Writer: Itaru Era
Director: Takashi Miike
Starring: Kenichi Endo, Shungiko Uchida, Kazushi Watanabe
Synopsis
This movie is about a Japanese family headed by a failed reality TV producer and a visitor who enters their life and shakes things up.
The Woman
to me, shock value has lost it's value. i feel like this was just an exorcise in shock value. there was some sort of comment on how society is obsessed with "reality shows" but it was way overpowered by the desperate depravity that it became ridiculous and laughable. i will say that i found this more hardcore than "the human centipede" that, for some reason, most of my friends found utterly gross, and i just found it to be a tremendously awesome movie. scat vs. necrophilia with some poop thrown in for good measure. meh. i'll be glad when this seemingly everlasting moster streak is over. i've had my fill of old movies, foreign movies, and bad independent movies or any combination of all three. bring on the brainless big budget nonsense. i've had to think too much lately.
MOster
I think I looked at this from a different angle than my estimable Woman. I don't think this was exactly shock for the sake of shock. I think there was a real story about the father trying to redeem himself. Everything stems from the way he fucked up; and as misguided as EVERYBODY's actions are they either come from good motivations or bad influences. The conclusion is a catharsis for the story, even not for the viewer.
Technically speaking, this was done well. Some of the dirtiness effects were really good, and the acting was fairly convincing; Uchida in particular was a pot coming slowly to a boil. This is early Miike, but his craft and attention to detail shine through the subject matter. Again, it all went to a purpose and even if that purpose was culturally disparate from us by about 170 degrees. The final scene was, in its way, touching.
The grossout factor is high here. The sketch factor is high. I don't recommend this to very many people at all, but I don't think it was worthless.
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