Review of Sun Scarred

As much as I love ‘holy fuck, what was that?’ Miike, I often find his calmer, more reflective, films to be his best. Sun Scarred has very few of the transgressive moments that you normally associate with Miike, but it’s bubbling and broiling with ideas.

The movies focuses on a Salaryman called Mr. Katayama who comes to the aid of a person being violently beaten by a juvenile gang. Scaring most of the gang away he ends up in a one on one fight with the gangs leader and ends up beating the shit out of the kid.

From this point onwards Katayama’s life falls apart as the kid, released quickly from custody, murders Katayama’s young daughter and is then enveloped by the protection of the legal system.

The film should be a Death Wish/Death Sentence style revenge thriller, but Miike dials down the violence and only indulges in it in the opening ten and closing ten minutes. The majority of the film is spent with Katayama as he deals with the fallout of his heroism and becomes more embroiled in his need for vengeance.

What Miike does with the film is make us actively route for Katayama to brutally murder some kids. Throughout the film Miike casts a sneering eye at the way the media spins the story and the way the justice system seems to protect children from any wrong doing and as such you’re supposed to be completely invested when Katayama’s desire for vengeance transmogrifies into something physical and visceral. Miike treats the kids as essentially feral and almost nihilistic, kind of indulging in shocking acts of violence because it’s something to do. Meanwhile Miike keeps the story closely hung around Katayama, making us feel bitterly close to his life as it spins out of control. There are a couple of fantastic visual moments in the film, wind-screen wipers scraping blood from a wind as a camera zooms in on Katayama and an entire section shot in black and white as Katayama essentially becomes dead inside, but it’s a surprisingly restrained film from Miike.