If you think your family has problems, you should meet the Yamazaki clan. Kiyoshi (Kenichi Endo) is a TV journalist, whose shame about being sexually humiliated by a gang of thugs live on air has left him deeply disturbed; he now pays for sex with his daughter (Fujiko), who has run away from home and become a hooker. His wife Keiko (Shungiku Uchida) is a heroin addict who also works as a part-time whore, selling her body to pay for her habit. She is savagely beaten every day by their son Takuya (Jun Mutô), who himself is the target of a gang of vicious bullies at school. Into the midst of the family comes a mysterious visitor...
In a filmography filled with some seriously fucked-up delights, Visitor Q stands out as perhaps Takaski Miike's most comprehensively offensive film. It doesn't push the envelope quite as far as Ichi the Killer in terms of violence towards women, but more than compensates by ladling on the spraying bodily fluids, rape, murder, anal humiliation and necrophilia. The visitor – a cool, spikey-haired young man played by Kazushi Watanabe – is invited into this most dysfunctional of families after he whacks Kiyoshi over the head with a rock. At first he's a silent observer to the crazed goings on in their little house, nonchalantly eating noodles while Takuya kicks the shit out of Keiko, but soon begins to change them for the better. He helps Keiko reach a new level of sexual satisfaction by stimulating her breasts to such an extent they start spraying milk – one scene sees him sitting in the kitchen with an umbrella while lactic juice rains down around him. As a result, Keiko starts standing up to her son and rediscovers her love for her downtrodden husband.
It's poor old Kiyoshi that gets the film's most controversial scenes however – after raping the TV producer who rejects his idea for a show (which would follow Takuya as the bullies continue to torment him), he strangles her and takes her corpse home. Dumping her body in a greenhouse, Kiyoshi starts to fuck her... and if you thought that was bad enough, wait till the corpse shits itself! Or better still, the moment when rigor mortis sets in and Kiyoshi realises his dick is trapped inside her. Harry Potter this ain't!
Visitor Q feels like a demented sitcom and is arguably a satire on the modern Japanese family, although the message is somewhat overwhelmed by Miike's eagerness to shock. Shot on garish digital video (and frequently cutting to the ever-present camcorder in Kiyoshi's hand), it's uncomfortable viewing, but Kenichi Endo's hilariously crazed lead performance makes for some undeniably funny scenes and there’s a strangely moving ending. You'll know if you wanna watch it.
Japan’s most controversial director, notorious for his dauntingly prolific output and willingness to push the boundaries of taste. Miike started working as an assistant director in the late 80s, before moving into making straight-to-video thrillers in 1991. He made his feature debut in 1995 with the violent cop thriller Shinjuku Triad Society, and since then has averaged around seven films year.
