Massive fan of action/martial arts/horror and downright strange movies. Love my music as well from ...
Massive fan of action/martial arts/horror and downright strange movies. Love my music as well from house/hip hop to metal and experimental stuff. Hurrah!
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MPD Psycho : Parts 1&2 - Japan -2000
MPD Psycho is a TV series by ultra prolific Japanese director Takashi Miike. Miike is famous for such films as Audition, Happiness OF The Katakuri's and Ichi The Killer.
MPD Psycho consists of six episodes. This DVD contains the first two. Each episode is 50-55 minutes long.
This is the third TV series that Miike directed and is loosely based on a Manga of the same name. Although credited to the original writer in fact Miike wrote the teleplay for the series and is one of the few times he written a script.
Episode 1:Drifting Petals/Memories Of Sin.
We are introduced to Detective Amamiya a criminal profiler now disgraced after gunning down a suspect. Since that traumatic incident he has developed a new personality. He is asked to head a mysterious group of profilers along with Manabe derided by his colleagues
and a young profiler Toru, more interested in his hobby of model-making than any police work.
The team are given their first case to crack. A serial killer stalks the streets abducting women and turning them into human flowerpots by removing the tops of their skulls and planting flowers in their brains. Amamiya and his motley crew use their unorthodox skills to crack the case.
All the victims are 'barcoders'; fans of psychedelic rock star Lu C Monostone who have barcodes implanted in their eyes. One of Lu C Monostone biggest fans is a snuff film maker with an eye patch who secretly works with the Profilers. Amamiya's wife also goes missing.
This opening episode starts as the series goes on, in a seriously oblique and complex fashion there are several entwined plots and characters here whose function does not start to become clear until the end of the series
The profiling team are now operational. Their new case: a serial killer is cutting open his victims and stealing babies from their wombs. All the victims are 'barcoders' and seem to be under some kind of hypnosis. Amamiya may also be connected to Shinji a virtual serial killer who seems to transfer from victim to victim via the barcode. Meanwhile the Snuff film collector reappears and a schoolgirl and her boyfriend try and get her stolen baby back from a mysterious nursery.
This is not the best of the series but is still very the plot starts to solidify the ideas presented in the first episode.
Jumping from animation to experimental shots to cheap but effective CGI you rarely notice that the video quality in this series is actually quite poor (not far from 'neighbours' in the mid eighties) instead Miike uses every device available to make it look great. He uses weird looking Japanese landmarks instead of relying on expensive sets and effects. At many points he uses simple CGI to give weird atmospheric effects such as glowing rain or rain where no one gets wet. Miike really seems to be playing with the idea of a low budget TV series and getting as much as he can from it.
It's best noting that many of the murder scenes in these two episodes are censored by Miike using pixelation. Miike uses this device in many of his films most notably 'Dead Or Alive 2'. Although there's some strong violence anyway he plays on this technique later in the series. There is also the weird and haunting psychedelic Theme music to consider (Co-written by Miike).
This series, as you can imagine if you have seen any of the director's work, is unlike any TV series I have seen. It's like David Lynch and Peter Greenaway directing a Science fiction version of Cracker. Honestly. MPD Psycho is one of the most difficult and downright odd TV series I have watched. It's a triumph of stylisation and rightly shows that even the lowest budget TV series can do something interesting.
The DVD features easy to read subtitles but no language options just Japanese with subtitles. The sound is in Dolby 5.1.
There are no other features apart from an advert for 'The Maki Collection'.
Sure buy this DVD if you want to check out MPD Psycho but you really need to watch the entire series. I would seriously suggest if you are thinking of buying this double episode DVD that you buy the whole box set instead. I must have watched the whole series four times and I've always got something new from it.
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Takashi Miike is one of my favourite film directors. I would see these series as slightly less satisfactory than his main body of work (well, my personal Miike selection - 15 films or so). GREAT review my friend!
Ailran 04.04.2007 00:32
I've got the whole series of thsi to watch and it does sound rather intriguing :o)
1. Drifting Petals - Memories of SinA sadistic criminal is turning his victims into human ... more
flower pots. Detective Amamiya Kazuhiko is called out of early retirement to work on the case, which is tied to horrific events in his past. His new wife goes mis...
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