Kôshônin

This looked like a standard hostage thriller until I realized how cleverly made it is. In the beginning you see three helmeted robbers robbing a gas station and then the next thing you see is they take over a hospital. In this part we follow the investigators, the negotiator and it is so tense that you never notice there were no explosions or gunfire or that you don't get to see what the bad guys are up to at all.

What follows is remarkably tight, the story is of course not 100% credible, but that doesn't matter at all. I usually hate thrillers, but this is so intelligent I cant help liking it. Miike is a man full of ideas, many good, problem is he don't work enough with them. Here it is definitely good enough.

Negotiator, a TV-movie directed by the inimitable Takashi Miike, is two-halves of a movie bread. The one halve is a perfectly terrific kidnapping picture, taking its twists but giving the audience its share of excellent acting and a low-key atmosphere to counter the grueling tension. The other half is melodrama cooked up to 11 and given to us to explain what the kidnapping plot at the hospital was all about - an inside job that goes a lot deeper and more personal than anyone could see. While all of the performances are top-notch, especially the actor Hiroshi Mikami who plays Inspector Ishida (in one really fantastic dramatic scene, a real barn-burner in the 2nd act, one sees the depths he's gone to for revenge for his lost loved one), the script itself thinks its a lot sharper than it really is. It doubles back and gives us information, tricking us and folding us again and again into the mystery of what turns into basically a big ol' pot-boiler.

Which would be fine, except that Miike films it as if he's still in the same mindset he did Gozu the same year, with super-long takes in some scenes (5 minutes with an unbroken shot) that are unnecessary and draw attention from what drama happens in the scenes. I applaud Miike for going a route that veers towards the more realistic and tragic in the sense of the characters, and it's a change of pace from his Gonzo works from that period. But its own low-key quality becomes the undoing, in some part, of the suspense that builds for an hour and then pops like a big fat bubble when we find out the circumstances. Negotiator is a movie I really wanted to like more than I did; it tries patience even as it has a lot of rewarding elements and things going for it. It is, simply, worth its TV movie status.

Three guys in motorcycle helmets rob a convenience store. Their truck gets a flat in front of a hospital, so they take the patients and some of the doctors and nurses hostage. Hostage negotiator Hiroshi Mikami is on the job, but he brings in a former student Mayu Tsuruta to assist since one of the hostages is his own wife. It all seems to go well, but every single character turns out to have completely unexpected motives.

The television movie is one of Takashi Miike's more straightforward genre exercises. It's all well-done on a pretty modest budget, and the twisty plot is more interesting than it initially seems to be. As is often the case with Miike, his pacing is a little loose and ragged and the final 20 minutes drag mercilessly.

Yes, it's a Takashi Miike film, which means just about anything's possible.

Keep that in mind - that's the only guide you will have to the plot of this movie. In fact this is one of the few narrative films where any discussion of the plot effectively gives it away. It's about police negotiators in a hostage situation - let's leave it at that.

I confess that I really don't understand this director - he's the most prolific in Japan, and will apparently direct just about any idea you can get on film - from raw exploitation (Full Metal Yakuza) to sensitive coming-of-age stories (Sabor) to wild experimental films (Izo). Still, it's wonderful we have a director like this to remind us that the joy in making films is making films; and the joy of watching them is discovering they are made.

The dialog could have been more succinct, and the editing tighter in spots. Also, be aware that the film's intention to disappoint expectations hinges to some extent on Japanese customs and traditions we don't enjoy in the West, so some of the plot-twists here will seem a little odd to Westerners; but they actually do work, in their context.

Otherwise, there are some really powerful performances from the actors here and the theme is ultimately somber and very moving. The camera-work is high quality, always on top of a story threatening to pull away from it at every turn. Takashi Miike always risks being self-indulgent, but usually there's a pay-off for the audience in it, and there certainly is here.

Fine dramatic film from one of cinema's true eccentrics.

Three men in motorcycle helmets rob a 7-11, then hole up in a hospital with the staff and patients as hostages. Two negotiators take charge of the scene, analysing the criminal's behavior to assess their psychology and intentions in an effort to resolve the crisis without any loss of life. As the film progresses, various clues suggest that the case is not as straightforward as it appears on the surface.

THE NEGOTIATOR is one of Takashi Miike's more low-key films, one of only 5 he directed in 2003 and allegedly made for TV, though it seems to be shot on film and with reasonably high production values. Since it's a pretty sedate drama without any of Miike's excursions into violence, gore, sex, fantasy or general bizarreness, it's the sort of film where a little budget can go a very long way, I guess. Miike plays this one pretty straight, delivering the story as conceived by the original novelist without injecting his own whimsical ideas (I am assuming a lot here). It doesn't feel much like a Takashi Miike film, to be honest, but one of the man's strengths is his chameleon-like ability to adopt totally different styles. There's no diversions into black humour or genre-smashing, but elements of the story-telling techniques and editing do betray his touch. He clearly feels his script and cast are capable of making a strong film without his spicing it up - and he is largely correct.

The result is a solid drama that engages the brain and the heart, but lacks the invention or wit that Miike delivers in his more personally styled films. Whilst the film does definitely hold some surprises, I am fairly sure they should be attributed to the original novelist rather than the director. It's a good film, and Miike's skills as a director certainly can't be called into question because of it, but it's not one of those films that you couldn't imagine any other director on the planet having produced - which just means that it's not one of Miike's best :)