User Reviews

What can I say... Takashi Miike is one whose movies I enjoy more and more these days and The City Of Lost Souls isn't an exception. The piece itself is about a Brazilian protagonist and his girlfriend, trying their best to cross the border from Japan to Taiwan. They stumble upon trouble on the way, interfering with Yakuza's business and the outcome becomes a quite fast-paced roller-coaster action with violence, punchlines, and, I must add that there's also a great load of comedy here.

Anyone expecting hardcore violence throughout the entire piece may get disappointed. If you got some distance though and are open for hybrid stuff then this piece won't disappoint you. It awesome and funny, with a great mixture between the raw and cold violent scenes and the funny, surprising scenes of comedy. The language mix between Brazilian Portugese, Mandarin and Japanese is just a great additional bonus.

I enjoyed this movie, but I had hoped for more.

This is a straight forward story with lots of off the wall mini scenes/story's between the meat and potatoes of a very average revenge/gangster/drug tale.

The action sequences are pretty good to very good, and the gore level is not too bad(keep in mind this is Japanese in taste and style) Teah just does not make for a charismatic lead, but the rest of the cast were extremely watchable.

There is as always in these style of movies some light humour thrown it to lighten the violence.

This movie was good, but just not that satisfying or mindblowing...I recommend if you know the style and like the director.

The extraordinary movies of the astonishingly prolific Takashi Miike take most viewers quite a bit getting used to, so if you've never seen one of his difficult to categorize films before you're in for a wild ride! His best known movie is probably the modern horror classic 'Audition'. An utterly brilliant movie to be sure, but not really all that representative of the rest of his high octane genre-busting output. Many of his fans regard 'Dead Or Alive' as one of his greatest works, and while I certainly agree it is one of the most extraordinary and original movies released in recent years, it was way too uneven for my liking and marred by one of the most ludicrous endings I've ever seen. 'City Of Lost Souls' is a much less bizarre and extreme experience than 'DOA'. It reaches neither the highs of that movie, nor the lows, and therefore is probably as good a place as any to get into Miike's world, which is quite unlike any other let me tell you! The plot itself is a fairly standard lovers on the run thing that we've seen in countless movies before ('Bonnie And Clyde', 'The Getaway', 'Badlands', 'Wild At Heart', 'True Romance',etc.etc.) but with Miike "plot" is basically just an excuse for messing with the audience's mind and expectations. The multi-racial nature of the cast and the seemingly random and sometimes confusing geographic settings help disorientate the viewer, which allows Miike to slip in some memorable set pieces and images. One in particular, the chicken fighting scene, had me literally speechless, and is one of the funniest and most unexpected sequences I've ever seen. But still, unlike 'DOA', Miike never goes too far into sheer silliness, and that makes 'City Of Lost Souls' are much more consistent and enjoyable experience for me. Maybe if I'd watched this movie first then worked my way up to 'DOA' my reaction to the latter would be more positive, who can say? I would definitely recommend Miike novices to watch this one first before they explore his more outrageous movies. Love him or hate him, you cannot ignore Takashi Miike, a film maker who makes overrated fanboy faves like David Fincher and Guy Ritchie look like the slow kids in the back of the class.

"City of Lost Souls" is far away from being the best Miike outing I've seen - but it entertained me a lot. Plot- and style-wise, it's closest to "Fudoh" (still my favorite Miike-film) and "Dead or Alive" but it lacks "Fudohs" determination, eye candy and subversiveness as well as the surrealism of both "Fudoh" and "DOA".

The best things about "City of Lost Souls": The multi-culture cast, the cockfights (have to be seen to be believed), the hysteric violence, the style. For those who have seen Miike's "Audition" and now want to see more of this inventive director, "City of Lost Souls" would come as a surprise because many of Miike's movies are much faster and (if you want to call it that) emptier than "Audition". They're just plain fun. So is "City of Lost Souls".

Rating: 7/10

In a world where normalcy is the run of the pack in the crime genre, and the usual blood and bullets and violence and ultra machismo is the name of the game, a filmmaker like Takashi Miike has something to show for his conventional stories. Where else will you see CGI cockfights, Brazilian dives and spin-zones in Tokyo, and ping-pong tournaments made into intense death-matches? Well, those are the main highlights at the least in another of Miike's many trips into the 'yakuza' movie, however this time he goes international with his cast (for the most part anyway). It's not just Japanese Yakuza, but also Chinese mafia, the Brazilians, and possibly a black or white guy thrown in for good measure. It's got drug deals, sour romances, youth tarnished by abandonment, talk show hosts also into drugs and self-interest, did I mention the cock-fights (particularly the part where the poultry gets set on fire and run wild), and so on. So Miike has a lot to work with here. It's a shame then that it doesn't feel as spectacular as all of this sounds, or at least as the trailer looked.

We're given at the core of the story a romance that's blossomed between Mario (Teah is his only credited name, and has only appeared in a handful of other Miike movies, this his first) and Kei (Michelle Reis, who luckily has a little more experience). Kei is about to be deported (from Brazil I suppose, a point that is never total clarified for me, though besides the point), but then comes Mario to the rescue in a manic helicopter break-out. So now the two need to get going again, this time out of Japan, but they have no passports and no money. Enter in the perfect solution- bad guys! Chinese mafia and Japanese Yakuza, both out to make some dealings with cokes, however with one side definitely not trusting the other (there's a great little dialog the Chinese guy gives in the cave about the Japanese). Then in quasi (though not quite) True Romance fashion, they steal the coke during the deal in a shoot-out, decide to sell it to a self-promoting TV newscaster with the token midget cameraman, and he starts selling it...until the gangsters come back into the picture, especially the extreme bad-ass yakuzas, one of which with a silly Mohawk.

From there we get what has come in probably more than I'd care to think of number of crime films, where the little girl/main heroine gets kidnapped, and only the hero can come to the rescue. All the while Miike executes the material, in terms of technical style, in a manner that always kept me watching, even when I should've felt repulsed by this. Then again, I didn't see in this (or in Ichi the Killer either oddly enough) that Miike was glorifying the violence. Sure, it's fast-paced when it comes down to it, like in the climax with the rescuing and such, and Miike decides to build tension with a complete abandon for rational cinematic language (very quick and decisive cuts). But, as the title suggest, pretty much anybody on screen in the picture is part of the 'City' that harbors all these damned beings. Even Mario's ex Lucia (in maybe the best 'performance' by Patricia Monterola) comes out quite tarnished by the end. Somehow, through all of the multiple killings and bouts of violence, it's still somehow exhilarating when it needs to be, and Miike somehow finds room to edge in his classic surreal bits of comedy into the mold (some that doesn't, like the ones involving excretions, and ones that do by leaps and bounds, most notably the main Matrix-style cockfight).

The problem ends up being though that a lot of things don't connect. The main actor and actress, for example, don't seem to have much chemistry, at all. Indeed Teah, aside from having a swagger and attitude during action scenes, is stiff as a board, with his love Kei looking a little dulled out (save for one amazing scene involving some vodka and a Russian). It's also a thin line to walk for Miike in making the plight of the little girl that Lucia cares for seriously, as she is blind (ho-ho) literally to what goes around her, yet is bright as the innocent, and aside from one brief, compelling scene with her and her drunk mother, there is little to care about with the situation aside from the usual formulaic tones. There are also spouts early in the film that almost come off half-baked, like with the police officers or whoever they might be. Yet with all of this to point out as flaws, I do make it a point to say that as I go deeper into Miike's oeuvre that it's certainly not his weakest fare. Actually, there's even potential for it to get better on a repeat viewing, as I may not even give a damn to try and work out what's going on. I mean, who needs total logic when you got roosters that dish out Kung-Fu? Grade: B

Well, I couldn't identify with the male protagonist. What's a Brazilian to do in a Japanese gangster movie, one may ask. That's his problem, to avoid deportation he is going on a long trip of bloodshed and revenge driven by sympathy for his girlfriend (a Chinese) and a mysterious small girl. The twists and turns in the story are as unconvincing as the end, at least there are some special characters as we expect them from Miike. Unlike AUDITION Miike seems to have been disinterested in the topic this time.

I have a troubled relationship to Takashi Miikes films. While i usually find them interesting i have a hard time really enjoying them. And while (or perhaps because) this is one of his less extreme movies i have the same problem here.

When Takashi Miike is discussed people often mention his over-the-top, gore-filled movies with flashy visuals and plots that are usually quite hard to comprehend. Of course plot usually takes the back-seat and are not the reason why you would watch something by Miike to begin with. "The City of Lost Souls" however is a more conventional movie where the plot is easier to understand and the action is not as extreme. And the result is, perhaps not surprisingly, not very interesting in my opinion.

This is the story about a Brazilian gangster and his girlfriend who try to leave Japan to start a new life. But things don't go as planned and before long they end up having both the Triads and the Yakuza on their tail after interfering with a drug deal.

This movie does have some interesting scenes, it's far from all bad. But in the end this is not twisted enough for my tastes. And to me it feels like Miike doesn't really have the ideas or the script to make a more straight-forward movie out of this. Rather it feels like he should either have focused more on the plot here or tried twisting the whole style of the movie a couple of times. In the end this becomes a movie with a weak plot and not enough screwed-up moments to make it interesting. While it's not without entertainment value, it's still a disappointment. I rate it 4/10.

Takashi Miike's City of Lost Souls (also known as Hazard City, 2000) is very different due to its multi nation cast which includes Russians, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese and some others. The protagonist is Mario who is a Japanese/Brazilian who has beautiful Chinese girlfriend Kei who he frees in the outrageous beginning of the movie from some immigration system. Then they try to get out of Japan, but before they can, they have to deal with crazy Yakuza members, Mario's ex-girlfriend and her little girl and irritating radio host. This film reminds distantly of Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels so that gives a clue how much things happen in this film; you're right, a lot.

This is one wild ride to experience and even though it's not the director's masterpiece, it's still very interesting film and personal to say the least. The film is full of details to be found and crazy ideas, and Takashi is definitely among the most interesting directors of today. There are long takes without edits, weird and crazy camera angles (the toilet!), wild action scenes, CGI and some outrageous gags mostly towards some Hollywood blockbusters like The Matrix. The cockfight scene is totally unbelievable and I'd like to know what do the Wachowsky brothers think about this film! The very menacing "blade" effect at the end is again very personal and the kind of crazy idea one could expect from this director and Japanese cinema in general. The violence and action is very comic book like and thus not too shocking nor disturbing and that's not even the purpose. Fudoh (1995) is far more serious film and very masterful piece of Yakuza genre and alongside Audition (1999), it is Takashi's masterpiece.

City of Lost Souls raises some interesting topics mostly about different races and how we after all are very similar no matter what "race" or nation we belong to. All the characters are more or less tragicomic and show that there's absolutely no culture or person in the world who could be described as "perfect" or without flaws; people in City of Lost Souls are selfish, stupid, violent and proud of themselves so these are exactly the same things which plague every human being in the world. These things are not necessarily active in every case, but they're still there "un-active" and waiting for some stimulation to become active because, in my opinion, they belong to human nature, whether we wanted to accept it or not. City of Lost Souls tells many thins about us humans, but it tells them with little like tongue in cheek and with plenty of humor and lightening elements and so the film becomes even more interesting. The same case is with Mario Bava's slasher classic Bay of Blood aka Twitch of the Death Nerve (1971), which is a horror film on one level, but ends up being a hilarious satire and black comedy during the end, and the final scene in Bava's film is very memorable and, in a way, little similar to Takashi's film's end and how and why Kei and Mario end up like that.

City of Lost Souls is very easy to watch many times due to its creative content and over-the-top personal director, who hopefully manages to make more interesting films for many years to come. It is ridiculous but also sad how many just think this is some non-sense director whose films are so good just because of their often strong violence and other shock elements. Takashi Miike is another great talent in the growing list of Japanese talents, and his films are far more than many manage to understand and see.

8/10

Japanese director Takashi Miike has directed a phenomenal 80 films in his 21-year career, with genres ranging from comedy to yakuza, and from horror to period samurai. Although he is a highly-rated auteur, known for crazy camera-work, bizarre plot devices, and extreme violence, his films do tend to differ vastly in quality. His understated masterpiece Audition (1999) was a slowly-paced, thoughtful romantic drama that switched to cringe-inducing horror in the blink of an eye. Audition is one of the finest films to come out of the relatively unmemorable 1990's, and showed Miike's skill in luring an unsuspecting audience into a safe place, to then paralyse you and chicken-wiring your foot off. But his filmography is peppered with some rather dull offerings, and although they tend to show moments of offbeat genius, they lack in heart. The City of Lost Souls, also known as The City of Strangers, is an example of this.

Brazilian madman Mario (Teah), rescues his beautiful Japanese girlfriend Kei (Michelle Reis) from being deported in a daring bus hijack. Wanting to escape the dangers of Japan and flee to Australia, the two find themselves caught in the middle of some Chinese gangsters led by Ko (Mitsuhiro Oikawa) who are in the middle of a drug deal with Japanese hothead Fushimi (Koji Kikkawa). Mario gatecrashes the deal and steals the dope for himself, selling it to admiring Brazilian TV anchor Sanchez (Marcio Rosario). When Sanchez tries to sell the dope back to Ko, the gangsters try to lure the elusive Mario out of his hiding place by kidnapping his ex-girlfriend's blind daughter.

With slight nods to the earlier works of John Woo, Miike's yakuza comedy thriller employs the usual genre traits with slow-motion, Mexican stand- off's, and Asians-in-shades dominating throughout. But this isn't action captured in the same operatic way as Woo's films, this is laced with hyper-kinetic editing, black humour, and CGI cock-fighting, and all cut between seemingly random scenes and simply odd moments. Although this type of thing would usual make a film all the more interesting, here it seems like Miike is doing what he can to try and hide the rather thin plot. Fair play to him though, there doesn't seem to be a camera-angle he's scared to exploit, but it's all thrown at the audience as if Miike believes his audience has the attention-span of a child on blue Smarties. And a badly computer generated cock doing a Matrix-esque gravity-defying kick is not funny.

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Contrary to some of the other imdb users' comments, CITY OF LOST SOULS is one of Takashi Miike's most entertaining films. While not possessing quite the same intensity or shock value of other Miike masterpieces like DEAD OR ALIVE, CITY...nevertheless is fastmoving, balances comic book tall tale surrealism expertly with plenty of violence, sick humor as well as the doomed love story -- what more could you ask? It is NOT the run of the mill generic, mediocre, forgettable action film that most great action film directors are turning out these days. And it involves you with the characters (a multi-ethnic melting pot -- which, as astounding as it may seem to some incredulous viewers, is what major Japanese urban centers are like in this day and age -- by the way, Brazil, home country of lead halfbreed character,Mario, has one of the largest Japanese immigrant populations in the world). If you enjoy Miike, don't miss this. It's his most romantic film (!) without sacrificing any of the blood, the dark, dark humor or bizarre imagery we've come to expect from this unpredictable genius.

I have been a big fan of Takashi Miike since "Ichi the Killer" and was further solidified by "Audition", so obviously I needed to hunt down every Miike film out there. This movie sounded had an interesting premise (similar to "True Romance"), so figuring it would be Miike-ized, I rented it. After watching it, I didn't feel the same exhilaration that I did out of other Miike films. Apart from an exciting helicopter escape, an interesting cock-fight, and a cool would-be ping pong game, it really didn't hold my attention for long. Teah, who plays the protagonist Mario, makes Keanu Reeves look like a Shakesperean actor, and I could've cared less what happened to him. On the other hand, Michelle Reis did show good potential, but was largely wasted in this film. With the exception of the guy who played the Yakuza upstart, most of the characters are forgettable. Yes, it has the typical Miike weird ending, but it doesn't' strike you as anything special, unlike the endings of "Dead or Alive" or (better yet)"Audition". If you are getting into Miike, stay away from this one.

(aka: CITY OF LOST SOULS)

This one supremely sux. I suppose this happens to a lot of directors who gain an international cult following and then start believing all the hype that surrounds them. They wind up putting out silly twaddle like this.

Talk about a convoluted mess. I don't know what's going on since we go from one scene (in the desert) to the next (in Tokyo) to the next (in Brazil?) with random acts of violence occurring, with little or no motive involved in each one of them. It's comes across (to this viewer) as a Japanese version of NATURAL BORN KILLERS or MAN BITES DOG. I suppose if that's your sort of thing, then this might be for you. But I'd just as soon do without...

Admittedly as this moves along, we get a more cohesive plot concerning Mario and his Chinese girlfriend stealing cocaine and money from the Yakuza, who in turn kidnap a little girl and hold her for ransom of the stolen money and dope. But by that point in time, I became uninterested in the outcome and barely finished the film. Even the cgi is crude-looking for a flick of this type.

Another step down for Miike that began with DEAD OR ALIVE and continues...

PS: Yeah, even the ending was pretty dumb.

2 out of 10

City of Lost Souls, aka Hazard City, is pretty self explanatory from the title. The characters in the movie seem lost and there are dangers lurking around every corner. Who can you trust not to blast one in your back? Well, with Takashi Miike, trust nobody.

I noticed that the cast was a mix of japanese, chinese, and brazilian! It caught my attention when I would hear portugeuse being spoken, then japanese later on. I noticed that Miike included the different languages rather than having it all in japanese which made the film seem more real. Oh, let me say that that's one wacky wedding scene! There are some surprising moments too...which you'll see when you watch the film (no fair in me telling!).

The interactions between the characters seem so random that I felt there really was no good or bad sides. I loved the vodka scene with Michelle Reis who was visually stunning throughout. Plus, Teah plays the cool, suave Mario who speaks through actions rather than dialogue. Also, that yakuza guy is someone you do not mess with!!

Thank you Miike for a unique ending which surprised my friend and I...or maybe it was the Remy Red shots that left me saying "HUH??" I guess I'll have to watch it again....which is a good thing.

The beginning of this film was pretty good. You got to see this guys nice ass and this tells you this is going to be a interesting movie.

Then - ZZZZZZzzzzzzZZZZZZzzzzz - boring. Until we meet this Asian gentleman who seems to be in love with this girl Kei. The Asian man is beautiful and he never smiles during the entire film. But he has that kind of porcelain doll look.

Then a lot of stupid stuff in the middle.

Then the ending - the two killers kiss at the end (which I figured out in the middle of the film - no one can be together in that much violence and not turn to each other for comfort). Finally it's over.

What did you think. Send me a email....

First, before you mark this review as "NOT HELPFUL", understand that there are two distinct groups of people: Those who LOVE the ultra-violent and gory films of Takashi Miike and normal, well-adjusted people. Those lovers of sick gore will say I "just don't get it" and anyone who is not drawn to these movies will probably agree wholeheartedly that these films (including this film, ICHI THE KILLER and THE AUDITION) are repulsive. It's not just the fact that everyone in this film is completely amoral and blood splatters abound, but the utterly unredeeming little touches Miike adds to the films that make the film sort of like a moral cancer. For example, this is the first movie I have ever seen with "TOILET CAM"--i.e., a video camera INSIDE the toilet so I can watch floating pieces of poo as well as a guy urinating into the toilet! And, because there's so much blood and violence, no real story was written for the movie--just scum killing other scum. Save yourself a lot of time and potential brain rot and just try to find a different film to watch! This film merits 2 points just because of some interesting camera and stunt work (apart from the poo).

What Takashi Miike is driven by is of course shock and irreverence. And He succeeded quite well here : lots of useless violence, lots of humor (the blood of the gunfighters drawing "love" on the ground), lots of bad taste. But "Audition" was characterized by the same ingredients. Not to be taken seriously of course. It's true that the codes of the genre are destroyed, played with : the hero is non-asian, the asians (all yakuza or triad members are worthless human beings driven by sadistic and violent impulses) And the end is a jewel in itself perverting the usual codes in the same way as the rest of the picture Great fun ! (another oddity : it must be the only Japanese picture in which half of the dialogue is in Portuguese...)

I will start out by saying that this movie started off disappointing because of the cinematography, it just seemed really outdated for the year 2000 when this movie came out. The trailer made this movie look pretty darn cool and has elements blended in for a great movie, but it just isn't all that effective with it's execution. It's just one of those movies that should have been a comic book instead of a movie. The movie is watchable without getting too dull, but the characters seem too much like cardboard cutouts sometimes. In fact I didn't find myself caring for any of the characters and didn't care what happens to them. It just didn't really have anything that grabbed my attention in the beginning of this film, it lacked the elements that would have made it entertaining or at least engaging. One of the main flaws of this film is that it's convoluted without grabbing the audiences attention and will not make you even care what is going on. This film however has it's moments although very few, but it does sort of picks up after a while although it takes patience to get there.

4.5/10

This little gem is a solo Miike film. No sequels and not much publicity, the movie oozes with style and the action is brilliantly choreographed. The idea of Japan being filled with immigrants, a midget brushing his teeth with cocaine, animated cockfights - all examples of Takashi Miike's very vivid imagination. The story is to do with a Brazilian guy who falls in love with the sister of a Chinese mafia boss who disagrees with their relationship.the Brazilian, however, will not let the love of his life go for no-one. Like an ultra violent version of Romeo and Juliet with foul toilet gags. another Miike great

8 out of 10

CITY OF LOST SOULS - Takashi Miike

The film starts with Michelle Reis writing a letter telling her mother that she is in love with a Brazilian man who is "strong and kind". We then see the sleeping back of said Brazilian as CG butterflies flit across the screen. One settles on his shoulder and melts into the skin, becoming a tattoo that he will wear to the end of the film. Next we see Michelle on a bus with armed guards set to deport her from Japan. Her boyfriend steals a helicopter by force and stops the bus mith a machine gun, killing the guards in the process. He then whisks Michelle away to freedom.

All of which sets the scene for what is to follow in this remarkable film. Strange and fascinating characters cross paths in a plot that is broadly irrelevant, except as a vehicle for bringing these characters together in a series of surreal events and encounters, not a few of which are also rather violent.

Our 'cool Brazilian b****rd' hero and Michelle wish to marry and settle down abroad, but events and people would seem not to want them to. CITY OF LOST SOULS has a richly populated universe - a Japan where Japanese is barely the dominant language spoken, and characters of comic-book archetypes in appearance but anything but under the skin. The comic-book feel pervades much of the film, especially in the occasional CG enhanced shots that surely deserve an award for the best use of CG on screen - to push reality where it could never otherwise go.

The script also has comic book touches, blending the dark and brutal with the strange and hilarious quite un-self-conciously. Miike shows here why his name is so revered - truly an artist pushing boundaries hard. I look forward to more of his films heading west (I'm determined to see DEAD OR ALIVE one day, circumstances having conspired to make me miss 3 festival showings so far!).

I haven't seen anything as cool as the "cock fight" on film in a long time. See this if you are a Miike fan, but it is nowhere near as good as Ichi, Fudoh, Visitor Q, the DOA trilogy, Audition or Happiness in the Katikouras (spelling?). It was better than Full Metal Gokudo, however.