THE MOLE SONG – UNDERCOVER AGENT REIJI (Mogura no uta – Sennyû sôsakan: Reiji, 2013)

Japan. Direction: Takashi Miike. Production: Juichi Uehara, Misako Saka, Shigeji Maeda / Fuji Television Network, Shogakukan, J Storm, Toho, OLM, Shogakukan. Screenplay: Kankuro Kudo. Photography: Nobuyasu Kita. Music: Koji Endo. Edition: Kenji Yamashita. Cast: Toma Ikuta, Riisa Naka, Takayuki Yamada, Yusuke Kamiji, Takashi Okamura. Running time: 130 min

LANGUAGE: Japanese / SUBTITLES: English, Spanish

Health, glory and devotion to Reiji, newly arrived rookie cop (he was even expelled from Police Academy), “undercover” hero and ditto much to his distaste of the manga Mogura no uta. Health, honour and loyalty to Takashi Miike, as controversial as he is prolific and astonishing, creator of Ichi the Killer (2001) and of the impeccably implacable Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai (2011), as much loved in Cannes as others adore his Zebraman (2004). This, his latest movie, left the Rome Festival with its colour, step and speed sorely affected and it had a brush with hell in Sitges. Once again, in this unencompassable mess and clash between yakuzas and cops, Miike refuses to accept that Cinema, Death, Explosions, Evil and mad Laughter can have their limits. And the art directing, hairdressing and costumes in the movie are nothing short of trendy brilliance.