So it's July and everyone is heatwaved out so little in the way of news, except the now slightly delayed announcement (by me, for lack of other news) of Radiance's release of Miike's infamous, shot on a shoestring, riff on Passolini's Theorem: Visitor Q. It should also be noted that they have also licensed Miike's Gozu, which will be doing the festival rounds before hitting blu-way at some point in the future.
Meanwhile Third Window are continuing down their path of pulling out audacious and unheard of releases, now with two J-Horror films from the turn of the millennium: Crazy Lips and Gore from Outer Space. These are new ones to me, so excited to explore them.
Finally for those in London it's worth checking out The Nickel's refreshed cinema listing, including as it does: two Third Window double-bills Mermaid Legend & Kamikaze Girls, plus a Shinya Tsukamoto double of Gemini and Killing (have either had a UK cinema screening? answers on a postcard to UKA HQ); if that was not enough also a single, wisely intermission included screening of Love Exposure, plus Meiko Kaji in two of the Stray Cat Rock films: Delinquent Girl Boss and Sex Hunter.
Visitor Q
A struggling news reporter (Kenicho Endo, The Raid 2) keeps pushing boundaries to impress his superiors, finally winding up in a motel room with his estranged daughter. Back home, his bullied son takes his violent rages out on his mother, who turns to heroin to cope but must prostitute herself to afford the habit. Into this scene of severe family dysfunction steps Q, a mysterious stranger with a knack for knowing just what each member needs most, whether it's a rock to the head, a sexual reawakening, or a bout of murder. From the mind of Takashi Miike comes his most transgressive film yet: unflinching yet darkly humorous, Visitor Q pushes the limits of filmic representation as far as they will go. Equal parts Pasolini, Ozu and John Waters, this may well be Miike's finest film.
CRAZY LIPS (2000)
Satomi and her family are hounded by the press when her brother is accused of a vicious killing spree. Desperate to prove his innocence, Satomi goes to a psychic for help. The price the psychic asks is far more than she expected, and the answers they give her are nothing she could ever have imagined.
GORE FROM OUTER SPACE (2001)
Just before being lead to the electric chair for the murder of her daughter Misato, Satomi tells her story to a nun. It began with no one believing Satomi’s story of the kidnapping of her daughter. When the police are called in to investigate, Satomi’s husband tells them they have no daughter. From there we are led onto a wild ride with psychics, dirty politicians, headless corpses, strange Jello eating FBI agents and more.
