Friday, June 6, 2008

Miike’s “God’s Puzzle” opening in Japanese theatres this weekend


by Chris MaGee

People might have thought The Pow-Wow was dropping the ball by not running much on Takashi Miike’s latest film “God’s Puzzle”, but the honest to god truth is that I thought that there was already a surplus of coverage about his romantic comedy meets theoretical physics film buzzing around the blogosphere that you didn’t need to hear more from me. Miike is a sometimes (“sometimes” being the operative word) brilliant filmmaker, and I count “Gozu” and “The Happiness of the Katakuris” amongst my all time favorites, but do I think he gets waaaaay to much press while other deserving Japanese directors languish in obscurity? Damn right I do!

That being said “God’s Puzzle” starring Hayato Ichihara as twins (one the brainy geek, the other a slacker) who join forces with a brilliant college dropout, played by Mitsuki Tanimura, to create their own universe will finally be hitting Japanese theatres this weekend after a gargantuan PR campaign that has even had super producer Haruki Kadokawa chartering a high-flying jet for a zero gravity flight from Nagoya to Tokyo.

Obviously Kadokawa wants this film to be a huge and as long as they can make all the physics jargon entertaining to a lay audience then he and Miike might just have a hit on their hand. Personally, I think that Mitsuki Tanimura is one of the most interesting actresses in Japanese cinema today. Her performance in Akihiko Shiota’s “Canary” just blew me away; and I sincerely hope that this will match up with what I felt was Miike’s last really brilliant piece of work, 2006’s “Big Bang Love Juvenile A”, but I guess we’ll have to wait until next week to see if the critics say this is movie gold or just hype.

For now, check out the trailer for “God’s Puzzle” and visit its official site.


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