Izo

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Movie
German title Izo
Original title Izo
Country of production Japan
original language Japanese
Publishing year 2004
length uncut version: approx. 123 minutes
Age rating FSK No youth approval
Rod
Director Takashi Miike
script Shigenori Takechi
production Taizō Fukumaki ,
Fujio Matsushima
music Kōji Endō
camera Nobuyuki Fukazawa
cut Yasushi Shimamura
occupation

Izo is a film by the Japanese director Takashi Miike . Due to its non-linear, collage-like narrative style (mainly through the incision of historical film recordings and jumps in space and time), the explicit depiction of violence, the change from fast, brutal scenes to long, tiring recordings that seem to have no plot, vocal interludes by the guitarist (the Acid -Folk musician Kazuki Tomokawa ) or long monologues, the film emotionalises its viewers and is highly controversial. If you transfer the representation of violence to a psychological level and equate it with arrogance and cold feeling, the viewer experiences it from a different perspective.

The hero turns out to be a completely self-centered character who is totally alienated from himself and his social environment. Miike shot the film in just six weeks and with the deliberate use of limited resources, which contributes a lot to the unusual look of this tragedy.

Miike herself referred to the film as a sutra in an interview .

action

The plot of the film focuses on fighting and killing scenes, interrupted by monologues and musical interludes. The title character Izo is executed on a cross in medieval Japan. Because of his hatred, however, he cannot find rest and wanders around as an angry ghost in different places and times. In the beginning he is still challenged by old adversaries (spirits of his former opponents or people whom he has let suffer, such as his former lover).

However, as the film progresses and the number of deaths increases, Izo becomes even more aggressive and slowly transforms into a demon. The antihero arrives at a point towards the end where he is ready to accept his social being. To his regret, he misses his turning point, continues his orgy of violence and finally challenges God.

content

Violence plays a central role in Izo , as does the subjects of death and birth, hate and love. The film is strongly philosophical and does not want to see itself as a blood orgy in the style of Ichi the Killer , which z. B. expresses through its text.

“ How can a single person be so merciless? "
“ That's because I was once human. "
“ Are all people so merciless and so cruel? "
“ Mercilessness is the root of all life. "

In an alternative translation, the last line is:

“ Mercilessness is the basis of everyday life. "

Izo is not a person in the strict sense of the word, he is hatred and chaos personified. He is born again and again and experiences war and violence over and over again. He fights as a samurai in feudal Japan, says goodbye to his young wife to take part in World War II , or is attacked by yakuza thugs in modern Japan. What all incarnations have in common is their grief and hatred, which discharges into rampant violence.

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