sooooooo well basically in this latest media cw we had to write an essay on autuer theory relating to at least 3 films by a particular director we consider to be an auteur, well at first they say no word limit, then day before deadline tell us 2,000 words or under... WHAT?? I was not happy having written 10 pages (and even then I still wanted to talk more about Ichi The Killer, Box and Gozu) So I decided to post it on here, chances of any of you actually reading through it...slim but oh well if I dont get any friends or genral people reading this then maybe the admissions team at Gloucestershire uni may take a lil look and actually think whoaaa this girl's deadicated and posting this just to hopefully make an impression on them (YES you are my first choice) So hopefully I get my points across well and you can see how passionate I am :)
Takashi Miike
Takashi Miike one of Japans best known directors, often working on a very small budget he is famous for his sick gory films with twisted yet compelling stories, perhaps the most famous of these is Audition often rated as one of the scariest films of all time which includes one of the most surprising and brutal torture scenes ever filmed. Other Miike films include Chakushin Ari (One Missed Call 1) the tamest of his films, Gozu, Visitor Q etc in total directing 83 titles winning 29 awards and a further 13 nominations. In all of his films he tends to have simple angles etc at first still shots often from a distance some zooms etc on people talking and then at the end when things come together he is fast cutting and uses odd angles/movements. In this essay I will talk about some of Miike’s work and why I consider him to be an auteur.
An Auteur is a director seen to be the creator of a film and tends to use recurring themes, symbolism, lighting styles, angles, sound etc basically creating their own world within all of their films using similar techniques however different to conventional films. Takashi Miike defiantly does this in all of his work and his work is very independent of the mainstream in the film industry as a whole and even just compared to other Asian/Japanese films they are very independent and original to Miike.
Miike’s work is vast, often known for his work within the horror genre however very few of his films can actually be considered horror, though his extremist style and shocking images used in his film often get him labelled as a horror director even though Miike has said himself that he isn’t a fan of the genre. Most of his films actually are yakuza (Japanese mafia/street gang films) or at least contain yakuza elements and contain a LOT of blood. Even his romance stories such as the film that drew western attention to this director Audition (1999) has some scenes that are painful to watch.
I shall start by analysing the film that drew international attention to him deemed one of the most shocking movies ever made and listed in many charts for scariest movie moments, Audition. I’ve spoken to many people about this film and all agree it is rather disturbing in the end. Audition tells the story of a lonely man (played by Takashi Miike cast regular Ryo Ishibashi) who wants a new wife and his friend who works at a film company sets up an Audition and invites Ryo’s character Aoyama along to meet a girl. This is two of the themes in Miike’s work shown right from the beginning of the film the theme of lonely characters searching for something be it approval, friendship or in this case love. The second theme apparent in this film is the fact that Miike actually shows aspects of the filmmaking/TV business in a lot of his films, in this film it’s an audition and I will explore where else he has used this in analysis of his other works. Aoyama immediately falls for Asami (played by Eihi Shina) who seems to be the stereotype of the perfect Asian woman however like a lot of characters in Miike’s films she has had a very troubled childhood filled with violent abuse and has a sinister side that stays dormant through most of the film (abuse in childhood spawning abuse later on is a very common theme in Miike’s work).
In Audition Miike tends to use low angles looking up at the characters and a few high angles and tends to use mostly long shots. Miike uses some found footage mode looking footage (as if from the characters POV shaky camera) in a few places towards the end Miike always gets a little more inventive with angles and camera movements and this film is no exception. Again like in all of his films Miike tends to have a lack of soundtrack for the most part, though there is a soundtrack on the film a lot of the time it is just silence and the sound of the characters talking to make the audience really listen to what the characters are saying and to create an eerie atmosphere.
This film has a slow build up, which is another typical Miike style. Miike sometimes fills the audience into details the characters don’t know or vice versa to create suspense, for example in this film he shows someone invading Aoyama’s home (though doesn’t show who) and putting something in his drink, the next seen Aoyama drinks it and begins to get paralysed, as soon as the action begins Miike cuts away from it which is uncommon in his work as usually he gets right in there with the camera showing everything, however it is common for him to cut and use disjointed clips together to tell the story, it is more common for him to do this at the end of a film however in some he does it throughout such as in his short film The Box and his MPD Psycho TV series. Also the family dog gets killed in this film and rather than showing it in detail like he normally would you only see it on screen for about a second which leaves a more chilling feel as if that isn’t the main action what is coming next? Miike skips to previous scenes showing the same thing again though with a little more information. Then he cuts back to the action and shows Eihi Shina’s character Asami torturing Aoyama and smiling clearly enjoying inflicting pain, enjoying pain is another theme Miike sometimes uses either romanticising death or the use of sadists in his films this film does both. Asami says while smiling in a sweet voice the repeated statement “look how easily it cuts through the bones”. He used long shots and some mid-shots throughout the film, the only close ups are in its climax to really show the pain and emotion on the faces of his lead characters. He then cuts again just as Aoyama’s son is about to get hit around the head and it turns into a sort of dream sequence skipping around the timeline and Aoyama wakes up in a panic and is next to Asami so it seems like everything after this point was all a dream, however just when you think its safe Aoyama wakes up which really unsettles an audience as they don’t know whether it is happening to the character or not.
Also the sound is used interestingly Aoyama cant scream but we hear him struggling and hear the sound of needles going into his eyes, Miike understands the imagination is a powerful thing, however does eventually show the visuals too. Ironically in several of his films when things get to the darkest part of the film like the torture scene in this film the lighting is a lot more bright and colours more clear rather than the dark shadows and absence of colour in the rest of the film. And the repeated statements make them stick in the viewers mind and makes for an even creepier atmosphere, Miike does like to double back on himself repeating sounds or parts of script as is more the case in this one, he also repeats script in MPD Psycho series and in Chakushin Ari he uses the same sounds over and over that he has linked negatively into the storyline to create suspense and tell the audience the action is coming yet make them wait for it which is really unnerving.
The film CAN be seen from a feminist film theorists view on the basis that although Asami does start as the weaker character being used by the man she gets a very strong hold of him emotionally and at the end we see her strong physical side domineering over Aoyama having him helpless to her will, yet also can be seen as anti-feminist as at start she is the stereotypical view of the perfect Asian woman and the fact that she is just a little bit crazy and eventually gets overpowered by Aoyama’s son can be seen as anti-feminist. I personally think a lot of Takashi Miike’s work is similar in this respect, he shows delicate, caring emotional sides to women in his work and also the strong dominant sides to both extremes so can be argued both ways which is I believe Takashi’s intention to show both sides and let the audience decide, and it’s a whole lot more interesting and scary when a seemingly weak character turns into a very strong overpowering one.
It is shot unlike any other director would of shot it, edited out of sequence, the lack of soundtrack, bright colours in darkly themed scenes, the romanticising of death, repeated phrases, themes of childhood abuse, abuse spawns abuse, formal men in suits, a split personality and feminism are all recurring themes and filming/editing styles across his work and are all apparent in this film.
Next I will make a slight detour from Miike’s film work and briefly talk about an episode from the TV series MPD Psycho as it does though a TV show not a film contain a lot of the elements that Miike uses often in his work. Such as the suggestion through his odd directing style that everything happening may be just some strange dream or hallucination, in one episode of the series the characters are on a beach with computers half buried in the sand and lighting the actors in odd bright colors as if it could be a dream, similar to the lighting used in Audition and faced paced skipping clips.
The first episode to Miike’s MPD Psycho series (based around a manga (which Miike does a lot of manga adaptations often changing the story to suit his creative vision)) begins how several of Miike’s films begin or have parts of, voiceover on a blank screen, also in this Miike has the habit of cutting just before the action and backtracking and skipping to completely unrelated scenes with different characters, much like his technique in Audition’s climax except beginning with it in MPD Psycho with parts like it throughout. And again gives part of information separate to other parts such as hearing characters speak before seeing them and shooting the action from behind so you can’t see much of it but it draws the audience in more to the story.
Other things in the series which are common to Miike are romanticising/beauty of death again in the first episode the killer turns victims into flowers (planting flowers in their brains, flowers in Asian culture represent beauty, perfection and love). Again in this he uses mostly long shots even in some of the action scenes (like a man who gets shot near the beginning) however does use an uncommon for him, amount of different angles throughout constantly changing and a lot of deliberately unsteady camera work.
The script has some parts that are repeated several times however without being explained at all until the very end if at all, also there is repetition with the disjointed images shown for example barcode on an eyeball which bears no relevance until the end and then is still not clearly explained all we know is the lead detective is told to kill a child who has it (once again hurting children is a theme in his work and once again a shock at the end Miike is well known for). There is an odd technical soundtrack rather than the classic themes Miike tends to work with, and also there is a lot less absence of sound in this and a lot more bg sounds etc than he usually decides to use.
One thing which does set MPD aside more from his other work is the censorship, soo much of the gore etc is actually blurred out- not that it was censored for DVD or TV but he intended it to be hence what I mentioned before in write up on Audition Miike understands how powerful the imagination can be and also that when you lead up to something slowly not revealing all the information then its more shocking when you do. Also Miike other than blurring out images uses some really strange effects like green lights for rain when it bears no relevance to story, this could be to suggest a dream sequence however in some places in this I think it’s purely just to make it look more technically advanced and visually interesting.
MPD Psycho is a crime series so obviously bares some yakuza elements, formal wear, large sets and a theme common in ALL of Miike’s works; a blatant disregard or lowered importance placed upon authority figures. In all of Miike’s films the police are either completely clueless on cases or have no effect at all, though police in this series aren’t clueless they are unable to effect much in it, similarly to One Missed Call when the police can’t help at all and are shown to be very ignorant and immature, Ichi the Killer the police can’t stop the murders and gang violence, Audition the police hadn’t arrested Asami for past crimes, Visitor Q the police do nothing about any of the very many issues in the storyline (rape, prostitution, assaults, vandalism, murder) etc though it’s not just police in his films though they are the main group given a bad name through his work, also those associated with the media in his films are either in to start with or moved to a very low level of influence (the reporter in Visitor Q, Aoyama (part of filmmaking company) in Audition, and TV director in Chakushin Ari).
As the name of the series suggest MPD deals with multiple personality disorder and its common in his films for his characters to have an alter ego, Asami’s sweet self then sadist self, Youmi turning into a killer at the climax of Chakushin Ari, Mitsuko the loving sister and sadist (also Chakushin Ari), Kakihara and Ichi in Ichi The Killer etc. The final thing I will point out which will lead me nicely onto the next film I will analyze is Miike’s link with technology in his works. In MPD a lot of technology is shown throughout the episodes, particularly the use of phones to change people’s personalities, this is of particular significance as he uses a something similar in Chakushin Ari.
The next film for me to analyse is Miike’s true horror film, rather than based around yakuza or a love story he has done at least one film (though he very rarely intends to make horror) that was intended as a horror film, Chakushin Ari (translation: One Missed Call), the film that drew my attention to Takashi Miike as a director though it isn’t as typical of Miike’s work, and as one of his lesser known titles, it does share some common themes.
One Missed Call has a very modern less traditional feel to it than the rest of Miike’s films drawing on other modern chain type films such as Ringu, in this film if a character receives a missed call from their own number at some time in the future at the time and date of the future call is when the character will die, a very interesting concept I must say, the ringtone is very upbeat in contrast with its meaning which is something Miike does a lot bringing dark comparisons to things or connecting very disjointed images etc.
Its slow paced overall however it is quite fast cutting in the beginning, also in this Miike film he uses a lot more cutaways than he normally does, slow camera movements, usually still camera though there are some tracking shots used and a lot of high angles and many other unusual camera angles which come with the genre and a lot of usual zooms. Again he shoots from a distance for most of the film though uses more mid-shots than he usually does in this film. The angles at the climax of the film again are a lot more dramatic and fast however very fluid and less jolty than his other work, and the lighting in the end again is more unusual and bright than the rest of the film in contrast with the action taking place.
Also there is absence of a soundtrack in many places to enforce what people are actually saying in the film, and again there are some parts of the scripts that are repeated. Furthermore the theme of beauty in death is demonstrated in this film through the ghost of the policeman’s sister saying “there is a separate sky for all of us” which again reverts back on the credits through the song used for them and the image of the sky before the credits begin. Also sounds are repeated throughout and are symbolic of something though unclear why until the climax of the film (the asthma pump sound and the tune for the ringtone- also the tune of the young girls bear). Also the fact that even in the opening scene themes of abuse and suicide are spoken about in such a casual manner which is surreal however it is common for Miike’s styling.
Again in this film we see the theme of filmmaking within the film as Natsumi one of the victims of the death call is taken onto a TV show to exorcise the spirit that is haunting her (this doesn’t work though) also during this scene Natsumi does a voice over of her thoughts exposing how weak, helpless and alone she feels isolated characters are very common in Miike films, its not just Natsumi in this film but almost the whole cast, Youmi particularly with her past (abuse in childhood) is one of the most withdrawn character mocked by her peers in the opening scene, sitting alone in class etc and is also one of two characters that have a split personality and are seemingly nice in the begin until the climax reveals first Mitsuko’s evil side (torturing her little sister- again theme of childhood abuse) and Youmi being driven crazy and turning into a killer and similar to Asami in Audition she looks happy about killing. Other Isolated characters in Miike films include Aoyama in Audition to some extent, Asami defiantly in Audition, Ichi and Kakihara in Ichi the killer and many more examples. The death on TV is another example one of many of Miike using technology in his films against his characters; other technology based deaths include the train death and the death in the lift. Miike in this film uses what you don’t see rather than what you do see to have an effect on the audience, again he understands the power of imagination showing the bodies after death however not so much gore and visual as you would expect to see in a horror film (particularly by Miike a very graphic director) and he builds major suspense about the characters deaths like the advanced warning of death that the call brings and sounds played before death, things said etc and at the end Youmi’s phone (which had been attempted to be destroyed many times in the film) appears again and it reads on the screen ‘you only have 56 seconds to live’ again showing contrast as the upbeat happy ringtone is playing while this is on the screen.
Yet again authority figures in his films are non effective in dealing with the problem, in this case an unstoppable ghost killer and the police even mock the idea of it and there is a lot of dark humour around death in this film such as one of the policeman sitting down to watch the show Natsumi goes on. Also the film includes yakuza elements, men in suits, and competitiveness (amongst students fighting to erase their numbers from Natsumi’s phone) almost fighting. However characters are less stylised than in most of his other works though there are some suits etc most of the characters are casually dressed, and most of the cast are a lot younger than characters generally are in his movies.
He does again break usual conventions in this film in many ways, colours and lighting used, script, disjointed images in part cut in with the story and in this film when characters leave a scene they walk towards the camera rather than away from it like in most films. However Miike does draw upon a popular Asian filmmaking technique that has also been adopted by Hollywood, the theme of mirrors to reveal hidden sides to people, possession, evilness, ghosts etc as in the climax we see Youmi walking towards the camera and see in the reflection that Mitsuko appears to be possessing her (again theme of possession also seen in MPD Psycho).
Dream sequences are used in this film also as in many of his films, such as Youmi’s hallucination at the hospital and her memories shown throughout and also of the cop dreaming that he saved Mitsuko from death. Even the very final scene it is unclear whether it is actually happening or if he is already dead/dying and hallucinating. Youmi looks sweet and innocent in this scene but then the symbolism of the sweet is shown again (another oxymoron in a Miike film, the sweet given after torturing or killing shown with every death in the film) and then the low revealing angle on Youmi from behind to reveal she is holding a knife, then it ends again cutting off before the action (as is common for Miike) leaving the audience in suspense, fear, expectation and shock as does almost all his films.
Though Chakushin Ari is really an exception for his work as a whole it does still contain many Miike themes, proof that he is an auteur.
The next and last of the films of his I will be discussing in this essay is perhaps his most shocking and sickening film of all, Visitor Q.
Visitor Q launches straight into the action, rather literally beginning with a shocking Kanji message and voiceover (a technique repeated many times in this feature) with a shocking and rather sickening opening scene. The opening is very interestingly filmed and different than any of Miike’s other work though does include some similarities, in this scene there is a fixed camera showing the whole scene, the video camera that the reporter character is using (which has unusually framed shots often not showing characters faces however close up on bodies) and a picture camera that we see the young female character keep snapping away with and then shows pictures on the screen for a few seconds so it uses 3 different perspectives. The reporter’s video camera is used throughout for large sections of the film so in this he uses a lot more of the found footage mode than his other works however he does shoot some small scenes in found footage like mode in his other films, as previously mentioned. He uses even less tracking shots (other than in found footage sections) than he does in his other films letting his characters move to/from the camera rather than moving the camera however he does cut a lot.
The constant use of the phrase “we shouldn’t be doing this” is a very powerful message showing the characters acknowledges that he is in the wrong but continues anyway which is rather shocking however though a shocking opening scene it is one of the least shocking in the film and the reporter character goes onto to do much worse throughout the film including murder and rape. And in like most Miike films fulfilment of deep dark desires is a common theme.
The next scene is also shocking and unexpected, we see the mysterious silent character Q smoking and then hits the reporter over the head with a rock for no apparent reason (something he does later to another character so in keeping with Miike’s recurrence theme) which is shocking for audiences and leads to many questions like why he did it and why then did the report invite Q to come to his home and stay? Also its done so casually that its shocking that such a violent act has seemingly no effect on the characters involved. Q’s character as previously mentioned is very withdrawn and quiet just like in all of Miike’s films he has an outsider in this case Q.
Other recurring themes within this film include abuse, though in this case its the son abusing the mother though he faces bullying issues himself, (abuse spawns abuse Miike theme).
There are some unnatural techniques in this for example actors looking directly at the camera as if in recognition of something in the audience’s direction which is rather creepy.
The story overall makes little sense and different parts are revealed slowly to come together even then it’s in a very abnormal way.
Visitor Q is thoroughly deranged, shocking and sickening from the off I never have see a film like it and hope to never again. Just when you thought Miike couldn’t take things further he comes out with Visitor Q the sickest most disturbing film I’ve ever seen. However sick it is though it does contain some of Miike’s most famous directing styles.
Overall Takashi Miike has many recurring themes through his work and uses angles that differentiate him to other directors, his lighting is unconventional, editing disjointed and often leaves viewers with a powerful statement or idea. Though he works with small budgets all of his work is distinctively his and a lot of it is very famous. Miike however sick at times is an interesting compelling director and creates art in his films and shakes viewers to their very core.
