MIIKE MADE ME DO IT

It's not an Asian movie, but I went to see Eli Roth's HOSTEL last night - his follow-up horror movie to CABIN FEVER - and the smell of Takashi Miike filled the theater. Claiming that he felt the US had ceded its duty to make disturbing horror movies to directors from Japan and South Korea, Roth said that SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE and a Thai website were his two direct inspirations for this exceedingly graphic, exceedingly gory, but deeply satisfying flick about Americans backpacking in Europe who discover that there're worse things to get than crabs.

Takashi Miike himself has a cameo in the movie as a businessman coming out of a sick art exhibit, earning a round of applause from the depraved Canadian audience. During the Q&A after the film when the cast was asked what movies had ever disturbed them, the two male leads instantly replied, "Ichi the Killer" and "Visitor Q". Of course the female lead's answer "Herbie: Fully Loaded" only showed that maybe America hasn't entirely left making disturbing movies up to Japan, after all.