Terrific Terracotta V: Milocrorze, A Love Story (Mirokurôze / ミロクローゼ)

Film: Milocrorze, A Love Story (Mirokurôze / ミロクローゼ)

Year: 2011

Writer/Director: Yoshimasa Ishibashi

Venue: Prince Charles Cinema, London

Further Info: http://www.princecharlescinema.com/

**UK PREMIERE**

Cast:

Mieko Harada

Anna Ishibashi

Maiko

Eiji Okuda

Seijun Suzuki

Takayuki Yamada

Megumi Sato

Mayuko Iwasa

Keiji Mutoh

Kaori Tsubaki

Syo Oyamada

For the following and final offering, for both myself and the festival itself I had given it the highest marks, compared to all others I’d provided. I believe I gave it a ‘10’. They say this story of varying parts is overall about obsessive love – well, perhaps ‘obsessive love’ describes my liking for this film, hence the high score – but I am not alone in that thinking.

This was by far the most abstract and arty film at the festival – but you don’t just get a better rating for that. I actually thought it would be a tad boring. Far from it. It was fascinating, both technically and in it’s storytelling. It’s also a movie which features Takayuki Yamada, a major star from the much raved about “13 Assassins”.

The first and most striking thing about this one is it’s colours. Wow! How vivid… And these colours in the first segment are indeed striking – First segment? Yes, this is no film of linear storytelling but instead a mixture of 3 (or 4, depending on how you look at it) stories, or ideas. The director is an internationally acclaimed artist, known for his arty-facts (see what I did there?!), and having had certain pieces or installations gracing London’s Tate Gallery and New York’s MOMA.

The first section contains a young boy, who rather resembles a girl and lives in a fairytale world – fairytale of mind maybe, but definitely in picture. It’s surreal…but then so is what follows:

Some kind of guy who seems to fancy himself as a bit of an agony ‘uncle’, playboy and a bitter male.

Not only is such a guy featured in this, the second part contains a kind of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” meets Austin Powers dancing moment. I wouldn’t be the same reviewer as all my previous ones if I was to give away much more than this…so I won’t.

We later arrive in some kind of casino, followed by one of the best choreographed, slow-motion Samurai-stylye fight scenes I have ever seen. It’s immense but stylish and amazingly hypnotic. I’m not sure how long it goes on for it feels like a lifetime…but never boring.

Is this art or film, or arty film? Even the ‘bloody’ scenes look ‘fantastic’ so it seems apt that I rated it 10 out of 10 on the Terracotta scorecard. Ever-so-Englishly I’ll rate it also as BLOODY FANTASTIC.