City of Lost Souls (2001)
[director Takashi Miike]
Color 99 min
Director Takashi Miike is a curious person. After working as Shohei Immamura’s assistant director for years, he suddenly began his own directing career at the age of 40. Since that point, ten years ago now, he has produced a huge amount of films, averaging 3 or 4 a year. The films are quite different from those of his mentor. Rather than opting for Immamura’s slow, painfully deliberate yet philosophical filmmaking, Miike prefers to blow things up. His movies have a kind of scrappy freneticism similar to Tsui Hark’s and he has a yen for huge amounts of gore and machine-gun repeat edits. In other words, he makes 90-minute, gory music videos.
At least, that’s what this one feels like. It’s a kind of living cartoon, where people leap out of helicopters and land in clouds of smoke, just fine. There are also Matrix-like fights between chickens, as well as the world’s deadliest Yakuza-vs.-Triad Ping-pong match.
For all that energy, though, the story is pretty mixed up. What could have been a phantasmagorical, lovers-on-the-run fantasy (with Brazilian actor Teah and Hong Kong actress Michelle Reis as the quite appealing lovers) instead becomes bogged down in plot and character confusions. Miike changes the focus of the film all the time. First we get some narrations by Reis, but after those are over we never really get inside her’s or Teah’s heads. This is a problem because their actions never seem motivated by much. Plus, Teah’s friends in the Brazillian community in Tokyo are also unfathomable, so it’s hard to understand why they want in on the crazy robbery schemes Teah and Michelle keep trying to pull. Then there’s Teah’s ex, who we also never get any insight into.
In fact, the only character Miike seems really interested in is the hothead yakuza. This guy, easily the funniest cast member, is always a totally understandable character, making him the best part of the movie. Of course, he’s simply one of the myriad of characters that are chasing after Teah and Michelle.
Many of Miike’s movies are critically acclaimed. This one seems to me like a very minor work, a confused jumble of cartoonish elements that never really gel into a complete movie. And who knows why Miike keeps showing characters sitting on the toilet or brushing their teeth. It just doesn’t make much sense at all.
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