Agitator The Cinema of Takashi Miike
Published by:
FAB Press
By Tom Mes
Agitator is the world's first book devoted entirely to the most talented director of the last few years, Takashi Miike. Done with the cooperation from Miike himself, Tom Mes embarked himself into the wild and controversial world of the most profilic Japanese director. Within the 408 pages, including 8 pages in full color, Mes takes us deep into all of the filmmaking aspect of Miike's madness.
The book starts with forewords by Makoto Shinozaki. After a good introduction by Mes, he takes us into the personal life of Miike before he got into the movie business. We find out about his life as a kid and as a teenager, his love for motorcycles and how he became connected with the fabulous world of movie magic.
With 49 films (at the time of the writting of this book), 3 television series, commercials, music videos and a documentary, the task of covering all of Miike's impressive career was an undertaking that only a devoted fan (or freak) could do and Mes was just the man for the job. After seeing AUDITION for the first time, he went to Japan on numerous occassions to find the films of Miike and the man himself. Its pretty incredible to think that Mes might actually be the only person who've seen all of Miike's work. Most of them were released only on VHS, without English subtitles and are now out of print.
For anyone familliar with the work of Miike, you must have noticed that some themes are almost always present within his work. Mes takes a look at these themes in one of the first chapter of the book. We then move on to the "Video Years" of Miike. Between 1991 and 1995, Miike made lots of direct to video film, called V-cinema in Japan. Mes takes an indepth look at all the films of this period, from his directorial debut LADY HUNTER to EYECATCH JUNCTION, A HUMAN MURDER WEAPON, the two ORETACHI WA TENSI JA NAI to SHINJUKU OUTLAW and others. Through these years, Miike redefined himself as a filmmaker... he would later become an auteur.
The next chapter is called "The Outlaw Director" which covers his films from 1995 to 2002. Miike's very first film to be screened in theaters was SHINJUKU TRIAD SOCIETY. This was first intended as another V-cinema release but since the producers liked it so much it played on the silver screen. It also represent the first film in which Miike's themes are fully explored... themes that from there on he will use in all his films. After a few less then successful films, all reviewed in this amazing book, Miike returned with KENKA NO HANAMICHI and most importantly FUDOH: THE NEW GENERATION in 1996. Believe it or not but FUDOH was actually intented as another V-cinema release... thank god they changed their minds! It was the first film from Miike playing at film festival around the world, including Montreal's Fantasia Film Festival were it got a tremendous reaction from the audience. In FUDOH, Miike's took all he learned and put it on celluloid as one crazy piece of art.
Tom Mes continues reviewing every films from Miike, JINGI NAKI YABO 2, KISHIWADA SHONEN GURENTAI, RAINY DOG (the sequel in theme only to SHINJUKU TRIAD SOCIETY), FULL METAL GOKUDO (certainly Miike's goofiest and weirdest film ever!), the stunning and amazingly touching THE BIRD PEOPLE IN CHINA, ANDROMENA, BLUES HARP and lots more!
DEAD OR ALIVE is also reviewed, this was yet another turning point in Miike's career in which the yakuza themes was mixed with fantasy at the end and one hell of a cool first 10 minutes! AUDITION is next... what more can be said about this truely amazing film. Mes goes deep (kiri, kiri, kiri... sorry I couldn't helped it) into the messages and style of the film. AUDITION was another important film from Miike, maybe his most important has he received great reviews and respect from around the world. The book also goes into CITY OF LOST SOULS, DEAD OR ALIVE 2, the incredible VISITOR Q, FAMILY, THE GUYS FROM PARADISE, ICHI THE KILLER which certainly needs no introduction, DEAD OR ALIVE FINAL, THE HAPPINESS OF THE KATAKURIS (another fav of mine), AGITATOR, SABU, his adaptation of GRAVEYARD OF HONOR, DEADLY OUTLAW: REKKA and more!
This is an amazing book that all
Takashi Miike fans and readers interested in Asian cinema should get now!
But wait there's more... way more! For the first time in English, we are treated
to the very interesting ICHI THE KILLER production diary from Miike himself!
This was an amazing read for me since ICHI is one of my all time fav! Then
we move on to an indepth and informative interview with the man. This ain't
no ordinary bullshit interview like we get so many times... this was conducted
by Mes and lasted 7 hours!! Last but no least we have the complete Takashi
Miike filmography and a list of his films available on DVD with infos about
the disc, extras and publisher.
This is without a doubt the best book i've read so far this year! It is available as a paperback and as a very exclusive limited heardback edition of 500 copies. Get your copy now!