Lumberjack the Monster

I saw this movie with no idea of the plot. I just read some people online telling that it was a good movie by well loved director Takashi MIke. I like many movies that he did. And I had expectation. And well the movie is not a horror, it is not scary. Does it have blood? Yes. Crazy people? Yes. Is it funny and entertaining? Well not that much. Here is where the issue is for me. When the movie finish I thought "is this all?" that Meh feeling. No real drama or tension or big surprise. Everything move in a smooth way, And as somebody else already wrote, yes very good opening scene, and then you think, ok ok something good will come.

I have no idea of the book or comic this is based on. So maybe the story was all already there with not so much room to change things.

Lumberjack the Monster: The prolific Takashi Miike who brought us Audition, 13 Assassins and Blade of the Immortal directs this serial killer film which definitely enters horror territory. At least 3 serial killers figure here, the Lumberjack tracks down nasty people and smashes their heads in with his ax. He has already dispatched a Ponzi scheme organizer and a violent criminal but his third victim, Akira (Kazuya Kamenashi) turns out to be a bit tougher and fights him off. We've already seen Akira murder a man who was attempting to blackmail him and we've met his doctor friend Sugitani (Shota Sometani) who carries out lethal experiments on living patients. Akira must now track down and kill the Lumberjack if he is to survive. There's also a profiler Ranko (Nanao) who takes an interest in Akira and a driven detective (Kiyohiko Shibukawa) who is obsessive in his pursuit of murderers, none of these are stock characters, they are fully fleshed out. Some really disturbing scenes of heads being crushed, jugular veins slashed and scenes of existential horror. I won't describe the latter as it would give too much away, similarly I can't name the actor who portrays Lumberjack. There is also a conspiracy stretching back 30 years and a few interesting plot twists. Good performances from the main cast. Directed by Takashi Miike, Screenplay by Hiroyoshi Koiwa, based on the 2019 Mayusuke Kurai novel of the same name. On Netflix. 8/10.

While this did have a few of Takashi Miike's signature moves (blood spurting like it was being shot out of a gun), it was probably the slowest, most excruciatingly painful dalliance ever put on film. It was a short-short that Miike dragged out to almost 2 hours with.insanely mundane shots and dialogue that added nothing to the story whatsoever. I honestly don't know what kept me watching it until the end. Maybe I was hoping something might actually happen--but it didn't. It's not a thriller, it's definitely not horror, it's barely drama, and I guess "crime" is the only genre it fits since it did involve a crime. Really bad. I gave it a 2 out of nostalgia for Takashi Miike's earlier work but it doesn't even deserve that.

I recently watched the new Japanese film Lumberjack the Monster (2023) on Netflix. The storyline follows an arrogant lawyer with a checkered past who is attacked by a serial killer and barely survives. The lawyer's arrogance won't let him be just another victim, so he decides to go from the hunted to the hunter.

The film is directed by the iconic Takashi Miike (Audition) and stars Kazuya Kamenashi (Joker Game), Nanao (Miss Devil), Keisuke Horibe (Tokyo Gore Police), and Shidô Nakamura (Fearless).

This movie wasn't what I was expecting at all. The main character feels like the actual villain as the story unfolds. The backstories are very well told, and the horror elements are elite. The costumes and kill scenes are top-notch, with great stab scenes and throat slashes. The ending is actually quite rewarding and serves as a perfect conclusion. However, the killer reveal is disappointing and this picture was not what I was hoping for from Miike.

In conclusion, Lumberjack the Monster didn't live up to my expectations of Miike, but it had enough worthwhile elements to watch once. I would score this a 5.5-6/10 and recommend seeing it once.

"Lumberjack the Monster" was first released at the Sitges Fantasy film festival in October last year (2023). Given the prominence of Miike as well as the dominance of Warner Brothers as the producers, one may pretty safely bet a few bucks on both parties expecting Sitges to be a great tool to market a successful premiere off. Unfortunately, Sitges was swamped with exceptional films (I kid you not, not less than 5 magnificent horror films). The long and the short is that "Lumberjack" just did not get any traction and probably not unfairly. In fact, "Lumberjack" ended up as a quiet early summer Netflix release. So the obvious question is, "is it that bad?". The good news is, no it's actually pretty good". The bad (or some might argue "better") news is, the film is a bit of an "unbalanced" balancing act. One immediately gets the impression that the length of the film was intentionally limited to the 80 minutes "action movie going crowd";sweet spot. It is unlikely that a future extended release is not foreseen, and releasing the 80 min theatre version "directly to video" (so to speak) was an opportunity missed , where a slightly longer Netflix release would potentially have resolved basic issues around character development and most of the unwanted "chaos" in story presentation. Now, it's true that Miike attained acclaim for just that, i.e. His effortless ability to create a chaotic pursuit of extreme violence in a uniquely artistic (and much loved) manner. Miike might have achieved cult status with such films (eg Ichi) but his repertoire and talents are extremely diverse and the intention with this film was clearly not to create a homage to "his" Asian Extreme genre It's simply not that type of film. Yes the book (on which the film is based) lends itself to instances of ultra violence, but it is essentially a psychological thriller / whodunnit. Miike, being Miike could also not merely push out a sleek 90s J-horror / thriller. Thus this balancing act to develop the back story and the characters. Miike sometimes makes use of clever mechanisms, such as the reading of the fairy tale, and other times het relies on interactions between main characters which occurred in the past and pops up in conversation, and unfortunately and obviously often necessarily, on flashbacks. Given the urgency / pace of the film, the actual person created through what we learn through the character backstory is conveyed through acting, tempo and atmosphere (mostly cinematography). Fortunately, all of this worked and worked well. No it does not fill all the holes in character development and storyline, but for me that is part of what makes it a Miike film. The violence is also signature Miike and OTT black comedy situations, like blood projecting out of wounds pops up without feeling out of place. The nods / homages to Gialo similarly was well placed and -executed. Even the slight body horror homage, which essentially forms the moral or philosophical basis for the film, was not overplayed or presented in a over-emotional or preachy manner. One can even call the plot and character development gaps an homage to 70s and 80s Japanese thrillers and horrors.

Thus, TL:DR: The film is very much something which Miike fans and, hopefully, everyone else will enjoy. It does not take itself too seriously and it should not. An entertaining, OTT violent whodunit with some plot holes and other slight issues but if they were not there, it would not have the film Miike was aiming for and it would definitely have lacked the needed soul.