Emmas Miike Marathon

 As some of you lovely people may already know, 2011 is the year of my 'Miike Marathon'. My challenge is to watch as many of, contraversial Japanese director, Takashi Miikes films as possible. For some reason, Jonny thinks you might like to hear how I'm getting on (to give him a rest from it all, i imagine) so, its been decided that, once a week(ish) I'll be doing a little review, to keep you up to date.

If I'm honest, I'm not actually sure how I've ended up with this challenge, it seemed like a good idea at the time and, well, once you've mentioned it to a couple of people, you cant go back!  I'd already seen what you would think of as some of his more mainstream films, Ichi, Audition, Three Extremes etc but I think it was The Happiness of the Katakuris that really sold Miike to me. A musical with zombies, what more could anyone want from a film?!

 While sorting out the Monster/Film Room i found a pile of DVDs I'd brought cheap from a rental place that was closing down. This must have been at least 2 years ago, and I've still not watched them. In that pile there was quite a lot of Miikes stuff that I haven't seen, Dead or Alive, Shinjuku thing thing, Agitator and more. So, combine that with a tiny (but completely healthy) obsession with anything Japanese and the Miike Marathon was born.

This year, Mikkes 83rd title, as director, will be released (hence the Marathon part of the challenge!) If you want to see a list of what i'll be attempting to watch click HERE.. Dito if you want anymore info on the man himself.

There probably should have a plan of attack for this, but as this is me were talking about, there isn't. I've just sort of fallen into this, so i didn't start watching his films in any order. I'm also struggling to find quite a bit of his early stuff, so its not going to be a chronological look at his work. To group it into genre would be a pain in the arse, mainly because i don't want to end up watching a load of yakuza films in a row. So, for that reason, we're winging it!  

I'm, by no stretch of the imagination, a film buff or writer so you'll have to bear with me and excuse the waffle and excessive use of exclamation marks!!!! This is gonna be a massive learning curve for me, so if you want to throw some advice or (constructive)criticism my way, feel free.

Some of you may also be happy to hear that due to my overenthusiastic buying of DVDs and lack of organisation, I've doubled up on a couple so you do get a competition too.
A bribe so you come back for more?

Maybe!

The first of his films I'm going to be reviewing is Blues Harp, a yukuza film from 1998. Its not one of his more shocking or violent films, but i loved the characters and story, it has lots of his usual themes running through it. Also, the use of music in the intro is bloody fantastic. Anyway, the trailer is below.

 Hope to see you next week.