rag-9

Comparing western and Japanese filmmakers is not doing right to anyone of them, I know. But still, in my opinion Miike Takashi could be best described as the Japanese David Cronenberg, only darker. His surreal style and time manipulations in Audition are superb, only to be outmatched by his masterly way of building up suspense to explode in horror in the finale.

Anyone with a stomach is invited.

Although Charisma was not my favourite movie at the Rotterdam filmfestival, I liked this new movie from Kurosawa Kiyoshi, because of it's neutral message. It shows various sides of the same story without ever judging. It's up to the viewer to decide what he/she gets out of it. At the same it's never really clear what the plot's about. There are some opinions (battle, nature vs man), but i believe there were several. And again, the viewer can pick up what moved him/her watching this film. To me that is a true accomplishment.

To me Hana-bi (Fireworks) is still by far the best movie Takeshi has ever made. The off-beat poetic style and mixture of comedy, drama, romance and violence is unmatched. With Kikujiro, Takeshi was able to produce an old style comedy (slapstick), but he managed never to bore for one single minute. Although some scenes appear to be predictable, the outcome remains hilarious. Special recognition for the composer. Although I believe that the strongest shots in Takeshi's films are the silent ones, the music is absolutely beautiful and adds flavour and style to the movie.