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Re-Agitator: A Decade of Writing on Takashi Miike
From outrageous flavour of the month to respected modern master ― Takashi Miike's rise to fame has been stellar. The former bad boy of Japanese film is now a regular at the world's most prestigious film festivals.
Tom Mes, whose groundbreaking The Cinema of Takashi Miike helped shape this filmmaker's international career, has been along for the ride ever since Audition turned heads and stomachs at the turn of the millennium. This new book collects more than ten years' worth of his writing on Miike. From dusty film sets in Japan to festival intrigue on the Riviera, and from the straight-to-video ghetto to the stage, Mes covers the full scope of this unclassifiable filmmaker's life and work ― with the kind of detail and intimacy that only an insider can provide.
Fully endorsed by the filmmaker himself, the full-colour A Decade of Writing on Takashi Miike also features a provocative foreword and a gallery of unique set photos by longtime Miike collaborator Christian Storms.
This book is not Agitator Part 2. It doesn't continue where the first one left off, but rather collects the vast majority of the writing on Miike that Mes has done over the years for magazines, websites, DVD liner notes, in non-English-language books, as well as for festival catalogues. This luxurious coffee-table hardback also contains previously unpublished material, like an interview recorded at the 2005 Venice film festival, plus a piece on 13 Assassins written exclusively for this book.
The wide variety of sources and formats of these texts entails that there is an equally wide variety in styles, tones, and from impressionistic reviews to personal eyewitness accounts and loose, appreciative write-ups. Re-Agitator is also an opportunity to add some context and background on the development of the Japanese film industry over the past twenty years and Miike's career therein, something that was largely absent from Agitator. The publisher and author also feel very fortunate to be able to include a series of very candid behind-the-scenes photographs taken during the troubled production of Sukiyaki Western Django.
Tom Mes, whose groundbreaking The Cinema of Takashi Miike helped shape this filmmaker's international career, has been along for the ride ever since Audition turned heads and stomachs at the turn of the millennium. This new book collects more than ten years' worth of his writing on Miike. From dusty film sets in Japan to festival intrigue on the Riviera, and from the straight-to-video ghetto to the stage, Mes covers the full scope of this unclassifiable filmmaker's life and work ― with the kind of detail and intimacy that only an insider can provide.
Fully endorsed by the filmmaker himself, the full-colour A Decade of Writing on Takashi Miike also features a provocative foreword and a gallery of unique set photos by longtime Miike collaborator Christian Storms.
This book is not Agitator Part 2. It doesn't continue where the first one left off, but rather collects the vast majority of the writing on Miike that Mes has done over the years for magazines, websites, DVD liner notes, in non-English-language books, as well as for festival catalogues. This luxurious coffee-table hardback also contains previously unpublished material, like an interview recorded at the 2005 Venice film festival, plus a piece on 13 Assassins written exclusively for this book.
The wide variety of sources and formats of these texts entails that there is an equally wide variety in styles, tones, and from impressionistic reviews to personal eyewitness accounts and loose, appreciative write-ups. Re-Agitator is also an opportunity to add some context and background on the development of the Japanese film industry over the past twenty years and Miike's career therein, something that was largely absent from Agitator. The publisher and author also feel very fortunate to be able to include a series of very candid behind-the-scenes photographs taken during the troubled production of Sukiyaki Western Django.
- GenresFilmJapanNonfiction
160 pages, Hardcover
First published March 11, 2013
3 people are currently reading
106 people want to read
About the author
Tom Mes
15 books26 followersAs a film critic he has contributed to publications that include Film Comment, Sight and Sound, Rue Morgue, De Filmkrant, Kateigaho and many others. He has provided liner notes and audio commentaries for numerous DVD releases of Japanese films around the world. He also has a background in animation as a scriptwriter and storyboard artist.
Tom Mes is a writer and translator of books.
Tom Mes is a writer and translator of books.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 19, 2017
Not in the same leauge as his Miike and Shinya books but still enjoyable non-the-less. This book is more a compilation of linear notes, articles for journals and some unpublished texts. It's a little patchy and inconsistent due to this nature of inception but it's still an enjoyable read, if a little slight. Would love a true Agitator follow up. One day...
March 11, 2021
Loved it. Puts Miike's career into context while tapping into the melancholic yearnings of his work that goes unnoticed in a western world that just looks at him as the Ichi the Killer crazy person. Well researched essays well worth the read https://t.co/3eO9plMDgd
December 31, 2020
Gallimaufry of very slight and short pieces, in which Mes often repeats himself. Altogether too short, and to make matters worse it gathers pieces written during one of Miike's least interesting and fertile periods as filmmaker. A good third I had already read in DVD liner notes or on Midnight Eye. Still, Mes remains our greatest commentor on the career and films of Takashi Miike, an invaluable critic who never disappoints.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews