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Tag: Tomorô Taguchi

QuickView: Ley Lines (1999)

15 June 2018 | | Reading Time: < 1 minute | 0 Comments

Concluding the Black Society Trilogy, we return to Shinjuku. Childhood friends, bonded over their outcast status due to mixed Chinese/Japanese heritage, grow into restless adolescents and run away to Tokyo in search of a better life. In typical style, Takashi Miike takes a standard coming of age setup and veers into much darker territory. After a Chinese sex worker steals their money, the boys are drawn into the criminal underworld to support themselves, leading to betrayal and violence. Like Rainy Dog, by its conclusion this feels more like a meditative fable, particularly with the overt parallel of a loan shark with a penchant for Shanghai folk tales.

7/10

Black Society trilogy: Shinjuku Triad Society | Rainy Dog | Ley Lines

QuickView: Shinjuku Triad Society (1995)

15 June 2018 | | Reading Time: < 1 minute | 0 Comments

Prolific Japanese director Takashi Miike rose to prominence in the latter half of the nineties with the loosely connected Black Society Trilogy, as he graduated from the straight-to-video market. Shinjuku Triad Society bears the hallmarks of his later work, with its outcast anti-heroes and perverse, often violent, sexuality. Whilst his portrayal of sexual violence is problematic, it is not without intent but is reflective of his characters, even if the perspective is overly detached. His approach starkly challenges the orthodox Japanese sense of masculinity that imbues, for example, Takeshi Kitano’s anti-heroes.

6/10

Black Society trilogy: Shinjuku Triad Society | Rainy Dog | Ley Lines

"A film is a petrified fountain of thought."

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