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Well, my favorite director is Takeshi Kitano, whose films could be considered by most to be "boring" since they're so slow -- hell, 95% of Japanese films are slow-paced. So, I'm pretty sure I can dismiss a movie as "boring" if it doesn't interest me, but here, let me replace the word boring with "bland", "unentertaining", "lagging", "sluggish", "uninteresting". Is that better? I respect the art behind some of the direction (undoubtedly not Miike's idea), particularly the beautiful shot of a Japanese street with NOBODY on it -- you don't see that very often! But all in all, the film has nothing to hold anyone's interest. Cool concept, but that's about it. I've sat through the thing twice. It's shit. Also, how many films have you seen by Miike anyway?
It's always difficult when talking about Miike, as he has, what, 90 films? I've seen all the ones released in America and a couple I downloaded that were fansubbed and only available in Japan, so I can safely say this: Miike's best is easily Izo.. followed closely by Visitor Q and the claymation gore zombie musical family film Happiness of the Katakuris. His films all seem deeply rooted in childhood and family with some sick twists. However, all his best films, he didn't write. And his directing is pretty shitty... and even some of his awesome films like Full Metal Yakuza and Dead or Alive 2 are complete ripoffs of other films (the former being based on the screenplay of Robocop and the latter being structurally and thematically identical to the brilliant film Sonatine).
The cum in Ichi the Killer is not his, it's Shinya Tsukamoto's, amongst the best modern Japanese film directors around.
Also, none of his films are that gory... Ichi the Killer has some funny CGI gore, but there's more substance in that film than most. Love the idea that Ichi has equated murder with sex, so he can only get off when he kills. That's some brilliant stuff -- too bad it's based on a manga, so Miike didn't have anything to do with all the cool stuff in that film.
If you want to see Miike films with substance, watch Bird People of China. As of late, I'm starting to think his more "family friendly" films are his best -- Zebraman, White Collar Worker Kintaro, Great Yokai War are all excellent. I admire his range and his work ethic, which is why I'm a fan.
But the only film by him I've seen that's AMAZING is Izo -- it's all style, no substance whatsoever, but it actually works with that film. And it has Beat Takeshi and Kazuki Tomokawa in it! A masterpiece.
Actually, I take that back. His segment in 3... Extremes is probably his best work. It's too short though.
An decent director with many great films under his belt and many AWFUL films under his belt who seems to not understand what makes a film good. Case in point, his favorite film of his own is "A Big Bang Love, Juvenile A", and that film is terrible.
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