Koroshiya Ichi/Ichi The Killer

[Tom Mes]

It's an interesting point that Aaron Gerow made about critics 
"appropriating" Miike and this perceived need to establish him as 
representative of current Japanese cinema.

As many of you will probably be aware, we have done a fair bit of writing 
about Miike and his films at Midnight Eye. While I certainly don't see him 
(or any individual director) as representative for current Japanese cinema, 
I do feel he is one of the most exciting filmmakers currently working in 
Japan. As Aaron states, his work is remarkably consistent, which is even 
more remarkable for the fact that he makes an average of 4-5 films a year 
and, as stated, works with many different scriptwriters (though the same 
names tend to crop up in recent years: Masa Nakamura, Ichiro Ryu, Itaru 
Era).

As for appropriation for personal gain (in a certain sense), there will 
always be people directly or indirectly related to filmmaking who will jump 
on the bandwagon of whatever is popular/fashionable/etc. This is certainly 
not unique to Miike's current popularity. What I find more interesting is 
that over the past few months, I have been noticing the opposite effect: 
people trying themselves from his films by questioning the artistic merits 
of Miike's work, writing him off as little more than a guy who makes 
(violent) entertainment and who has little to say beyond that. I get the 
feeling that some of these people are eager to distance themselves from the 
"cult" audience that has so wholeheartedly embraced Miike over the past year 
or so.

I certainly agree that the surface portrayal of vice, violence and viscera 
in his films can put people off of really looking at his films and what they 
say. In that sense, Miike is maybe not doing himself any favours. Also, it's 
a fact that only a very small percentage of his films has made it to 
international audiences. Even some of Kinejapan's regular contributors say 
they've only seen a handful at most.

Those who have had the chance to see a representative amount of his work, 
like mr. Gerow, can't fail to notice the consistency in his themes, motifs 
and concerns. I have currently managed to see between 25 and 30 of his 
films, some multiple times, and the merits of his work are evident. I've 
read some of Aaron Gerow's writing on Miike's films and he makes very 
interesting observations. Unfortunately a number of them have to my 
knowledge never appeared in English (like the essay he wrote for the Miike 
retro in Courmayeur in 99), so some very valuable insights are not easily 
available for many of us (I found the Italian version of the Courmayeur 
essay online and translated it bit by bit using a translation site - not the 
most comfortable way to read it, but I managed in the end).

Hopefully more writing will appear on Miike in years to come, whose writers 
will hopefully take some distance from yes/no debates and "cult" hype and 
offer valid insights into a body of work which I truly believe to be one of 
the most, interesting and challenging in Japan today (without hailing it as 
representative, of course ;) ).

Tom Mes

Midnight Eye
http://www.midnighteye.com



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