Simply Perfect

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

'Izo' is a self conscious movie. It assumes itself as an exercise in art-house cinema with all its quirks and narrative liberties taken to the point of thinning out the plot considerably. There is indeed a thread running through the parade of disparate scened deeply imbued with all out surrealism and connecting them into a visual feast but the point is not so much to tell a story as it is to create a series of moods. And this 'Izo' achieves with a sweeping breadth and scope of thematic points. The feeling is one of great disorientation as each new setting blends or annuls the preceding one.True to his peculiar style Miike mixes full blown violence with meanderings into philosophy. In 'Izo' the dichotomy is taken to its extreme: rivers of bucket flow interspersed with vague and supposedly meaningful rambles. Characters veer on the symbolic, so much so that it is difficult to see them as anything other than that. Social critic is not absent and amidst all the craziness are reels of historical footage (particularly those of the War) that inject reality straight it.Typically Japanese concepts such as the cyclical nature of suffering (and the Buddhist element is borderline over) are joined by an historical consciousness and even by a lead that is an actual figure in history. All this to show that for all its apparent randomness 'Izo' is a reflection of Japan as much as it is a flurry of exuberant artistry, Japan in its past, present, and future.'Izo' succeeds or fails on whether viewers allows for the imagery to draw them in or not. Technically there are moments of sheer genius such as when Izo falls into a wedding in a way that pushes camera work to its very limits. The climax, with a very cool and collected Matsuda playing a role that suits him perfectly, is but a final note in a concert of very strong images that well deserve the award for special awards that 'Izo' received.The movie comes across as Miike's half solipsism. With a finale that completely matches the tone of utter surrealism 'Izo' manages to remain a whole despite being pulled in so many directions.'Izo' may very well be too pretentious for its own good but it is nonetheless a treat for those greedy for something different. To me it felt like Kurosawa's dreams spiced with Miike's flair for the bizarre and bloody.

The meaningless quality of human life, everything being an illusion, cherished images deprived of sanctity and destroyed..."life is a dream"...in this case, a very bad one. The most interesting scenes for me were the"board" meetings and the interactions between Izo and his "tally". The leavetaking of Izo as an Imperial soldier was very well-done too.But this movie embodies the nihilist and preternaturally Buddhist view so deep in the Japanese psyche. "6" out of "10" for effort, nothing original, except for the murder of young children, which goes along with the plot line of destruction of all that is good and innocent.

After seeing at least 20 movies in his filmography, this is by far and wide the worst Miike film I've yet to see.Great premise, but the execution is all wrong.A samurai is crucified on a cross in feudal Japan, and spends the remainder of his afterlife travelling through space and time at random, hacking and slicing away pretty much everyone in sight. While there are certainly those characters who might represent the ills of modern Japanese society (particularly religion and big business), some of the violence is just downright incomprehensible, including the slaying of innocent children and the rape of mother earth (seriously). I had no idea what Izo was supposed to represent, nor half of the villains he encounters, and, as a reasonably intelligent art-house film fanatic, it absolutely infuriates me that I had to come online to figure all this meaningless and half-assed symbolism out.I get it Miike; you hate religion, technology, government, law, major corporations (like the ones you make movies for... ahem), and women. You love to get your audience talking, and you certainly love making critics think you are a thematic genius even when everything you do is lazy (given, he does make about 5-6 films a year) and pushing them to find hidden meanings behind things where there are none (example: all the ranting and raving about AUDITION being a feminist film). But by the looks of IMDb and RT ratings of IZO, I think this 2 hour mind-f*ck was the straw that broke the camel's back.Bad CGI, bad fight choreography, bad dialogue, bad acting. Sure, it's an "art" film, and so those things should be secondary to theme, plot, and message, but when 90% of the film is made up of sword fighting, you could at least try a little harder to wow us.This should be paired up with Takeshi Kitano's movie TAKESHI'S (ironice, since Kitano is in this movie), for they are both the most over-indulgent films by otherwise incredible talents in Japan cinema. File this under I AM A F*CKING GENIUS AND THE AUDIENCE WILL EAT UP ANYTHING I RELEASE EVEN IF IT'S JUNK.On a side note: I am still stoked for your 13 ASSASSINS remake!

The film starts out with diagrams of the human penis. Then it moves on to war pictures and film clips, explosions, bombs dropping, and random acts of violence. About 30 seconds into this, is a film clip of some teacup ride at some crappy amusement park, then EXPLOSION! Back to the war clips. After a while, it goes to a samurai (IZO) getting speared to death while being crucified. IZO then comes back to life (though years later in the movie) and starts killing everyone. This is a totally fantastic movie! It's got a really deep plot (if you want that sort of thing), but it's easy to ignore, so if you just want random violence then sit back, ignore the dialog and focus on the 100+ murders that occur in this movie. IZO has everything, including a part where IZO is sucked into a lake, and somehow appears at a wedding, so what does he do? He STABS the groom, then slaughters the bride! He then jumps through a wall, but travels through some kind of portal into a classroom. He awkwardly walks out, and is confronted by dozens of ****heads in the halls. Needless to say, they are promptly murdered. Also, IZO kills some monks, vampires, businessmen, vampire businessmen (I'm not making this up) gangsters, goons, and random people in the middle of a highway (he somehow traveled through time, or to a parallel world or some damn thing.) Long story short, IZO rules. It owns your soul.