The 10 Craziest Takashi Miike Movies

With the controversial Japanese director's new flick, 13 Assassins, opening this weekend, revisit his greatest, and sickest, hits.

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Complex Original

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To put shock director Takashi Miike’s influence into perspective, Quentin Tarantino once referred to the Japanese filmmaker as “the godfather” of “ultraviolent, get-under-your-skin movies.”

In the pantheon of cinema’s greatest taboo-crushers, Miike reigns supreme. Throughout his 20-year career, the genre-hopping auteur has pushed the boundaries of censorship and good taste, assaulting viewers—in the best ways possible—with some of the most viscerally raw (Ichi The Killer), disturbing (Audition), and weirdest (The Happiness Of The Katakuris) movies of the last two decades.

For his latest death blow, Miike travels back to Feudal Japan for an epic samurai affair. 13 Assassins, which opens this weekend in limited release, recaptures the machismo spirit of legendary Japanese director Akira Kurosawa’s samurai classics, but with a twist: All of the film’s final 40 minutes are devoted to one of the sickest battle sequences to hit theaters in quite some time.

The massive scope of 13 Assassins’ finale is yet another showstopper in Miike’s bugged-out catalog. Whether you’re a Gozu die-hard or you don’t know Miike from Mickey Mouse, get ready for some eye-piercing filmmaking as we count down The 10 Craziest Takashi Miike Movies.

Dead Or Alive

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One Missed Call

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Izo

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13 Assassins

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The City Of Lost Souls

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Visitor Q

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The Happiness Of The Katakuris

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Gozu

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Audition

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Ichi The Killer

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