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Miike rules in many people's books because they've only seen Ichi and Audition. Hah. I watched Audition again recently and actually kinda liked it. There is this one cool camera movement when the main female character comes on the scene, where the camera walks all the way across the room and stops just as the main character begins his interrogation. That scene is awesome. There is a lot of loneliness and depression in the film which I enjoyed. I find the film quite average, though. As for ichi, I also recently watched that for the first time in about 8 years, and I still feel it's a bit cold and hard to watch -- not because of the gore, just because there's not much for me to latch onto, as a viewer. I hate all the characters, and the film actually feels a bit confusing and disjointed, like they were more concerned with throwing violence on the screen. Despite being Asano's most well known role, it's probably my least favorite.
As for Miike's top 5, I'd say: 1. IZO, 2. DEAD OR ALIVE 2, 3. BLACK SOCIETY TRILOGY (3 films, true, but they're 3 of his best), 4. VISITOR Q, and 5. FUDOH. With HAPPINESS OF THE KATAKURIS being up there as well. It's interesting, I recently rewatched FUDOH and was BLOWN AWAY by it... for those who've seen HOSTEL 2, Eli Roth ripped off the "soccer kids playing soccer with a decapitated head" from it. Also..
SPOILER
isn't it neat how the film ends right as the two main characterrs are about to fight? What a great cop out ending!
END SPOILER
Miike is a competent director-for-hire. He's been involved in some interesting projects though.
Air Doll was one of the best Japanese films of 2009, definitely.
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