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24/06/04 14:30 


par Astec
Bon une première critique du film de Miike dont la sortie devrait se faire en Août au Japon. Je met le lien vers l'article mais comme il ne restera pas accessible en ligne (à moins d'être abonné) longtemps je le met aussi en copié/collé : http://www.screendaily.com/story.asp?storyid=18160&r=true


Izo


Mark Schilling in Tokyo 22 June 2004



Dir: Takashi Miike. 2004. Jap. 128mins.

The bad boy of Japanese film, with a growing international following, Takashi Miike likes violence well enough, injecting everything from slow torture to mass slaughter into his 50-plus films. But until his latest, Izo, he had never done samurai swordfighting. The traditionalist genre, until younger film-makerscame along like Nakano (Samurai Fiction), Kitano (Zatoichi) and Kitamura (Azumi), was dominated by the older generation and went against his image.

Miike, however, likes trashing critical preconceptions as much as he enjoys messing with prop blood. Thus his interest in Izo, a genre-bending film whose hero ends up battling not only his own demons, but the forces that rule the universe.

More than his first samurai swashbuckler, though, Izo is Miike’s first serious effort to transcend genre conventions and make an auteurist statement about big questions. His true role model is Akira Kurosawa. His overseas fan base will enjoy the abundant ultra-violence, but those expecting two hours of trash entertainment will leave disappointed - or scratching their heads over the film’s leaps through time, space and logic.

There are playful moments, but the old prankishness - the sense that Miike is having a good laugh at the expense of the squares is mostly gone, replaced by an intensity that batters the audience into dazed submission. One doesn’t watch this movie so much as become embedded in it.

In Japan, where the film is scheduled for a mid-August release, Miike has become more of a name, although his two recent mainstream films - One Missed Call and Zebraman - were sold more on their subject matter and stars than their director. His lower budgeted projects, like Izo, are still considered cult.

It begins in 1865, when the Shogunate is on its last legs, but still capable of punishing its enemies. One is Izo (Kazuya Nakayama), an assassin in the service of Lord Hanpeida (Ryosuke Miki), a supporter of the anti-Shogun forces. After killing dozens of the Shogun’s men, Izo is captured and crucified.

His rage against his captors propels him through the space-time continuum to present-day Tokyo. There he transforms into a new, improved killing machine, out for revenge for his treatment in his past life. His targets - the authority figures who are the Shogun’s spiritual heirs.

He attracts the attention of the lords of the universe, who are like a pre-war House of Peers, in office for eternity. Though hardly a threat to their power, his trans-temporal killing spree is annoying, like static in the music of the spheres.

Izo, however, is not about to bow to anyone, even the gods. He invades a temple sacred to the Peers and slaughters its monks and head priest (Hiroyuki Nagato). Finally he rapes Mother Earth herself (Haruna Takase) and unleashes chaos on the world. The Peers, led by the Prime Minister (Beat Takeshi), decide to act, calling on allies from all eras, from samurai swordsmen to the yakuza.

From here on the slaughter becomes non-stop. Playing the title character, Kazuya Nakayama tirelessly charges and slashes through scene after scene, as though he trained for the part like an Olympic athlete.

Beat Takeshi - known in his directorial incarnation, including films like Zatoichi, as Takeshi Kitano- gets relatively little screen time, but he makes his presence felt. One would hate to incur the wrath of his “tight-lipped, hollow-eyed immortal”, who “forgot the meaning of mercy eons ago” - and hasn't missed it.

There is a method in Miike’s madness - or at least a point. He and scriptwriter Shigenori Takechi, a frequent Miike collaborator, are making a larger statement about the insanity and futility of violence, murder, war.

One obvious contemporary parallel is Iraq, with Izo as the ultimate insurgent. In "staying the course" the Peers only fan his flames of rage. His lover from a previous life, Saya (Momoi Kaori), proposes another way - sexual healing. Also, the youthful, androgynous Emperor (Ryuhei Matsuda) wields the sort of power George Bush could only wish for.

The pounding that Miike delivers, like a two-hour mortar attack from the same position, becomes wearing, however. Izo is admirable for its ambition and sheer chutzpah - but by the end all but Miike loyalists will be glad to get out of Baghdad.


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24/06/04 17:01 RE: IZO

par Kamiku
Merci pour l'info Astec ;)


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25/06/04 00:17 RE: IZO


par Astec
de rien, et je précise que j'ai choppé l'info sur le forum de mobius asian cinema discussion, histoire de faire les choses ds les règles de l'art.


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25/06/04 14:00 RE: IZO

par Green Snake
Merci tout de même de nous faire partager l'info. ^__^


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29/06/04 00:07 RE: IZO

par Christian D
Oui merçi

J'aime bien Miike. Je le trouve sympa et même si il a fait son lot de t`res mauvais films, j'aime bien le "the sense that Miike is having a good laugh at the expense of the squares ". Oui il semble se foutre de la gueule de tous et il fait souvent du n'importe quoi. Mais c'est rafraichissant dans cette univers de films à 200 millions de $$$ US).
Par contre, il fait tellement de films que j'ai perdu l'interet. Ça me tente pas de chercher des infos sur ses nouveaux films.
Donc ça me prend des Astec pour faire le boulot pour moi.
(et pour me dire quel voir ou ne pas voir).

Merçi
Thank you
Gracias
et tout ça.


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29/06/04 00:13 RE: IZO


par Astec
Ayé, vous m'avez fait rougir et changer de taille de chaussures (et de chaussetes).


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