Izo (2004)

Director:

Takashi Miike

Writer:

Shigenori Takechi (screenplay)

Release Date:

21 August 2004 (Japan)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Fantasy | Horror | Thriller | War

Plot:

We begin in 1865, when the Shogunate is on its last legs, but still capable of punishing its enemies...

Plot Keywords:

Killing | Assassin | City | Sword | Death

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Kazuya Nakayama	...	Okada Izo
Kaori Momoi
Ryuhei Matsuda		(as Ryuuhei Matsuda)
Ryôsuke Miki
Yûya Uchida
Masumi Okada
Hiroki Matsukata
Hiroshi Katsuno
Masato
Bob Sapp
Takeshi Kitano		(as 'Bîto' Takeshi)
Daijiro Harada
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Daisaku Akino
Chisato Amate
Mickey Curtis		(as Mikkî Kâchisu)
Ken'ichi Endô		(as Ken'ichi Endou)
Ryuuji Harada
Yoshio Harada
Renji Ishibashi
Tsurutaro Kataoka
Kirin Kiki
Kazuhiro Mashiko
Hiroyuki Nagato
Mari Nakayama
Ken Ogata
Mitsuhiro Oikawa
Hideji Otaki
Tokitoshi Shiota
Shun Sugata
Haruna Takase
Teah
Susumu Terajima
Kazuki Tomokawa
Tarô Yamamoto
Joe Yamanaka
Rikiya Yasuoka

Also Known As:

Izô: Kaosu mataha fujôri no kijin (Japan) (working title)

Runtime:

Japan:128 min | Argentina:128 min (Mar del Plata Film Festival)

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese | English

Colour:

Colour

Certification:

Germany:18 | Japan:R-15 | Argentina:16

Company:

KSS

Movie Connections:

Version of Hitokiri (1969)

God, Family, Sex, Murder, Friend, Foe, War, Nation, Government, Law, Ethics

I was expecting a samurai film, I couldn't have been wronger. It is hard to explain "Izo" with just words, even if I could I don't think it would cover all the things this film has to say.

Before explaining the story of this film I think it is essential to talk about the visual aspect of it. "Izo" looks like another experimental film from the director Takashi Miike, lots of unorthodox camera shots and visual story telling. Acting feels very theatrical... in a Japanese way. There is no stopping in this film, it is a fast ride from start to the end and you have to catch up with it.

As for the story, Izo is the main character in this, a samurai from feudal Japan who apparently had a lot of drama in his life. After his death his tortured soul wanders around modern and old Japan, endlessly taking lives. He denies the existence of God, faces old foes, those who hold grudge against him, sleeps with his mom and kills her, he sees women he had been with, kills them, kills lots of women, kills lots of everything actually. And the whole Japan -modern and old- wants to stop this guy, he is seen as a menace to the system, he doesn't belong to the system. And he travels back and forth in time, fighting and killing everyone that gets in his way, slowly turning into a demon.

There is a lot of defiance in "Izo", against everything human civilization stands for. Its purpose apparently is to question that which made us what we are. Where does religion, law, ethics come from? And it has a very nihilist answer to all of it. While watching this I felt a lot of mythology in it, feels like a Greek or a Persian tragedy.

What I've written might sound non-sense if you haven't yet seen this and have no idea what it is like but this is as much as I can do to explain this film. I think that's what makes good art: It speaks for itself...