Internet phenomena, bringing him to the attention of father and daughter superhero team Big Daddy and Hit Girl.
A run in with a mobster, a father hell bent on vengeance and more brutal violence than you can shake a nailgun at completes the tale.
A friend of mine described me recently as the least shockable person he knows, which I took as a compliment whether it was meant or not, yet this movie contains two or three moments to genuinely drop the jaw. It's 2010, yet hearing a 12 year old girl say 'I'm just fucking with you, Daddy,' still seems 'wrong' somehow, and the movie is all the better for it. In fact, all the standout, Daily Mail baiting, 'moral guardian' outraging moments revolve around the youngster; her foul mouth - she even gets to use the C word - the fetish gear she wears throughout, blatantly sexualising her, her sprees of wanton violence.
And it's all highly entertaining.
Special mention must be made of the script, which plays with you as a viewer, leading you down blind alleys before snapping you back to reality sharply which, in many ways, reminded me of Haneke's original Funny Games from way back when.
Anyone with an interest in comic book movies or cult movies in general should check this one out but I'd hurry if I were you. In the theatre I saw it in there was just me, my good lady and perhaps fifteen other souls so it won't be around for long.
A hidden gem.
Dave Lizewski is your average adolescent. He's into comics, thinks his only superpower is being invisible to girls and has two equally dweeby mates.
One day an idea dawns on him.
Why couldn't he be a superhero all of his own?
OK, he's got no superpowers, but he can knock up a nifty costume so he duly sets out to fight crime wherever he sees it. Trouble is, his first encounter with the criminal fraternity ends badly.
Very badly.
A knife wound to the stomach and a hit and run, landing him in hospital. But that doesn't stop him, and it's not long before his alter ego, Kick-Ass, has become a viral Internet phenomena, bringing him to the attention of father and daughter superhero team Big Daddy and Hit Girl.
A run in with a mobster, a father hell bent on vengeance and more brutal violence than you can shake a nailgun at completes the tale.
A friend of mine described me recently as the least shockable person he knows, which I took as a compliment whether it was meant or not, yet this movie contains two or three moments to genuinely drop the jaw. It's 2010, yet hearing a 12 year old girl say 'I'm just fucking with you, Daddy,' still seems 'wrong' somehow, and the movie is all the better for it. In fact, all the standout, Daily Mail baiting, 'moral guardian' outraging moments revolve around the youngster; her foul mouth - she even gets to use the C word - the fetish gear she wears throughout, blatantly sexualising her, her sprees of wanton violence.
And it's all highly entertaining.
Special mention must be made of the script, which plays with you as a viewer, leading you down blind alleys before snapping you back to reality sharply which, in many ways, reminded me of Haneke's original Funny Games from way back when.
Anyone with an interest in comic book movies or cult movies in general should check this one out but I'd hurry if I were you. In the theatre I saw it in there was just me, my good lady and perhaps fifteen other souls so it won't be around for long.
A hidden gem.
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