Visitor Q Reviews

• Mother's milk heals all family squabbles!

  
  By A2V3P1XE33NYC3 on 2004-01-29
  After viewing "Audition" and "Ichi the Killer," I doubted whether Japanese director Takashi Miike could shock me again. Boy, was I wrong! If you thought the piano wire scene in "Audition" went far beyond the pale, or the hot oil bath in "Ichi the Killer" left you speechless--as it did me--prepare yourself for the new nightmare that is "Visitor Q." The scenes in this film about a twisted Japanese family would make the Marquis de Sade leave the room in disgust. I have no idea what Miike was thinking when he made this film, but remember this one little fact--"Visitor Q" is a made for television movie. That's right, after viewing this movie remind yourself that this obscenity aired on Japanese television within the last couple of years. We Americans cannot put forth any prime time fodder that could even remotely compare to this atrocity, unless you count something like "Teletubbies." Thank goodness we still have a few qualms. As much as I distrust censorship of any type, I am definitely not ready to see something like "Visitor Q" on network television on this side of the pond.

  "Visitor Q" takes a penetrating look at your typical Japanese middle class family, Miike style. The father of this bizarre clan works as a reality television host who is always willing to go so far over the line in his broadcasts that his fellow workers shun the his very presence. The daughter of the family no longer lives at home since she is too busy putting in a full schedule at a brothel somewhere in town. The young son in this creepy household spends his days meekly submitting to a trio of bullies who beat him up after school. The mother is a real winner, a heroin addict and prostitute who allows her abused son to beat her with wicker canes. The mother and father fail to communicate on any substantive level. The son's problems with the bullies goes unheeded by the family, except when the father decides to fashion a new reality program centering on his child's beatings. The relationship between the father and his daughter is best left unelaborated on here; it is sufficient to say it is one of the most warped father/daughter connections in film history. Yes, this family suffers a host of psychological problems that would give a Sigmund Freud a coronary.

  All of these people are sick to the core of their souls, a problem that is about to undergo a radical change with the introduction of a complete stranger into the household. This anonymous (we never learn his name), scruffy looking youth first makes an appearance on the scene when he hits the father of the family on the head with a rock--twice. For some mysterious reason, dad brings this guy home with him for dinner. As time goes by, we see this chap increasingly integrate himself into the daily lives of the family. He sets his sights on the mother at first, rekindling a sense of motherhood in the woman in yet another unmentionable scene (there are a lot of unmentionable events in this movie). The interaction between the stranger and the mother is the most dramatic in the film, but eventually the father, son, and even daughter all fall under the spell of this enigmatic visitor. The end result of these odd encounters is a type of peculiar healing, where the family abandons their insane behavior and returns to a sense of normalcy. Obviously, "Visitor Q" is a Miike film, so the healing takes some really stomach churning turns along the way. After all, there is nothing like dismemberment and a host of other depravities to turn a family around!

  There has been some effort to emphasize the reality television elements of the film, but "Visitor Q" has little to do with this theme. There are only a few scenes that even deal with this element, specifically the first taboo shattering images between the father and daughter and a couple of other short bits later in the movie. What is really going on here has to do with the Japanese family and how it deals with the pressures of modern life in an industrialized society. Miike likes to shock with his films, and his target audience must surely have expressed such an emotion when they saw his take on a traditional Japanese family plagued with so many obnoxious psychopathologies. As weird as it sounds, I firmly believe "Visitor Q" is actually an extremely conservative film. Even as the director breaks the bounds of good taste, he seems to possess an earnest belief in the overriding importance of the healthy family unit. You could easily make the argument that images of the type indulged in by Miike have led to the breakdown of the family, and it would be an effective argument, but this movie does contain a strong pro-family theme.

  "Visitor Q" runs for about eighty four minutes, short compared to the other two Miike films I have seen. The picture quality is excellent. Extras on the DVD include four trailers--"Visitor Q," "Samurai Fiction," "Fudoh," and "Freeze Me"--some liner notes about Miike's films and a short biography about the director. Once again, Media Blasters has released another soul shattering movie to DVD. The disc I watched had a technical problem, though: whenever I hit the menu button on my remote control the picture went gray and I had to start the disc over again. Perhaps this flaw appeared only on my copy of the movie, but it's something to think about before purchasing if it is a widespread glitch. I look forward to watching more Miike mayhem in the near future. If you would like to examine this director's queasy visions, "Visitor Q" is the ideal starting place before moving on to the more complex "Audition."
  
  

• The family that stays together...

  
  By A1ARQYFYXAL4I on 2005-01-23
  One of the more bizarre films I've ever seen, Takashi Miike's VISITOR Q is about a family that is as dysfunctional as can be. The daughter is a prostitute whose clientele sometimes includes her own ineffectual father, a failed news reporter. The son, who is beat up and tormented daily by school bullies, takes his anger out on his mother by beating her with a cane for any kind of minor infraction. The mother prostitutes herself as well in order to pay for her heroin addiction. (One almost can't blame her for seeking this kind of escape.)
  
  Enter the unnamed visitor of the title. After bashing the father in the head with a large rock, he insinuates himself into the household. And then things get weirder.
  
  I couldn't make heads or tails of this film. I'm sure it's some kind of commentary on the family unit in modern society, but I'm damned if I can tell what it's saying. On display you'll find incest, necrophilia, copious lactation (and urination), domestic violence, dismemberment, and other things I'd rather not mention here. Yet it fails to be disturbing simply because it is so outrageous. Occasionally it is amusing, but more often it's rather boring.
  
  I loved Miike's AUDITION, probably his most serious and artistic film, but I can't recommend this one as anything other than a curiosity item. It's worth picking up just to see some things that you're unlikely to see anywhere else, but don't expect anything coherent.
  
  The DVD contains a biography of the director and "liner notes" (useful for those renting.) There are also a few trailers which you must sit through to watch the film. If you try to escape to the main menu the disc will stop playing entirely. I hope that this is an error on the part of the disc authors and not an annoying new trend.
  
  

• A touching celebration of family values

  
  By A3TVS7UW8A2NXV on 2003-02-03
  A subversive fable from the brilliant Takashi Miike, Visitor Q is some kind of demented masterpiece. I detect diverse influences here, from Bunuel (his delight in mocking bourgeois values) to Kubrick (static, symmetrical compositions) to absurdism and surrealist film in general. Miike presents us with a family that gives new meaning to the word "dysfunctional." The father is a TV reporter so desperate for sensational topics to tackle that he videotapes himself having sex with his prostitute daughter. He placidly eats his supper while his teenage son whips and beats the mother, who also works as a prostitute. One day the father brings home a mysterious guest (the titular Visitor, although his name is never given) who casually exerts an almost godlike power over the family, bringing them together in a most unexpected manner. The film is very funny at times, sometimes in an almost slapstick way, sometimes in a VERY dark, twisted way. There's plenty of room for debate. Who or what is Visitor Q? What exactly has he done and what does it say about the nature of familial love? This daring film will haunt you for days after seeing it.
  
  

• Visitor Q

  
  By AK61LQI92GTCH on 2005-02-16
  A singular nuclear Japanese family - father, mother, son, daughter - spend a movie committing incest, physical parental abuse, necrophilia, murder and dismemberment, and various other weird and wicked deeds. A mysterious, rock-wielding, scruffy young man joins the family and, eventually, changes occur.
  Words like `aberrant' and `taboo-bashing' are used inadequately to describe Takashi Miike's VISITOR Q. It's an ink-black dark comedy, one that lingers over and delights in shocking scenes that more polite sleazy movies only hint at.
  For instance, VISITOR Q opens with an off-camera woman asking "Did you ever do it with your dad?" A question immediately followed by Daughter and Dad haggling over price and service. A disturbing conversation which continues through disrobement to consummation. It's a potentially unendurable scene that ends with Daughter taunting Dad by calling him "early bird." Dad's eventual remorse seems almost an afterthought. This isn't nearly the worst scene in the movie, either. I won't give it away, but that graphic and extended sequence begins with Dad saying "I don't care if you are a corpse...."
  Strong stuff, but the movie holds its curiously upbeat characters at enough of a distance and blurs the difference between victim and victimizer often enough to make it safely surreal.
  I liked VISITOR Q without really understanding what it meant or where it took us. For instance, the scruffy young man seemed to be a pivotal character but I don't know why he went around hitting people over the head with rocks. Maybe he was knocking sense into them. Maybe, as another character suggested, he was there to destroy the family. The final sequence is bizarre, a bit shocking, and indecipherable, as well. At least it seemed optimistic.
  
  
  
  

• Off the wall satire on reality TV (4 1/2 stars)

  
  By A1AN76RX2YBTN6 on 2003-03-14
  This is the type of film I would love to see made here in America. Not that I want theatres filled with excessive violence, incest, and necrophilia; it's that this film goes as far out as it wants to and never looks back. That kind of ballsy satire is what we need; anything to keep from being safe and PG-secure. Back to the point: this is an extremely edgy take on reality programming which features a truly disturbed family. Taboos are violated almost at random in the film's attempt to push and maintain it's distance from the expected well behaved Japanese family. As far as I'm concerned it works, and works well.

  This is not to say Visitor Q is an enjoyable watch, or a film you'd recommend to your friends, but you might if you like your entertainment off the wall and far, far from conventional. The basic plot follows a distorted nuclear family as they go through their day. Nothing is normal or expected in what they do, or more shockingly, how they react to each other's behaviors. It's the lack of response that's the kicker here, and you should really see it for yourself.

  I really did like this film. Even though it's not a pleasant watch I think anyone who likes raw unrestrained films that want to push your buttons and not only do so but have very good reasons to in the first place should get their hands on this one.
  
  

• Disturbing, surreal, exploitive and only for the daring.
  By A19VMQDCB4HZ9P on 2004-08-03
  This 2001 film by Takashi Miike has to count as one of the most disturbing film's I have ever seen. I have seen my share and yet this film still made me wince and turn away from the screen a few times. Takashi Miike has been called the Japanese Quentin Tarantino, but that is an understatement. Miike would've shown in full-glory Mr. Blonde cutting off that tied-up cop's ear. Not just show it but do it up close and replay it in slow-motion. Miike would've shown exactly what was going on behind Marcel Wallace and how he and his homies got medieval on those Klan rednecks. Miike doesn't pull any punches and adds in a kick and a stab and twists the knife just to be sure.
  
  Visitor Q (Bizita Q in Japan) is Miike's take on the nature of violence and sex that has permeated the media with a nod towards reality TV. His film is especially revelant since it was filmed and first shown in Japan. A nation and culture that blames the West for its decadence and immorality when at the same time its entertainment industry churns out anime, manga and films that put Western entertainment to shame, i.e. tentacles and more tentacles.
  
  The plot is simple and straightforward. A failed former TV reporter tries to provide for his family by filming a documentary concerning the effects of violence and sex on the youth of today. The rest of the film from there ends up showing this father's dysfunctional family involved in heavy drug abuse, their indifference to violence around them, incest, necrophilia, and a few other things I don't even know the name for.
  
  Bizita Q is a film that Marquis De Sade would have trouble sitting through. But despite the disturbing images and sequences in this film, Miike does make a good point about the subject of sex and violence in the media and its effect on youth and just people in general. After awhile, those I was watching the film with stopped turning their face from the screen and began watching the film without flinching. This is a film that is definitely not for everybody, but if you are brave enough and have the stomach for it, Miike's film is a good study in gross excess and surrealism in film. He straddles between fine art and extreme exploitation, and after the first few minutes falls on the latter, revels and doesn't apologize.
  
  
• Taboo-incinerating, has all the pieces, but they don't click
  By A2GSVGL9J1PETE on 2003-01-03
  "Visitor Q" crams in every possible perversion of love imaginable and goes full-circle through all of them, from a disintegrating marriage back into maternal and wedded bliss of a sort. We get sadism, masochism, teenage prostitution, adult prostitution, incest, domestic violence,... , drug abuse, murder, rape, necrophilia, cophrophagy, lactation, and, incredibly a happy ending. It's the happy ending that may tick people off the most.

  Why? Probably because Takashi Miike, the director / writer / producer / madman responsible for this (and about 165 OTHER films every year since 1992), isn't just rubbing our noses in ugly behavior for its own sake, but uses it -- and the genre trappings of exploitation/grindhouse cinema -- to make points about his characters. He shows us a father, a failed TV producer, who's trying to recapture his former glory (?) by making a docudrama about "kids these days", except that instead of the usual addled, hopelessly out-of-touch approach, he gets in TOO close. His daughter's a prostitute? He'll go rent her for the hour and record the experience. His son's getting beaten up every day on the way home from school? He'll film that, too. And so on.

  The visitor of the title is a near-mute stranger who gets himself invited into the household (not very subtly, either: he announces his presence by bashing the father over the head with a brick) and slowly becomes a catalyst for change. I won't say how, but lactation figures into it, and before long everyone's one big happy family again. Sort of.

  Curiously, where the movie falls short is not because of its luridness or even in spite of it -- the movie's failings are separate from its material or even its approach. It's a little scattershot and underwritten in places (the stranger is the weakest part of the story), but if you're already a Miike fan, make this part of your collection if only as an example of what the man can do when nobody's standing in his way. If you're a newcomer, try "City of Lost Souls" or (gulp) "Dead or Alive" first. And don't eat anything.
  
  

• Visitor Q
  By A2YOJRRPAL33YR on 2003-06-11
  I happened upon this little masterpiece while visiting my sister in Minneapolis. I saw it at a local art gallery by the name of "The Walker". I think, I was probably the only one out of the three of us who attended in our small group who absolutely loved this film. It was so demented, so twisted, and so unbelievably hilarious, that I began to regret living in Florida, where such films are non-existant. No heavy worded review here, simply a solid thumbs up. If you enjoy cynicism, creatively revamped, and artfully employed... you'll love this film. Its almost like taking every fault you might find with a family, amplifying it to an astounding end, and then just taking a sharp left into insensability. This film has it all, an abusive son who is then bullied by his peers, a lactating mother hooked on heroin, a father who not only delves in necrophelia, but lest we forget incest, and a number of other things. Thats alright however, as everyone is sucking on mummys nipples at the end. Its then you smack yourself in the face with the proverbial hand of understanding, and exclaim... "Oh now I get it". Yeah... its great.
  
  
• hilariously brutal
  By A3AA8MNMIF86E4 on 2006-02-19
  I don't know what the other reviewers are talking about. I am a woman and I LOVE this movie. I laughed all the way through it, even though I felt guilty doing so. People who think this is "pointless shock for the sake of shock" are a bunch of morons. It is original, postmodern, and the writing is brilliant. But, yeah, it's also EXTREMELY f*cked up. But it's f*cked up in such an imaginative and well-written way that places it on a shelf above shockorama stuff. This kind of stuff is the future of art, if you ask me...it's called "Bizarro." Check it out. And if you just don't get it then that's your problem.
  
  
• Evil?
  By A3GVM8ETGMZO3N on 2006-03-05
  I became very interested in the extremity of Miike after catching "Ichi the Killer" on late nite TV and was curious to see what the hype about this movie is about..in my opinion, the danger in this type of cinema is that Miike's lean, sexual real-life persona almost, almost, almost makes this movie excusable because his work is accepted under the mantle of "edgy" (witness how he was treated like a rock star at Cannes!). What is the line in the Bible about the Devil being seductive...?
  
  From the little that I was able to get through, this movie represents the complete opposite of everything that makes us human, and that I fight for every day in my work and personal life...joy, extreme passion, affection, family, love, sexual boundaries transgressed with respect...refusing to accept this movie, or to excuse what he does because it is "a conservative statement" or "a representation of a crumbling society" is an authentic moral statement. Simply that.
  
  Also, because immorality and degredation is presented so straightforwardly, this movie has the danger of making the impossible thinkable, and the next step is considering. No, I haven't slept with a parent, but what if I did...how bad is this, really, and by whose definition...?
  
  C'mon people, wake up!! Treat this movie as what it is, an assualt, as blunt and brutal and wrong as a gunshot wound to the chest. And don't let anyone fool you - this is not an assault on Japanese society alone, but ours as well, and to anyone in any part of the world with decency left in their soul. Miike won't change, but we can. At the very least, be glad you aren't him, and that your brain does not regularly churn out these images and desires. What a jaded, cynical, joyless life he must lead...when everything is imagined, what is there left to look forward to?
  
  
• No cannibalism!
  By A2QNJARWTF9H89 on 2003-06-09
  If you have never seen a a Takasha Miike film, don't make this your first. If you found this movie because some freak like me happened to buy it along with something normal and you got a "customers who bought blank also bought Visitor Q" then click the back button right away!

  As the subject says, there is absolutely no cannibalism in this movie! It has everything else though, including things I never imagined. I bought this movie sight unseen because of who directed it, and until that moment I never realized that I had a complete and total lack of movies about incest, lactational-watersports, and necrophilia. This movie took care of all three in one fell swoop.

  Interestingly, this movie is fairly simple and straightforward compared to movies like Audition, and The Happiness of the Katakuris. I had to watch those movies several times (and if you've never seen Audition you can't imagine how hard that can be) before I felt that I had a grasp of what was going on. Visitor Q is pretty simple: an angel comes to help a dysfunctional family get back together. That said, don't be fooled into complacency! Watch this movie alone first, and then think long and hard about who you plan to show it too

  There are two major annoyances in the film. One is that since it is Japanese, they blur out things that would be perfectly OK in an American movie. The other is that a microphone and a stage-hand are visible in a mirror during a fairly long scene, and they aren't hard to spot either. They must not have had enough budget to reshoot that terrible mistake.
  
  

• Don't Buy This Product
  By A2AMVQU9JJUWP8 on 2006-01-23
  I say not to buy this out of no disrepect for the film, but because i recently bought this very copy from Amazon and the movie was NOT ON THE DVD! It was just a compilation of Japanese previews. If you want to get the movie, by all means, its absolutely outrageous, but get it from somewhwere else.
  
  
• Don't waste your time with this nonsense
  By on 2004-03-06
  Although slightly disturbing and gross, this film is fairly pointless and boring. I love original and somewhat strange films, however this film (despite the ongoing incest and other taboo behavior throughout the film) is senseless and almost boring. In fact I could barely sit through the entire movie, not because it was disturbing, but rather because I was about to fall asleep! I understand the concept completely, but I don't find that it helps in the least...I do agree with one thing in other reviews, the quality of this film is very poor. However I would also add that the acting is also atrocious! Overall, I would never recommend this film to anyone, unless perhaps they were suffering from sleep depravation!
  
  
• Sick sick sick!
  By on 2002-11-05
  Banned in New Zealand, on a recent trip to Japan I decided to buy this disc to entertain my curiosity. Having recently seen the brilliant "Audition" and rather bizarre "The Happiness of the Katakuri's", also by Takashi Miike, I was expecting something totally out of the ordinary and definetely on the extreme boundries of good taste. I was left without any doubt as to why this movie will never see the light of day in many countries.
  "Visitor Q" didn't disappoint. It has to be one of the sickest movies I have EVER seen. Managing to squash in dismemberment, necrophilia, incest, voyeurism, murder, torture and masturbation, Takashi Miike has done everything in his power to offend every part of society. But I couldn't help but laugh at some of the scenes and rather odd jokes, including the scene where mudering a group of bullying schoolboys brings the family so close togehter - smiling fondly at each other while they slay the unfortunate teenagers!
  If you are a huge fan of Japanese cinema, or incredibly strange films in general, then seriously consider adding this unique shocker to your collection. It isn't a brilliant piece of cinema by any stretch of the imagination, but in my opionion a must have for novelty value, although I'm unlikely to ever WANT to watch it again!
  
  
• The horrors of family dysfunction
  By A3G602Z4DWDZKS on 2004-02-10
  When the outside world fails us, whether it's dealing with a crap job day after day or a love life that goes nowhere or rejection in various forms we often turn to our family. For many of us the family is a safety nest, a sanctuary of saneness where we can escape the pressures of every day life. That's why films dealing with the disintegration of the family unit have been so shocking and unfathomable to me. What happens when even our family nest is destroyed and all that we thought was dear is shattered to pieces? I have seen some pretty disturbing cinematic examples in the past, most notably "Cutting Moments" and "Combat Shock" that had me asking the question what if, could this ever happen to me and my family? Takashi Miike takes the concept of family dysfunction to new extremes with Visitor Q.

  Visitor Q examines a Japanese family with more problems than you could shake a stick at. The movie opens up with a young prostitute and a middle-aged man engaging in intercourse in front of a home-video camera. Throughout the act, the man keeps expressing remorse and doubt about what he is doing. Remorse for what, cheating on his wife? Nope, turns out the prostitute is actually his daughter. After this disturbing act that lasts not long, the lady taunts her own father with cries of "early bird!" and charges him 100 000Yen for the act, way more then he can afford. No problem, the girl says just give the rest of the sum to mom once you have it. Incest is the first of many atrocious acts committed by this family. Throughout the course of the movie the viewer is submitted to various scenes of necrophilia and domestic violence. Most bizarre is the young teenaged boy who continuously whips and beats up his mom, a crack addict and herself a prostitute. Mom doesn't seem to mind too much though and even encourages the boy to beat her up even harder as long as it's not on her face.

  Visitor Q has a cheap Snuff-film kind of look to it and I wouldn't be surprised if Miike had filmed this with an 8mm camera, it certainly looks that way. If Miike's sole intent with Visitor Q was to shock the viewer with as many outlandish images as possible than this can be considered a success. However, I found this film to be quite lacking on an emotional level. The family and their disturbing actions are presented in such a hollow way that the viewer doesn't even feel any sympathy towards them. The family members themselves seem to be quite satisfied with their current lifestyles. There is only one exception in the form of a scene where the young woman who works as a prostitute sits on her bed in her room and holds a stuffed animal in her hands. There is a glimmer in her eyes that suggests that better days used to exist for her. It would have been nice to see fragments of the family's past so that we could answer the following questions: Has this family always been this screwed up? If not then what led them to become this way? What is the purpose of them holding a video camera and wanting to tape all of their atrocities? Miike never bothers offering any answers.

  Visitor Q works well as long as it's taken strictly for what it is intended to be: a piece of exploitation filmmaking. It doesn't challenge on any emotional level the way Audition does, it's just a forum to throw as many shocking scenes in the viewer's way. Or is it perhaps meant as a social commentary on the ever-increasing absurdities of reality TV? Or a portrait of the changing dynamics of a Japanese society that has over the last couple of decades increasingly become attuned to the ways of the American models of entertainment and capitalism? It's open to our own interpretation but one thing's for sure, Miike never fails to shock or to challenge.
  
  

• its kinda like the exorcist
  By ALOXMX1VAYSIS on 2006-07-17
  So the first thing you see is this dude doing his daughter and the last thing you see is like that dudes wife spraying her milk across the room and peeing onthe floor like in the Exorcist while that dude is outside in the greenhous like having sex with a dead chick.
  Yeah, its just as good as it sounds. i laughed real hard like the whole time its funnier than Bio Dome, you know. It's like the time when i told my friend to rent bio Dome but he rented some movie called Airplane instead? and i was all "Dude, where's biodome and he was all "airplane's funnier than Bio dome dude" and we watched Airplane and when it was over i was like "dude that was so not funnier than bio dome" and he was all "Shut Up Tad!" and were not freinds anymore.
  Faschcist. I hate fascists.
  
  
• Putting the fun back in dysfunctional!
  By AF1VHA7BVWLO1 on 2006-08-06
  Right of the bat, this movie is not for everyone. It opens with an intertitle announcing nonchalantly, and I quote, "Have you ever f*cked your father?". Seeing this written simply on the screen, you start to look around the theater to try to ascertain other people's reaction. You feel slightly uncomfortable. You wonder if your presence at the movie is a testament of your perversity. As the scene progress and it becomes eminent that this little girl is indeed going to have sex with her father, you feel a genuine unease. You even wonder if other member of the audience will simply stand up and leave... but everyone remains seated. They watch the act play itself out. It looks so real!! Who in the world filmed this? Is this a movie or did it really happened?
  
  Then you realize that the reason nobody left, was that they were all glued in their seat. Frozen. The scene was so intense! And then... the laughter starts. An unsure, reluctant laugh. Should I laugh? Is this funny? Is this sick? Distasteful? Sad? The answer is: this is human nature. Some of us do this. Some never do, but nonetheless have the urge to do some of these things. We are not all as neat, conformist, lawful, respectful, righteous as some might think. We have a dark side. This film shows us this dark side. Simply, honestly, and with great care not to be afraid to go too far.
  
  This film is extremely daring. It depicts acts that are not only illegal and to most (I sincerely hope) immoral, but that are also very passionate and intimately linked to who we are. Seeing this on screen allows us a glimpse into this forbidden world. It is as though we are actually committing these atrocities vicariously, and if not, are at least silent witnesses. But we enjoy it. Yes, why do we enjoy it so much? Because, like it or not, it is part of us, somewhere deep (very deep) inside, we understand these fellow humans.
  
  So behind the shock value and the constant disturbing images thrown at the spectators, there lies a deep analysis of human drives that is quite revealing and to the point. This film is like a case study in a scientific experiment. Between the sex, between the violence, we find the motivations and reasons for this decadence. For some it may require more courage than others, but we owe it to ourselves to watch... to learn.
  
  This film is not as dark as you might imagine it to be. That is what is so surprising about it. The incorporation of humor and absurdity in hateful and abject displays. The situations are in fact quite funny, even hilarious. The people are real persons that you might even come to like. The story is somewhat sweet, heartfelt. So come in open-minded, let go of your inhibitions, of your own self-censorship, and enjoy it!! Laugh, cry, let your stomach turn a little and feel like you've experienced something never before experienced. This is what novelty is all about.
  
  The first scene is just the tip of the iceberg compared to the rest of the movie, but I would spoil the fun by telling you what you are about to see, just go ahead and see it. Expect nothing. Expect anything.
  
  
  
• More touching than twisted...
  By A2T4TEYA7QQLMG on 2006-10-24
  The plot is a simple family drama. The father feels like a failure. The daughter is a depressed runaway. The younger brother is bullied and resents his family for not caring. The mother (the center of the family, and the one with the power to bring them all together) feels empty and unloved. A mysterious young man follows the father home one day and silently observes the family throughout their misadventures. He is the catalyst for change. He is Visitor Q.
  
  In reading the reviews of Visitor Q there seems to be two camps; those that like the movie and love this "sick" family, and those that don't like it because they don't get it. I'm suprised that both points of view seem to be taking this movie at face value. The way I see it, the "twisted" acts portrayed in the movie are not real, but are actually exaggerated metapors of what the characters feel and struggle with.
  
  In one scene, the younger brother who is constantly bullied (again, in a manner that is over the top and "unreal"), is having dinner with the rest of the family. The bullies are outside the house yelling and screaming at him. Eventually they launch fireworks into the house and almost set the place a blaze. The family just sits there nonchalantly eating and passing around food. This is not real. It is a metaphor showing how the family is unconcerned with the brother's struggle with the bullies.
  
  The interesting thing (and I think the root of all the confusion) is the way Miike shot this film. It's shot digital with lots of handheld shots, giving it a shockingly objective, almost documentary feel. I think this causes viewers to accept what they see, and either laugh or turn away in disgust, instead of breaking it down in order to find the real meaning. In other words, the family is real, the emotions are real, the drama is real, the extreme acts are metaphors.
  
  So then why does this movie contain drug use, necrophilia, incest, prostitution, violence and a couple of murders? And why are these things treated nonchalantly by seemingly normal, middle class people? Well like I said I believe they are metaphors, but I also think Miike is making a cultural statement. In a time of so much cynicism, desensitization, and commercial sex and violence, basic family values can and must be held sacred.
  
  There are some disturbing scenes in this movie. There are some wacky humerous scenes aswell. Despite all of this, Miike has somehow made a truly heartfelt movie about the importance of family. You want this family to work. You want to see them smile. And when they finally do, you'll be happy you stuck it out with them.
  
  
• jap cult classic
  By A2UHTC88FV7BM4 on 2004-03-30
  Beginning scene OK but annoying. First hour, not that impressed. Then, the last 45 minutes is F***in crasy. The director seems to put necrophilia, rape, murder, drug use, incest, and lactation all in the grand finale. This is a must have for Jap Cult Classic collectors if for anything, to watch people look at you funny, when you tell them about this Import movie you saw.
  
  
• A thoughtful documentary on Japanese culture.
  By ADQQE8RSV6KFP on 2004-11-21
  This is a thoughtful documentary on Japanese culture.
  
  While the movie only shows the most basic everyday interactions of a Japanese family, it still manages to compell as Japanese family structure, interaction and culture happen to be quite different from our Western culture and traditions.
  
  This documentary has been unfairly maligned by many American reviewers as shocking and perverse. I am very saddened to know that many of us in the United States would malign other peoples without reason. We should be more open minded and be sensitive to the fact that what we are viewing can not be called immoral simply for the fact that it is different from our own culture.
  
  If you can expand your horizons and get past the small Western world view of family structure and traditions, you will find the typical Japanese family, as depicted in this documentary, is rich in valuable culture and traditions and is as deserving to be celebrated as our own.
  
  Thank you Takashi Miike for your reaching the hand of friendship across the seas and introducing us to this rich rewarding view of the typical Japanese family.
  
  
• NO STARS!!!
  By A19HDZR0MZYAXO on 2005-10-14
  Takashi Miike should be serving time for his films. Plain and simple.
  
  Yeah, I should've known what I was getting into after Audition & Ichi the Killer. This one takes the cake though. If you want to be a lesser human being, by all means watch, rent and/or buy this movie. Otherwise, I'd stay far, far away from it.
  
  
  
• Beware. Really. Trust me, you need to be warned.
  By A2YRHIJGRGMB6Q on 2006-11-30
  It took several visits to this film before I finished watching it. There is a reason why it took so long, and it is not just because I am too busy.
  First: I like Takashi Miike's films, at least the ones I've seen. Loved Audition. Thought Ichi The Killer was quite remarkable. Dead or Alive--it pushed the envelope but was enjoyable, especially if taken as a depiction of a modern day Sodom and Gomorrah.
  But Visitor Q I found disturbing, and not often in a good sense.
  The film, shot on video to resemble the video productions of its protagonist, tells the story of the profound disintegration of the protagonist, along with his family. The film begins with him paying for sex with his own daughter, and moves down (or up, depending on your point of view) from there. His son beats the protagonist's wife, his mother, mercilessly. In turn, the son is beaten by his friends. The mother prostitutes herself to get heroin for herself.
  Frankly, it started to feel just too ugly for me. And I can handle violence. But this was nasty. I wondered what the point was, but it was unclear that there was any point but to force the viewer to wallow in the degredation. As such, the film is a satire on reality shows, yes. But did it have to make me feel so dirty?
  I kept thinking: it's me. This is the same director who did Audition, a beautifully crafted thriller with a lot to say. Some of the same points are made in Visitor Q. But I could not escape the feeling that Miike was rubbing not just my nose in it, but my face in it, then my whole body.
  SPOILER:
  The ending has the protagonist killing a former lover when she criticizes him, then having sex with her body. Then more sex with her body. Then his wife shoots him up with heroin while he's...you get the idea. Then he and his wife, in the spirit of family togetherness, kill the boys who are tormenting their son.
  Frankly, it feels just plain sick.
  And this from me, who thinks that The Wild Bunch could have gone a lot farther.
  So, please be warned. This is not typical Miike, at least not from what I have seen of his work. It is nasty, unpleasant. It is beyond grim, if you think at all about it.
  Instead, buy The Bird People In China. Entertainment should be somehow uplifting, should it not?
  If there was 'redemption' in this film, as one person has tagged it, then I missed the redemption. It was hard to find the antics of the family 'sexy'.
  Beware, folks!
  
  
• Well, that was lovely...
  By A6DOCZ10B7JAJ on 2007-09-30
  Are you kidding me? This is so awesomely sick! I gotta drink a beer with Takashi Miike someday. Or sake, or whatever, that guy is way too cool.
  Here is the most twisted, deranged, sick, offensive, bizzarre films ever. It even has a dark, unsettling humor where you might be embarrassed that you just laughed.
  Not a lot of brutal murder shots in this one, Miike tries to come up with the sickest stuff imaginable just for kicks. It's packed with--no wait, it's better you have no prewarning. Just buy this film, watch it, love it!
  
  Did I mention that it's sick?
  
  
• absolute rubbish! More trash for your cash...
  By A30W4Q3T7K1LYN on 2004-07-21
  After viewing this- dare I call it- film, I realized that anyone with a camera and willingness to do anything to shock the audience can be considered talented. If you have 84 minutes or more to waste on a tasteless, vile, and cartoonish portrayal of a dysfunctional family of miscreants- look no further. To call Takeshi Miike's film a masterpiece is absurd. To even mention him in the same breath as Goodard, Kubrick, or Kurosawa is pointless. At least the low budget horror directors from the Drive-In days knew what they were creating- cheap thrills and quick revenue. If your idea of a great film consists of watching family members fornicate, lactate, masturbate, and mutilate one another- This ones for you! If Takeshi wants to be daring he should try removing the computer generated bars during the sex scenes. No genitals but fornicating with a dead girl- no problem.
  Sounds like a frustrated response to censorship. To compare this to art is like saying anyone with a spray can and little imagination deserves to hang in the MOMA. No wonder there are so many horrible guerrilla film makers out there. Even Andy Warhol knew better- 15 minutes is all you get...Save your money.
  
  
• Total trash
  By A3M3LG6NPRVSH6 on 2004-12-13
  How can anyone watch this? Surely only the most braindead people would want to see it. Too cruel to be funny and too cheap and trashy to be considered art. Maybe the audience for this is the same one for Jackass. Those people think a bottle rocket up the [...] is funny. I'm not a prude either but this is garbage. If you want to see a great Takashi Miike film - see Audition. That was a work of art and scary as hell.
  
  
• One of the most metaphorical works of Takashi Miike.
  By A39Z0L6HYG9UND on 2005-09-26
  One of the most metaphorical works of Takashi Miike. Is not only about the Japan everybody knows but nobody talks; its also about the concept of modern society itself.
  Amazingly disturber.
  
  
• Fun for the whole family
  By A1XTCBK96T6MSL on 2005-11-03
  This has to be the most outrageous and funnist movie I have ever seen. I think that the only taboo that wasn't covered was bestiality - maybe Takashi Miike's next movie. And to think that this film was actually shown on television in Japan - which I suppose is why (at least in my NR-version of the film) genitals were blurred out. Makes you wonder what type of subject matter the Japanese would consider as poor taste or out of bounds. In the U.S. this movie wouldn't even make it past the ratings board without getting an X rating. Some of the other reviewers wrote thorough enough synopses, so I won't repeat all that. I'll just say what I liked about the movie.
  
  For one one thing I liked the way the movie keeps you off balance. As soon as you think you've got a line on what's happening the next scene knocks everything out of wack. For example the young son repeatedly beats his mother (while his father just ignores the situation) but as soon as the boy is alone in his bedroom or on his way to school, we learn that he is being abused by a group of bullies. The mother's seduction scene with the visitor turns into - well you just have to see it to believe it. Let's just say that you will never look at a mother nursing her baby the same way again. I have to say the funniest scene takes place in the kitchen when the visitor goes to the mother to ask for a plastic garbage bag (to put the body parts belonging to the young lady that the father plans to dismember) - again, words just cannot describe the scene. I swear my jaw dropped opened more than once.
  
  I don't look at movies like this and try to find some deeper meaning. I find that distracts from the enjoyment of the movie. I just want to sit back and be entertained - and I was.
  
  
• have you ever...spent circa 90 mins shaking your head in disbelief?
  By A1AAL85WM0ECPD on 2006-05-14
  as an evertonian the answer is, sadly, more times than i care to remember. this was the first film to elicit the same response though.
  i'm familiar with a few of miike's films (audition being the pick of those i've seen) but have never been subjected to seing nearly every taboo being touched upon (actually prodded - and none too gently - might be more appropriate word), and it's not for the want of trying on my part either. drugs, , incest, necrophilia as well as self abuse (no, not that kind!) and domestic violence.
  the film is blackly comic throughout, as well as bizarre. the plot has been summed up better by other reviewers but my own take is that the nameless character (dubbed visitor q) comes to destroy a family, for reaons not revealed. finding that there's in fact nothing to destroy (they seem to be doing fine without him), instead his presence ends up binding the family together through necrophilia and murder. which is some going as the father would show/ endure anything just to get on tv (witness his 'interview' with the 'youth of today'), the daughter is a prostitute (with 'early bird' specials!), the son is being bullied at school and in turn beats up his mother (while father looks on), who pleads that he doesn't touch her face, cos she needs to keep her looks in order to turn tricks to support her drug habit. the dialogue between the father and visitor q never rises beyond the banal ('i'm off to bed', 'goodnight then'). the galvanising effect of the vistor's presence gradually draws the family together through one means or another (funniest line is probably after the second(!) lactation scene, when the father mutters "she hasn't been this competent since we got married").
  it's has mentioned what actors are prepared to be put through for their art, and i must single out the mother for special praise. one of the most excrutiating scenes sees her with a client being intimately examined and then whipping the client at his request - she complies of course but every movement shows how he might be getting something from it, but she isn't. then there's the whole lactation thing...
  one of the characters says very early on that the children are the future of japan. from what i've seen and read whatever opinions we may have of the japanese (salaryman etc), they are capable of being as dysfunctional as everyone else, thanks for asking.
  
  
• The Worst movie I've ever seen
  By on 2004-05-29
  I must say, Takashi Miike; the director of this film is a very disturbed individual. I feel like this was made only to shock and disgust people. other than that, there's absolutely nothing to it. From a Japanese female point of view, I was very offended and disgusted by the story. This film is SICK - I would not recommend it.
  
  
• WELL... I DON'T KNOW
  By A2UKC6QFG9L5GV on 2005-08-30
  I rented this film in hope Miike would shock me. I like shocking movies and like to be shocked. Well, this is not the most shocking flick ever, not even in "shocking top 10", although I reached my goal - I was rather impressed but not terrified. If you just want to see it as one of the "taboo-breaking", exploitative movies - go ahead, it's exactly one of them. If you want to find some deeper meaning - it's also one of those with deeper meaning. Entertainment and philosophy - two in one.
  Seems like an average japanese family where:
  Father copulates with his own daughter
  Mother is a drug addict
  Son beats his mother
  Daughter works as a hooker
  Some stranger comes to live in their house and many odd things happen: father shoots on camcorder his son being bullied by school-mates, mother and the stranger find pleasure in her enormous lactation, in the end everyone takes his own part in an act of necrophilia and so on...
  It all may seem gross and disgusting but at the same time it's funny. It's absurd as life itself, it's about modern family and loneliness. Well, maybe if Todd Solondz were japanese he'd made such a film.
  So it's not that bad - everyone will find something to his own taste, but also not that good - "Irreversible" or "Audition" are more gross and there are movies that are far more metaphysical.
  Proceed at your own risk.
  
  

• Audition (Uncut Special Edition)
• Ichi the Killer (Unrated Edition)
• Gozu
• Battle Royale Directors Cut
• Oldboy