The Japanese actor Takao Osawa was so moved by Masashi Sada’s popular song “The Lion Standing in The Wind”, that he approached the songwriter with a suggestion of adapting it into a novel. Not only that Sada made Osawa’s wish come true, but he also wrote the movie script based on the novel inspired by the song, thus, one would believe – completing the circle. “The Lion Standing Still” – all forms of it – is based on a true story about Koichiro Shimada (Takao Osawa), a Japanese doctor who in 1987, motivated by a long-time medical missionary in Africa Albert Schweizer, left the university hospital in Nagoya to join the research team of The Institute of Tropical medicine in Kenya, the country where he found his tragic end. It is indeed a story of big importance that deserves to be told, and yet it is difficult to comprehend what made Takashi Miike...
- 8/20/2019
- by Marina D. Richter
- AsianMoviePulse
Bringing together one of the most cult directors (Miike), one of the most popular crime novelists and a great cast seems like a recipe for an inevitable success. How this film managed to be so mediocre, remains a mystery for me. Let us take things from the beginning though.
Higashino, in one of his most surrealistic (even sci-fi one could say) works, bases its story on the concept of the Laplace Demon, a creature that knows the precise location and momentum of every atom in the universe, and thus, can predict everything that will happen in the near future. The film and the actual story, however, begin much differently, through a case of the murder of two people being poisoned to death by hydrogen sulfide at hot springs located in different regions. The police is perplexed and ask Shusuke Aoe, a geochemist college professor, to help, but...
Higashino, in one of his most surrealistic (even sci-fi one could say) works, bases its story on the concept of the Laplace Demon, a creature that knows the precise location and momentum of every atom in the universe, and thus, can predict everything that will happen in the near future. The film and the actual story, however, begin much differently, through a case of the murder of two people being poisoned to death by hydrogen sulfide at hot springs located in different regions. The police is perplexed and ask Shusuke Aoe, a geochemist college professor, to help, but...
- 8/9/2019
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
If there is one thing no one can accuse Miike of, that would be for lack of diversity. In our project regarding his filmography, we have dealt with movies almost of any kind, from indie dramas to violent crime movies and almost anything between. Thus, it was inevitable for him not to deal with a kids’ movie, particularly since his filmography turned almost exclusively towards manga/anime adaptations. “Ninja Kids”, which is based on the anime series “Nintama Rintaro”, in its turn based on the manga “Rakudai Ninja Rantaro”, serves exactly this purpose, although with a distinct Miike flavor.
The film takes place in the Muromachi period in the 16th century, and the protagonist of the story is a bespectacled kid named Rantaro, whose low-class ninja parents send him to the 6-year ninja school, as the movie begins. In theory, the Ninja Academy is a proper college,...
The film takes place in the Muromachi period in the 16th century, and the protagonist of the story is a bespectacled kid named Rantaro, whose low-class ninja parents send him to the 6-year ninja school, as the movie begins. In theory, the Ninja Academy is a proper college,...
- 8/7/2019
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Takashi Miike’s second phase of filmmaking, the one mostly dealing with manga adaptations, has been at its best when the Japanese master was able to make films that function as a collage of different ideas. “Ai to Makoto”, the manga by Ikki Kajiwara and Takumi Nagayasu the film is based on, gave Miike a perfect opportunity to produce a movie in that style, as it includes elements of 70s exploitation, musical and anime/manga aesthetics, to name a few. Let us take things from the beginning though.
The anime intro begins in 1961, when a skiing accident introduces the aristocrat Ai to the punk Makoto. 11 years later, and in live-action mode, the two meet again, when Ai, a senior in a prestigious high school, stumbles upon Makoto as he fights the members of a Tokyo gang on his own. Makoto emerges victorious, after the first musical act of the film,...
The anime intro begins in 1961, when a skiing accident introduces the aristocrat Ai to the punk Makoto. 11 years later, and in live-action mode, the two meet again, when Ai, a senior in a prestigious high school, stumbles upon Makoto as he fights the members of a Tokyo gang on his own. Makoto emerges victorious, after the first musical act of the film,...
- 8/5/2019
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
The tongue-in-cheek apology with which mega-prolific Japanese mischief maker Takashi Miike introduced the premiere of his latest madcap mashup in Cannes — “I want to apologize for making such a sweet love story with no violence and no decapitations” — was proved almost instantly to be a joke, as within the first few minutes of “First Love,” a surprised head is summarily and gorily sundered from its owner’s body. Though the irrepressible Miike, whose 2017 “Blade of the Immortal” is canonically accepted as his 100th film, does loosely build movie No. 103 around a sweet little love story, he spares no mayhem in the process. “First Love” may be a fluffier, more eager-to-please bauble than Miike’s more challengingly outré titles, but like the cutesy mechanical toy puppy that turns up yapping in the middle of the film, it is wired to explode, and it is a blast.
Shuffling their deck of genre archetypes,...
Shuffling their deck of genre archetypes,...
- 5/30/2019
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
Details have been released today about Takashi Miike’s Cannes Directors’ Fortnight-bound action-thriller First Love.
Set over one night in Tokyo, the film will follow Leo, a young boxer down on his luck as he meets his ‘first love’ Monica, a call girl and an addict but still an innocent. Little does Leo know, Monica is unwittingly caught up in a drug-smuggling scheme, and the two are pursued through the night by a corrupt cop, a yakuza, his nemesis, and a female assassin sent by the Chinese Triads. According to the production, all their fates intertwine in “spectacular Miike style, at his most and fun and anarchic.”
The film reunites Oscar-winning producer Jeremy Thomas’ (The Last Emperor) Recorded Picture Company with cult director Miike for the fourth time after their collaborations on Blade of the Immortal, Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai and 13 Assassins. HanWay Films will handle worldwide sales...
Set over one night in Tokyo, the film will follow Leo, a young boxer down on his luck as he meets his ‘first love’ Monica, a call girl and an addict but still an innocent. Little does Leo know, Monica is unwittingly caught up in a drug-smuggling scheme, and the two are pursued through the night by a corrupt cop, a yakuza, his nemesis, and a female assassin sent by the Chinese Triads. According to the production, all their fates intertwine in “spectacular Miike style, at his most and fun and anarchic.”
The film reunites Oscar-winning producer Jeremy Thomas’ (The Last Emperor) Recorded Picture Company with cult director Miike for the fourth time after their collaborations on Blade of the Immortal, Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai and 13 Assassins. HanWay Films will handle worldwide sales...
- 4/24/2019
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Reiji Kikukawa, the sleaziest and most preposterous undercover agent returns, alongside his “boss,” “Crazy Papillon”, this time having to deal with an all new collection of enemies and some newfound allies. The latter mainly include the gang’s big boss, Shuho Todoroki, who offers “Crazy Papillon” a sakazuki (a kind of truce) and names him his successor. Furthermore, he tasks him with exterminating a Chinese gang called “Dragon Skulls”, while he makes Reiji his bodyguard. As Reiji tries to avoid the advances of both Todoroki’s wife and daughter, the new police chief, Shinya Kabuto, is determined to fight the Yakuza relentlessly. Lastly, the Flying Squirrel, an ex-member of the gang that was excommunicated by Todoroki, also resurfaces, in a story where each member’s role is unclear.
Miike directs a film that functions in a way that stays true to the original medium, as he manages to capture all of its preposterous,...
Miike directs a film that functions in a way that stays true to the original medium, as he manages to capture all of its preposterous,...
- 2/1/2017
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Based on the great, homonymous novel by Kazuhiro Kiuchi, and having quite a large budget, since it was backed by Warner Bros, “Shield of Straw” had all the prerequisites for being a masterpiece.
A deadly game of hide-and-seek against the whole population
Kunihide Kiyomaru, who has a prior conviction for assaulting and killing a girl 8 years ago, is, once more, accused of a similar, grotesque crime. This time, however, the victim is the granddaughter of a Japanese tycoon and very powerful man, named Ninagawa. Three months after the murder, Ninagawa places a whole page ad in newspapers offering 1 billion yen to anyone who kills the perpetrator.
Kiyomaru, fearing for his life, surrenders to the police at the Fukuoka Police Station. Five detectives from the security section of Tokyo Metropolitan Police arrive in Fukuoka, in order to escort him to Tokyo. In their efforts, the five detectives (Kazuki Mekari, Atsuko Shiraiwa,...
A deadly game of hide-and-seek against the whole population
Kunihide Kiyomaru, who has a prior conviction for assaulting and killing a girl 8 years ago, is, once more, accused of a similar, grotesque crime. This time, however, the victim is the granddaughter of a Japanese tycoon and very powerful man, named Ninagawa. Three months after the murder, Ninagawa places a whole page ad in newspapers offering 1 billion yen to anyone who kills the perpetrator.
Kiyomaru, fearing for his life, surrenders to the police at the Fukuoka Police Station. Five detectives from the security section of Tokyo Metropolitan Police arrive in Fukuoka, in order to escort him to Tokyo. In their efforts, the five detectives (Kazuki Mekari, Atsuko Shiraiwa,...
- 10/8/2016
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
The great Takashi Miike is making his way back to the horror genre with an as of yet to be titled new film focusing on one of Japan's most famous ghost stories, Yotsuya Kaiden. Read on for the first details.
Miike directs from a screenplay by Kikumi Yamagishi (Hara-kiri: Death of a Samurai, The Happiness of the Katakuris). Nobuyasu Kita (13 Assassins, Hara-kiri) rejoins Miike behind the camera as cinematographer with Toshiaki Nakazawa (13 Assassins, Departure) producing. Production designer Yuji Hayashida and composer Koji Endo are also join the crew. Celluloid Dreams/uConnect, the sales division of uMedia, has acquired the international rights for the project in Cannes.
Recognized in many contemporary representations including The Ring franchise, the evil spirit Oiwa appears in her white burial gown, straggled hair, and drooping eye from when she was maimed by poison. Originally presented on stage in the early 1800s, Yotsuya Kaiden has been remade and reconfigured many times,...
Miike directs from a screenplay by Kikumi Yamagishi (Hara-kiri: Death of a Samurai, The Happiness of the Katakuris). Nobuyasu Kita (13 Assassins, Hara-kiri) rejoins Miike behind the camera as cinematographer with Toshiaki Nakazawa (13 Assassins, Departure) producing. Production designer Yuji Hayashida and composer Koji Endo are also join the crew. Celluloid Dreams/uConnect, the sales division of uMedia, has acquired the international rights for the project in Cannes.
Recognized in many contemporary representations including The Ring franchise, the evil spirit Oiwa appears in her white burial gown, straggled hair, and drooping eye from when she was maimed by poison. Originally presented on stage in the early 1800s, Yotsuya Kaiden has been remade and reconfigured many times,...
- 5/20/2013
- by Uncle Creepy
- DreadCentral.com
Seemingly back making films at a breakneck pace Takashi Miike makes it clear with For Love’s Sake (Ai To Makoto) that 13 Assassins and Harakiri, his recent period samurai remakes, were examples of him branching out further, rather than a full-blown new direction. That’s not to say that Miike is fully back to approaching the technical side of his films with his old anarchic flourishes though. For all its lurid colour palette and expressive filmmaking excesses For Love’s Sake is a technically complex and formally cohesive film that is all the more impressive to behold when one considers the rate at which Miike is making films.
Despite being technically proficient, For Love’s Sake is lacking in other areas, particularly in its story structure and the effect this has on the pace of the film. Based on an original story by Ikki Kajiwara and Takumi Nagayabu, which has seen many adaptations previously,...
Despite being technically proficient, For Love’s Sake is lacking in other areas, particularly in its story structure and the effect this has on the pace of the film. Based on an original story by Ikki Kajiwara and Takumi Nagayabu, which has seen many adaptations previously,...
- 10/11/2012
- by Craig Skinner
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Director: Takashi Miike Writers: Kaneo Ikegami and Daisuke Tengan Cinematographer: Nobuyasu Kita Stars: Kôji Yakusho, Takayuki Yamada, Yûsuke Iseya, Gorô Inagaki Studio/Running Time: Magnet Releasing, 126 min. While Takashi Miike’s name here in the United States will forever by synonymous with his ultra-violent pictures like Ichi the Killer and Audition, at this point he’s worked in pretty much every genre under the sun—not a huge surprise considering that he’s likely the most prolific director of all time (IMDb lists 83 projects he’s directed since 1991). Even so, there are still large consistencies to his pictures, which tend to boast...
- 5/5/2011
- Pastemagazine.com
Confessions, Villain, 13 Assassins, and the other winners of the 2011 Japan Academy Prize have been announced. The 34th Annual Japan Academy Prize, “often called the Japan Academy Awards or the Japanese Academy Awards, is a series of awards given annually since 1978 by the Nippon Academy-sho Association for Excellence in Japanese Film. Award categories are similar to the Academy Awards.” The award ceremony was held on February 18, 2011 at the New Takanawa Prince Hotel in Tokyo. The full listing of the 2011 Japan Academy Prize winners is below.
Picture of the Year
Kokuhaku (Confessions)
Animation of the Year
Kari-gurashi no Arietti (The Borrowers)
Director of the Year
Tetsuya Nakashima, Kokuhaku (Confessions)
Screenplay of the Year
Tetsuya Nakashima, Kokuhaku (Confessions)
Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Satoshi Tsumabuki, Akunin (Villain)
Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Eri Fukatsu, Akunin (Villain)
Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Akira Emoto,...
Picture of the Year
Kokuhaku (Confessions)
Animation of the Year
Kari-gurashi no Arietti (The Borrowers)
Director of the Year
Tetsuya Nakashima, Kokuhaku (Confessions)
Screenplay of the Year
Tetsuya Nakashima, Kokuhaku (Confessions)
Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Satoshi Tsumabuki, Akunin (Villain)
Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Eri Fukatsu, Akunin (Villain)
Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Akira Emoto,...
- 2/19/2011
- by filmbook
- Film-Book
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