To the genre film community, very few directors have the longevity of Japanese icon Takashi Miike. Known for seminal yakuza and samurai films plenty, Miike’s latest is a crazy, go-for-broke gang war film that is an all-out blast. Weaving multiple characters and plot lines injected with a lot of unexpected humor, First Love is far a far cry from Audition or Ichi the Killer. It’s more in line with Edgar Wright and Guy Ritchie type films, yet somehow still feels relatively grounded. The film follows Leo (Masataka Kubota), an up-and-coming boxer who is diagnosed with cancer. While he is reeling from the news, he, by dumb luck, gets thrust into an adrenaline-fueled, running, gunning, and slashing adventure.…
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Sweet Trailer…'Hara-Kiri: Death Of A Samurai'
Takashi Miike isn’t known for pulling his punches and his films aren’t for the faint of heart. In 2010, the man who gave us Ichi The Killer and Audition did a 180 and gave us one of the most surprising remakes in the last few years with his version of 13 Assassins. Well it’s good to see he’s still got the samurai bug and this time he’s giving us his version of Masaki Kobayashi’s 1962 film Harakiri (Criterion Files write up coming soon). Based on the trailer, it looks like we can expect another solid effort…and this time in 3D. Man I sure could have used 3D for that 45 minute…
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DIFF Review…13 Assassins
Takashi Miike paints a samurai film for the ages with his gripping epic 13 Assassins. A gritty story about 13 Ronin tasked with killing the corrupt son of the Shogun, Miike sends a love letter to Akira Kurosawa that would make any filmmaker envious of such a compliment. Right off the bat Miike recounts this true story by establishing a villain set for the record books in the form of Lord Naritsugu Matsudaira. His careless and detestable actions are close to breaking the peace that has been held for many years. Called to stop him is Shinzaemon Shimada and he’s to assemble 12 other samurai to take down Naritsugu. It’s 13 against 200 but to a well…