If you’re a fan of Japanese cinema and/or batshit crazy movies in general, then you may be familiar with Takashi Miike, the director of films such as Happiness of the Katakuris, Audition and Ichi the Killer. His fanbase in the United States includes one Eli Roth, who gave him a cameo part in the first Hostel movie. Miike is no stranger to hilariously over-the-top violence, and judging by the trailer for his upcoming film Mogura no Uta, that trend is set to continue.
The trailer is in Japanese with no English subtitles, but here’s what we can glean from it:
- There are cops.
- There are bad guys.
- There are guns.
- There is a semi-naked man tied to the hood of a fast-moving car.
Add some whimsical classic music for ambiance and you’ve got a trailer that promises the sort of blood-soaked whimsy that one would expect from the master of ultra-violent Japanese cinema.
The story is based on a manga by Noboru Takahashi, which revolves around a cop’s attempts to infiltrate a dangerous criminal organization (as if there is any other kind of criminal organization) in order to bring it down from the inside. It sounds like a simple enough premise, and one that lends itself to all manner of gunplay and stabbing and terrible vengeance being wrought. Hopefully it will be more fun than Miike’s last film, the critical flop Ware no tate (translated as “Shield of Straw”), which was also a crime drama and by all accounts not very good.
Mogora no Uta will hit Japanese theaters on February 15, 2014. No U.S. release has been announced yet, but where there’s a will there’s a way to import. In the meantime, feel free to watch the delightfully confusing trailer below, or view a higher-resolution version of it here.
