Visitor Q (Bijita Q, Takashi Miike, 2000, Japan)

An ultra-dysfunctional middle-class family lies in ruins. The father and son are bullied by co-workers and schoolmates. The mother has developed a drug dependency due to pain and loss of intimacy with the rest of the family. The daughter has all but left home and become a prostitute. And then a complete stranger only referred to as Q enters their life and home by violent means and starts disrupting their lives. His aim seems to be to the resurruction of the family rather than it's disruption. This film is extreme, rough and frankly rather sick. But it has a message and point to make that is very relevant.

The movie was made for less than 1M $ and shot with a digital camera, which adds to the home documentary home movie feel and this highly provocative film may go down as controversial director Miike´s masterpiece. This film is not a parody where the family unit is being mocked, but rather an extreme expression of how the classic family unit is going exctinct (in modern Japan).

Takashi Miike is a work-horse. He averages around five films a year and more than a few of them are noted for violence and extremism. To name a few he's made Audition, Ichi the Killer, Happiness of the Katakuris and the yakuza epic Dead or Alive. His latest film is now in post-production and will be released this spring, shot in english and Quentin Tarantino has a role in the film. The film, Sukiyaki Western Django, takes place in medieval Japan and is said reminiscent of Yojimbo, A Fistful of Dollars and Django (Kinofill showed Django last november).