Visitor Q
|
List Price: Our Price: $15.39 You Save: $10.55 (41%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $9.00 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Canada
Movie Reviews of Visitor Q
Movie Review: Good Family Fun.
Summary: 5 Stars
The cinamatagraphy is astounding. This movie is great to watch with parents, teens, and aspiring movie makers. It will leave you saying: "WTF?"Movie Review: Wow. . . .
Summary: 5 Stars
Truly a genius . . . Very funny movie, what more can i say?!?Movie Review: Mother's milk heals all family squabbles!
Summary: 4 Stars
After viewing "Audition" and "Ichi the Killer," I doubted whether Japanese director Takashi Miike could shock me again. Boy, was I wrong! If you thought the piano wire scene in "Audition" went far beyond the pale, or the hot oil bath in "Ichi the Killer" left you speechless--as it did me--prepare yourself for the new nightmare that is "Visitor Q." The scenes in this film about a twisted Japanese family would make the Marquis de Sade leave the room in disgust. I have no idea what Miike was thinking when he made this film, but remember this one little fact--"Visitor Q" is a made for television movie. That's right, after viewing this movie remind yourself that this obscenity aired on Japanese television within the last couple of years. We Americans cannot put forth any prime time fodder that could even remotely compare to this atrocity, unless you count something like "Teletubbies." Thank goodness we still have a few qualms. As much as I distrust censorship of any type, I am definitely not ready to see something like "Visitor Q" on network television on this side of the pond."Visitor Q" takes a penetrating look at your typical Japanese middle class family, Miike style. The father of this bizarre clan works as a reality television host who is always willing to go so far over the line in his broadcasts that his fellow workers shun the his very presence. The daughter of the family no longer lives at home since she is too busy putting in a full schedule at a brothel somewhere in town. The young son in this creepy household spends his days meekly submitting to a trio of bullies who beat him up after school. The mother is a real winner, a heroin addict and prostitute who allows her abused son to beat her with wicker canes. The mother and father fail to communicate on any substantive level. The son's problems with the bullies goes unheeded by the family, except when the father decides to fashion a new reality program centering on his child's beatings. The relationship between the father and his daughter is best left unelaborated on here; it is sufficient to say it is one of the most warped father/daughter connections in film history. Yes, this family suffers a host of psychological problems that would give a Sigmund Freud a coronary.
All of these people are sick to the core of their souls, a problem that is about to undergo a radical change with the introduction of a complete stranger into the household. This anonymous (we never learn his name), scruffy looking youth first makes an appearance on the scene when he hits the father of the family on the head with a rock--twice. For some mysterious reason, dad brings this guy home with him for dinner. As time goes by, we see this chap increasingly integrate himself into the daily lives of the family. He sets his sights on the mother at first, rekindling a sense of motherhood in the woman in yet another unmentionable scene (there are a lot of unmentionable events in this movie). The interaction between the stranger and the mother is the most dramatic in the film, but eventually the father, son, and even daughter all fall under the spell of this enigmatic visitor. The end result of these odd encounters is a type of peculiar healing, where the family abandons their insane behavior and returns to a sense of normalcy. Obviously, "Visitor Q" is a Miike film, so the healing takes some really stomach churning turns along the way. After all, there is nothing like dismemberment and a host of other depravities to turn a family around!
There has been some effort to emphasize the reality television elements of the film, but "Visitor Q" has little to do with this theme. There are only a few scenes that even deal with this element, specifically the first taboo shattering images between the father and daughter and a couple of other short bits later in the movie. What is really going on here has to do with the Japanese family and how it deals with the pressures of modern life in an industrialized society. Miike likes to shock with his films, and his target audience must surely have expressed such an emotion when they saw his take on a traditional Japanese family plagued with so many obnoxious psychopathologies. As weird as it sounds, I firmly believe "Visitor Q" is actually an extremely conservative film. Even as the director breaks the bounds of good taste, he seems to possess an earnest belief in the overriding importance of the healthy family unit. You could easily make the argument that images of the type indulged in by Miike have led to the breakdown of the family, and it would be an effective argument, but this movie does contain a strong pro-family theme.
"Visitor Q" runs for about eighty four minutes, short compared to the other two Miike films I have seen. The picture quality is excellent. Extras on the DVD include four trailers--"Visitor Q," "Samurai Fiction," "Fudoh," and "Freeze Me"--some liner notes about Miike's films and a short biography about the director. Once again, Media Blasters has released another soul shattering movie to DVD. The disc I watched had a technical problem, though: whenever I hit the menu button on my remote control the picture went gray and I had to start the disc over again. Perhaps this flaw appeared only on my copy of the movie, but it's something to think about before purchasing if it is a widespread glitch. I look forward to watching more Miike mayhem in the near future. If you would like to examine this director's queasy visions, "Visitor Q" is the ideal starting place before moving on to the more complex "Audition."
Movie Review: Who are some of these actors?
Summary: 4 Stars
"Visitor Q" is an extraordinary film. At first I was worried by the use of cinematography because it looked cheap and crappy to me but then I noticed the angles that the director was employing and his abundant technique. Of all Miike's flicks this one ought to be among the most weirdest, psychological ones. I guess the main topic would be: what are we supposed to feel. And that's what Miike succeeds to evoke in us, the viewers. I really find myself having a hard time finding the words to describe what I've just seen and experienced. I find this film somehow to be beautiful in a disturbed way.
I had to avert my eyes at points. I have never liked needles. MIIKE seems to love them. The use of the hypodermic syringe was used brilliantly in his film "Audition". A classic of modern Cinema in my opinion. The creativity in "Visitor Q" is boundless, slightly sick, I grant you, yet assured and beautifully acted. This is a strong film. The ideas are warped and the execution is masterful. As the story advances in this movie various taboos come to life (the shock factor), the way things are presented is a little humorous. If you are pretty open-minded and don't take things to seriously you are going to start laughing at some of the situations that transpires in this movie.
Takashi Miike is a very talented filmmaker. He bears his soul with a project like "Visitor Q" and that is rare and brave. I mentioned acting earlier and find myself asking, "How far did these actors go?" History has shown that the first actors were prostitutes. I sometimes wonder at the actors that walk the red carpet and ask, "What has changed?" Actors will do anything a director asks. This cast must have had great faith in their Director and great trust. The acting is faultless. At one point I did make the comparison with another great film "Man Bites Dog" because I found my self-laughing at situations so real and horrifying. That feeling is strange and I'm not sure I like it.
Unexpected situations give birth to even more unexpected results during all movies and I cannot criticize this film in anyway. You probably might fine the cinematography a little bit amateurish as I did but the imagination overcomes any limitation when it comes to "Visitor Q". If you decide to watch/purchase this film take caution about the level of disturbance that's being exposed here with all the violence, gore, necrophilia, and kinkiness laid out to you.
Movie Review: you always hurt the ones you love
Summary: 4 Stars
Visitor Q opens with a question: "Have you ever done it with your dad?" With this jarring question in the viewer's mind, the films fades into a lovely scene depicting the protagonist Yamazaki Kiyoshi in bed with his estranged daughter Miki, who is constantly taking digital photos, inside a love hotel. Supposedly asking Miki such questions for his reportage on "the youth today," Kiyoshi continuously states that what he is doing is wrong, but he soon has sex with his daughter with full gusto. However, Kiyoshi climaxes a little too soon so Miki calls him an early bird. Kiyoshi then pays his daughter only 70,000 yen of the 100,000-yen she requested.
With such a loving relationship established between father and daughter, one wonders, "So, what is the rest of the family like? Although they are not having sex with each other, the relationship between Kiyoshi's wife Keiko and his son Takuya is also quite odd. The victim of ruthless bullying, Takuya's sole outlet seems to be beating his mother. While it is horrible for one to even think of hitting ones mother, especially in a society where filial piety is a chief virtue, Takuya takes things to the extreme. He has a collection of canes and carpet beaters that he uses to beat his mother. Far from defending herself, Keiko only asks that Takuya to not strike her face. In order to seek solace from her tormenter, Keiko uses heroin and in order to buy her heroin Keiko prostitutes herself. Like mother like daughter.
This is the realm of the Yamazaki family. There seems to be little hope for the family, however, one day, a mysterious visitor clonks Kiyoshi on the head with a large rock and subsequently moves in with the family. Similar to Matsuda Yusaku's character Yoshimoto in Morita Yoshimitsu's Family Game (1983), the visitor interacts with each member of the family and "helps" each of them rediscover parts of themselves that they have lost. You will definitely not forget how he helps Keiko rediscover her femininity and maternal instincts!
I first watched this film around eight months ago and because of the film's shock value I was unable really to put my thoughts on "paper," but having watched it again and having some critical pieces concerning the film, I can see how social criticism plays a part in the film. However, due to its graphic nature this film is definitely not for everyone. The violence depicted towards women is quite extreme.