Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: What better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? This week we get excited about a typewriter, hunt down a killer for a little dough, feel dirty looking at the screen, watch some cops cry and watch a play in action. Read More »
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Takashi Miike is one of the most prolific major filmmakers alive, and that leads to the fact that he’s one of the spottiest. When one churns out stories the way Miike does, not every one is going to be great work. But every once in a while he makes a stunner like Thirteen Assassins, or a whackadoo wonder like Gozu or Visitor Q, and then I’m hooked again.
So here’s the first footage from Lesson of the Evil, an adaptation of the novel of the same name that was originally serialized in Japan starting in 2008. The teaser makes the situation pretty clear, even for those who don’t understand Japanese without subtitles: there is a good-looking, popular teacher who also happens to be insane. Teacher-on-student violence ensues, and it looks like a happy ending might be right out of the question.
Watch the trailer, which seems to deliberately invoke Battle Royale, after the break. Read More »
Japanese director Takashi Miike is among the most prolific directors working today, and has held that distinction for many years. With that prolific work habit comes a rather spotty track record, and for every great Miike film there are a couple middling efforts and often one really bad one.
So which one is Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai? The film is Miike’s second period samurai remake in recent years, following his truly excellent 13 Assassins. The latter movie is one of Miike’s best, so there were pretty heavy expectations on this remake of Masaki Kobayashi’s 1962 film Harakiri. But reviews out of the film’s first appearance on the festival circuit weren’t great. Was the chilly reception thanks to over-inflated expectations in the wake of 13 Assassins, or is Hara-Kiri just one of Miike’s middling efforts?
The movie was Miike’s first in 3D, and the trailer is rather nice-looking, especially in some of the duel sequences. Check it out below. Read More »
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is the first game in the very popular series of legal drama/thriller video games that was released as Gyakuten Saiban (Turnabout Trial) in Japan. Earlier this year we learned that wildly prolific genre-hopping director Takashi Miike has been at work on a film adaptation of the series, and just over a week ago we saw the first footage from that film.
Now we’ve got the trailer for Phoenix Wright. No English subtitles on this one, unfortunately, but fans of the game should quickly be able to see what’s going on, and even those new to the series will get the gist pretty fast. Read More »
Japanese director Takashi Miike works fast. Blink and you’ll miss three films from the filmmaker, who is more happy than any other working director to leap from period action to hyper-violent thrillers to a kids’ movie. Back in May he said “It is a very light comedy that I am filming now, a court drama, based on a video game, the Nintendo game DS.” That led us to realize that he is making an adaptation of the Capcom Ace Attorney game series, which debuted in the US with Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.
Now we’ve got the first video footage of the movie, called Gyakuten Saiban (Turnabout Trial) in Japan. Just from the perspective of bringing the game’s visuals to the screen, this looks spot-on. We don’t know if it will be a good movie — with Miike the results can vary widely — but it looks fun, at the very least. Read More »
The outrageously prolific director Takashi Miike is no stranger to remakes. Two of his recent films (13 Assassins and Hara-Kiri) are remakes, and he’s remade Kim Jee-woon’s The Quiet Family as The Happiness of the Katakuris, and Kinji Fukasaku’s Graveyard of Honor as a new film with the same name. But not so many Miike movies get remade. Perhaps it’s just that he works so fast that no one can settle on a target?
Looks like the first next remake of a Miike movie to come out of Hollywood might be Ninja Kids!!, the family film that has done well in Japan. (And which is an adaptation of a Japanese TV show about youngsters training in the ways of the ninja.) “A major production company” is reportedly in negotiations for the rights now. Read More »
Posted on Thursday, June 2nd, 2011 by Angie Han
After some heavier recent works — including 13 Assassins and Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai, both of which are currently making their rounds in the festival circuit — director Takashi Miike is displaying a much lighter side side in his latest film, Ninja Kids!!! The bright, bubbly kids’ flick is based on the long-running anime series Nintama Rantaro, which in turn was adapted from an even longer-running manga titled Rakudai Ninja Rantaro. Check out the very silly trailer after the jump.
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Takashi Miike has two films in the press right now. His last film, 13 Assassins, a really excellent piece of work, and one of his best efforts, is playing VOD and in some theaters now. And Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai, his first 3D film, just premiered at Cannes. The reviews for the latter weren’t great, but the director, true to form, is already moving on to more projects. One is evidently going to be an adaptation of Capcom’s mega-hit Ace Attorney games for the Nintendo DS. Read More »
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