The City of Lost Souls

This little gem is a solo Miike film. No sequels and not much publicity, the movie oozes with style and the action is brilliantly choreographed. The idea of Japan being filled with immigrants, a midget brushing his teeth with cocaine, animated cockfights - all examples of Takashi Miike's very vivid imagination. The story is to do with a Brazilian guy who falls in love with the sister of a Chinese mafia boss who disagrees with their relationship.the Brazilian, however, will not let the love of his life go for no-one. Like an ultra violent version of Romeo and Juliet with foul toilet gags. another Miike great

8 out of 10

In a world where normalcy is the run of the pack in the crime genre, and the usual blood and bullets and violence and ultra machismo is the name of the game, a filmmaker like Takashi Miike has something to show for his conventional stories. Where else will you see CGI cockfights, Brazilian dives and spin-zones in Tokyo, and ping-pong tournaments made into intense death-matches? Well, those are the main highlights at the least in another of Miike's many trips into the 'yakuza' movie, however this time he goes international with his cast (for the most part anyway). It's not just Japanese Yakuza, but also Chinese mafia, the Brazilians, and possibly a black or white guy thrown in for good measure. It's got drug deals, sour romances, youth tarnished by abandonment, talk show hosts also into drugs and self-interest, did I mention the cock-fights (particularly the part where the poultry gets set on fire and run wild), and so on. So Miike has a lot to work with here. It's a shame then that it doesn't feel as spectacular as all of this sounds, or at least as the trailer looked.

We're given at the core of the story a romance that's blossomed between Mario (Teah is his only credited name, and has only appeared in a handful of other Miike movies, this his first) and Kei (Michelle Reis, who luckily has a little more experience). Kei is about to be deported (from Brazil I suppose, a point that is never total clarified for me, though besides the point), but then comes Mario to the rescue in a manic helicopter break-out. So now the two need to get going again, this time out of Japan, but they have no passports and no money. Enter in the perfect solution- bad guys! Chinese mafia and Japanese Yakuza, both out to make some dealings with cokes, however with one side definitely not trusting the other (there's a great little dialog the Chinese guy gives in the cave about the Japanese). Then in quasi (though not quite) True Romance fashion, they steal the coke during the deal in a shoot-out, decide to sell it to a self-promoting TV newscaster with the token midget cameraman, and he starts selling it...until the gangsters come back into the picture, especially the extreme bad-ass yakuzas, one of which with a silly Mohawk.

From there we get what has come in probably more than I'd care to think of number of crime films, where the little girl/main heroine gets kidnapped, and only the hero can come to the rescue. All the while Miike executes the material, in terms of technical style, in a manner that always kept me watching, even when I should've felt repulsed by this. Then again, I didn't see in this (or in Ichi the Killer either oddly enough) that Miike was glorifying the violence. Sure, it's fast-paced when it comes down to it, like in the climax with the rescuing and such, and Miike decides to build tension with a complete abandon for rational cinematic language (very quick and decisive cuts). But, as the title suggest, pretty much anybody on screen in the picture is part of the 'City' that harbors all these damned beings. Even Mario's ex Lucia (in maybe the best 'performance' by Patricia Monterola) comes out quite tarnished by the end. Somehow, through all of the multiple killings and bouts of violence, it's still somehow exhilarating when it needs to be, and Miike somehow finds room to edge in his classic surreal bits of comedy into the mold (some that doesn't, like the ones involving excretions, and ones that do by leaps and bounds, most notably the main Matrix-style cockfight).

The problem ends up being though that a lot of things don't connect. The main actor and actress, for example, don't seem to have much chemistry, at all. Indeed Teah, aside from having a swagger and attitude during action scenes, is stiff as a board, with his love Kei looking a little dulled out (save for one amazing scene involving some vodka and a Russian). It's also a thin line to walk for Miike in making the plight of the little girl that Lucia cares for seriously, as she is blind (ho-ho) literally to what goes around her, yet is bright as the innocent, and aside from one brief, compelling scene with her and her drunk mother, there is little to care about with the situation aside from the usual formulaic tones. There are also spouts early in the film that almost come off half-baked, like with the police officers or whoever they might be. Yet with all of this to point out as flaws, I do make it a point to say that as I go deeper into Miike's oeuvre that it's certainly not his weakest fare. Actually, there's even potential for it to get better on a repeat viewing, as I may not even give a damn to try and work out what's going on. I mean, who needs total logic when you got roosters that dish out Kung-Fu? Grade: B

I enjoyed this movie, but I had hoped for more.

This is a straight forward story with lots of off the wall mini scenes/story's between the meat and potatoes of a very average revenge/gangster/drug tale.

The action sequences are pretty good to very good, and the gore level is not too bad(keep in mind this is Japanese in taste and style) Teah just does not make for a charismatic lead, but the rest of the cast were extremely watchable.

There is as always in these style of movies some light humour thrown it to lighten the violence.

This movie was good, but just not that satisfying or mindblowing...I recommend if you know the style and like the director.

City of Lost Souls, aka Hazard City, is pretty self explanatory from the title. The characters in the movie seem lost and there are dangers lurking around every corner. Who can you trust not to blast one in your back? Well, with Takashi Miike, trust nobody.

I noticed that the cast was a mix of japanese, chinese, and brazilian! It caught my attention when I would hear portugeuse being spoken, then japanese later on. I noticed that Miike included the different languages rather than having it all in japanese which made the film seem more real. Oh, let me say that that's one wacky wedding scene! There are some surprising moments too...which you'll see when you watch the film (no fair in me telling!).

The interactions between the characters seem so random that I felt there really was no good or bad sides. I loved the vodka scene with Michelle Reis who was visually stunning throughout. Plus, Teah plays the cool, suave Mario who speaks through actions rather than dialogue. Also, that yakuza guy is someone you do not mess with!!

Thank you Miike for a unique ending which surprised my friend and I...or maybe it was the Remy Red shots that left me saying "HUH??" I guess I'll have to watch it again....which is a good thing.

What Takashi Miike is driven by is of course shock and irreverence. And He succeeded quite well here : lots of useless violence, lots of humor (the blood of the gunfighters drawing "love" on the ground), lots of bad taste. But "Audition" was characterized by the same ingredients. Not to be taken seriously of course. It's true that the codes of the genre are destroyed, played with : the hero is non-asian, the asians (all yakuza or triad members are worthless human beings driven by sadistic and violent impulses) And the end is a jewel in itself perverting the usual codes in the same way as the rest of the picture Great fun ! (another oddity : it must be the only Japanese picture in which half of the dialogue is in Portuguese...)