MovieChat Forums > Gokudô kyôfu dai-gekijô: Gozu (2004) Discussion > This movie is the Japanese Eraserhead.

This movie is the Japanese Eraserhead.


That sound about right?

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Yes, that is how I've always seen it to be.

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Couldnt help but think that through out the entire film. I do however like Eraserhead way better. I love Miike, but did not like Gozu. It seemed to have no direction, and while Eraserhead felt like walking through a morbid art gallery, Gozu merely felt boring. If you disagree with my post fine, but please dont pick apart my grammar and spelling

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I wouldn't say Gozu is the Japanese equivalent to Eraserhead. Gozu, in my opinion is more a bi product of the precedents set in motion by Eraserhead. The region 1 dvd commentary for Gozu suggests that the characters are heavily inspired by the character vignettes Lynch utilized when making the television drama twin peaks. This can be seen in both, as many of the characters indulge in self parody and re-evaluating stereotypical archetypes to fit a character role. I would definitely suggest watching the movie Hausu, for a more or less Japanese equivalent to Eraserhead as both are fine examples of surrealist/horror cinema. Both movies were released in 1977 (Eraserhead in March, and Hausu in August) I believe that Hausu may have impacted japanese cinema stylistically in much the same way as Eraserhead did for western audiences over the years. One only has to watch the bathtub scene to see where the director of ju-on most certainly drew inspiration...

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Tetsuo:The Iron Man is the Japanese Eraserhead, innit?

Stand By For Action!

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baygerbieger, yes, absolutely!!! Gozu & Eraserhead are apples & oranges. Gozu has a definable plot--you have an idea of what's up--but with Eraserhead...you have to just go with the flow. Tetsuo reminded me of Eraserhead big time--I even made that comment whilst watching. I don't understand how anyone can see Gozu as "the Japanese Eraserhead" at ALL.

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I second that comment above. The only similarity between "Gozu" and "Erasehead" is that they both are bizarre.

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It's more like a Japanese (or Miike's) version of Mulholland Drive. It's very reminiscent of Lynch anyway.

I'd say Tetsuo is more like Eraserhead.

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Gozu is not the equivalent of any other western or eastern movie. Is it's very own movie, with it's own identity, and should be judged as such. Not to mention that Lynch didn't invent this type of movies. Research a bit and you will see that other directors were already experimenting with narrative and visuals way before Lynch.

''Never trouble trouble till trouble troubles you."

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I agree with Dragon Eye Morrison..... This film is one of its own creation. Comparing it to a Lynch film is mildly marginal at best.

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Yeah, this film is really nothing like Lynch, it's a slow burn which deconstructs the yakuza genre a bit, and kinda offers a somewhat surreal world, wherein a guy walks around a small town and we, the audience, aren't supposed to know what's real and not real. I appreciated the film's leisurely pace, but thought it went on a bit too long, and it didn't present much for the audience to care about.

This film really is nothing at all like Eraserhead, though. And it's not even that strange for a Japanese film -- I'd highly reccomend something like DEATH POWDER or PINNOCHIO 964 to the original poster. As far as strange Western films go, STAGE FRIGHT (Jost's), REFLECTIONS OF EVIL, and LIQUID SKY are all great films worth checking out.

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pre·ten·tious: characterized by assumption of dignity or importance.

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I'm not an idiot I know there's other surrealist directors you moron. Don't act like you know everything about cinema because your on IMDB and have an opinion. Gozu is very reminiscent in tone to the work of Lynch, that's not to say he was influenced by Lynch or it is the Western equivalent of it. Maybe he was, even if he wasn't it's still more like Muholland Drive than Eraserhead...and it's still similar to Lynch's work. They're comparable and that's no discredit to Miike, the films stands on its own right also.

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Agreed. It's way more similar to Mulholland Drive than Eraserhead.

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