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Visitor Q review
:. Director: Takashi Miike
:. Starring: Kenichi Endo, Shungika Uchida
:. Running Time: 1:24
:. Year: 2001
:. Country: Japan
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This is the story of a dysfunctional Japanese family. The father, a failed TV reporter, is having an incestuous affair with his prostitute daughter and in an attempt to turn his professional career around, decides to make a documentary about his son. A punch-bag for his classmates, the college-age son deals with his troubles by beating up his mother. In turn, the mother turns to drugs and ends up turning tricks to pay for her habit. Life continues in this way until the "visitor" walks into their lives.
This small-scale film by Miike is reminiscent of Pasolini's masterpiece Teorema. In Visitor Q, the "disruptive" stranger provokes emotional liberation and the redefinition of the dysfunctional family unit.
Miike is provocative but, rather disappointingly, it seems his only aim is to achieve controversy. The director touches on a number of themes including the censure of "reality TV", the loss of values among Japanese youth, and the breakdown of a family that not even the parents can keep together. More inspired directors such as Kinji Fukasaku in Battle Royale have better dealt with these recurring themes of contemporary Japanese cinema and literature (e.g. author Ryû Murakami).
Miike appears to find pleasure in sterile escalation and the shooting of the documentary is merely a pretext for showing offensive scenes dealing with necrophilia, murder, etc. This, coupled with the humbling of points of view, makes for a pretty heavy film structure. The first part of the film is somewhat tedious and the plot only really gets going with the arrival of the "visitor". The latter doesn't say or do much but is responsible for pushing the protagonists over the top. This "visitor" lacks the charisma and troubled aura of Pasolini's heroes. His lack of presence is problematic as is his role in the plot. His actions do not promote the spiritual rebirth of the family (and, on a wider scale, Japanese society) with whom he lives (as was the case with Pasolini, who was powerful in his treatment of this theme).
The film ends with the symbolic restoration of order within the family unit resulting from imbalance and extreme lactation. Each family member is regenerated within the mother, who, under the influence of the visitor, experiences a lactic miracle. It is only in regression that the characters redefine themselves and find fulfillment.
The adolescent male humor and disjointed, often irritating production make Visitor Q little more than a "b" movie. Miike openly tries to shock and pull viewers into the film by displaying provocative signs reading "Have you slept with your father?" or "Have you beaten your mother?"
Doubtless the film will find its cult audience. Those who are not revolted by the image of a man in a compromising position with a corpse will appreciate this film (fairly hilarious scene). For the rest of you, you will have to see for yourselves if the promising Miike (Audition, Ichi the Killer) lives up to his name.
Sandrine Marques
Translated by Nicole Berry
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