In the article series Sound and Vision we take a look at music videos from notable directors. This week we look at Koji Kikkawa's Pandora, directed by Takashi Miike.
Takashi Miike has directed over a hundred movies, but to my knowledge he only directed three music videos, all for Koji Kikkawa, the musician who also starred as an actor in Miike-films like The Guys From Paradise and The City of Lost Souls. In the latter movie, Kikkawa's character is called Fushumi. In a nod to that character Miike made a trifecta of music videos starring a character called Fushimi Jet, all in a series of ongoing adventures. The first one, Pandora, is a jidaigeki piece, in which Kikkawa plays a samurai; the second is called The Gundogs, and is set in the yakuza milieu of the 70's; and the third is called Koi no jerîfisshu, of which i could find no reliable information on the content.
That is the problem for these music videos: only Pandora can be found online, and was even offline for a time while I was researching this Sound and Vision. The other music videos are not available, and the information on them is scant. Even film scholar Tom Mes, whose Agitator and Re-Agitator are the end-all when it comes to researching Miike's body of work, provides very little information on The Gundogs besides what i've mentioned here, and leaves out Koi no jerîfisshu all together.
Which is kinda sad, cause Pandora leaves the audience wanting more. The music video starts with a hand-animated prologue, set in Cuba. According to Agitator, this was to cut costs, as a hand drawn architectural site in South-America is cheaper than building a set in a similar locale. It sets the tone, though, for what is to come, a crazy amalgam of styles. Ostensibly, what we are watching is a silent film reel, unearthed at this historical dig-site. To make it somewhat believably silent cinema (but only so much so) Miike uses intertitles for some exclamations of the villains. Otherwise it never bothers to really stick to that premise, having sound effects in there, as well as a lot of colorful CGI-infused footage.
It is an everything and the kitchensink kinda video, where Kikkawa battles a bunch of graverobbers, until he has to fight a giant praying mantis. There are also flying saucers involved. It plays a lot like a blend of Miike's own 13 Assassins and Zebraman. Still, there is not much to it besides some good action sequences: what you see is what you get, a lot of fun nonsense. Miike has done finer genreblends, especially around this era, where he uses the go-for-broke mentality to comment on some real issues, or depict his characters with some emotional gravitas. But for fans of Miike, this serves as a good appetizer, where a lot of what he does well is there, in short form. Miike might have made only less than a handful of music videos, Pandora shows he is also quite skilled in this department. Here's hoping The Gundogs and Koi no jerîfisshu will also show up online some day.