Takashi Miike never had the look of a man who’d reach 100 films. Rather, he had the look of a man who’d one day spontaneously combust behind the camera while filming a yakuza cheese-wiring off someone’s foot. Yet here he comes, the respected auteur, with his centennial film Blade of the Immortal; another recent work of the one-time provocateur swearing allegiance to that most orthodox of Japanese traditions, the samurai film. Even if his version of orthodox features the odd lute that converts into a gnarly nunchucks staff.
With Blade of the Immortal, Miike inches closer to the top of the list of cinema’s most prolific directors. He will probably have outstripped his countryman Kenji Mizoguchi (101) by the time you reach the end of this paragraph. But a few more gonzo