Japan the weird and the wonderful

Pretty sure this isn't reel

I own that film on blu-ray :p it's 100% real. The film is very weird but an even more disturbing one (given the state of Japan) is a film called Suicide Club in which teens start committing suicide en masse. As for weird... Takashi Miike's film Ichi The Killer is a real crazy gorefest and has the title famously emerging from semen allegedly donated by the cast and crew. However even Ichi The Killer pales in comparison to a certain lesser known film he did called Gozu.

Here's a trailer of the latter (definitely NSFW or the squeamish.) The film can be a real slog to watch though at times.

 
Takashi Miike is one of my favourite directors, I own a fair few of his films, including the Black society and Dead or Alive Trilogies, Audition, Ichi and Happiness of the Kakaturis. Even if the story doesn't always make sense he has such a style and flair that I've never seen any other filmmaker come close to achieving. A lot of his films are silmultaneously dark and disturbing whilst being gory and entertaining fun. We have him to thank for some truly weird and disturbing moments in film.

I'm grateful that Arrow Video keep giving his films such good releases! I recommend to anybody interested in his work to seek them out since they're usually accompanied by great extras including commentaries by Miike himself in some cases.
 
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Ichi the Killer was my very first foreign language film. Just thrown right on in there, no holds barred. Happiness of the Kakaturis & Auditon being shortly after. What I'd give to go back & see those for the first time again.

I see Tokyo Gore Police mentioned! I love that film, if you want more of that side of the weird (& wonderful) try out Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein girl, same director (Yoshihiro Nishimura). Along the same vein are Dead Sushi & Machine Girl. Robo Geisha & Mutant Girls Squad aren't too bad either. The director (Noboru Iguchi) also tackled the live action Tomie (classic Junji Ito manga) :)
 
Tokyo Gore Police is just bizarre, recall watching it on Amazon Instant Video ages ago. Definitely lives up to the name.
 
Someone correct me if I'm wrong but didn't Manga Entertainment release Survive Style 5 and some of the Chanbara films once upon a Time? Ahhhhh the good old days :p
 
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