Director Takashi
Miike has emerged and grown as an explosion of artistry in modern Japanese
cinema, from controversial past image, from international notoriety for
depicting shocking scenes of extreme violence. He became an auteur to write his
mark in modern world cinema. With unmatched emotional intensity, using silence
as fierce force, he got abilities of higher order. With incomparable emotional portrayal,
unmatched visual precision, beauty and poetry, he became a legend of modern cinema.
His style is slow, powerful, intense, beautiful and spiritual. With Hara-Kiri:
Death of a Samurai(2011) Takashi Miike is ought to
have great respect as much as akira kurosawa got. His style of making is like injecting
venom directly into our nerves, instantly it flows to our brain, spreads all
over the body to every cell of it, and blocks all the movement of consciousness
so potently, instantly. We are not but to surrender to its emotional potency
and masterful artistry. Suddenly we become helpless and merge into visuals of
painful melancholy. We become helpless as the characters of his movie. In fact,
we are all same as human beings, since the beginning of human race. Our inner
emotions are same. Our instincts are same. But there is awaking in some souls.
They struggle for truth. They need to fight with brutality of customs,
traditions and with ignorance of cultural madness. Characters of Takashi Miike’s new movies are indeed
spiritually awakened, and able to understand the true values of life. They
fight with traditional madness in the name of respectability and the honour.
Ignorance is darker than darkness. It is the cause of all the misery of
mankind. His characters have wisdom of life. They fight with ignorance.
Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai(2011)is more matured than his magnum opus 13 Assassins(2010). Those who liked 13 Assassins(2010) for solely action sequences may not like Hara-Kiri:
Death of a Samurai(2011), but who liked visual artistry of 13
Assassins(2010) should not miss this movie. Final action
sequence is unique and unforgettable. People who like gore may disappoint to
watch it. But indeed it is a classic samurai sword fight we can’t imagine to
see on a screen since the birth of cinema, for its classic nature and action
choreography. I am sure no one ever composed such a sword fight in the history
of cinema. One must prepare to see an epic about poverty and ignorance, rather
than to watch merely an action movie. It is very sensitive movie. Legendary
music composer ryuichi sakamoto’s mystical music made this move as sensitive as
true to life, like pure poetry, to create a transcendental experience.
Takashi Miike is not only master of swords, indeed he is master in human
expression. We can’t see him in the shade of his past movies. Right now he is a
master. No one can deny it.
(As I reviewed for the internet movie database(imdb.com)
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