View Larger Image

Visitor Q Director: Takashi Miike Number of Items: 1 Format: Color Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Running Time: 90 minutes Studio: Media Blasters, Inc Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2002-11-26 Buy from Amazon

Customer Reviews: Total numer of reviews: 50 Average rating: 4.0 "hmmmm... hahahahaha hilarious!!" after reading reviews of previous Miike Takashi movies such as "audition", "dead or alive", "fudoh", etc. i chose "visitor q" as my starting point. i expected something extreme and serious, but ended up having a good laugh in a sick and demented sort of way. you'll hate everyone at first because they are TOTAL LOSERS, but that's what made the movie so hilarious! it's not the best movie, but Miike did the best he could with what he had (only [$$$$$$]budget) and i gave it 4 stars for making me laugh. "Sick sick sick!" Banned in New Zealand, on a recent trip to Japan I decided to buy this disc to entertain my curiosity. Having recently seen the brilliant "Audition" and rather bizarre "The Happiness of the Katakuri's", also by Takashi Miike, I was expecting something totally out of the ordinary and definetely on the extreme boundries of good taste. I was left without any doubt as to why this movie will never see the light of day in many countries. "Visitor Q" didn't disappoint. It has to be one of the sickest movies I have EVER seen. Managing to squash in dismemberment, necrophilia, incest, voyeurism, murder, torture and masturbation, Takashi Miike has done everything in his power to offend every part of society. But I couldn't help but laugh at some of the scenes and rather odd jokes, including the scene where mudering a group of bullying schoolboys brings the family so close togehter - smiling fondly at each other while they slay the unfortunate teenagers! If you are a huge fan of Japanese cinema, or incredibly strange films in general, then seriously consider adding this unique shocker to your collection. It isn't a brilliant piece of cinema by any stretch of the imagination, but in my opionion a must have for novelty value, although I'm unlikely to ever WANT to watch it again! "Taboo-incinerating, has all the pieces, but they don't click" "Visitor Q" crams in every possible perversion of love imaginable and goes full-circle through all of them, from a disintegrating marriage back into maternal and wedded bliss of a sort. We get sadism, masochism, teenage prostitution, adult prostitution, incest, domestic violence,... , drug abuse, murder, rape, necrophilia, cophrophagy, lactation, and, incredibly a happy ending. It's the happy ending that may tick people off the most. Why? Probably because Takashi Miike, the director / writer / producer / madman responsible for this (and about 165 OTHER films every year since 1992), isn't just rubbing our noses in ugly behavior for its own sake, but uses it -- and the genre trappings of exploitation/grindhouse cinema -- to make points about his characters. He shows us a father, a failed TV producer, who's trying to recapture his former glory (?) by making a docudrama about "kids these days", except that instead of the usual addled, hopelessly out-of-touch approach, he gets in TOO close. His daughter's a prostitute? He'll go rent her for the hour and record the experience. His son's getting beaten up every day on the way home from school? He'll film that, too. And so on. The visitor of the title is a near-mute stranger who gets himself invited into the household (not very subtly, either: he announces his presence by bashing the father over the head with a brick) and slowly becomes a catalyst for change. I won't say how, but lactation figures into it, and before long everyone's one big happy family again. Sort of. Curiously, where the movie falls short is not because of its luridness or even in spite of it -- the movie's failings are separate from its material or even its approach. It's a little scattershot and underwritten in places (the stranger is the weakest part of the story), but if you're already a Miike fan, make this part of your collection if only as an example of what the man can do when nobody's standing in his way. If you're a newcomer, try "City of Lost Souls" or (gulp) "Dead or Alive" first. And don't eat anything. "Disgusting, disturbing and revolting family..." Visitor Q displays a fountain of extremely bizarre and disturbing human behaviors that can be thought of as an outcome of severe mental illness and deficiency in societal responsibility. This is done through a psychotic dysfunctional family amidst an emotionally repressed society where youth are taught moral values through media produced by adults lacking those same moral values. The film displays numerous revolting scenes that should alarm and disgust the audience, since most are beyond what is considered abnormal. The message is easily missed under the traumatizing scenes, but it rides underneath the horror of the characters daily lives. Thus, I must recommend everyone who is sensitive not to see this film, but I know that human curiosity cannot stop those who are curious. However, know that you have been warned. "Brilliant! Deeper than most people would like to think." At first glance you think this film is a collection of scenes where the director tries his hardest to offend you. Not so. Underlying is a strong social commentary on moderns japanese society and a strong family message. A stranger enters the life of a disfunctional family and has profond effects on them all. It's shot on video which makes it all the more realistic and effective.