It’s that time of the year again when the best of the best of foreign cinema battle it out in order to be crowned with the Palme D’Or. The Cannes Film Festival is one if not the most prestigious of any festivals (and there are many) in the world. So for this feature I decided to put a spotlight on the movies that are In Competition during this years edition of the festival. It began on the 11th of May and will be done on the 22nd but even though the results will be out before I finish with all the films, I don’t care. Most of these movies are must sees for anyone who likes cinema that is challenging and interesting. If you don’t like subtitles, this is not for you. Let’s get on with it then!
The first movie I will spotlight is Takashi Miike’s Ichimei (or Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai).
Ichimei is Takeshi Miike’s remake of the samurai classic of the 60s, Masaki Kobayashi’s Hara-Kiri. The tale tells of a samurai looking to commit ritual murder (or hara-kiri) in the house of a local feudal lord. Once there, he is told the story of another samurai who had sought to die an honorable death as well and his sadistic fate. It turns out that this other samurai wasn’t just another samurai, which drives our main character to seek revenge against the feudal lord.
The reason I’m excited about this remake is that it is Takeshi Miike finally getting some recognition for his fantastic, oft times disturbing, and push-the-boundaries direction style. Miike has been incredibly prolific having directed 14 movies in the last 5 years. He has also directed some of the most disturbing movies I’ve ever seen… Visitor Q and Ichi the Killer. Although he has moved away from the low budget ultra violent stuff that gave him a cult following, he has become a more mature and interesting director as the years pass. Anyways, this is probably the first movie that caught my eye out of all the ones in competition. We’ll see what’s next and soon we’ll see who wins the Palme D’Or.
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