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Miike Takashi (三池崇史) (born
August 24,
1960 in
Osaka, Japan) is a highly prolific
Japanese
filmmaker, having made over fifty theatrical and television
productions since his debut in
1991. For the years
2001 and
2002, he is credited with directing no fewer than fourteen
productions. Many of his films contain graphic, almost cartoonish
violence and bloodshed,
criminals (especially
yakuza), or concern themselves with non-Japanese living in Japan (such
as
Brazilians,
Chinese, or
Russians).
He graduated from
Yokohama Vocational School of Broadcast and Film (Yokohama Hoso Eiga
Senmon Gakko).
He gained world notoriety in
2000 when his horror film
Audition and violent yakuza epic
Dead or Alive: Hanzaisha debuted in international film festivals.
His very first films were
television productions, but he purportedly directed several
direct-to-video releases that were financed as
money-laundering operations for the
yakuza, although there has never been any conclusive proof of this.
His most
controversial film has been
Ichi the Killer (2001)
(殺し屋１), adapted from a
manga of the same name, and starring
Asano Tadanobu as a
sadomasochistic
yakuza enforcer named Kakihara looking for a mysterious killer named
Ichi, who disembowels people with razor blades in his boots, and seems to
be targeting Kakihara's gang. (During its international premiere at the
Toronto International Film Festival in
2001, the audience received "barf bags" emblazoned with the film's
logo as a promotional gimmick.) Its flamboyant
gory killings include Ichi slicing a man in half from head to groin,
and severing another's face, which then slides down a nearby wall. The
BBFC refused to show the film uncut in
Britain, and in
Hong Kong it was shown missing over 15 minutes of footage (though in
the
United States it has been shown uncut and unrated). An uncut
DVD was released in the
Benelux.
Not all of Miike's films are gorefests, however. The Happiness of
the Katakuris was a farcical musical comedy involving zombies, and
Ley Lines and Agitator were character-driven, serious
crime dramas. Graveyard of Honour is a
remake of a
Kinji Fukasaku film from the
1970s.
Miike's
best-known films (not comprehensive):
- Shinjuku Triad Society (1995)
- Fudoh: The New Generation (1996)
- Full Metal Yakuza (1997)
- Rainy Dog (1997)
- The Bird People in China (1998)
- Ley Lines (1999)
- Dead or Alive (2000)
- Audition (2000)
- City of Lost Souls (2000)
- Dead or Alive 2: Birds (2000)
- Visitor Q (2001)
- Ichi the Killer (2001)
- Agitator (2001)
- The Happiness of the Katakuris (2001)
- Dead or Alive: Final (2002)
- Graveyard of Honour (2002)
- Deadly Outlaw: Rekka (2002)
- Gozu (2003)
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