Cinematic PersuAsian

We all had a few days off last week. Time to reflect, time to catch up with those we haven't seen in a while, and time to actually sit down and do absolutely nothing for a day or two.  Knowing that a four-day weekend looms ahead doesn't exactly make everyone the most productive person during the preceding work-week or the weeknights for that matter, but it does get you motivated to take care of some random business so you can actually decompress.  In my case, I found it an ideal opportunity to finally catch up on some Netflix that I had left sitting on the shelf for a couple of weeks. 

 

Maybe I should have let it sit for a bit longer.

 

Well, that's not the right sort of stance I should take, but I shall explain.  A few months ago I was in the grips of catching the wave of new cinema coming out of the East Asian countries of Korea, Japan, and Hong Kong.  Notably, this was followed with viewings of Oldboy and Kung Fu Hustle.  Both innovative in their own right, it shows the new inventiveness being brought out by several new foreign filmmakers and their penchant for using computer-generated imagery in new ways.  Both Chan-Wook Park and Stephen Chow inject a different sensibility in each, which is what makes these movies appealing.  Disturbing, frenetic, and compelling in unique ways, these movies did not prepare me for the last couple I just saw.

 

To say that Audition and Ichi the Killer were different is perhaps an understatement.  What disturbing was in OldBoy was elevated to horrifying.  What was frenetic in Kung Fu Hustle became psychotic.  What did not change, however, was how compelling both films were.  On the surface, you have a couple of B-movie shockfests meant for jaw-dropping, eye-gaping revulsion, but it's not the onscreen bloodbath that is compelling.  These movies are actually decent metaphors for something much deeper and looking past the severed limbs (not even the half of it) and fountains of blood, although difficult, reveals what's lacking from even the most bloated budget films of the West.  What might that be, you ask?  For one, the characters are 3-dimensional with very, very complex personas.  Although replete with visually paralyzing scene after scene, ultimately there was more to take from the movie than hoping I could erase the experience.

 

Which is where my original assessment comes in.  If you thought you were desensitized by whatever Western films have to offer, you have not experienced these films by Takashi Miike.  One might be better off not having seen them not for the images burned into your mind, but for the nagging sense of "WTF?!" that you're left with once the end credits roll.  Some people could find that fact itself reason enough to be turned off, but I kind of like that feeling.  Who says everything has to be Black and White these days anyhow?  I say, the more grey areas we have, the better. 

 

So I'm going to pop more of these into the Queue and see where it takes me.  I dare you to do the same.