This is why I love Miike.

I bought into to it all. The backlash that swirled around after Takashi Miike's ascendancy to preferred Japanese 'cult' director status. This was topped off by his fucking annoying cameo in "Hostel" or maybe more like his cameo in fucking "Hostel", annoying! I labored through some of his less inspired efforts like "Gozu" and "Dead or Alive" and his horrible casting choices like "Sukiyaki Western Django" and Taran...shit, can't even bring myself to write that one down.

Well, I got a good reminder of why I like the man so much courtesy of something I avoided for the longest time. His "Masters of Horror" episode "Imprint" is fucking fantastic. I'll put it right next to "Fudoh" , "Audition" and "Ichi the Killer" as a favorite. All the things I love about the man's work are present, a story that puzzles and places odd framing on character motivations, inappropriate moments of humor, and shock for the sake of shock. Oh and the choice to dust off Billy Drago and have him play the lead.

So, if you like his work at all and you haven't checked this one out, delay no longer. Of course it's not perfect, it's Takashi Miike, but taking the great with the 'what the fuck?' is a good portion of the fun .