| |||||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In This Movies & TV Item for $5.00
Trade in Visitor Q+ for a $5.00 Amazon.com Gift Card that can be redeemed for millions of items store wide. See more Movies & TV eligible for trade-in
|
Frequently Bought Together
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Editorial Reviews
Product Description
Product Description
taboo-bashing experimental works from acclaimed director Takashi Miike of Audition, Ichi The Killer and Crows Zero fame. Presenting a harrowing absurd take on the reality TV phenomenon, and depicting the chilling disintegration of a dysfunctional family. Extras:
Original trailer, Liner notes, Tokyo Shock trailer gallery,
Takashi Miike Biography, Special trailer disc 8 Flavors of Fever Dreams.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
100 of 110 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Mother's milk heals all family squabbles!,
By
This review is from: Visitor Q (DVD)
After viewing "Audition" and "Ichi the Killer," I doubted whether Japanese director Takashi Miike could shock me again. Boy, was I wrong! If you thought the piano wire scene in "Audition" went far beyond the pale, or the hot oil bath in "Ichi the Killer" left you speechless--as it did me--prepare yourself for the new nightmare that is "Visitor Q." The scenes in this film about a twisted Japanese family would make the Marquis de Sade leave the room in disgust. I have no idea what Miike was thinking when he made this film, but remember this one little fact--"Visitor Q" is a made for television movie. That's right, after viewing this movie remind yourself that this obscenity aired on Japanese television within the last couple of years. We Americans cannot put forth any prime time fodder that could even remotely compare to this atrocity, unless you count something like "Teletubbies." Thank goodness we still have a few qualms. As much as I distrust censorship of any type, I am definitely not ready to see something like "Visitor Q" on network television on this side of the pond."Visitor Q" takes a penetrating look at your typical Japanese middle class family, Miike style. The father of this bizarre clan works as a reality television host who is always willing to go so far over the line in his broadcasts that his fellow workers shun the his very presence. The daughter of the family no longer lives at home since she is too busy putting in a full schedule at a brothel somewhere in town. The young son in this creepy household spends his days meekly submitting to a trio of bullies who beat him up after school. The mother is a real winner, a heroin addict and prostitute who allows her abused son to beat her with wicker canes. The mother and father fail to communicate on any substantive level. The son's problems with the bullies goes unheeded by the family, except when the father decides to fashion a new reality program centering on his child's beatings. The relationship between the father and his daughter is best left unelaborated on here; it is sufficient to say it is one of the most warped father/daughter connections in film history. Yes, this family suffers a host of psychological problems that would give a Sigmund Freud a coronary. All of these people are sick to the core of their souls, a problem that is about to undergo a radical change with the introduction of a complete stranger into the household. This anonymous (we never learn his name), scruffy looking youth first makes an appearance on the scene when he hits the father of the family on the head with a rock--twice. For some mysterious reason, dad brings this guy home with him for dinner. As time goes by, we see this chap increasingly integrate himself into the daily lives of the family. He sets his sights on the mother at first, rekindling a sense of motherhood in the woman in yet another unmentionable scene (there are a lot of unmentionable events in this movie). The interaction between the stranger and the mother is the most dramatic in the film, but eventually the father, son, and even daughter all fall under the spell of this enigmatic visitor. The end result of these odd encounters is a type of peculiar healing, where the family abandons their insane behavior and returns to a sense of normalcy. Obviously, "Visitor Q" is a Miike film, so the healing takes some really stomach churning turns along the way. After all, there is nothing like dismemberment and a host of other depravities to turn a family around! There has been some effort to emphasize the reality television elements of the film, but "Visitor Q" has little to do with this theme. There are only a few scenes that even deal with this element, specifically the first taboo shattering images between the father and daughter and a couple of other short bits later in the movie. What is really going on here has to do with the Japanese family and how it deals with the pressures of modern life in an industrialized society. Miike likes to shock with his films, and his target audience must surely have expressed such an emotion when they saw his take on a traditional Japanese family plagued with so many obnoxious psychopathologies. As weird as it sounds, I firmly believe "Visitor Q" is actually an extremely conservative film. Even as the director breaks the bounds of good taste, he seems to possess an earnest belief in the overriding importance of the healthy family unit. You could easily make the argument that images of the type indulged in by Miike have led to the breakdown of the family, and it would be an effective argument, but this movie does contain a strong pro-family theme. "Visitor Q" runs for about eighty four minutes, short compared to the other two Miike films I have seen. The picture quality is excellent. Extras on the DVD include four trailers--"Visitor Q," "Samurai Fiction," "Fudoh," and "Freeze Me"--some liner notes about Miike's films and a short biography about the director. Once again, Media Blasters has released another soul shattering movie to DVD. The disc I watched had a technical problem, though: whenever I hit the menu button on my remote control the picture went gray and I had to start the disc over again. Perhaps this flaw appeared only on my copy of the movie, but it's something to think about before purchasing if it is a widespread glitch. I look forward to watching more Miike mayhem in the near future. If you would like to examine this director's queasy visions, "Visitor Q" is the ideal starting place before moving on to the more complex "Audition."
21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A touching celebration of family values,
By
This review is from: Visitor Q (DVD)
A subversive fable from the brilliant Takashi Miike, Visitor Q is some kind of demented masterpiece. Diverse influences are apparent here, from Bunuel (his delight in mocking bourgeois values) to Kubrick (static shots, symmetrical compositions) to absurdist and surrealist film in general. Miike presents us with a family that gives new meaning to the word "dysfunctional." The father is a TV reporter so desperate for sensational topics to tackle that he videotapes himself having sex with his prostitute daughter. He placidly eats his supper while his teenage son whips and beats the mother, who also works as a prostitute in order to support her heroin habit. One day the father brings home a mysterious guest (the titular Visitor, although his name is never given) who casually exerts an almost godlike power over the family, bringing them together in a most unexpected manner. The film is very funny at times, sometimes in an almost slapstick way, sometimes in a VERY dark, twisted way. There's plenty of room for debate. Who or what is Visitor Q? What exactly has he done and what does it say about the nature of familial love? This daring film will haunt you for days after seeing it.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
have you ever...spent circa 90 mins shaking your head in disbelief?,
By radio atlantis "follow me not" (tha north of ireland) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Visitor Q (DVD)
as an evertonian the answer is, sadly, more times than i care to remember. this was the first film to elicit the same response though.
i'm familiar with a few of miike's films (audition being the pick of those i've seen) but have never been subjected to seing nearly every taboo being touched upon (actually prodded - and none too gently - might be more appropriate word), and it's not for the want of trying on my part either. drugs, , incest, necrophilia as well as self abuse (no, not that kind!) and domestic violence. the film is blackly comic throughout, as well as bizarre. the plot has been summed up better by other reviewers but my own take is that the nameless character (dubbed visitor q) comes to destroy a family, for reaons not revealed. finding that there's in fact nothing to destroy (they seem to be doing fine without him), instead his presence ends up binding the family together through necrophilia and murder. which is some going as the father would show/ endure anything just to get on tv (witness his 'interview' with the 'youth of today'), the daughter is a prostitute (with 'early bird' specials!), the son is being bullied at school and in turn beats up his mother (while father looks on), who pleads that he doesn't touch her face, cos she needs to keep her looks in order to turn tricks to support her drug habit. the dialogue between the father and visitor q never rises beyond the banal ('i'm off to bed', 'goodnight then'). the galvanising effect of the vistor's presence gradually draws the family together through one means or another (funniest line is probably after the second(!) lactation scene, when the father mutters "she hasn't been this competent since we got married"). it's has mentioned what actors are prepared to be put through for their art, and i must single out the mother for special praise. one of the most excrutiating scenes sees her with a client being intimately examined and then whipping the client at his request - she complies of course but every movement shows how he might be getting something from it, but she isn't. then there's the whole lactation thing... one of the characters says very early on that the children are the future of japan. from what i've seen and read whatever opinions we may have of the japanese (salaryman etc), they are capable of being as dysfunctional as everyone else, thanks for asking.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
