MovieChat Forums > Izo (2005) Discussion > Death by Acid J-Folk

Death by Acid J-Folk

posted 19 years ago by zillion29
4 replies | jump to latest

Wow. After finally seeing this flick, I have a love-hate relationship with it.
I absolutely love the challenge of peeling away all of the different layers of meaning, and as usual, Miike has provided us with a plethora of new eye-candy and moments of nasty wrongness! Anyone who criticizes the cinematography in this movie is insane, some of the shots in this movie are so beautiful that they stand up with the best of Miike's work.
But I'm still fuming from having to watch a five minute painful shot of singer guy (Tomokawa, ne?). I'm happy to discover that that's a post-war style of singing and probably has a ton more significance to Japanese viewers. Nevertheless, it was really hard to take that guy screaming and screetching away for roughly 40 minutes of 128. It was more painful that watching the non-action that comprised most of garbage like Nobody Knows and About Lily Chou Chou . . . or the snoozer moments of Sonatine.
I also found that the non-stop samurai slayings got old after the 40th person got hacked. You could add up all of the Zatoichi movies and still not equal the death-by-sword body count in this flick!!!

[–] Nephilim-6 19 years ago

hehe well it seems we have quite a different taste (I love all those movies you mentioned)

I watched Izo twice this weekend(maybe I'm masochistic ;) ) but while I found the first time comfusing and kind of too long the 2nd time it clicked. Definately one of the cooler movies I've seen lately. And that singer guy.. he's so intense :D I love it! There's a funny bit with him in the Secrets Of Izo DVD bonus feature where he's all pissed off about them not showing signs with the lyrics on it.

Did you ever notice that people who believe in creationism look realy un-evolved? - Bill Hicks

[–] spunkwhy 19 years ago

Honestly, I think you either fall in love with Tomokawa or just cannot stand him. You can't exactly get rid of his part in the film, either, as I found it to be a very meaningful device to have him appear whenever there was some sort of major transition involving Izo.

And honestly, this is probably my favorite Miike movie, beating out Ichi the Killer -- WHICH I NEVER THOUGHT WAS POSSIBLE.

[–] 19 years ago

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[–] xenodolf 19 years ago

the majority of these kind of movies get picked up by some joeblow who reguarly bids for the Van Helsing type of drivel. not that all the critics are mongrels, just a large percentage of the negative votes are from non-target audiences.