Black Society Trilogy (1995 - 1999)

Three grim and unrelenting crime thrillers that make up what is known as director Takashi Miike’s Black Society Trilogy get a Blu-ray release courtesy of Arrow Films.

The films don’t have any continuation of plot or characters, by the way. The reason they get grouped together is because they were his first films for a major studio and the first to be made specifically for cinema release (his previous movies had been in the direct-to-video world of Japanese ‘V’ cinema).

Casual violence in SHINJUKU TRIAD SOCIETY

The movies do boast a consistent set of themes, though, ones that recur throughout the director’s work, so if you want to get a real feel for what Takashi Miike is all about, this is the place to start.

Arrow gives you the three films spread over two discs. Disc one kicks off with SHINJUKU TRIAD SOCIETY (1995), in which a mixed-race cop (Japanese father and Chinese mother) becomes involved in illegal child organ trafficking. Both the triad and the yakuza are involved, with the matter more complicated because the cop’s brother is the lawyer for the triad group. 

From RAINY DOG

RAINY DOG (1997) flips things around by having its main character a Yakuza member who gets fired and finds a new occupation working as a hired assassin in Taiwan. Once again things get complicated when family issues get mixed up with business.

LEY LINES (1999) is probably the best and most accomplished of the three. Once again we have the mixed race theme as we follow three Japanese lads of Chinese descent who leave their semi-rural surroundings to seek their fortune in Tokyo, only to end up in trouble with a local crime syndicate.

Violence and urban squalor in LEY LINES

Each of these films offer little comfort, instead suggesting that society is corrupt and that everyone is corruptible. Scenes of sudden and over-the-top violence alternate with in-your-face sexual unpleasantness. The cold grainy photography makes these movies look as if they were shot twenty years earlier than they actually were, and even the most hardened of film fans might find it a struggle to watch all three through in one go. 

           Arrow’s new set offers new audio commentaries on all three films, as well as trailers, optional subtitles, and new interviews with director Takashi Miike and Show Aikawa who stars in RAINY DOG and LEY LINES. If, like me, you’re mainly familiar with Takashi Miike’s work from AUDITION and *that* episode of MASTERS OF HORROR, the Black Society Trilogy offers you a crash course in what’s going on inside his head. 

Takashi Miike's Black Society Trilogy is out from Arrow on Blu-ray on Monday 16th January 2017

Audition (1999)

“Cold, clinical, bone-scraping horror classic”

Don’t you just love movies you can watch over and over again? Ones that never seem to get old? That offer something new on each viewing? Something you’ve never really picked up on before? And don’t you love it when films don’t just do that, but also provide you with a final act that’s so extreme you realise that as well as appreciating the subtleties you’re discovering on each viewing you’re also dreading the out-and-out horror that’s going to come in about an hour’s time?

Japanese director Takashi Miike’s AUDITION is now on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Films. A film that has always looked cold and grainy on both VHS and DVD, the Blu-ray presentation of this one is exceptionally fine, still keeping the image dispassionately clinical for most of the running time while making everything look crisper, clearer, and if anything, colder.

So what’s the plot? Seven years after the death of his wife TV executive Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi) decides he wants to remarry, but doesn’t know how to go about finding ‘the right girl’. He lists what he considers to be the appropriate attributes of his new future wife to his boss Yasuhisa Yoshikawa (Jun Kunimura), who hits on a “brilliant” idea. They will set up a fake audition at the studio for the lead in a fake film. Aoyama can look through the applicants’ CVs, shortlist them, and interview with Yoshikawa. Then the one he likes the most he can ring up and take out for a date, explaining later that she didn’t get the part after all.

Of course, seemingly sweet, polite, innocent Asami Yamazaki (Eihi Shiina) doesn’t turn out to be what Aoyama initially think she is at all. What’s that thing in the sack? Where did those marks on her legs come from? Who taught her ballet for 12 years and how much torture porn was involved? All this and more is revealed, culminating in an ending that is all the more effective for the slow build-up to it.

Despite AUDITION being famous for its climax of unrelenting horror, it’s worth paying attention throughout Miike’s film. Both dialogue and situations reveal a great deal about the lead character’s relationship with women, but Miike’s framing of many scenes (for example in the bar) has a lot to say as well. It’s difficult to take it all in on a single viewing, especially as you’re going to come away thinking about nothing but THAT ending, but then that’s what the Blu-ray’s for, isn’t it?

As well as a sparkling transfer, Arrow’s Blu-ray comes with a Takashi Miike introduction and commentary from previous releases, plus a brand new commentary from Miike biographer Tom Mes which also discusses the source novel. There’s a new Miike interview, as well as interviews with four cast members including the two leads. Tony Rayns rounds off a very respectable package with his appreciation of the works of Miike in general and AUDITION in particular. An excellent presentation of a film that more than deserves it.

Arrow Films are bringing out Takashi Miike's AUDITION in dual format Blu-ray & DVD standard and steelbook editions on 29th February 2016