Daniel Robert Epstein: Takashi Miike director of Gozu

awesome, thanks for the interview.

total miike fanboy over here, the likes of tarantino wish they could have 1% of the talent and versitality as miike.

i would highly suggest fans of miike to check out two south korean filmmakers, one chan wook park (who just won 2nd place at cannes with old boy, has also done jsa and sympathy for mr.vengeance, among others) and two kim ki duk (samaria, spring summer fall winter spring, the isle, bad guy) as well as a south korean movie by the name of save the green planet.

Sweet! Thanks, DRE.

he's crazy!

"TM: [laughs] I go to the dentist not a shrink."

that makes me scared.

This scares the crap out of me. Anyone responsible for Ichi should DEFINITELY be seeing a shrink.
He's a great director, but for fuck's sake, what does he have against people with relatively weak stomaches?
I did wonder whether there was an Ichi manga, it seemed like it would have worked better that way (so we don't have to watch the fucked up parts for so long). Don't get me wrong, he's an amazing director; he just scares me to the point of hysteria.

What is it about the Japanese that makes them have all the insane people directing movies, writing comics, and making porn instead of committing crimes?

Also sorry folks. GOZU opens on July 30th now not the 16th. i literally got that change last night!

you're my hero. i love chan-wook park, and i'm really interested in seeing kim ki-duk stuff. i've got samaria, but haven't set aside the time to watch it yet. save the green planet, oldboy, and sympathy are all amazing. a tale of two sisters is another awesome korean movie.

cool interview, i've been wanting to see gozu forever now, but a lot of miike's stuff is so hard to get with english subs if you're picky and don't want to pay for bootlegs. very surprised and happy to see this interview!

Cool, really good to see an interview with Miike on here


And thumbsup to the guy who mentioned chan wook park and kim ki duk.

This made me laugh.

DRE: What are your favorite English speaking filmmakers?

TM: David Lynch, but who fascinates me the most is Paul Verhoeven. No modern director can make a movie like Starship Troopers.

Great interview.

I love how he talks about intentionally trying to bore people with the first 60 minutes of Audition. I definatly got that impression while watching it. It made the end so more much effective.

I can't wait to see Gozu. Thanks so much for the interview.

(MINOR SPOILERS)

Yup, Another Miike fanboy here. Audition was insane. The twist ending was really heavy, but the way he went about it was crazy. For someone who comes up with the idea of crippling someone, keeping them prisoner in a duffle bag, and making them live off of your own vomit needs serious help.
(And that's not even much of a spoiler in the grand scheme of things.)


The entire thought prossess that goes into making his movies would make it impossible for them to be made here. Seriously, if you haven't seen any of his films then you really can't get a good mental picture of them from descriptions here.

Ichi is probably his most popular movie to date, and it may be the most violent film ever made. It's so over the top that it almost becomes cartoonish. Makes early Tarentino lookm like nothing.

If anyone reading this wants to confuse the shit out of a room full of people, try to track down "The Happiness of the Katakuris". It's Miike's version of a serious musical, complete with claymation demons and constant murder and zombies.

BTW: He considers this his "Family" film.

I think a lot of Japanese cinema is massively superior to American films because they seem to have freedom to do pretty much anything they want, versus the American films being censored to pieces to get PG13 ratings. Actual creativity still exists.

miike


big ups for scoring this interview

Oh my fucking god, thank you for this interview!!!!

DRE, if you are ever in Michigan, can I touch you?



[Edited on Jun 25, 2004 by EvanX]

Yet another fanboy and I agree totally with your opinion. I was telling a friend the other day, Japanese (and other Asian cinema) aren't afraid to take chances and aren't held down by the "rules" of American film-making.


[Edited on Jun 25, 2004 by hav818]

I thought Gozu's been out for a while. I saw it like a year ago....

is that like the american release or what?

anyway, now I'm looking to check out Zebraman....sounds funny, heheh

[Edited on Jun 25, 2004 by media_tribe]

Ah, such good fun. I have 27 Miike films and counting!

Yes, not only is it a full on 'Sound of Music' by way of 'Psycho,' the ultimate point of the movie is that famlies, no matter how dysfunctional, need each other and have to stick together and sacrifice for one another. It's a goddamn Disney flick. With dead people. And zombies. And rollicking song and dance numbers.

Really the only filmmaker whose work you can compare to 'Katakuris' is early Peter Jackson.

fantastic... miike is by far my favorite director
out of the 15 or so films of his that i have seen, gozu is actually my least favorite...
i still will try to see it when it plays theatricly

thank you for this interview! and happy b-day?

Japan is like ANYWHERE else in the world in that the majors fund films for profit and to appeal only to the lowest common denominator. Its a rare cat that can get in on the "auteur" track and actually build an audience and get funding for his/her work. Miike is definitely one of the few out on the limb there, but theres nothing about the "system" that encourages his type any more than in the U.S. Probably its more likely that the stranger films are the main ones getting introduced overseas, screened in the cult circuits, etc. giving you all the illusion that "things are different" here...

Personally I dig major films, but 95% of major Japanese films are unwatchable crap on a completely different plane from those in the states (etc.)... mostly starring flavor-of-the-month idols and "celebrities" with no acting ability and completely weak stories... I'm talking about the ilk of "Baywatch" and "Beverly Hills 90210" making up most of the Japanese film output...

Ah well... I have faith that things will come around...

Thanks for the Interview anyway, keep up the good work DRE!

anyone see GOzu yet?

no one saw Gozu?