As the Gods Will (Takashi Miike) from Funimation June 5th 2018

[DukeTogo84]

Glad this is getting a release.

Hope for more Miike on Blu-ray soon!

Love the cover as well.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...3f6608eb591437

[BrentLW]

Good. I've been wanting to see this. But not $35 worth

[themp3000]

Originally Posted by BrentLW

Good. I've been wanting to see this. But not $35 worth

That’s SRP, it’ll get discounted. It always does.

[lolwut]

Lesson of Evil was great, so I'm definitely in for this.

[cardiac161]

Thanks for this info! I saw this film months ago and definitely captures Miike's comical quirkiness combined with bloody violence as he is knows for. Definitely in!

[BrentLW]

I just got it today as a free rental at Family Video. A great movie. It's already available to buy used at my local store, but if I buy it I want the DVD and digital too.

[Kakihara]

Really solid Miike...don't get why very little mention of it here nor any reviews of the disc itself.

[prkchopexpress]

I think his prolific output causes a lot of things to get lost in the shuffle. but this movie is awesome and fun and bonkers.

[Takuma]

This is what I wrote about the film back in 2014:

Just came back from seeing As the Gods Will. It was alright, not great but not so bad either.

The good: It’s a kind of fun concept; the opening especially is effective. There are imaginative moments throughout the film. There’s a lot of CGI is but it’s very well made. At times I wasn’t sure if it was hand-drawn animation or CGI imitating the style of hand-drawn animation. Visually the film is solid; not quite as good looking as Lesson of Evil, but still solid.

The bad: while it’s a fun concept, it’s very repetitive. Almost 2 hours is too much for this. Also, most of the cast is pretty terrible. Again, Lesson of Evil is a good comparison. That film had pretty slim characters played popular young stars, but many of them were decent actors. Here we have mostly pretty faces with rather non-existent acting skills. We also have some character drama that really doesn’t work with in this mix. Furthermore, it seems like they were aiming at pg-12 but accidentally got R-15. Lots of exploding heads and some severed limbs, but mostly off-screen.

Overall: it’s an entertaining-enough one time watch, but it kind of feels like a Noboru Iguchi film made a bit more professionally. The best way to see the film is certainly without knowing anything about it, like I did, meaning don’t watch the trailer! That being said, the trailer is a very honest representation of the film; so, that’s exactly what you will be getting.

[logboy]

Originally Posted by Kakihara

Really solid Miike...don't get why very little mention of it here nor any reviews of the disc itself.

a lot of drop-off in the interest in miike in more recent years.

might be a considered either too obvious or too familiar or just kind of old school by now, for the crowd that was largely buying into it at the peak, 10-15 years ago.

Originally Posted by prkchopexpress

I think his prolific output causes a lot of things to get lost in the shuffle. but this movie is awesome and fun and bonkers.

nowhere nearly as prolific now as he once was. at most, perhaps six films a year at his height - with the amount japan makes on the whole, people managed to find his stuff pretty easily.

i think there's a general lack of reviews around for new disc releases - very noticeable here in recent years, made me think quite often that they're not getting discs to review or just not buying them very often maybe?

looking at the price of this film's belated USA disc, it's very expensive. have a feeling it's lateness is also affected by licensing fees which are often overly optimistic and restrictive on conditions on timing against japanese discs. this films a few years old (?) but i can see some company's holding out in the hope of a drop in the asking price.

[Takuma]

Originally Posted by logboy

might be a considered either too obvious or too familiar or just kind of old school by now, for the crowd that was largely buying into it at the peak, 10-15 years ago.

I think it's pretty obvious. 15-20 years ago he was making crazy films like Ichi the Killer, Dead or Alive and Gozu.

Now he's one of the biggest mainstream directors in Japan and making mainly pg-12 films starring idols and pop stars.

No wonder the interest went away.

[DukeTogo84]

Originally Posted by Takuma

I think it's pretty obvious. 15-20 years ago he was making crazy films like Ichi the Killer, Dead or Alive and Gozu.

Now he's one of the biggest mainstream directors in Japan and making mainly pg-12 films starring idols and pop stars.

No wonder the interest went away.

Not sure what happened. Did the market dry up for the type of films he would make? I do miss the old Miike for sure. Give the guy a tiny budget, so of his core actors, and you have a good chance it will be great. I wish he would step away from a lot of the young pop idol actors.

However, I have enjoyed some of his mainstream films. 13 Assassins was fantastic, and Blade of the Immortal had its moments.

Yakuza Apocalypse was Miike trying to be Miike, but it didn't feel quite the same, but it really was the closest we have gotten to the old school Miike.

[Ruined]

I thought this was a great film, really a must see. One that is very unique and will stick with me for a long time!

[Takuma]

Originally Posted by DukeTogo84

Not sure what happened. Did the market dry up for the type of films he would make? .

I think he just started getting offers for mainstream films which had 5x the budget he has used to, and decided that's a better way of making a living.

Or he grew old.

Maybe both.

As for the market, we have to remember that was a small market to begin with. Some random geeks and V-Cinema fans in Japan, the festival circuit abroad. He was probably more popular abroad than in Japan. Now the situation has reversed of course with him making films for Japanese mainstream audiences and teens. Sort of ironic.

[Kakihara]

So, is Squid Game a ripoff of this film? I've seen (and liked the movie) but haven't seen the Korean series. Is it suspect like The Hunger Games to Battle Royale?