VISITOR Q (Tokyo Shock, 2001) D: Takashi Miike, w/ Kenichi Endo, Shungiku Uchida. Rating: NNNN DVD package: NNN Rating: NNNN
Dad screws daughter, who’s turning tricks. He knows it’s wrong, but he’s trying to restore his journalist cred with a TV doc on today’s youth. Son flogs mother every day. He’s being bullied she’s on heroin for the pain. When a stranger (possibly satanic – he looks the part) comes into this dysfunctional Tokyo family, matters escalate. Necrophilia and other uncommon pastimes ensue.
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It’s a classic Takashi Miike (Ichi The Killer) freak show: deliberately sloppy and cheap-looking, gross beyond belief, disturbing beyond that, hilarious and enigmatic. You can take it as a riff on reality shows, the state of Tokyo manhood or a warm-hearted hymn to motherhood. The extras don’t help at all.
Disc two offers eight trailers from the Fever Dreams company. They’re all worth checking out, and one of them, Shadow: Dead Riot, looks like the women-in-prison/zombie holocaust flick we’ve all been waiting for.
EXTRAS Disc one: Miike onscreen print biography and appreciation. Full-frame. Japanese audio, English subtitles. Disc two: Trailers. Widescreen. English. No subtitles.
