Traversing a multi-ethnical crime narrative in which a hardened cop uncovers an underground crime war between Chinese and Japanese crime syndicates, Takashi Miike's Shinjuku Triad Society sees the iconoclastic filmmaker employ a disruptive perspective on the normative, focusing exclusively on the often unseen and unspoken of aspects of society, those who live on the periphery, outside of the socially-acceptable or morally-agreeable ways of living. In Shinjuku Triad Society, there is no normative moral lens for the audience to grasp, with nearly every character being abhorrent in one-way or another, even those who are characterized as being on the right side of the law - the police - succumbing to barbarism. The fine line between good and evil is something which fascinates Miike, specifically the outsider, who due to no choice of their own, whether it be via systemic disadvantage or natural selection, finds themselves in the precarious position of being on one side of the law or the other. For Miike, a character's actions cannot be viewed solely in a disparate moral context but one which requires a holistic view. This is why his lens is often so empathetic, his curiosity allows him to lack an aversion to perversity or depravity. The cops and criminals of this story become increasingly ubiquitous from a moral perspective, allegiances mean nothing, shifts occur whenever an advantage presents itself - all outcasts fighting for their slice of the pie in this crazy, mixed-up world in which day-to-day survival trumps all else
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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