- Film
The Exit 8
Release date Thu 9 Apr
Year
1996
Language
Japanese spoken, English subtitles
Director
Miike Takashi
Duration
98 min
To avenge his older brother, who was murdered by his father – the boss of a yakuza gang – a secondary school pupil establishes his own crime syndicate consisting entirely of children. Three years before Audition, this inventive spectacle film already put Miike Takashi on the map.
High school student Riki Fudoh leads a double life in organised crime. With his gang of underage assassins (including five-year-olds with handguns and a teenage stripper who shoots deadly darts from an unexpected opening), he attempts to seize power in the underworld on the Japanese island of Kyushu. But Fudoh is not only interested in power: as a child, he witnessed the gruesome murder of his older brother by his father, a yakuza boss, and now he is seeking revenge.
This Shakespearean plot leads to bloodshed when Riki and his underage gang members try to wipe out the biggest criminals in the local underworld, with the patriarch as their ultimate target. This fluorescent gang parody looks like a manga brought to life, is delightfully over-the-top and directed by a young Miike Takashi at his crudest. Fudoh ended up in TIME Magazine's top 10 films of the year, after which Francis Ford Coppola and Wayne Wang asked Miike to join their Chrome Dragon project, which unfortunately never got off the ground.
Focus: V-cinema
The Japanese direct-to-video phenomenon V-Cinema emerged in the late 1980s and left a lasting mark on contemporary film culture. V-Cinema was created in response to the rise of video rental: filmmakers began making films that would not be released in cinemas. This approach allowed directors to work quickly, on a small budget and with a great deal of creative freedom.
With this Focus programme, IFFR is turning its attention to V-Cinema films, a combination of early works by established names and films that have rarely been shown outside Japan. In the Forum, you can see a selection of films from the Rotterdam programme.
Agenda
There are no new dates planned (yet) for Fudoh: The New Generation.
IFFR in Groningen
The International Film Festival Rotterdam is coming to Groningen!
From Wednesday February 4 to Sunday February 8th.
IFFR in Groningen is the perfect opportunity to explore unknown, international gems or to discover the special titles of the upcoming film year.
