OK, back in 2004, there was only a poor bootleg version of Gosha’s masterpiece available. But still, using the same characters & world (!!!), Takashi Miike made a bold metaphysical quest when Gosha, knew how to use the genre film to tell an entertaining story about Mankind.
The key word here is “entertaining” because you don’t feel like you’re in the middle of a painful philosophy class where everything you need to know is clearly said bold & loud.
What about the mise-en-scene? Miike know how to be crazy, but here, when it comes to use images/cut as an narrative tool, he’s lost. Whereas, each frames of Hitokiri shows US something, it doesn’t say, it shows.
Subtility. In Hitokiri, you understand this is a corrupted area through many elements. For example, remember when Izo nicked his blade. It seems like nothing, but it reveals what was once the soul of the samurai is nothing more than a dangerous knife used by peasants. Just a weapon. That, my friends, tells a lot about this society, this world. There’s no need for the storyteller to explain it during the film, it’s obvious.
Miike’s Izo is crazy enough to be more interesting than 80% of the actual japanese production, but it’s trying so hard to be symbolic & metaphysic it doesn’t even try to be just a film. Hopefully, we can still go watch Gosha’s Hitokiri. Too bad?
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
‘Izo’ m’avait bien plu même s’il était abscons et souvent agaçant (comme à peu près tous les Miike, en fait). Et surtout :
Pas sûr que le mot clé du film soit le divertissement, dans la mesure où IZO est tout de même extrêmement ennuyant, avec un sens du rythme absolument nul! Mais bon, c’est une constante chez Miike. D’ailleurs, cela fait un bout de temps que je n’ai pas vu de films de lui…
Miike is a modern cult film hero, but he doesn’t hold a candle to Gosha. Gosha is a master filmmaker, an auteur. Miike isn’t in the same league.
To me Miike made some incredible movies (maybe one out of 10? 20?) and quite enough interesting ones. His unbridled production made of some forgettable movies shouldn’t eclipse visitor q, dead or alive, happiness, gozu, rainy dog, of course we can all argue about the meaning of the “auteur” or as you say “master filmmaker”
IZO to me wasn’t so abstruse just a long, unpleasant and rather useless metaphor for the human condition regarded under the angle of its unending and senseless violence. Form and content mixed quite well in this perspective. (OK i have to watch this GOSHA… sumimasen)
I don’t mean to dismiss Miike. I write about a number of his films in my book Asia Shock, and praise his achievements. I merely point out that while Miike is good, even “incredible,” Gosha is truly great.
I suggest you take a look at Three Outlaw Samurai (1964), Sword of the Beast (1965), Goyokin (1969), Tenchu (1969), and Hunter in the Dark (1979) for starters.