TAKASHI MIIKE'S BLACK SOCIETY TRILOGY

From the director of AUDITION, VISITOR Q, ICHI THE KILLER etc - the Black Society trilogy offers an interesting insight into the more mannered side of Miike's ouvre.

Miike's crowning acheivement - a trilogy of films shot over a five year period in the late 90s - these three pearls are linked in theme only.

SHINJUKU TRIAD SOCIETY kicks off proceedings. It tells the tale of a corrupt cop, Tatsuhito, who becomes obsessed with tracking down and killing an up-and-coming mafia boss that his lawyer brother has recently started working for.

The ruthless criminal Wang is indeed a formidable foe, one who does not think twice about ripping a madame's eye out with his fingers when she dares to complain about the amount of commission that is due to him.

But this is far more than just a cop-hunts-gangster flick. For a start, the film seems deceptively leisurely at times - until you realise that Miike has adopted a loose editing style to allow for each of the interesting onscreen characters to develop their individual quirks with intriguing success. It;s a bold, mature move that is pulled off expertly.

Having said that, the movie is frequently boosted by brilliantly staged, matter-of-fact action scenes and/or unexpected outbursts of shocking violence: the violence is made all the more alarming when juxtaposed against the strong moral feel to the film (the positive human strain of family ties is a prevalent theme) and beautiful visual sheen of the many cosmopolitan exterior shots.

The acting is uniformly strong, and there are many interesting sub-plots and subtexts to be enjoyed while watching the ultimately simple main plot unfold: the hooker who falls for Tatsuhito and ultimately helps him; the ailing parents who are forever desperate to see their two sons, oblivious to the extent of either's lifestyle; the disturbing cash-for-organs black market trade where Wang offers life-saving operations for young children - but only if their parents can afford the astronomic fees he charges for securing an illegal, destitute donor; the underlying suspicion that seethes nausiatingly between the Chinese, Japanese and Taiwanese ... I could go on).

SHINJUKU TRIAD SOCIETY may lack the bizarre OTT approach of ICHI, but is a better film for it. Some of the violence is sexual, and there is a substantial amount of homosexual activity to be witnessed. But in a film this good, any bigots would be doing themselves a huge favour by casting their phobias to a side and simply enjoying a good yarn spun well.

RAINY DOG, the second installment, focuses on the alienation and loneliness suffered by a social misfit called Yuji.

Yuji lives alone and hates to leave his humble dwellings whenever it's raining. Judging by the heaviness of the downpour in this film, I can't say I blame him!

We first see Yuji as a dejected meat worker, then soon after we witness his loneliness - until it is rudely interrupted by the arrival of a former one-night-stand (whose name he can't remember). She stands in his doorway, announces that the child stood beside her is his and that it is now his turn to care for the kid - then disappears promptly, leaving a confused Yuji feeling incapable of expressing any emotion towards his mute son.

Yuji, you see, is a hitman for the local Yakuza. As he goes about his business, his son follows him silently and loyally through the rain-drenched streets of Taiwan (hence the title, I imagine). Until a meeting with a hooker and a double-crossing by his employer force Yuji to take his newfound family on the run.

RAINY DOG is an enormously rewarding visual experience - the photography is possibly the best any Miike film has given us. Paced more like a Kitano movie than your average Miike experience, if anything this is the best entry in the trilogy.

And yet, it's almost undone by a final third that walks blindly into dramatic cliche, one after the other.

1999's LEY LINES completes our trio of essential Miike. And, as with it's two predecessors, is a consummately shot exploration of alienation and racial disharmony in modern Japan, loosely dressed up to appear as a crime drama.

In LEY LINES, three immigrants of differing nationality struggle to fit into the notorious Osaka neighbourhood. The boys attempt to find their place in Tokyo by selling drugs on the streets (with the cinema-verite style hand-held camera work really conveying the heart-in-mouth tenacity of such an occupation).

Dreaming of a way out of their hostile environment and that ever-elusive 'fresh start', the boys fall in with a prostitute who's all too happy to get it on with them (yes, all three of them) ... that is when she's not indulging other clients in their odd fetishistic games!

Sinking further into violent crime, the three boys are of course destined to bring LEY LINES to a downbeat conclusion, as has previously been experienced in the trilogy's first two installments.

Not that it matters. LEY LINES falls somewhere inbetween SHINJUKU TRIAD SOCIETY and RAINY DOG in terms of content (with a couple of stand-out, typical Miike moments of graphic madness) but is also curiously laconic in that familiar Kitano style. And once again, the film is fantastically lensed, superbly acted, perfectly considered by Miike, and blessed with a classic final shot that may well prove to be the director's career-defining moment ...

Artsmagic have really been impressing of late with their US strain of R1 discs. And this superlative trilogy, thankfully, benefit from similarly excellent treatment.

Each film is presented in it's original aspect ratio (1.85:1) and has been anamorphically enhanced for 16x9 TV sets. Video quality in each case is superb - sharp, clear, grain-free. SHINJUKU looks a tad dark in some scenes, but it's still the best presentation of the film I've yet seen.

Audio-wise, the original Japanese 2.0 stereo soundtracks have been preserved, and they all sound great. No 5.1 mixes - shame - but, hey, what we get is loud, consistent and problem-free so it seems unjust to gripe unduly. English subtitles are optional, easily readable and excellent in terms of translating the Asian dialect into plausible, cool English spiel.

But considering these movies are already widely available in most DVD territories, the real clincher for fans will be the extras, surely.

Each disc features an English language feature length commentary track from Tom Mes. If you've heard his tracks before, you'll know that what you're getting is a fluent, informative, interesting essay on both the film and the backgrounds of it's makers (he's sort of like Artsmagic's equivalent of Hong Kong Legend's Bey Logan). As author of the book AGITATOR: THE CINEMA OF TAKASHI MIIKE, it should be apparent to all that Mes knows his stuff here, and speaks enthusiastically about his subject. Brilliant.

Miike pops up for two video interviews per disc. He rambles slowly while smoking, and unfortunately I found myself feeling guilty for not being able to sustain my interest in what this obvious genius had to say. Was he drugged for these interviews, or what?! Still, the fact that their here is priceless.

Editor Yasushi Shimamura also shows his face for (more interesting) video interviews on the discs. In all cases, the interviews are conducted in Japanese with removable English subtitles.

Trailers, a brief artwork gallery, biographies and filmographies round off the extras on each disc.

Each disc comes in it's own clear plastic keepcase, and is region 1 NTSC encoded (DVD 9). In each case, you'll find the menus are fairly basic affairs and each film can be accessed via a 12 chapter scene selection menu page.

Easy to watch as stand-alone films (none of the characters follow through from one film to the next), but even more satisfying when viewed as a whole, Miike's BLACK SOCIETY TRILOGY is a staggering feat of beautifully realised cinema further blessed with deeply affecting moral comments, social conscience to spare, and a fair dose of outlandish sex and violence thrown in there too. Of course.

Until I'd sat and watch the trilogy as a whole though (more or less back-to-back - they're THAT good), I don't think I realised just how great the man is. Even if his interviews suck.

Artsmagic's DVDs look and sound superb, are fully uncut (unrated) and have the best extras these films have - or will - receive. Lovely stuff.

Review by Stuart Willis