The Bird People in China (1998)
Oct 17, 2004Lost Culture
An early Takashi Miike film that forsakes his usual ultra-violence and surreal weirdness for a genteel road movie through backwater China to the discovery of a lost culture
Renji Ishibashi
Gozu (2003)
Jun 17, 2015Surreal Yakuza Film/Identity Exchange
The modern cinematic madman Takashi Miike makes a uniquely original work that starts out like a Yazkuza film, before taking a turn into the completely surreal and arriving at an admirably twisted ending
One Missed Call 2 (2005)
Oct 14, 2015Haunted Cellphone Calls
Sequel to the Japanese original, not the English-language remake. This quickly forgets about haunted phonecalls and becomes even more of a copy of Ring, the inspiration of the original, and fails at generating spooky atmosphere
Tokyo! (2008)
May 14, 2024Anthology of Surreal Japan-set Tales
Directors Michel Gondry, Leos Carax and Bong Joon Ho make an anthology of strange and surreal tales that take place in Tokyo
Battle League Horumo (2009)
Jun 13, 2012Combat Tournaments with Miniature Creatures
Japanese film about teams that engage in combat tournaments with hordes of Smurf-like creatures. This spends too much time on its high school drama cliches but eventually finds the dementia of its concept at the climax