Visitor Q (2006)

Director: Takashi Miike Stars: Kenichi Endo, Shungicu Uchida

Review:

When I watch this movie I keep asking "What is this?", "What is this supposed to be?". 

We started with a long sequence of a man having a night with a prositute, who we presumed was his daughter, since we were told by the cue cards. Then we follows his family can witness everyone of the family was being bullied by others: the mother was physically abused by his son, the son is bullied by his classmates, and the father was not successful at work in making documentaries, and in one occasion was shoved a dildo up his ass by some gangsters he was trying to film.

A stranger hit the father in his head with a stone, and the father brings the stranger home. The father came up with an idea of making a documentary out of the real-life bullying of his family, and asked his female co-worker to come along to film his son being bullied. His co-worker dismissed the idea and made him so mad as to strangle her to death while sexually abusing her.

Actually things up to this point was pretty boring, filled with un-appealing sex scenes and people talking meaningless dialogues. Now things gets funny. The stranger squeeze milk out of the mother's breast and the mother got addicted to it, and have to squeeze it until it floods the floor. The father brought the corpse of his co-worker home to fuck. During intercourse he found out that the girl was wet, and shouted, "She got wet! She got wet even though she is dead! It's a mystery! Oh it's shit! It's not a mystery it is shit! It fucking stinks!" The father couldnt get his cock out and the mother helped him by putting them into the bath tub and cover them with vinegar. And later they killed their son's classmates and the family lives happily thereafter.

Clearly this is a movie that deflies all logic so I would not bother with the simple question that why didnt they go to the police about the bullying, or why do the father bring the stranger home, or why the stranger hit his father's head in the first place. But actually most of the time this is boring, so boring that I have to resort on doing other things like checking emails or something. I was not disturbed a whole lot though though the milk scene is pretty gross but I want to laugh rather than gag. And when the credits roll, I still have no idea what the hell is happening.

Hannibal (2001)

Director: Ridle Scott
Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Julianne Moore, Ray Liotta


Review:


Taking a break from zombie movies, I decide to watch Hannibal (2001). Hannibal is a sequel to the horror movie classic Silence of the Lamb (1991) made 10 years later. First of all, I do not like this movie. The first time I watch this movie, I fell asleep half the way. Watching it again didnt change my impression, but just gives more insight on why this film doesnt work.

The main plot of this movie is watching two parties compete to search for Dr. Lector. Clarice Stering, now a FBI agent, suffers much blame from the media on an operation went awry, and wants to capture Dr. Lector to savage her career. A former victim of Lector, Mason Verger, who is a rich guy, also wants to have his revenge on him, and announces a handsome reward on the one who gives information that leads to Lector's discovery.

Clarice sitting there, listening to tapes. Interesting?

This maybe an interesting plot if done right, but in this case it is not. What Clarice do to find Lector's whereabout is just listening to old tapes of the dialogues in Silence of the Lamb. What is the point? One would say, maybe this gives Clarice revelation on Lector's personality or character that would help her catch him? Nope. She does not discover anything new. She knows Lector is in Florence later because he writes a letter to her. So all the scenes contribute nothing at all. Hey I am a big fan of Silence of the Lamb and I can recite all the dialogues from Lector in the first movie, and if I want to hear Anthony Hopkins say it again, I would watch the first movie again.

"That seemed like a good idea at the time."

Another character that was in search for Lector, Mason Verger, is a complete idiot. So this is how Lector "tortured" him. Lector gaves him a drug, politely asked him to cut off his face and fed to the dogs. He did not theatened him or use any force, and yes, Verger did exactly that and is now disfigured. He just took one tiny little pill and were high enough to cut off his own face. There is no reason for you to have revenge Verger. You own stupidity did that to yourself.


And how could I forget to talk about Hannibal Lector himself. He is classy, knowledgable, and yet so menacing and perverted. He can smell which brand of hand cream Clarice is using and no doubt is able to smell our fear or nervous. He draws scenes that he had not been visited for at least 9 years, but the picture is as detailed as if he was sitting there drawing it. With the slighest hint he can reveal the truth of our lies, and it is enjoyable watching him solve the case to gain his freedom at the same time play with Clarice Stering. All these establishment was through the dialogue, and every line of dialogue is interesting and a new discovery, in Silence of the Lamb I mean. In here, the establishment was made by making him shopping in a fragance store, giving a lecture on art history and attending to a Opera. The movie tries to extend the character, but it was so trivial, boring and ineffective. I was already nearly aslept half of the way.

Ok this is creepy as it is impressive.

Besides, the love subplot with Clarice just ruined the whole character for me. I always thought that Clarice Stering is just a plaything, and him helping Clarice is just a game. He remained manner because he is a fine gentleman and he may found Clarice interesting as a junior in criminal psychology. "People will say we're in love." in a joke or tease, and in any way I cant see that he seriously love Clarice, not even talk about sacrifice a hand for her. Now his impression being a cold-hearted, human-eating killer is gone. Thanks.

Ridley Scott had made some awesome films but he has a nasty habit of turning a movie into a history lesson, such as American Gangstar and Robin Hood. Even more complains can be discussed and I barely scratched the surface. The characters are all stupid, the direction evokes no emotion, and it is just too long. Hannibal, though not the most boring one of Scott's work, is definitely not his finest moment.

Ichi the Killer (2001)

Director: Takashi Miike
Stars: Tadanobu Asano

Review:

Ichi the Killer is the film adapation of the manga in the same name. I have seen the manga and it is one of the sickest manga/comic/anything I have ever seen.When it becomes a film, it turns sick into just weird.

A major problem with this movie is it tried to put the plot of the manga into 2 hours, cutting a lot exposition and left no time for character development, turning the story into an incoherent pile of shit. In the manga everybody is sick and in this movie everybody is stupid.

The most disgusting title screen ever. The white slime is semen. Yuck.

So a killer named Ichi killed a Yakuza boss, and the boss' right hand man Kakihara go after him. An old man shown up and told Kakihara that another Yakuza boss did that, and Kakihara tortured him for some answers, with boiling oil poured over his naked body dangling from the ceiling. But it turns out the old man lied (Duh?), and Kakihara was expelled from the gang. And....I lost track honestly. The old man made a deal with the tortured Yakuza boss to kill all Kakihara's man, Ichi kill somebody, Kakihara found somebody to torture, Ichi kill some whore, anyway just killings and killings.

Killing aftermath

In terms of violence and gore it do keep pushing the boundary, but the audience found no reason for that to happen, like killing is the whole point of the movie. In the manga it is sick since it tells a story that somebody wants to kill, and somebody wants to be tortured to the point of even being sliced up. You feel the characters are lunatics and disturbed that if such person even exists. In the movie you feel that they are just a bunch of dumbasses. When Kakihara knew Ichi was after him, he went out searching for Ichi like a stupid kid running to a theme park, and when he found Ichi he fleed. Ichi was hynotized by the old man to kill those people, thought that they were the people who bullied he in school. Afterthat he thrown up and said "I dont want to kill anymore", and the old man said "Dont you want revenge to the bullies?" and Ichi said "But they are not the bullies!" Duh? The characters do act the same way in the manga, but we understand their menalities because they are developed, and here the development was sacrificed to squeeze everything into the movie.

It may seem to be inappropriate to talk about plot in this cult movie. If you just want gore scenes, this is the one for you. If you want to know what is what and why everybody is doing everything, go watch the manga. If you want to watch a standalone movie, watch something else.