Fantasia 2025: 'Blazing Fists' Movie Review

Blazing Fists is a much more manageable title for prolific Japanese director Takashi Miike’s new film, which is also known as Blue Fight: The Breaking Down of Young Blue Warriors. That’s a mouthful. Whatever you call it, this is a fairly straightforward action drama about young men using sports, mixed martial arts in this case, to rise above meager circumstances. But don’t worry, this is still Miike, so it also has biker gangs, violence, oddball flourishes, and a sardonic crime boss bored with the world in a casual, terrifying way.

Fantasia 2025: 10 Movies To See

It’s time once again for one of our favorite events of the year, Fantasia Fest, also known as the world’s largest genre film festival. Running from Wednesday, July 16 through Sunday, August 3, the schedule is, as always, bursting at the seams with all manner of horror, action, sci-fi, and other assorted cinematic goodness.

SIFF 2025: 'Chain Reactions' Capsule Review

Documentarian Alexandre O. Philippe has delved into Alien, the shower scene in Psycho, David Lynch, and more. In Chain Reactions, he focuses on The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, this time via extended interviews with Patton Oswalt, Takashi Miike, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Stephen King, and Karyn Kusama. Each shares their interpretations and experiences with the iconic film, honing in on legacy and influence.

'First Love' (2019) Movie Review

If you didn’t know you were watching a Takashi Miike movie, the severed head rolling down the street, coming to a stop, and blinking at you with an opened-mouthed silent scream less than three minutes into First Love should be a tip off. True to form, and the uber-prolific Japanese director works in maybe his truest form here, First Love is down and dirty, violent, and weird as all hell. Wouldn’t have a Takashi Miike movie any other way. But he also delivers his version of a dark, twisted, mean-spirited romantic comedy. Which means, of course, it’s the most badass rom-com you’ve ever seen.

'Blade Of The Immortal' Trailer: Takashi Miike's 100th Movie Looks Appropriately Nuts

Does Takeshi Miike sleep? He must as some point, but it can’t be all that much, the guy is busy. The gonzo Japanese auteur of the outrageous has directed 100 movies. That’s insane. His hundredth, Blade of the Immortal, screens at Fantastic Fest next month and just dropped an appropriately loony new trailer.

'Yakuza Apocalypse': Watch The Insane New Trailer For Takashi Miike's Vampire Gangster Opus

If I told you any Japanese filmmaker made a yakuza vampire movie, most of you would probably guess it came from Takashi Miike. And you would be right. The prolific auteur of mayhem’s latest, YakuzaApocalypse, is coming, and just dropped an insane new trailer. Check it out below.

This Trailer For Takashi Miike's Vampire Gangster Joint 'Yakuza Apocalypse' Is Insane

When you think of the Cannes Film Festival, you generally think of the prestigious international pictures we’ll be talking about over the next year. That’s a bit different this time around as George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road will premiere at the 2015 fest. But the strangest, most hair-singeing film promises to be Takashi Miike’s Yakuza Apocalypse: The Great War of the Underworld, and this new trailer shows off a movie that’s even more bizarre than the title indicates.

Takashi Miike's 'Yakuza Apocalypse' Looks Totally Nuts In This New Trailer

Leave it to Takashi Miike to deliver a gangster vampire flick, which appears to be exactly what he’s done with his latest underworld opus, Yakuza Apocalypse, which has dropped this quick new preview on the world. (It might actually be two, I’m not sure.. Is that a furry with a lightsaber at the end? What the hell is going on here? I’m not entirely sure, but goddamn I can’t wait to find out. Then again, this is the guy who put a poorly computer animated cockfight in City of Lost Souls, so nothing should surprise you at this point.