Colton
Supporting Actor
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2004
- Messages
- 795
Could someone try to explain the ending to Ichi: The Killer? Just watched it and I'm confused ...
Colton
Colton
My reaction after watching the much heralded Ichi was "that's it?" I was prepared to be disgusted and shocked...I was instead amused and pleasantly surprised by how cool the whole movie was, but offensive and "hard to watch" it was not. The violence never even seemed to reach the level of Texas Chainsaw Massacre."Amusingly cool" is the perfect description of "ICHI", but I'm a bit thrown by your TX Chainsaw comparison. "Ichi" is much more violent and graphic, whereas "Chainsaw" mostly suggests its violence rather than showing it.
And R-rated "Dead or Alive"? Tsk. You really should know better.
You have to see "Audition", but if you're going in expecting to be shocked and outraged, then you've already lost half the effect. The movie is a sucker-punch, and unfortunately you're now looking for it... too bad. Some movies are truly spoiled by "spoilers", but see it anyway. It's flat-out brilliant.
And "Visitor Q"? What can I say except I've never seen a "family values movie" (which arguably is exactly what it is) that contains quite this much corpse-fucking, incest, and bucket after bucket of bodily fluids and wastes. A peculiar little flick, and positively hilarious... plus, it promotes family values. How can you lose?
Speaking of wierd endings...anybody care to share thoeries or explinations for Ichi? That one blew right over my head. Maybe I need to watch it again.That's about all I know.
Audition was kinda borring. Wow she kills people, and she has mental problems, so why is this supposed to be great? It wasn't relly scarry or suspensful, You kinda knew what was going to happen by the middle of the movie.Well, part of the problem is that it's being sold as a thriller. When I saw it, it was just pitched as coming from one of Japan's most notable directors and having a twist in the middle; when the weird shit started happening, it shocked people in the theater. I had a hard time watching the last reel from all the walkouts.
I try to recreate that by telling people it's a romantic comedy before they watch it; most of the first half could actually work as one. But I think Audition is, in a way, sort of like Shall We Dance?, in that while it's not completely specific to gender relations in Japan, it's not quite universal, either. The basic thrust of the story, to me, is that while many men make noise about considering women equals, what many of them want in a relationship is what the main character seeks in Audition; someone interesting but not as interesting as him, who has or had great potential but is now defined as "his girlfriend" or "his wife"... someone who stimulates him but doesn't outshine him. It's an ideal that men don't say out loud much any more, but still often lurks close to the surface.
But it's not a natural state to be that kind of person. One has to be broken, through tragedy or abuse. And that can create a whole new set of psychological problems, especially now that women are publicly being encouraged to take their rightful place in society, to not take this sort of thing any more.
I think Audition is probably Miike's best movie, the one which has had the most thought put into it, and has the most to say. But it's not the thriller it's often sold as. It's a harsh, allegorical drama that disguises itself as a romantic comedy for the first half of its runtime.