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Directed by: Tikashi Miike Starring: Daisaku Akino, Chisato Amate, Takeshi Kitano I just watched Izo last night. Never has a movie been this much of a CHORE to get through. I have this thing where I never stop a movie once I've started it. I like to think that I do enough research into a movie beforehand to get a pretty good idea what I'm getting myself into. Not so with Izo. I've struggled through a few of Miike's other movies. Audition was pretty brilliant (I even bought it). Ichi the Killer was entertaining enough, and Visitor Q was... well, let's just say I got through it unharmed (physically. not so sure about mentally). When I first saw the trailer for Izo, I thought to myself "Great! A violent Miike film with Samurais and time travel! And it's even got Beat Takeshi to boot!" So, my friend and I watched it last night. For over two whole hours we were bombarded with what can only be described as violent child rape in cinema form. To call the plot nonsensical would be an insult to nonsense. It had something to do with a pissed off ghost samurai and... actually that's about all I can come up with - pretty sad considering the movie was two hours long, was heavy in dialogue, and had about 30 different characters. It was basically a rapid-fire montage of fight sequences with the main character, Izo, and a random person or group of people, including business men, a bride and groom, little children, Bob Sapp, and even Izo's own mother. And that was it. Absurd confusing fight scene after absurd confusing fight scene. Sounds cool in theory, but trust me, after about twenty minutes of it, it begins to wear thin. Extremely thin. Like an Olsen twin in a trash compactor thin. (see what I did there?) And after that twenty minutes, there are still a hundred more to go. Oh, I left out one thing - mixed into things are about half a dozen musical numbers with a guy singing and playing a guitar. I use "singing" and "playing" and "guy" quite loosely. This was some heinous stuff. It sounded like something written AND performed by a mentally retarded six-year-old. The fourth time this guy started shrieking out his mongoloidian war cries, I almost made the decision to turn off the movie. But like I said, I have to finish what I begin. Though I'm starting to rethink that philosophy. RATING: 1 PROS: The gore was cool... for about ten minutes CONS: Everything else ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://imdb.com/title/tt0377079/
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Oct 4, 2005 22:26
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 10:00 |
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A friend said this movie was pretty good so i gave it a whirl. For the first 30 minutes I kept asking myself, "What is this garbage? Is there a point in this somewhere?" at around 34 or 38 minutes in I thought it was going to turn into something coherent when he was just laying down on a sunny bank next to a river, but that was just a breather and the movie went on to more pointless fights. I can't help, but be dissappointed with it. There were some cool parts, but nothing near as close to save the whole movie. I found my self just laughing at it a lot, too. This movie is probably a step or two above my least favorite movie of all time "A Hole in my Heart". If you like stuff like this then I guess you are in for a treat. Other than that I wouldn't waste my time. 1.5
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Feb 7, 2006 21:24
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I enjoyed Izo as a movie that you can just keep saying "Wow, what the heck was that?" There doesn't seem to be a real message, but there is a samurai warrior who goes through different periods in time and kills people in various bloody ways. It's extremely weird, in all senses of the word, and I kinda knew that it would be. It really just isn't a traditional movie, but I'm not sure what you'd call it, besides odd. I liked it though, and I've put it on again in the background while doing work. 2.5/5
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Feb 7, 2006 23:29
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I enjoyed Izo more when I went back and watched it again. Its out there, yes, but you just kind of have to let go. And Buddist Bob Sapp earns points for sure. Its like a sort of Samurai Waiting For Godot. In places in just doesn't make any sense at all and drags, but I think the whole in this one is greater than the sum of its parts. 3/5
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Mar 5, 2006 10:58
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This movie equates to Takashi Miike with a lot of money, a dream-journal, and a desire to prank his fans into thinking that everything is symbolic, meaningful, and beautiful in the excessive, useless gore and subversive/half-assed political messages through bad stock footage. Sorry, I'm not going to fall for it. Score: 1. for the fact that it's funny to hear Miike fanboys try to justify this film's meaning.
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Mar 6, 2006 17:32
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Except perhaps for Date Movie, the worst film I have ever seen. There are no words to describe just how bad this film is. Usage of pop culture icon Bob Sapp ruins any chance the film had at claiming to be artistic or meaningful, much in the same way that popping Paris Hilton in a Hollywood film would prevent you from calling it Art House. As to the poster who went back and watched it twice, dear god, your pain tolerance must be phenomenal. I actually cried out "Oh dear god not again" in the cinema when the guitarist started up for about the eighth time. Absolutely appalling drivel.
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Mar 8, 2006 00:32
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This movie was pretty lovely. I really had to struggle to watch the whole thing, as others have said before me...you just sit on the couch with a "what the gently caress" face for 2 hours. Not worth it.
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Mar 9, 2006 17:42
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 10:00 |
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Loved the movie. It was an insane journey of revenge. The look of the film, it was beautifully shot, the way it cut into the different fights, it was disorienting but it was all varied, I never lost interest. The build-up all hit utter perfect tones, especially with the powerful singing that was used. People are to quick to condemn a movie for not fitting to the conformities of other movies they've seen, you guys were all looking far too hard instead of sitting back and getting absorbed. I have to admit I've never looked deeply into the specific points of this fine movies plot, but I think the basic points and what the movie is trying to get accross is all fairly obvious. 5/5 - honestly I can't say I've ever experianced something like this movie before.
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Mar 12, 2006 07:31
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