kanedaa
12-03-2002, 14:41
After watching Takeshi Miike's Visitor Q I strung a few words together to form a mini-review, and here it is...
Visitor Q
Having just watched my second Takashi Miike film (the first being the finely crafted horror Audition) I can safely say that this man pulls no punches when it comes to making films. To say I was fixated to the screen in both horror, intrigue, and fits of laughter would be no understatement. Neither would the fact that I frequently questioned why I was watching this, why the characters in the film are as they are, and what message the film was attempting to get across to the viewer yet again my attention never wavered. To attempt to get the story across to you would both be a difficult task as I cannot admit to fully grasping its concept, and it would also undermine the films effect, so i shall keep it simple.
Starting off with a simple text based question, "Have you ever had sex with your Father?", the screen reveals a young prostitute who is teasing her next client, who also happens to be her father, and eventually settles a price with him. Filmed in an 'off the wall' manner what proceeds to happen onscreen is both disturbing in its realism yet intriguing by its very nature. Why is this happening? A question that will be answered in time, but before then we will meet the rest of one very unsettling family who all have various stories to tell, and if you think the opening scenes were distasteful then you simply have not seen anything yet!
Anything you think could possibly happen does, and I am sure anything our minds can conceive of as far as depravity is concerned is far surpassed with Visitor Q yet somehow it never becomes an act of exploitation but rather due to the complete absurdity of much of the onscreen antics your mind becomes numb to what is happening and after around 50-mins of a rather serious and worried look on my face I began to find it quite hilarious (although it does take a more pronounced turn towards the comedic by the end). If you get the chance to view this film then by all means do, just be sure to prepare yourself beforehand.
Before anyone asks - this film is only available on Japanese R2 DVD with NO ENGLISH SUBTITLES.
Visitor Q
Having just watched my second Takashi Miike film (the first being the finely crafted horror Audition) I can safely say that this man pulls no punches when it comes to making films. To say I was fixated to the screen in both horror, intrigue, and fits of laughter would be no understatement. Neither would the fact that I frequently questioned why I was watching this, why the characters in the film are as they are, and what message the film was attempting to get across to the viewer yet again my attention never wavered. To attempt to get the story across to you would both be a difficult task as I cannot admit to fully grasping its concept, and it would also undermine the films effect, so i shall keep it simple.
Starting off with a simple text based question, "Have you ever had sex with your Father?", the screen reveals a young prostitute who is teasing her next client, who also happens to be her father, and eventually settles a price with him. Filmed in an 'off the wall' manner what proceeds to happen onscreen is both disturbing in its realism yet intriguing by its very nature. Why is this happening? A question that will be answered in time, but before then we will meet the rest of one very unsettling family who all have various stories to tell, and if you think the opening scenes were distasteful then you simply have not seen anything yet!
Anything you think could possibly happen does, and I am sure anything our minds can conceive of as far as depravity is concerned is far surpassed with Visitor Q yet somehow it never becomes an act of exploitation but rather due to the complete absurdity of much of the onscreen antics your mind becomes numb to what is happening and after around 50-mins of a rather serious and worried look on my face I began to find it quite hilarious (although it does take a more pronounced turn towards the comedic by the end). If you get the chance to view this film then by all means do, just be sure to prepare yourself beforehand.
Before anyone asks - this film is only available on Japanese R2 DVD with NO ENGLISH SUBTITLES.