Miike laikam patiešām ir spējīgs uz visu - pat uzfilmēt kaut ko visnotaļ poētisku un sentimentālu kā šī filma. Pie tam būtībā nezaudējot savu stilu.

Another completely different and out there film from Miike. This one involving a remote village that changes the way a salaryman and a Yakuza member look at their lives. It's a slow film and maybe a little over long, but it has a big heart and is certainly an interesting watch if you are willing to invest yourself into it. The scenes in the village are great to look at and are pretty touching at times. I liked the story involving the village girls song being translated by the salaryman. It's certainly not your usual Miike (if he even has a usual film), so don't go in expecting gore and violence and you may be well rewarded.

Okay film from the mid 90's directed by Takashi Miike. It was an important step in his work because he showed he can effortlessly switch between genres at the drop of a hat.

Takashi Miike at his calmest. That doesn't necessarily make the movie good, exactly, but it definitely showcases the director's versatility. I have always believed Miike to be one of the most underrated directors out there, and not in the sense that people don't like his films. Most of his movies are extremely violent, bizarre, and sexual, and people mistake this for a brutality fetish. But in almost all of his films there are layers of humanistic flourishes and, surprisingly, strong undertones of feminism. "The Bird People of China" is a story of identity and discovery, and it is handled pretty ineptly by Miike's usually adept fingers. There is an abundance of pretty shots and there's a song that is sung by a Chinese girl throughout most of the film that is goddamn beautiful. But everything else was either lost on me or not there in the first place. Nice try, Miike.

I think folks who say this movie is somehow atypical of Miike must be fairly unfamiliar with the full breadth of his work. Granted it's not hyper violent like "Ichi the Killer" or "Audition", but even most of Miike's yakuza's films are not really all that violent. The character types and dynamics and the loose unpredictability of this film feel very much like Miike. The film itself is a bit of a surprise in that it tackles some pretty familiar subject matter ... men from civilization having their character fundamentally changed by an encounter with simple rural folk ... but it takes it into slightly different territory and reaches a subtler and more complex resolution than one would expect.

Miike laikam patiešām ir spējīgs uz visu - pat uzfilmēt kaut ko visnotaļ poētisku un sentimentālu kā šī filma. Pie tam būtībā nezaudējot savu stilu.

Another completely different and out there film from Miike. This one involving a remote village that changes the way a salaryman and a Yakuza member look at their lives. It's a slow film and maybe a little over long, but it has a big heart and is certainly an interesting watch if you are willing to invest yourself into it. The scenes in the village are great to look at and are pretty touching at times. I liked the story involving the village girls song being translated by the salaryman. It's certainly not your usual Miike (if he even has a usual film), so don't go in expecting gore and violence and you may be well rewarded.