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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 "absolute rubbish! More trash for your cash..." After viewing this- dare I call it- film, I realized that anyone with a camera and willingness to do anything to shock the audience can be considered talented. If you have 84 minutes or more to waste on a tasteless, vile, and cartoonish portrayal of a dysfunctional family of miscreants- look no further. To call Takeshi Miike's film a masterpiece is absurd. To even mention him in the same breath as Goodard, Kubrick, or Kurosawa is pointless. At least the low budget horror directors from the Drive-In days knew what they were creating- cheap thrills and quick revenue. If your idea of a great film consists of watching family members fornicate, lactate, masturbate, and mutilate one another- This ones for you! If Takeshi wants to be daring he should try removing the computer generated bars during the sex scenes. No genitals but fornicating with a dead girl- no problem. Sounds like a frustrated response to censorship. To compare this to art is like saying anyone with a spray can and little imagination deserves to hang in the MOMA. No wonder there are so many horrible guerrilla film makers out there. Even Andy Warhol knew better- 15 minutes is all you get...Save your money. "Good, but not Miike's best." One must think of Miike as Visitor Q. Hits people on the head with a rock, but only to bring them back together - to shock and horrify and injure only so that people realize the unpleasantness surrounding them. Reality television is horrific, to be honest, and yet people watch their fellow man eat worms and testicles for a little prize money. How is necrophilia any worse? Extreme, yes. Difficult to watch? Definitely, but the filmmaking is incredible. This film being made in only a week with a handycam that can be purchased at any electronics store, it shows the level of expertise that Miike presents to the viewer. Oh, and the little mosaic blurred out genitals? That's because it's illegal in Japan to show unblurred genitals/pubic hair. Not because of Miike's own doing. "Disturbing, surreal, exploitive and only for the daring." This 2001 film by Takashi Miike has to count as one of the most disturbing film's I have ever seen. I have seen my share and yet this film still made me wince and turn away from the screen a few times. Takashi Miike has been called the Japanese Quentin Tarantino, but that is an understatement. Miike would've shown in full-glory Mr. Blonde cutting off that tied-up cop's ear. Not just show it but do it up close and replay it in slow-motion. Miike would've shown exactly what was going on behind Marcel Wallace and how he and his homies got medieval on those Klan rednecks. Miike doesn't pull any punches and adds in a kick and a stab and twists the knife just to be sure. Visitor Q (Bizita Q in Japan) is Miike's take on the nature of violence and sex that has permeated the media with a nod towards reality TV. His film is especially revelant since it was filmed and first shown in Japan. A nation and culture that blames the West for its decadence and immorality when at the same time its entertainment industry churns out anime, manga and films that put Western entertainment to shame, i.e. tentacles and more tentacles. The plot is simple and straightforward. A failed former TV reporter tries to provide for his family by filming a documentary concerning the effects of violence and sex on the youth of today. The rest of the film from there ends up showing this father's dysfunctional family involved in heavy drug abuse, their indifference to violence around them, incest, necrophilia, and a few other things I don't even know the name for. Bizita Q is a film that Marquis De Sade would have trouble sitting through. But despite the disturbing images and sequences in this film, Miike does make a good point about the subject of sex and violence in the media and its effect on youth and just people in general. After awhile, those I was watching the film with stopped turning their face from the screen and began watching the film without flinching. This is a film that is definitely not for everybody, but if you are brave enough and have the stomach for it, Miike's film is a good study in gross excess and surrealism in film. He straddles between fine art and extreme exploitation, and after the first few minutes falls on the latter, revels and doesn't apologize. "One totally messed up film . . ." but strangely I was compelled and entertained at the same time. I won't go into the particulars of the story: incest, rape, necrophilia, physical abuse, drug abuse, prostitution and a crazily lactating mother because it sounds a bit more appalling, disgusting and offensive in print than it does on screen. However, in Takashi Miike's capable hands it's mindbogglingly entertaining and darkly, darkly humorous. Once I started watching this film I found my jaw dropping to the floor time and time again. I would scratch my head thinking surely he can't top that but scene after scene tops the last. Miike isn't a stranger to disturbing images and subject matter in his films which is why I'm such a fan of his but Visitor Q is by far his most violently tamest yet visually shocking film to date. Miike is one of those rare directors who isn't afraid to shock or offend. Only for the open minded movie adventurer. "A thoughtful documentary on Japanese culture." This is a thoughtful documentary on Japanese culture. While the movie only shows the most basic everyday interactions of a Japanese family, it still manages to compell as Japanese family structure, interaction and culture happen to be quite different from our Western culture and traditions. This documentary has been unfairly maligned by many American reviewers as shocking and perverse. I am very saddened to know that many of us in the United States would malign other peoples without reason. We should be more open minded and be sensitive to the fact that what we are viewing can not be called immoral simply for the fact that it is different from our own culture. If you can expand your horizons and get past the small Western world view of family structure and traditions, you will find the typical Japanese family, as depicted in this documentary, is rich in valuable culture and traditions and is as deserving to be celebrated as our own. Thank you Takashi Miike for your reaching the hand of friendship across the seas and introducing us to this rich rewarding view of the typical Japanese family.