RIP Evil Dead Trap Director Toshiharu Ik

[Jim Harper]

I'll always stick by Evil Dead Trap as an important Japanese horror film of the day. Flawed, certainly, but at its best a great film. I waded through a stack of Ikeda's other films (mostly without subtitles), for Flowers From Hell, and found it a rewarding experience, if a variable one. Although frequently trapped in the world of v-cinema, he was definitely a capable and sometimes brilliant director. I was very sad to hear the news of his death.
 
Jim Harper.

--- On Wed, 26/1/11, hakutaku at kansaigaidai.ac.jp <hakutaku at kansaigaidai.ac.jp> wrote:


From: hakutaku at kansaigaidai.ac.jp <hakutaku at kansaigaidai.ac.jp>
Subject: Re: RIP Evil Dead Trap Director Toshiharu Ik
To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
Date: Wednesday, 26 January, 2011, 12:58


This is very sad. Despite the attention in the West drawn by his Shiryo no wana 1988 (which is a better film than the usual "Japan's first splatter movie" might suggest), I would agree that Ningyo densetsu 1984 is really his best. It starts out with a sense of a realistic drama about an ama and gradually shifts into a metaphor of nature's revenge on society (and the use of nuclear power). The long unique sword fight scene transcends Tarantino. His best films have a moody quality that is very engaging. After Ningyo densetsu I would rank Kurenai monogatari 1992 next. His Masho no kaori 1985 is also an interesting drama. His remake of Tanizaki's Kagi 1997 is the latest of many Kagi remakes and perhaps the best since Ichikawa's, although like the others not so close to the novel and with another original ending.
It is disturbing to have another talented, yet little recognized director, depart.
Paul Berry
Kyoto


----- Original Message -----
From: "Jasper Sharp" <jasper_sharp at hotmail.com>
To: "kinejapan" <kinejapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, January 26, 2011 8:31:57 PM GMT +09:00 Japan
Subject: RIP Evil Dead Trap Director Toshiharu Ik


Some terrible news
just came in, but according to news reports from Japan, the director
Toshiharu Ikeda has been found dead, believed to have committed
suicide by drowning. The main source I have for this at present can
be found in Japanese here
[http://ameblo.jp/m-ganmo/entry-10779711712.html]
and here
[http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/osaka/gossip/cinema/news/20110126-OHO1T00074.htm]Ikeda is known in
the the West for Japan’s first splatter movie Evil Dead Trap
(1988), a well-made but ultimately derivative film written by his
regular collaborator from the 1980s, Takashi Ishii, and heavily
influenced by Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead and the works of
Cronenburg and Argento. He began his
career at Nikkatsu, making Roman Porno films such as Sukeman
Mafia: Lynching (1980), One Summer’s Experience: Blue Coral
Reef (1981) and Angel Guts: Red Porno (1981). The latter,
the fourth film in the Angel Guts series based on the adult
manga series by Takashi Ishii, was his last for the studio, and he
left to go freelance, with his next film, Mermaid Legend
(1984) a co-production between the Director’s Company and Art
Theatre Guild – incidentally, a number of Japanese authorities have
described this as his best, although I personally have never seen
it. His output following  Evil Dead Trap however was fairly
negligible, it has to be said, mainly work in the field of erotic and action V-Cinema.
His final film I saw, The Man Behind the Scissors,
played at the 2004 Tokyo International Film Festival, marking a
return to 35 feature film-making. I covered it for Midnight Eye back
then, and remember quite liking it until it started losing momentum
and falling apart towards the end, as I wrote at the time
(http://www.midnighteye.com/reviews/round-up_009.shtml#the-man-behind-the-scissors).



I've written more on my blog about my reminiscences of when I interviewed him for the Arts Magic release of Angel Guts: Red Porno back in 2004: http://jaspersharp.com/blog/news/2011/01/toshiharu-ikeda/



Jasper Sharp: Writer & Film Curator Homepage
http://jaspersharp.com/

Midnight Eye: The Latest and Best in Japanese Cinema
http://www.midnighteye.com

Zipangu Fest: Japanarchy in the UK
http://zipangufest.com/


                          



      
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