Ley Lines (1999) - Takashi Miike

Well another Miike film is in the books. This was the last installment in his Black Society Trilgoy, which I was completely unaware of. This is also one of the films (along with Audition) that helped to break Miike to a Western audience. Why you may ask, because Western audiences love crime. This film is all about the underworld and reckless youths. There are no clear victims here, because even the villians get their own medicine dished back to them. Likewise there aren't really any heroes here, everyone is flawed, and that's just what this story needs.

Unfortunately because of the credits being in Japanese, and the online source about the film has no cast listed, I can't really tell you who's in it, or who played who. I also can't find the name of the cinematographer. This last point is more important to me. This film was shot wonderfully well. It embraces tracking shots throughout, following the characters as if you were trying to catch up to them, or following them down a seedy back alley.

To be expected from Miike the film is somewhat graphic, lots of violence. There is also nudity, and because of certain Japanese censorship rules, genitals are blocked out. Rather than make them pixilated as is usually the practice, Miike makes them appear electric, animating lighting over them, certainly gives it a new spin. Sex is of course going to come up here, because one of the main characters just happens to be a Chinese prostitute. She is the prime example of a victim/victimizer. She robs our trio of actors, but then returns to her apartment to be beaten by her pimp/boyfriend. Throughout the film she is beaten, but she manages to find some strength in the group from the country. Reluctantly she fits in.

The band of misfits of course attempts to make their own way in the underworld, selling glue at first. Then of course comes the "big score" a bank robbery where they're willing to shoot if necessary. I think our main character (who's name escapes me) is actually under the notion of death as romantic. Of course when he comes face to face with blood he realizes how wrong he was. It is this notion of the glamour of crime that attracts them. Once they have blood on their hands though, things seem different. Granted this is in no ways a morality play, and there is not a lot of contemplation here. You can only really see the reaction in the face of the actors that realization that "I just took someone's life with this trigger". Same can be said of our prostitute when she finally has a gun in her hand. There is that momentary shock, and then I think she takes to it, almost unleashing her hatred on the world, and in particular men. Murder is her retribution, with a gun it doesn't matter if a guy is stronger or bigger than her, she won't be abused.

I can't say the film is particularly strong. It is somewhat conventional in Miike's world. I'd like to see the other films in the trilogy to see how they compare, but ignorant as I am I don't even know what the other two films are. The cinematography alone though makes this film stand out, and in that regard it looks better than probably any Miike film. So if camera movement works for you, then you may just love this film. More Miike to come, so I'm unofficially become the FF authority on him.