# Takashi Miike

Takashi Miike (三池 崇史, Miike Takashi, born August 24, 1960) is a Japanese film director, film producer and screenwriter. He has directed over 100 feature film, video, and television productions since his debut in 1991. His films span a variety of different genres, ranging from violent and bizarre to dramatic and family-friendly movies. He is a controversial figure in the contemporary Japanese cinema industry, with several of his films being criticised for their extreme graphic violence. Some of his best known films are Audition, Ichi the Killer, Visitor Q, Dead or Alive, One Missed Call, and various remakes: 13 Assassins, Hara-kiri, and Graveyard of Honor. He has also acted in more than 20 films.

## Early life

Miike was born in Yao, Osaka Prefecture. During World War II, his grandfather was stationed in China and Korea, and his father was born in Seoul in today's South Korea. His father worked as a welder and his mother as a seamstress. Although he claimed to have attended classes only rarely, he graduated from Yokohama Vocational School of Broadcast and Film (Yokohama Hōsō Eiga Senmon Gakkō) under the guidance of renowned filmmaker Shohei Imamura, the founder and Dean of that institution.

## Career

Miike's first films were television productions, but he also began directing several direct-to-video V-Cinema releases. Miike still directs V-Cinema productions intermittently, due to the creative freedom afforded by the less stringent censorship of the medium and the riskier content that the producers will allow.
Miike's theatrical debut was the film The Third Gangster (Daisan no gokudō), but Shinjuku Triad Society (1995) was his first theatrical release to gain public attention. The film showcased his extreme style and his recurring themes, and its success allowed him to work on higher-budgeted pictures. Shinjuku Triad Society was the first film in what is labeled his "Black Society Trilogy", which also includes Rainy Dog (1997) and Ley Lines (1999). He gained international fame in 2000 when his romantic horror film Audition (1999), his violent yakuza epic Dead or Alive (1999), and his controversial adaptation of the manga Ichi the Killer played at international film festivals. He has since gained a strong cult following in the West that is growing with the increase in DVD releases of his works. His film Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai premiered In Competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. His 2013 film Straw Shield was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.

## Themes of his work

Miike achieved notoriety for depicting shocking scenes of extreme violence and sexual perversions. Many of his films contain graphic and lurid bloodshed, often portrayed in an over-the-top, cartoonish manner. Much of his work depicts the activities of criminals (especially yakuza) or concern themselves with gaijin, non-Japanese or foreigners living in Japan. He is known for his dark sense of humor and for pushing the boundaries of censorship as far as they will go.
Miike has directed films in a range of genres. He has created lighthearted children's films (Ninja Kids!!!, The Great Yokai War), period pieces (Sabu), a road movie (The Bird People in China), a teen drama (Andromedia), a farcical musical comedy horror (The Happiness of the Katakuris), video game adaptations (Like a Dragon, Ace Attorney), manga adaptations (Blade of the Immortal, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable, Terra Formers, The Mole Song Trilogy) and character driven crime dramas (Ley Lines, Agitator).
While Miike often creates films that are less accessible and target arthouse audiences and fans of extreme cinema, such as Izo and the "Box" segment in Three... Extremes, he has created several mainstream and commercial titles such as the horror film One Missed Call and the fantasy drama The Great Yokai War.
Miike has cited Starship Troopers as his favorite film. He expressed admiration for directors Akira Kurosawa, Hideo Gosha, David Lynch, David Cronenberg, and Paul Verhoeven.

## Controversies

Several of Miike's films have been subject to scrutiny due to heavy violence. His 2001 horror film Ichi the Killer, adapted from a manga of the same name and starring Tadanobu Asano as a sadomasochistic yakuza enforcer, was highly controversial; during its international premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2001, the audience received "barf bags" emblazoned with the film's logo as a promotional gimmick. The British Board of Film Classification refused to allow the release of the film uncut in the United Kingdom, citing its extreme levels of sexual violence towards women; the film required 3 minutes and 15 seconds of mandated cuts to be allowed release. In Hong Kong, 16 minutes and 59 seconds of footage were cut. Ichi the Killer was also banned outright in Norway, Germany and Malaysia.
In 2005, Miike was invited to direct an episode of the Masters of Horror anthology series. The series, featuring episodes by a range of established horror directors such as John Carpenter, Tobe Hooper and Dario Argento, was supposed to provide directors with relative creative freedom and relaxed restrictions on violent and sexual content (some sexual content was edited from the Argento-directed episode "Jenifer"). However, when the Showtime cable network acquired the rights to the series, Miike's episode, "Imprint", was deemed too disturbing for the network. Showtime cancelled it from the broadcast lineup even after extended negotiations, though it was retained as part of the series' DVD release. Mick Garris, creator and executive producer of the series, described the episode as "amazing, but hard even for me to watch... definitely the most disturbing film I've ever seen". While "Imprint" has yet to air in the United States, it has aired on Bravo in the United Kingdom, on FX in Mexico, South and Central America, the Dominican Republic, France, Israel, Turkey, on Nelonen in Finland, and on Rai Tre in Italy. Anchor Bay Entertainment, which has handled the DVD releases for the Masters of Horror series in the US, released "Imprint" uncut on Region 1 DVD on September 26, 2006.

## Filmography
### Director

Music video
* Pandōra (2002)

### Film

| Feature film The Third Gangster (Daisan no gokudō) (1995) Shinjuku Triad Society (1995) Fudoh: The New Generation (1996) Young Thugs: Innocent Blood (1997) Rainy Dog (1997) The Bird People in China (1998) Andromedia (1998) Blues Harp (1998) Young Thugs: Nostalgia (1998) Ley Lines (1999) Audition (1999) Dead or Alive (1999) Salaryman Kintaro (1999) The City of Lost Souls (2000) The Guys from Paradise (2000) Dead or Alive 2: Birds (2000) Family (2001) Ichi the Killer (2001) Agitator (2001) The Happiness of the Katakuris (2001) Dead or Alive: Final (2002) Kumamoto Stories (2002) Graveyard of Honor (2002) Shangri-La (2002) Deadly Outlaw: Rekka (2002) The Man in White (2003) Gozu (2003) One Missed Call (2003) Zebraman (2004) Three... Extremes (Segment "Box") (2003) Izo (2003) Demon Pond (2005) The Great Yokai War (2005) (Also writer) Big Bang Love, Juvenile A (2006) Waru (2006) Sun Scarred (2006) Sukiyaki Western Django (2007) (Also writer) Crows Zero (2007) Like a Dragon (2007) Detective Story (2007) Zatoichi (2008) God's Puzzle (2008) Yatterman (2009) Crows Zero 2 (2009) Zebraman 2: Attack on Zebra City (2010) 13 Assassins (2010) Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai (2011) Ninja Kids!!! (2011) Ace Attorney (2012) For Love's Sake (2012) Lesson of the Evil (2013) (Also writer) Shield of Straw (2013) The Mole Song: Undercover Agent Reiji (2014) Over Your Dead Body (2014) As the Gods Will (2014) The Lion Standing in the Wind (2015) Yakuza Apocalypse (2015) Terra Formars (2016) The Mole Song: Hong Kong Capriccio (2016) Blade of the Immortal (2017) JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable Chapter I (2017) Laplace's Witch (2018) First Love (2019) The Great Yokai War: Guardians (2021) The Mole Song: Final (2021) Lumberjack the Monster (2023) Blazing Fists (a.k.a. Blue Fight: The Breaking Down of Young Blue Warriors) (2025) | Direct-to-video Eyecatch Junction (1991) Lady Hunter: Prelude to Murder (1991) A Human Murder Weapon (1992) Bodyguard Kiba (1993) We're No Angels (Oretachi wa tenshi ja nai) (1993) We're No Angels (Oretachi wa tenshi ja nai 2) (1993) Shinjuku Outlaw (1994) Bodyguard Kiba: Apocalypse of Carnage (1994) Bodyguard Kiba: Apocalypse of Carnage 2 (1995) Osaka Tough Guys (1995) New Third Gangster (Shin daisan no gokudō) (1996) New Third Gangster II (Shin daisan no gokudō II) (1996) Ambition Without Honor (1996) Peanuts (1996) The Way to Fight (1996) Ambition Without Honor 2 (1997) Full Metal Yakuza (1997) Silver (1997) Family 2 (2001) Visitor Q (2001) Yakuza Demon (2003) Waru: kanketsu-hen (2006) |

### Television

TV movies
* Last Run: 100 Million Yen's Worth of Love & Betrayal (Shissō Feraari 250 GTO / Rasuto ran: Ai to uragiri no hyaku-oku en) (1992)
* The Making of 'Gemini' (2000) (Documentary film, also producer)
* Sabu (2002)
* Part-Time Detective Pāto-taimu tantei (2002)
* Negotiator (Kōshōnin) (2003)
* Part-Time Detective 2 (Pāto-taimu tantei 2) (2004)
* Shin Abarenbô Shogun (2025)
TV series
| Year | Title | Notes |
| 1999 | Man, A Natural Girl | |
| 1999 | Man, Next Natural Girl: 100 Nights in Yokohama | |
| 2000 | MPD Psycho | Miniseries |
| 2005 | Ultraman Max | Episodes 15 and 16 |
| 2006 | Masters of Horror | Episode "Imprint" |
| 2008 | K-tai Investigator 7 | 1 episode Also supervising producer |
| 2017 | Idol × Warrior Miracle Tunes! | General director |
| 2018 | Magical × Heroine Magimajo Pures! | General director |
| 2019 | Secret × Heroine Phantomirage! | General director |
| 2020 | Police × Heroine Lovepatrina! | General director |
| 2021 | Bittomo × Heroine Kirameki Powers! | General director |
| 2022 | RizSta -Top of Artists!- | General director |
| 2022 | Connect | OTT Drama |
| 2023 | Assistant Inspector: Daimajin | 8-episode series |
| 2023 | Onimusha | Anime series |
| 2024 | Midnight | Web series |
| 2025 | Nyaight of the Living Cat | Anime series |

### Acting roles

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1997 | Young Thugs: Innocent Blood | Man in red trousers getting beaten up by Riichi | |
| 2001 | Agitator | Shinozaki | |
| 2002 | Graveyard of Honor | Restaurant gunman | |
| 2002 | Ichi the Killer: Episode 0 | Kakihara | Voice |
| 2003 | Last Life in the Universe | Yakuza | |
| 2005 | Neighbour No. 13 | Kaneda | |
| 2005 | Hostel | Miike Takashi | |
| 2006 | Gekijōban Dōbutsu no Mori | Rokusuke/Pascal | Voice |
| 2009 | Tenchijin | Hyogo Kariyasu | |
| 2010 | No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle | Himself | Voice |
| 2021 | No More Heroes III | Himself | Voice |
| 2024 | Midnight | Kaede's father | |
| 2024 | Chain Reactions | Himself | Documentary film |

## Stage plays

In 2005, Takashi Miike directed a Kabuki-style play titled Demon Pond. The DVD recording of the performance was released by Cinema Epoch.
Takashi Miike directed the play Zatoichi based on the character Zatoichi. The stage production was performed and filmed on December 12, 2007, and the DVD was released on May 30, 2008.