The Bird People in China (Chūgoku no Chōjin)

 Takashi Miike's career spans two decades and a half at this point, often putting out two or more movies a year - not counting made-for-TV work. 1999 was a good year for him: Audition and Dead or Alive put him on the international map* and made his name synonymous with over-the-top gory excess.

 But for some bizarre reason the first Miike movie I watched - maybe a year or two later - was 1998's The Bird People in China, off a pirated and fan-subbed videotape a friend lent me. It's a movie I still have a lot of fondness for: a quiet, contemplative, and often very funny comedy/drama, one that left a pleasant, very green mark on my mind. I'm happy to report that yes, it holds up well, and that it's just as green as I remembered. It's a great movie.

The titular Bird People in China, one of them with a loud Yakuza shirt on.

 Wada (Masahiro Motoki), a hapless salaryman, is sent to the furthest Chinese hinterlands, high up in the mountains, to see if he can stake a claim on an alleged jade deposit. Ujiie, a gruff, violent yakuza (Renji Ishibashi) soon insinuates himself into the expedition to make sure Wada's company can pay the mob the money that they owe. They arrive at the village after a long series of vicissitudes, including their guide (Mako) losing his memory due to a bonk on the head.

 If you think that's too cartoony a development, don't worry- he later bonks his head again and recovers completely. Science!

 So the salaryman and the Yakuza - both emblematic of modern Japanese society- find themselves trapped in a pre-industrial society where no one speaks their language. They soon find things with which to occupy their time, though: Ujiie falls in love with the pastoral lifestyle, and Wada finds a less philosophical love interest in Si-Chang (Li Li Wang), a blue-eyed villager who goes around singing an old Scottish standard. 

 The villagers also claim they can fly; kids running around with oversized cloth wings make for a great recurring image.

 The film's mysteries are minor but interesting, and it's full of cool, fun, and funny details - from an early ride in a vehicle that falls apart as they go to a ferry pulled by turtles (at one point the gang is delayed because the turtles need to be painstakingly be rounded up from the river).

 It's not perfect - the film is pretty slow and has a major shift of gears towards the middle as it settles down, and there are a few jarring fades to black which made me think it was made for TV with commercial breaks (this doesn't seem to be borne out, as it debuted in film festivals and had a theatrical run).

 The script, by Masa Nakamura (based on a novel by Makoto Shiina) introduces the sort of themes you'd expect: Exploitation, cultural preservation,  tradition... only to muddle the discourse slightly: The young people in the village, for example, can't wait for the company to take over the mines: "We'll finally have electricity!"
 Miike's direction matches the material. It starts out hectic and slowly settles down, but still finds a chance to insert a bloody, nightmarish shootout in the second half.

 The tone is great - mostly solemn, full of subtle, thoughtful scenes, but also prone to outbursts of humor. The jokes can seem a little blunt to our sensibilities, like on most Asian films, but there are a few laugh-out-loud ones, and they never work against the story - rather, the playful sense of humor is integral to it. And all of this takes place against the breathtaking, forest-covered mountains of inner china. The movie's beautiful cinematography (by Hideo Yamamoto) paints most of the latter scenes in deep, verdant greens, and it looks gorgeous and expansive. It must have been hell to shoot for everyone involved, but it's completely worth it; the backdrops are absolutely stunning.

* Miike also directed the excellent Ley Lines on 1999, a good counterbalance to the Dead or Alive Yakuza Madness