Takashi Miike's STRONG debut feature

Advantages: It's Takashi Miike!
Disadvantages: None.

...(no lifting, similarities are coincidential - past experience in reviewing) Shinjuku Triad Society was Takashi Miike's first film. Well... ok, he did release a few Bodyguard Kiba films and a couple of commercial comedies before this, but S.T.S was his first mature drama. Tom Mes, one of the leading critics of Japanese cinema, wrote: "It is Miike's breakthrough as an artist". First of all, let's clarify this "black society trilogy" business. S.T.S has been considered by the art-house cinema press as being the first in a trilogy of films linked by theme (a bit like the Lars Von Trier Europe trilogy for example). The two other parts of this trilogy are Rainy Dog (1997) and Ley Lines (1999). I personally do not think it is very helpful to group films like this together in thematical trilogies. Shinjuku Triad Society is the first...

gantzgraf 29.03.2008 · Read review
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Review of Shinjuku Triad Society (DVD)

An introduction to the Miike Takashi film

Advantages: Very Clever. Related to the Ichi the Killer movie.
Disadvantages: Hyper-violent. Extreme. Disturbing sexual behaviour.

...In 2001, master director Miike Takashi released a film by the name of Ichi, the Killer (the proper Japanese title being Koroshiya Ichi). This feature would provoque huge controversy in the US and especially in the UK. This is because most viewers would complain about the insane violence and sexual depravity illustrated in the movie, without even trying to understand why it was shot like it was and more importantly, what it all meant. I consider Miike Takashi a superior artist and experimentalist that has a unique and intelligent cinematic point of view. The Ichi, the Killer <episode 0> anime is an expansion on the thematical body of Ichi, the Killer. It was released by Hideo Yamamoto in 2002 and features the voice of Miike Takashi as Kakihara; this specific character only has 2 or 3 lines of dialog, though. The story is...

gantzgraf 16.08.2006 (07.09.2006) · Read review
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Review of Ichi The Killer (Animated) (DVD)

Miike Takashi - genius or just high?

Advantages: just... weird, surreal. just great.
Disadvantages: no plot, drives you a little insane.

...... ewww. -- Ozaki is squeezed out of a woman with whom Minami was going to sleep with. -- A bra wearing waiter. All these and many more in Gozu. *Director* Miike Takashi *Cast* Hideki Sone - Minami Sho Aikawa - Ozaki *Year* 2003 *Opinion* As always, Miike Takashi's direction of the film is professional. There were some nice shots, and for example, with the cow head shot, one can really feel the opposingly presence and the sense of claustrophobia through the composition of the shot. His style of film is really unique, and it is not the first time that he directs a film that seems nonsensical and strange. The main roles were played by well known Japanese 'old school' actors, who were brilliant. Please don't attempt to watch this film expecting a plot. Or try to make sense of the story as a whole. It won't work...

immortal_pheebs 07.07.2006 · Read review
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Review of Gozu (DVD)

Stylised Sci Fi/Crime Series from Takashi Miike

Advantages: Complex, Stylishly Made Japanese Crime Series
Disadvantages: Very Complex and Filmed On A Low Budget. Disturbing.

...MPD Psycho : Parts 1&2 - Japan -2000 MPD Psycho is a TV series by ultra prolific Japanese director Takashi Miike. Miike is famous for such films as Audition, Happiness OF The Katakuri's and Ichi The Killer. MPD Psycho consists of six episodes. This DVD contains the first two. Each episode is 50-55 minutes long. This is the third TV series that Miike directed and is loosely based on a Manga of the same name. Although credited to the original writer in fact Miike wrote the teleplay for the series and is one of the few times he written a script. Episode 1:Drifting Petals/Memories Of Sin. We are introduced to Detective Amamiya a criminal profiler now disgraced after gunning down a suspect. Since that traumatic incident he has developed a new personality. He is asked to head a mysterious group of profilers along with Manabe...

fraz1511 03.04.2007 · Read review
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Review of MPD - Psycho Series 1 - Parts 1 And 2 - Drifting Petals / Memories Of Sin / How To Create A World (Subtitled) (DVD)

FREE DVDs

Advantages: Free trial, large choice, post included,new realeases
Disadvantages: see review

...I like movies and I like freebies, so when you get offered both in one swoop you?re bound to accept! I used my two week free trial with this company and remained with them for a couple of monthsbefore moving on to try many other companies free trials (and winning a new DVD player on Tesco DVD rental site on their free trial offer). I then had an email from DVDs 365 asking me to go back, and offering me a free DVD if I did so. I had just left Tesco (with my new DVD player) so I chose to go back with them. ∆◊◊ THE SERVICE THEY OFFER ∆◊◊ Basically it?s like going to a video shop and hiring films on DVD, except you don?t pay for each film you chose ? rather a monthly fee for which you can watch as many movies as you can fit in, for us this is usually around 8 a month (2 a week usually weekends...

dabmim 15.11.2004 · Read review
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Review of dvds365.com

Surprising Picture Quality - Panasonic DVD-S54

Advantages: Incredible picture quality when compared to my old non-upscaling player with a scart lead
Disadvantages: Sometimes disc drive can be really noisy when DVD's initially load.

...At first I wasn't convinced by up-scaling DVD player technology but was persuaded after reading an article in "What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision" magazine. Unable to afford a Blu-Ray player my sister and I bought the Panasonic DVD-S54 to match our parents brand new Panasonic TX-32LZD80 LCD television as their Christmas 2008 present. Admittedly it was a slightly selfish purchase as we both live at home and wanted to watch DVDs on the big new TV ourselves! We bought the player from the electrical retailer Comet for about £100 just before Christmas so there were no discounts applied. On Christmas day when opened we found a relatively small box tightly packed with the player in polystyrene packaging. All the components such as cables, remote and manuals were well presented in their own protective plastic bags, to keep them protected. The player...

bobbacon985 12.02.2009 · Read review
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Review of Panasonic DVD-S54

Takashi's Zombie Musical, as crazy as his castle!

Advantages: Surreal masterpiece of unbelievable craziness
Disadvantages: See above!!!

..."The Hills are alive with the sounds of screaming" Takashi Miike is an incredibly prolific director, making three or four films a year for more or less the last ten years. Sometimes cinema releases, sometimes straight to DVD and occasionally even TV movies. He is best known for violent, over the top crime action pieces but he does branch out into other genres occasionally. Audition, one of the first Asian horrors to make it to our shores and strike it big is probably his biggest film closely followed by Ichi the Killer. He also filmed the wonderfully titled 'Multiple Personality Detective Psycho', a film I just have to see just because of that title! 'The Happiness of The Katakuris' is certainly not a conventional horror, neither is it a crime drama, thriller or gangster movie, all things you associate with Miike. So what is it...

Ailran 02.10.2005 · Read review
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Review of The Happiness Of The Katakuris (DVD)

YAMAHA DVD-S 557 this is THE DVD player of all time.

Advantages: Brilliant DVD player, perfect quality
Disadvantages: cant think of any

......

plainpaul 22.02.2009 · Read review
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Review of Yamaha DVD-S 557

FREE DVDS

Advantages: up to date dvds, four weeks free hire with 3 dvds at a time,
Disadvantages: see review

...My recent quest for FREE DVD hire I visited and many DVD web sites that offered a free trial. Now call me tight (no that wasn?t an invite), but I like bargains and freebies and am not ashamed to say so. My quest took me to enough sites to hire DVDs for about four months so far (with plenty to come too). My latest free DVD site also happens to be the best I have tried for several reasons (see rest of op); the site in question is Blockbuster.co.uk. Other sites that I have had free rentals from and then cancelled have all been similar, two weeks free trial with two DVD?s per time ? which in effect gives you about four free DVD?s. With Blockbuster?s things are different slightly ? which add a great deal of benefit to us the customer. Firstly, you get FOUR whole weeks free rental, which equates to at double the length of time most...

dabmim 18.06.2004 · Read review
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Review of blockbuster.co.uk

DVDs, DIVX, and looks fantastic.

Advantages: DVDs, DIVX, and looks fantastic.
Disadvantages: none

...Before I bought this DVD player Id never really owned a DVD player before. I had however had and still do have a ps2 on which I used to play my DVDs. I never really went and still don’t go on this so much so I was going to sell it and buy a DVD player. In the end I decided to just keep the ps2 and to get a cheaper DVD player than I was looking for in the first place. The main reason why I wanted a new DVD instead of the one in the ps2 was so I could play divx format DVDs on it. The DVD player in a ps2 doesn’t recognise this format and scene as I have several divx movies already on disk and on my laptop to put onto disk then I wanted a DVD player that would recognise and play this format. Another plus to this format is that it saves space on disks as it compresses movies into smaller file sizes without compromising...

techno_man_37 09.02.2008 · Read review
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Review of Bush DVD 2054