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If one was to make a Low Ten of Miike’s films, “Waru: Kanketsu-hen” would have a very high place in the list, since it managed to be even worse than the original (which would also be included in the list alongside “Silver” and a number of other Hisao Maki-written films), something that can only be perceived as a true “accomplishment”.

As the film begins, Himuro is nowhere to be found, with his woman even visiting his grave, and Sakuragi roaming the streets trying to investigate a new case about a bunch of right-wing terrorists with ties to the corporate world. Eventually and expectedly, Himuro reappears, to almost everyone’s joy, and resumes his duties as a teacher of kendo, while having to face a young man who is also a master of the sword, yakuza members, and eventually scores of enemies near the finale of the film.

Existential Prison Sweats

Of all Takashi Miike’s large body of work, “Big Bang Love, Juvenile A” is perhaps his most metaphorical film. Many of his films can be wild, crazed and surreal, but with “Big Bang Love, Juvenile A” the director walks upon an experimental path, poetic in execution. There is nothing real about this film, but truth of the human condition crawls and scratches to the surface, in this claustrophobic fever dream. Symbols bombard the viewer, metaphors bounce! Incredible lighting and striking visual design that are both theatrical and abstract. There is the occasional cinematic bravura moment, as the protagonists walk through strange corridors and chalk lined prison cells. Sweat permeates the atmosphere, as desire, anxiety and violence intoxicate. This is strange expressive cinema that is visceral and earthy, as well as abstract to the point of the confusion. There is an inherent music that weaves throughout this meditative film,...

Takashi Miike’s earliest works suffered from two things for the most part: Hisao Maki’s script and the almost complete lack of budget, which had Miike shooting directly to video and with very few resources. “A Human Murder Weapon” is no exception.

The story is based on Ikki Kajiwara’s manga and revolves around a young fighter named Karate Kid (for God’s sake), who spends most of his time facing extremely muscled opponents in the ring, in a rather shady, underground club, in order to entertain the mostly foreign audience (including Mr Porsche). Through a flashback, however, we learn about his tragic story, that had him abandon the mother of his child, another martial artist and the school her father left the two of them, after Karate Kid beat him in combat, and before committing suicide. Actually, the protagonist is forced to fight in those matches since another female friend of his,...

Takashi Miike returns once again with a wild and violent story of yakuzas in “Family” and “Family 2”, adapted from the manga of the same name written by Hisao Maki. A story divided into two parts, which the second one continues exactly where the first ended; therefore you can speak in a general way of the two films as a whole, since they share everything. The result is however not so satisfactory as one would expect, because the outcome and the trip itself ends up being disastrous. Both films, although the first one more than the second one, are the result of a terrible script, in which it is difficult to find logic most of the time. If we add that no character ends up being of interest, then we have a quite poor movie (or movies) in which you will want for the end credits to come as soon as possible.

After watching “Silver”, I was actually wondering if Miike have reached his nadir with this film, and whether his collaborations with Hisao Maki could turn out even worse. “Waru” provided an answer to both questions.

The once more paper-thin script is based on a manga by Hisao Maki and revolves around Himuro, an expert martial artist who fights enemies with a bokken, and his boss, Sarashima, whom he has formed a bond with during their common stay in prison. The two of them are targeted by a rival yakuza gang named Kyokuto. The leaders of the faction are obsessed with their targets, and have assigned one of their henchmen to this goal, who ends up with an eyeball gouged after his first failed attempts. The rest of the movie actually revolvesaround these repeated assassination efforts that result in various, mostly absurd action scenes, while a number of flashbacks introduce Himuro’s story,...

The fact that Miike made this film the same year as “Ley Lines“, “Audition” and “Dead or Alive” may come as a complete surprise initially, but once one looks at the credits, the reason will come out: Hisao Maki, the “nemesis” of Miike’s quality is once more in charge of the script, and as usual, the result is quite bad.

The paper thin story revolves around Jun Shirogane, an ample-bosomed wrestler and champion of karate who is recruited by Minamida, a secret agent who happens to be an ex-lover, in order to fight criminals outside the law. In order to so while undercover, she joins a female wrestlers troupe (where she takes the name Silver), who eventually travel to the area her first target is located: Nancy Otori, a dominatrix who has enslaver men in power with her S&m tricks. The clash between the two women is inevitable,...

“Bodyguard Kiba – Apocalypse of Carnage 2” (I will refer to it as “Bodyguard Kiba 3” from now on) may be the ground zero of Takashi Miike’s oeuvre. There is nothing to whitewash this time. The third and final part of the Bodyguard Kiba franchise cannot score on any level.

But before I continue my rant, let’s start with a quick overview of the story. Like in the second part, the story takes place in Taiwan, where a young actress is in need of protection. Therefore, her producer contacts the Karate Daito and they send Ryo, who used to be the villain in “Bodyguard Kiba 2”. Now he has switched sides and is a buddy of Kiba. Ryo is the main character and supersedes Kiba as the hero. So actually this movie should be called “Bodyguard Ryo”. Because besides a few short dialogue scenes, Kiba himself is not present on the screen.

After finishing the first movie, Takashi Miike did not hesitate to throw Bodyguard Kiba into a second round of high kicks and low-level storytelling.

This time the plot takes some turns and churns up a narrative of vengeance. Kiba has to protect Natsuki, who has some business in Taipei. Little does he know that he walks right into a trap. Aiming to overtake Kiba’s Daito Karate school, a Chinese Karate teacher named Mr. Wong is pulling the strings behind the scenes.

As the story discloses, “Bodyguard Kiba 2: Apocalypse of Carnage” focuses much more on the rivalry of the different Dojos. Miike fills the backstory holes that gapped open after the first part and we get to know about Kiba’s past and the origin of his Karate school. Nevertheless, the script, written again by Hisao Maki, includes varies continuity flaws and does not even bother...

Based on a manga from Ikki Kajiwara, Miike teams up with Ikki’s brother, Hisao Maki to write the screenplay. After “The Human Murder Weapon” (1992), this was their second project, followed up by many more cooperations like “Family” (2001) and “Waru” (2006).

This is one of Miike’s earlier works that went straight to VHS. The very basic yakuza story evolves around Naoko Kiba, who protects a thug called Junpei who stole 500 Million Yen from an Okinawa gang.

Although “Bodyguard Kiba” was produced pretty much at the beginning of his career, the movie shows the typical Miike handwriting: Set in a brutal yakuza world, straightforward story, sex, and a criminal hero. Besides, most of the story takes place in Okinawa and a lot of dialogue is spoken in the local accent. Referring to a Japanese minority, Miike is not the first, but one of the few directors at that time,...