Since I live in Russia most of the movies I watch are foreign, and a large percentage of them are American, but thanks to my wife, who loves Korean culture, I have long been hooked on Asian cinema and love South Korean thrillers or Japanese anime and movies about samurai's and gangsters. Don't go too far - just look at my nickname :) Also after a few years with anime I've learned to read subtitles very fast and watched a lot of movies in the original soundtrack, not in dubbing.
So, I like many Asian directors and some of Takeshi Kitano's films (Zatoichi, Autoreiji trilogy) I have watched dozens of times, despite the subtitles and the strange humor, but I like even more the work of Takashi Miike, who many call - the Japanese Tarantino, and his fantastic productivity is a vivid demonstration of the legendary Japanese diligence.
It's not always good movies, and after the brilliant "Kurôzu"(Crows) or adaptation of the manga "The Incredible Adventures of Jo Jo" he may make a bloody thrash movie, but his 100th movie - "Hatsukoi" (First Love) is a real surprise and a welcome return to the crime-drama genre.
Reo, a young boxer, learns that he has a cancerous tumor growing in his head. All plans for his sporting career can be forgotten and all that remains is to resign and wait for death. A corrupt cop Otomo and his yakuza informant Kaze plan to rob a courier delivering a bag of methamphetamine and, to avoid punishment, blame the young prostitute-drug addict Monica, having previously got rid of her pimp Julie by hiring a hitman from the Chinese mafia.
Carefully planned robbery, of course, fails, and accidentally met Reo and Monica will start a chain of events that could provoke a large-scale war of the mafia clans.
Before the premiere of his new work at the Cannes Film Festival, Miike, who directs and produces dozens of films a year, announced that his new work is a light love story and one should not expect the usual brutality of his previous films. The audience didn't believe it, and the first severed head didn't take long to appear in the third minute of the film :)
The director, who is not indifferent to the aesthetics of grand guignol horror scenes and far from adequate plots, incorporates in this film everything for which he is loved - violent Yakuza, bloody showdown, crazy fights with all kinds of weapons and black humor that breaks all possible boundaries.
For example, there is a scene in which a stoned Yakuza who has had his hand chopped off tries to unclench the fingers of his right hand lying on the floor to get his gun out of it. It looks as crazy as you can imagine. And it is preceded and followed by several scenes whose ridiculousness and complex dialogues are pleasantly reminiscent of the Coen brothers' "Fargo" and Noah Hawley. Except that reinforced by the peculiar Japanese manner of snapping into a scream, which sometimes really enhances the effect, and sometimes it just looks comical.
With each new plot twist, Miike throws more and more expressive and bold strokes of blood red, turning the film into something quite the opposite of Scorsese's unbearably serious crime dramas and making the showdown of evil gangsters into a cruel and extremely ridiculous farce with no place for honor and a noble katana duel easily interrupted by a treacherously fired bullet.
Miike's return to his roots has benefited him immensely, and hopefully his next films will continue this pleasant trend, especially since his works, although compared to Tarantino and Guy Ritchie, are fantastically original and accentuate the peculiarities of Japanese culture. Whether it's a traditional yakuza hangout or an ordinary trip for noodles at the nearest cafe. I love his attention to detail and the way he adds touches to his stories that make it seem like so few people can create such a cool atmosphere. Especially Russian filmmakers, who are not easy to praise.
@NoiseCash | based on my review at MishkaDj | @Twitter
Written for the contest CineTV Contest: Foreign Cinema