Visitor Q DVD Review

Written by SuperNova

Directed by Takashi Miike

2001, 84 minutes, Not Rated 

Starring:

Kenichi Endo

Shungiku Uchinda

Kazushi Watanabe

Shoko Nakahara

Fuiko Jun Muto

Iko Suzuki

Story:

Kiyoshi Yamazaki is a humble television reporter who’s influential attitude has cost him his job and the deconstruction of his family. Wanting to capture the essence of violence and sex displayed among youths, Kiyoshi enlists the services of his runaway prostitute daughter. He films his sexual encounter with her and thus kicks off Visitor Q. Kiyoshi’s home life is about as stable as a rock in a hard place. His wife Keiko Yamazaki is beaten on a daily basis by their disorderly son as Kiyoshi has the nerve to sit there and act like nothing is wrong.

The son’s behavior towards his mother is a direct result of the mistreatment that occurs by a group of classmates who are constantly bullying Takuya Yamazaki. Throwing rocks at his windows, and shooting fireworks into his bedroom are only some of the cruel and harsh conduct Kiyoshi’s son has been subjected to. Even more startling is the fact that Takuya’s parents are aware of what is happening to him, but they do not want to assist in stopping the torture. Kiyoshi’s wife makes ends meet by selling her body. Forever graced with a limp in her walk, physical scars and lacerations, she turns to heroin to ease the troubles she’s been occurring in her life.

One evening on his return home, Kiyoshi stumbles upon The Visitor as the origins of his name is never revealed. Kiyoshi is constantly living in fear from the mysterious Visitor Q who torments Mr. Yamazaki by striking him with a rock across his forehead. His only relief is to offer the outsider room and board inside his home. What transpires next is the cultivation of bringing the family together. The mystifying Visitor Q’s presence is gradual to grow on the family. At first he’s barely seen as an annoyance, with the son continuing to beat upon his mother, only pausing for a few seconds to get the approval of the peculiar outsider newly introduced to their home and behavior.

Within days the secretion of lactation can be found spewed across the kitchen floor in a scene that seems to free Keiko from the boundaries of self perception. With the help from The Visitor, Mrs. Yamazaki has seem to discover herself all over again as she gropes her breast and spills milk from her nipples. Better moments have come for Kiyoshi as well, even though his idea pitched to a coworker lead to some rather constructive criticism, Mr. Yamazaki has found the edge he’s been waiting for. As the camera rolls Kiyoshi records his self performing an act of sexual frustration upon a dead corpse. His antics may be found amusing but the bodily odors and bowel movements left upon his palm aren’t.

When things seem as though they cannot get anymore uncanny they often do in this case. During Takuya’s arrival home from school, he is pursued by the ongoing onslaught of torment by his classmates. Capturing the essence of violence portrayed in today’s youth, Kiyoshi blatantly runs outside to protect his son and to be portrayed as a hero of a father on film. The result is less than respectable for a commended hero, Kiyoshi dismembers the kids one by one, sawing into their craniums with a sharp knife. An action that surely would have torn any civilized family into two, but in Visitor Q the exact opposite occurs. Whatever The Visitor really was (an angel perhaps?) one thing is certain. Despite the indifference's this family endured, in the end it was the love of a mothers nurturing that brought everyone together, of course this would not have been feasible without The Visitor.

Reviewer's Thoughts:

I knew when watching a Takashi Miike film that I was going to be experiencing something truly unique. With Visitor Q I certainly felt that, and as a viewer who’s seen a lot of films I can honestly say, that Visitor Q is one of the most bizarre and strangest movies I’ve ever encountered. Kenichi Endo portrays Kiyoshi to perfection. A man who takes his love for his work too far, and even goes the length of practicing necrophilia on a recently deceased coworker. But before his mental breakdown into masochism his time spent with his daughter in the opening minutes is spent with him uttering “this is wrong, this is wrong.”. But the problem doesn’t lay out before him, his mind focused on one thing, sex. It’s hard to explain the emotions someone feels during this state of affairs, but Takashi manages to capture the situation effortlessly. Kiyoshi mind is so eager to spill the seed, that he totally loses his self respect just to perform an act of incest. And it’s not only seconds later that Kiyoshi realizes while wiping the semen from his penis what he just did and how disgusting it was. It’s moments like these that the viewer can actually take a second to recount what has happened on screen and then think to themselves, that yes, they can relate to this very experience. While surely no one reading this for our sake has committed incest, we’ve all presumably been down that boat where our emotions seemed to rid our self conciseness powerless, all for the sake of performing one tedious act.

I remember watching this film and waiting for the cinematic moment when the family would stop and the camera would zoom up real close onto one of the characters face and they would utter some words, that would turn the whole story around and bring the family together, but in Visitor Q it never happens. I realize now that perhaps I know American cinema like the back of my hand, and if the above would have happened, this film would have become a clichéd American drama. What strikes me though is that I think back and remember these moments in the film, where everything seems so awkward and as a viewer you can’t help but wish it would all end, but somehow it’s these odd moments that make this film work quite well and develops this fable into a more thought out direction. As civilized humans we understand how the mind works or at least try to, and we are so keen on taking the direct route that will lead to salvation, what Takashi does with this film though is throw out all the rules of real life drama. The family is so ordinary, but yet so complex into their own little worlds that they’ve lost all sense about each other and their surroundings.

Kiyoshi’s wife is so use to getting beat it doesn’t even seem to perturb her, even when she’s yelling the words “I told you, not the face.” Kiyoshi is so eager to create a masterpiece of art that he doesn’t even realize the humiliation his son is facing as he records him being beaten up and kicked around by several classmates. As with most families these acts are ignored and never approached or questioned, leaving the state of the families love at a stand still only to downward spiral into more poignant pain. Takashi Miike does a wonderful job at crafting a world where the viewer can’t help but be caught up in the emotional tug-of-war that this particular family is going through. While this film is certainly not for everyone, I definitely believe it should be taken under consideration to be watched by every movie aficionado.

Visitor Q is part of the Love Cinema series of films by CineRocket. This was the sixth and last project of a succession of films by upcoming young filmmakers. Shot on digital format, to exercise the production value cost, these films were intended for direct to video releases. The acting is on a level of intelligent, but may come across as comedic at times. This is a result of the documentary feel of the film. While most of the dialogue is kept to a minimum, it’s the words that go left unsaid that really propel the movie. Each character is arranged with a certain structure of emotion to follow, a unique perspective so that the feelings aren’t bunched up together and coincide into one melodrama. The viewer is able to pick out and pinpoint the dissatisfied sentiment each sole character feels.

Video:

Media Blasters is a company that has lately been under the gun, so to speak. Releasing films that have been incorrectly framed, badly edited and bare bones. While they struggle to maintain to be a top contender, you can tell this is the kind of company who buys up the rights to films real quick and puts them on DVD to make a return in money. It’s sad to say this about Media Blasters, but it all seems too true. Tokyo Shock the affiliation of Media Blasters has been releasing a steady slew of Asian films, mostly from the popular works of Takashi Miike. Visitor Q is presented here in it’s original aspect ratio of 4:3. Now before your eyes grow to wide, listen up. Visitor Q was filmed on minidv format, also known as digital. The video quality leaves a bit to be desired, but it’s far more impressive than one would think. Some of the colors appear too bright and wash out the scene. Other moments the color is too dark. But giving the manufacturing assessment of this film the above is vastly acceptable, and not to mention Takashi Miike handles his camera with grace and makes shooting seem effortless. (Minor Note: On several instances, I found boom microphones suspended just inside the above picture frame, and in one scene you could see a crew member in a mirror.) My rating 3/5.

Audio:

The audio is presented here in a 2.0 Dolby Digital stereo track, which is quite all right seeing as the film really doesn’t have much in the way of surround sound. The quality is overall good, no hisses or pops are presented, and the voices appear clear and easy to understand. Now keep in mind this film is in Japanese with no optional English sound track, but you do have the viewing pleasure of selecting English subtitles, which are bright white and easy to understand. The vocabulary is clear and straightforward, unlike most English subtitles, the words don’t seem puzzling or made up. My rating 3/5.

Special Features:

 

• Takashi Miike Bio
• Linear Notes
• Theatrical Trailers

Media Blasters' Tokyo Shock really didn’t give this film the treatment I would have liked to have seen, but that’s not unanticipated. First up is a short Takashi Miike biography, which consist of scrolling pink text upon a sky blue background. I found the text hard to read, the color was way too soft and didn’t settle well against an even softer background. I had to pause the DVD just to read the text, but with that said, it is a really decent biography on director Miike. Next is a few notes complied about Takashi Miike and the state of horror films in the early 90s. While not to informative or anything new in the way of information, it just like the biography is quite decent. Sadly the disc is rounded out with four trailers which consist of Samurai Fiction, Freeze Me, Fudoh The new Generation and Visitor Q. When you bring up the menu for the trailers, you’ll have the enjoyment of seeing each animated, a nice close to a very solid DVD. My rating 3/5.

Overall:

Sometimes I get the feeling directors are burdened to make films that will forever solidify their careers and though time and time again Takashi Miike has admitted that some of his films, Ichi the Killer most notably to be nothing more than a film to astound the audience. I can’t help but feel as though Miike has now become notorious with his legendary trademark as a director who makes films that will leave the viewer uneasy after watching them, but my sympathy doesn’t lay within fans but more so with Takashi, because as a observer I’m perplexed to know how we all will react when Miike doesn’t make a film that will fill the expectations of viewers who have become accustomed to his shock tactics. My rating 4/5.