There is no doubt that I like Takashi Miike very much. Especially the "Skin-to-Skin Love" and this "Killer A Yi". For the former, the recognition of the industry and the people from Asia to Europe and the United States is quite high. There is a lot of women’s independence, the sense of social and gender crisis, scene scheduling, etc., and the evaluation of the latter is mostly focused on "violence." Literally, ultra-violent, extremely violent, and so on.
In addition to the most eye-catching violence, Takashi Miike actually played with quite a wealth of elements in "Aichi Hitman". Underworld, action, symbolic art, black humor, absurdity, psychodrama, revenge, suspense, SM culture, monster movies, etc., there may be many elements that I can't see. There may be only Tarantino's "Kill Bill". With so many elements embodied in one work, it is quite a challenge for the director's control ability. There are too many elements, and the plot is likely to be fragmented and turned into a messy roster. In this film, Takashi Miike uses fragmentary editing to highlight elements, emphasize emotions, and weaken the plot. It can be said to be quite perfect.
In the content of the story, Takashi Miike, as always, emphasized his sense of social crisis.
The story takes place in the city of desire in Japan: Kabuki Ting, Tokyo. Many people only see these, but they don't know that, in fact, the whole society, like Kabuki Ting, is full of desires, phantoms, corruption, and chaos. Society is nothing more than a Kabuki Ting magnified countless times.
The protagonist of the story, A Yi, is usually timid and weak. He becomes strong in fantasy or delusion, and crushes the enemies who bully him daily. First of all, it reflects the duality of human nature, from which I can't help but think of the famous "Dr. Incarnation". Secondly, the image of Ah Yi is exactly the projection of the small and medium-sized employees in the movie in the ordinary society. The small employees of large companies are usually bullied and swallowed. Only when they are daydreaming, they become heroes and punish evil and promote good. Isn't this the image of Ah Yi?
Another key figure in the movie is Yuanyuan. Yuanyuan was a masochist, who was elevated in pain and fear, and finally died in delusion. There is a plot to pay attention to here. Yuanyuan pierced both ears with a silver needle on the top of the building and fell to his death. The corpse downstairs did not have A Yi's knife marks on his forehead, suggesting that Gakihara was not killed by A Yi, but jumped to his death in the delusion of being killed. It represents the social crisis consciousness in the mind of Takashi Miike. Survival and crisis coexist. The individual sublimates in the crisis, and new crises arise with the individual's sublimation. When the crisis disappears completely, the individual also ends. Isn't it: Born in sorrow and dying in happiness?
In addition to individuals with distinctive personalities, one of the key elements of this film is desire. A Yi is bullied by others, and his delusion is strong, and the killer A Yi is born. Yuanyuan pursues abuse and breaks herself in the fear of the delusion. Miss Lihua delusions to be cut into pieces by a man, and finally killed by A Yi. Delusion is the product of unsatisfied desire, and it has a relative tragic color. This is how Miike Takashi emphasized his outlook on life. Humans live in constant desires. Unsatisfied infinite desires can only masturbate through delusional chat, and end up in the pursuit of desires. Although these views are slightly extreme, they are not unreasonable.
In general, the characters in this film are absurd and marginal isolated individuals, without social status in the general sense, nor influence, and exist for pursuing their own purposes. On the surface, these images seem to be quite dramatic and quite absurd. In fact, in the real society, such images abound. An ordinary member of all living beings is dispensable in this world, and the purpose of existence is to continuously prove his existence.
And the soul character of this film: Uncle, represents the hand of fate in the dark. It was he who created Yi's life, created Yi's delusion, created Yuanyuan's fear, and methodically promoted all of this. He uses hypnosis as a supernatural means to dominate Aichi, which also implies that the character is superior to ordinary people. At the end of the film, Uncle committed suicide, and in the distance an image similar to A Yi was following the pupils. It implies that the whole story goes round and round.
Therefore, although the film is extremely tyrannical and bloody visually, there is a deep and sharp thinking behind the image; and the wonderful structure is also impressive. That's why I like "Aichi Hitman". I will watch this movie in the future, and I believe there will be more gains.
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