Takashi Miike Archives - Silver Screen Riot

For a man 59-years of age with well over 100 feature films under his belt, Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike shows no signs of slowing down. The prolific auteur has dabbled in everything from sweeping historical epics (13 Assassins) to slow-burn horror showstoppers (Audition) to schlocky gangster yarns (Ichi the Killer) to gory Samurai adventure flicks (Blade of the Immortal) to child-centric ninja fare (Ninja Kids!!!) with literal countless smaller projects filling in the gaps between those more high-profile pictures that end up playing in theaters internationally. With the director often making upwards of five, six, or seven films a year, it’s nothing short of incredible that he’s able to craft something as wildly enjoyable, energetic, and giddy as his most recent film, First Love, and yet here we are. Read More

Martial and arts are a natural translation to Asian cinema. Fighting, warriors, and ancient traditions are common themes in the canon treated with a feast of visuals and cinematic ambidexterity. So I thought I was prepped for what was to come with Yakuza Apocalypse under-titled, The Great War of the Underworld, directed by Takashi Miike. For those unaware, Miike is known for his prolific filmography but most notably for bending genres and pushing censorship boundaries with hyperbolic violence and sexual perversions usually in the form of Yakuza—members of international crime syndicates—subject matter. In other words, I’ll do my best to say it’s a Yakuza-gangster-horror-fantasy film. And completely uncategorizable. Read More