MPD Psycho: The Complete Miniseries [DVD]

I loved this series! He's an amazing detective!

The DVD had nothing going for it. The quality is poor and grainy. I only gave it one star because I had to use at least one star to grade it. Otherwise it would have been zero. Very disappointed because I love the series.

Really, read the manga instead. This isn't necessarily a BAD show, and $XX for a J-drama series is fairly reasonable. But the pacing was awkward, with some parts dragging along and you don't really connect with any of the characters--Hosaka Naoki performance as the main character is sleep-inducing, as is Nakajima Tomoko's (Machi). At times, the show itself pushes the limits of what can be shown on TV in Japan, though it is generally tame by most standards. I've seen worse on CSI. It's not nearly as gruesome as the box art makes it seem and if you're looking for the standard Miike Takashi shocks, this doesn't really have it. It does, however, have his little touches of weird, dark humor. Overall, the story is interesting, though I find the manga to be better (and a lot more graphic--no kiddies allowed there!). Much of the miniseries comes straight from the manga, though some storylines have been changed, so if you've read the comics, this drama might be a little more enjoyable. For the most part, the acting was uneven, but the little bits of humor were a nice, though unnecessary and very unusual, break in the show's slow pace. Osugi Ren (Det. Sasayama) is hilarious when he needs to be, and puts on a great performance, as always. For me, he stole the show. And as a little plus, Miura Rieko (Chizuko) is always nice to look at (for what little time she's on screen). I would've given it two stars, but I gave it three because of it's relatively low price and interesting story. Most J-drama fans would do well to avoid this and horror fanatics will find this boring.

The third personality of a schizophrenic detective escapes his body, possesses others, and sets in motion a series of murders and dismemberments throughout a city. This is a 6-part (5 hour) miniseries directed by Takashi Miike, and is one of the weirdest, quirkiest films ever made (i.e., personality transfer, wacky detectives, stolen fetuses, people killed and planted in soil, bar-coded eyeballs, etc.). The greatest contribution is that the storyline is essentially a brainteaser that gives clues to many events that occur offscreen. Luckily, this is sharply intelligent and successfully executed since things make sense after the viewer works things out. In addition, the character of Nishizono Shinji is perhaps one of the more intriguing murderers in cinema. On the negative side, there is a noticeable lack of action and suspense sequences, but this series is very interesting for its massive quantities of originality as well as its seemingly endless layers of complexity. It's debatable whether or not Miike intentionally used pixellations to cover up some of the gore. I think he did it on purpose because what little can be seen outside the pixellation range looked very fake. I seriously doubt that Miike would use a cheap plastic model for someone's brains. He probably used the pixellation to disturb the viewer by forcing them to use their imagination. Buy this series. It's really good. And if you have difficulty figuring out what exactly is going on, head over to the IMDb message board for some explanations.

MPD Psycho 'may' have been enjoyable on japanese television with all the gore blurred and softened in frame (CENSORED) for general mass consumption - however as a dvd release it leaves alot to be desired - why bother? it is an essential component to the understanding of the mysteries and without it - it is all unfathomable. i feel for Miike - how could they not have found the uncut footage - surely there is a master copy somewhere?? it does his work no justice!!! this CENSORED dvd collection of the tv episodes may be unrated but its real rating is a simple G for 'generally boring'. the extras have a few shots of the FX sequenses uncut for diehards only!

This is a very interesting and at times difficult to watch series. I am a huge fan of Takashi Miike, but this leaves a little bit to be wanted. I would love to report on the full series, however, Amazon sent me a box set which included 2 copies of disc two and no copy of disc three. I tried to resolve this but wasted a tremendous amount of time trying to figure out how to return an opened defective item. This one is my loss. Check your product before opening it!

I have been waiting for the complete series for a while now and this set does not dissapoint. Yes it's censored but it's a TV series so it 's not totally unexpected but it's still worth the watch. Schizophrenia, C-sections, spontanious combustion, barcodes on eyes and more. Hard to follow but worth the effort. Amusing, shocking and most of all entertaining. X-Files+CSI with a Miike flare.

Call me slow, but I needed to watch the whole series twice until I caught the whole idea and got familiar with the characters. But it was worth it. The story follows a serial killer with an artistic and technological touch on the murders--I loved the figurines they use to represent the murders, wish I could have one. I loved the song, too, creepy as hell, and the excellent special effects.

This serie bears all the trademarks of Takashi Miike's work. Yet it is made for TV; to me it is a bit the equivalent of what Twin Peaks was in David Lynch's career. It is at times totally non sensical but always very nicely directed and acted. The only disappointment, which is not at all indicated on the product description, is that it has been heavily censored by the Japanese channel broadcasting it. The American publisher says that the uncensored footage has been lost and can no longer be found. It is at first a bit weird to see pixelated violence. The gore is basically covered by pixelated squares. However Takashi Miike refers to this throughout the serie, playing within the frame with what he knew would eventually happen. It makes for original mise en scene and self referencing which an occidental audience will definitely find surprising. Worth a buy.