The Mole Song 2 (Takashi Miike, 2016)

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Guro Taku
King of Beggars
Posts: 658
Joined: 29 Apr 2014, 16:37

The Mole Song 2 (Takashi Miike, 2016)

Post by Guro Taku »

Miike has a new flick coming out in 2 weeks (December 23rd) and I don't think I've read anything about it anywhere yet. It's a sequel to his 2013 effort THE MOLE SONG (土竜の唄), which got some festival play but never hit English friendly DVD as far as I know. It must have been successful in Japan though, because why give it a decently budgeted (by the looks of it) sequel if it wasn't? Can't say I enjoyed the original all that much but I'll probably give this a chance eventually. Trailer doesn't make it look too terrible if you can deal with its manga-based silliness:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOOxw-vF-jE

And the teaser:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctPXuqm9640
Guro Taku
King of Beggars
Posts: 658
Joined: 29 Apr 2014, 16:37

Re: The Mole Song 2 (Takashi Miike, 2016)

Post by Guro Taku »

DVD/BD comes out June 14th. Japanese subs only.

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The film was surprisingly well reviewed in both Variety and the Japan Times and enjoyed some festival play at IFFR.
Guro Taku
King of Beggars
Posts: 658
Joined: 29 Apr 2014, 16:37

Re: The Mole Song 2 (Takashi Miike, 2016)

Post by Guro Taku »

I'd say the sequel is an improvement over the original as this time around the relative darkness of the story (concerning a human trafficking ring) is a nice contrast to the wacky cat and squirrel yakuza clans and grade school level sexual humor. I also kind of like this stylized yakuza world where everybody dresses as garishly as Kakihara in ICHI THE KILLER. Maybe it's because this was the third Miike I watched in as many days but the bloat was most noticeable with this one. Had the running time been 90 minutes instead of 2+ hours I'd probably even consider watching this again sometime, if only for the scene in which the head of the squirrel yakuzas sexually molests the daughter of another yakuza clan with a sock puppet.
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