Tengoku kara kita otoko-tachi

Kenichi Endo is quickly becoming one of my favorite actors. I have seen him in several Miike films by now (including Visitor Q, DOA2, The Happiness of the Katakuris, and Sabu), and his role in The Guys from Paradise is one of the best. I don't have to tell anyone here how great Takashi Miike is (or, if I do, he's brilliant, of course). His directing almost never fails. The Guys is a good movie with a likable cast and script. The passing viewer may find it only mildly enjoyable, but fans of Japanese movies, and especially Miike movies, should find a lot in it. Especially in the scenes with Mr. Endo, who is one of the finest actors in movies today.

Falsely charged with heroin possession and unceremoniously traded in by his fiancée, slick yuppie Kohei Hayakawa (Koji Kikkawa) finds himself a stranger in Paradise of a very wrong kind. Stranger yet, in the fullness of time this Phillipines prison camp becomes his dwelling of choice. But the film belongs to Tsutomu Yamazaki, best known thanks to Juzo Itami as the swaggering trucker Goro in Tampopo and the master tax cheat Gondo in Marusa no onna, who stays in character as the would-be crook Katsuaki Yoshida come into his own in the jailhouse, to trade his insider survival skills for Hayakawa's business acumen. The political subtext contrasts the élite position of the stiffly crooked Japanese with the vibrant corruption of neighboring Asian cultures. While lacking the moral rigor of Audition and the manic intensity of Ichi the Killer, this film will reward the viewers with what may be the most life-affirming message delivered by Takashi Miike to date.

That director Takashi Miike is known in the west mostly for his ultraviolent shockfests and cartoonish yakuza flicks says more about western audiences (or distributors as the case may be) than the director. For every ICHI THE KILLER in his ouevre there is a BIRD PEOPLE IN CHINA and GUYS OF PARADISE is closer to the latter than the first. Neatly sandwiched between the comic-book absurdity of CITY OF LOST SOULS and the summer-afternoon nostalgia of DEAD OR ALIVE 2: BIRDS, the movie walks the proverbial tightrope between the absurd and the dramatic, mostly leaning towards the latter, with hearty doses of black comedy thrown in for good measure.

Following the misadventures of a timid Japanese business man in the Phillipines, arrested and thrown in prison for smuggling heroin where he starts dealing drugs for another inmate in cahoots with the prison warden, the movie stacks a series of tragicomic episodes of the appalling conditions of prison life, weaving together the lives of six Japanese inmates (the titular Guys from Paradise) as they bide their time in the hot, damp purgatory of Manila, dealing drugs, squabbling with each other and dodging the occasional hired assassin.

The tone is a bit inconsistent, as though Miike wants to make a poignant dramedy but in the same time can't help himself indulging his crazier side. Between a woman hiding jewelry in her nether parts, a yakuza boss merrily imbibing his bodily fluids, a man getting shot full of holes and still able to walk around for a couple of minutes and say "I love you" in broken English, the movie threatens to turn into FUDOH any moment.

Miike mostly succeeds in keeping a lid on all-out madness, while still managing to squeeze a handful of beautiful moments out of his material. Exchanging the frenetic editing of his yakuza flicks for a sombre approach and a slow-burn pace, Miike uses quirky editing tricks mixed with long static shots to mirror the two-pronged seriocomic nature of the movie, which is filmed in drab, washed-out tones but makes great use of the vivid Phillipinese locations. All in all, this is not quite the Miike casual viewers might expect, but longtime fans will appreciate this other, more contemplative side.

A Japanese businessman is arrested in the Phillipines for possession of heroin, and promptly delivered to a Filipino prison. Inside, he hooks up with the small Japanese community there, a bunch of colourful characters who stick together. He finds that the prison is rife with corruption, and that with money a person can do pretty much anything he wants - including leave, if he so desires. The leader of the Japanese group takes him under his wing, as he needs somebody who looks like a businessman to represent him in his many deals outside the prison. As time goes on, we learn more about the characters and the dynamics of the prison society, until an external influence brings disruption and forces the characters to go on the run.

I didn't enjoy the last two Takashi Miike movies I watched (Graveyard Of Honour and Shinjuku Triad Society) all that much, and wondered if I was perhaps "Miike'd out". Well, if I was then it was only a brief phase, and I suspect it was actually that those were two of his weaker films. GUYS FROM PARADISE is a great film, and re-affirms my belief that Takashi Miike may be the planet's greatest living director.

The film is on the less extreme end of Miike's range, with none of the outrageous elements or extreme violence that shock and disturb or excite many viewers. It's a well crafted character-driven drama, though there are still quite a few moments that show Miike's unique touch (most notably the ending). This probably means that it will find less acclaim/notoriety than films such as FUDOH or ICHI THE KILLER, but it's another piece of evidence that shows there is a lot more to Miike than shock tactics. The film features really individual characters that are very well developed, a well crafted story and excellent direction that pulls the whole thing together beautifully. It's a fairly slow film, though there are moments of action and excitement to satisfy the impatient.

Miike loves to explore other cultures in his films, showing a world-awareness that isn't often found in Japanese cinema. When he takes his Japanese cast to the Phillipines it's in no way to belittle the Filipino people or culture, just to absorb some of it in the atmosphere of the film. The Japanese characters are no better or worse than the others, they're just the outsiders. Speaking of the cast, everybody does a great job with their characters - the acting throughout is top-notch.

In GUYS FROM PARADISE Miike's direction is pretty restrained, letting the story and characters take front stage rather than his own techniques, but he still manages to create a film that feels uniquely Miike-like. The closest films to it are probably Rainy Dog, Blues Harp and perhaps Bird People From China (all Miike films, of course). Those that only know Miike from his splatter-fests may be surprised at how mature this film is, but anybody that's experienced a broad range of his insanely prolific output will find further confirmation of his extraordinary film-making talent.

Recommended!

Miike does not wish to be pigeon-holed. Along with such disturbing films as 'Ichi the Killer' or action films like 'City of Lost Souls', he produces touching stories like 'The Bird People of China' or 'Guys From Paradise'. The first hour and a bit takes place in a prison, where businessman Kohei Hayakawa (Koji Kikkawa, who was also in Miike's City of Lost Souls) gets thrown into prison for possession of heroin and quickly finds that without money and bribes there's no hope of escaping. Whether he's guilty is not the question, rather how much money he's willing to give to the corrupt warden, and judge, and lawyer, etc.. He gets thrown into a jail cell with three other Japanese men and when they find out he's in for heroin possession he is instantly their best friend. The base of the story is betrayal, and how when things are going right it seems like you can trust everybody, but as soon as you wind up in prison all of those connections forget about you, or do something to betray your trust. It's this common understanding that unites the Japanese men in prison, and they hold their end through some very thick trouble. I wouldn't say it's Miike's best work, but it is definitely a solid film, and proves he is capable of much more than shock cinema. Rating: 25/40