Agitator: The Cinema Of Takashi Miike [ペーパーバック]

Tom Mes, Agitator: The Cinema of Takashi Miike (Fab, 2003)

Western audiences labored in blissful ignorance of the career of Takashi Miike for years. American and European extreme gore fans started noticing him with the release of Dead or Alive; the rest of the world snapped to attention when film festivals started showing such definitive Miike films as Rainy Dog, Audition, and Ichi the Killer. By now, Miike is Japanese culture's most recognizable export. However, we've gone from being completely ignorant to categorizing the director as a guy who does nothing but extreme gore (despite the brilliant The Happiness of the Katakuris, a twisted, and relatively gore-free, musical from 2001). Tom Mes, a dedicated film festival-goer and Miike fan, aims to show us there's more to the guy than promotional vomit bags (which were handed out to those attending the premiere of Ichi the Killer at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival).

In the bulk of the book, Mes takes the reader through Miike's prolific oeuvre (to give you an idea of just how prolific, since Mes stopped documenting to publish, with Deadly Outlaw: Rekka, released in mid-2002, Miike has released ten films as of this writing), tracing the various themes to be found in the director's work. Rest assured, Mes is not a fanboy; he casts a rather critical eye over a number of Miike's films. The effect is for the reader to want even more to see a number of Miike's films not yet available outside Asia, for the most part (Ley Lines draws the most praise, for example, of any film in the oeuvre, with The Bird People in China, Rainy Dog, and The Guys from Paradise also getting a lot of positive play; of them, only Rainy Dog is available in the west, and that only in Britain, according to IMDB). The book is rounded out with Miike's filming diary for Ichi the Killer, a long interview Mes conducted with Miike in 2002, and some biographical info on the man.

Needless to say, this book is a must for fans of Miike's movies, and is well worth the steep price it commands. Those who consider Miike an amusement might also do well to dip in and take a look at the structures that underlie the outrageousness Miike depicts on film. Definitely a book worth having for even the most casual fan. ****

Tom Mes has put together an outstanding overview of Takashi Miike's oeuvre. American audiences tend to consider Miike a fairly young director, but his career began well before "Audition" reached the USA. Somehow, Mes was able to view nearly all of Miike's films, including his V Cinema movies which are unavailable in the states. The complete filmography is worth the price of the book by itself.

Mes begins by outlining common themes found in much of Miike's work and gives some thorough biographical information. The remainder of the book is devoted mostly to describing each film. There is some analysis and Mes usually highlights the thematic material, but most of the sections are descriptive above all else. You may not find what you're looking for if you're hoping for a detailed analytical study. Mes comes close to that with a few films (such as Ichi the Killer and Audition), but if he were to go into vast detail with each film, the book would be huge.

The important thing is, this is the only decent English language study of the work of this very important Japanese filmmaker. If you enjoy Takashi Miike's films, pick up this book. It's an essential Miike resource.

Finally! Someone has the guts to take this great filmmaker seriously. No one has a problem if you take Imamura, Oshima, even Kitano seriously, but for some reason Miike only gets written about as being "wild and crazy". Taking him seriously is like sacrilige to some people. In fact, the most "wild and crazy" thing you can do right now is take Miike's films as seriously as this book does. By doing so, Tom Mes stays much closer to the spirit of Miike's work than many of the director's supposed admirers can imagine.

'Agitator: The Cinema of Takashi Miike' is only dull and humourless for those whose idea of a film critic is someone who cracks a few jokes about Sonny Chiba and Riki Takeuchi's hairstyle. Let me tell you: long after Miike's so-called fans have moved on to their next "wild and crazy" flavour of the month, Tom Mes's book will still be the authoritative text that gives a great director his due.