The City of Lost Souls (2000)

Memorable, crazy movie

Good movie but grossly overrated

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

What can I say... Takashi Miike is one whose movies I enjoy more and more these days and The City Of Lost Souls isn't an exception. The piece itself is about a Brazilian protagonist and his girlfriend, trying their best to cross the border from Japan to Taiwan. They stumble upon trouble on the way, interfering with Yakuza's business and the outcome becomes a quite fast-paced roller-coaster action with violence, punchlines, and, I must add that there's also a great load of comedy here.Anyone expecting hardcore violence throughout the entire piece may get disappointed. If you got some distance though and are open for hybrid stuff then this piece won't disappoint you. It awesome and funny, with a great mixture between the raw and cold violent scenes and the funny, surprising scenes of comedy. The language mix between Brazilian Portugese, Mandarin and Japanese is just a great additional bonus.

(aka: CITY OF LOST SOULS)This one supremely sux. I suppose this happens to a lot of directors who gain an international cult following and then start believing all the hype that surrounds them. They wind up putting out silly twaddle like this.Talk about a convoluted mess. I don't know what's going on since we go from one scene (in the desert) to the next (in Tokyo) to the next (in Brazil?) with random acts of violence occurring, with little or no motive involved in each one of them. It's comes across (to this viewer) as a Japanese version of NATURAL BORN KILLERS or MAN BITES DOG. I suppose if that's your sort of thing, then this might be for you. But I'd just as soon do without...Admittedly as this moves along, we get a more cohesive plot concerning Mario and his Chinese girlfriend stealing cocaine and money from the Yakuza, who in turn kidnap a little girl and hold her for ransom of the stolen money and dope. But by that point in time, I became uninterested in the outcome and barely finished the film. Even the cgi is crude-looking for a flick of this type.Another step down for Miike that began with DEAD OR ALIVE and continues...PS: Yeah, even the ending was pretty dumb.2 out of 10

I haven't seen anything as cool as the "cock fight" on film in a long time. See this if you are a Miike fan, but it is nowhere near as good as Ichi, Fudoh, Visitor Q, the DOA trilogy, Audition or Happiness in the Katikouras (spelling?). It was better than Full Metal Gokudo, however.

CITY OF LOST SOULS - Takashi Miike The film starts with Michelle Reis writing a letter telling her mother that she is in love with a Brazilian man who is "strong and kind". We then see the sleeping back of said Brazilian as CG butterflies flit across the screen. One settles on his shoulder and melts into the skin, becoming a tattoo that he will wear to the end of the film. Next we see Michelle on a bus with armed guards set to deport her from Japan. Her boyfriend steals a helicopter by force and stops the bus mith a machine gun, killing the guards in the process. He then whisks Michelle away to freedom.All of which sets the scene for what is to follow in this remarkable film. Strange and fascinating characters cross paths in a plot that is broadly irrelevant, except as a vehicle for bringing these characters together in a series of surreal events and encounters, not a few of which are also rather violent. Our 'cool Brazilian b****rd' hero and Michelle wish to marry and settle down abroad, but events and people would seem not to want them to. CITY OF LOST SOULS has a richly populated universe - a Japan where Japanese is barely the dominant language spoken, and characters of comic-book archetypes in appearance but anything but under the skin. The comic-book feel pervades much of the film, especially in the occasional CG enhanced shots that surely deserve an award for the best use of CG on screen - to push reality where it could never otherwise go. The script also has comic book touches, blending the dark and brutal with the strange and hilarious quite un-self-conciously. Miike shows here why his name is so revered - truly an artist pushing boundaries hard. I look forward to more of his films heading west (I'm determined to see DEAD OR ALIVE one day, circumstances having conspired to make me miss 3 festival showings so far!).