Will It Be Good-Bad Or Just Bad-Bad? Four Minute Promo For CELL PHONE DETECTIVES Arrives.

Posted by Todd Brown at 6:41am.

Posted in Trailer Alerts , Cult, Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Asia.

The thing most fans love about Takashi Miike is that he’s never stopped viewing himself as a director for hire and continues to cram as many working gigs as possible into his schedule. And, of course, the thing most fans hate about Takashi Miike is that he’s never stopped viewing himself as a director for hire and continues to cram as many working gigs as possible into his schedule. Because thanks to the elementary laws of averages, statistically speaking when you make as much stuff as Miike does it follows that you will inevitably make a lot of crap.

Now, Miike’s not entirely to blame for the upcoming Japanese television series Cellphone Detectives but he does direct some episodes himself and is the show supervisor so the bulk of it must lay at his feet, though other series directors such as Shusuke Kaneko and Mamoru Oshii may very well end up deserving a wee smack as well. I reserved judgement on this one when word broke a while back - it was so goofy and so glaringly obvious in its product placement that I thought there was a chance it might actually end up working in a very absurd sort of way - but there’s a four minute promo spot out now and I’m not reserving anything any more. Icky. You’ll find it embedded below the break.

Reader Comments

Rhythm-X 03/16/2008 @ 9:34am

Not “good” bad, but “f---ing GARBAGE” bad.

Miike I can understand as he will direct anything at all (currently he’s in talks to adapt and direct the Grimshaw, AB phone book - a far more promising project than this one), but I thought Oshii had some sort of standards, and Kaneko ought to be able to do whatever the hell he wants post-DEATH NOTE… what is HE doing here?! This piece of crap looks far more suitable for Ryuhei Kitamura.
crazybee 03/16/2008 @ 9:45am

I think you guys are being a little harsh. Looks like fun to me, but then again I find fluffy Japanese TV shows to be immensely appealing.
JustinD 03/16/2008 @ 9:46am

There’s an evil black phone...I’m curious to see if people would view this project different if it was nothing more then little robots instead of crass monkey crinkling advertisements.
Sam Loomes 03/16/2008 @ 2:30pm

I’m not sold that it’s going to be absolutely terrible either! There’s a bit of a feel to it that reminds me of other Miike stuff (isn’t that school corridor where the girl screams at that fella in the beginning the same one as used in Fudoh?).

And as for the advertising, was this made in conjunction with some specific phone company? Because the phones don’t seem to have logos on them, so I don’t really think of them as adverts really, just an object from our everyday lives..

Could wind up being crap though. You never know with Miike
Rhythm-X 03/16/2008 @ 3:00pm

“I’m curious to see if people would view this project different if it was nothing more then little robots instead of crass monkey crinkling advertisements.”

Nah, it’s not the fact that it’s a commercial disguised as a TV series. I’ve liked plenty of things of that sort. It’s just that it looks wretched. Were there no corresponding line of merch to BUY BUY BUY, it’d still look awful.
M@rc 03/17/2008 @ 4:47am

White phone good, black phone evil? Racists!
sarkoffagus 03/17/2008 @ 5:27am

I’m a fan who loves that Miike directs so many different types of projects. This looks like fun to me. If I avoided something based on the trailer and not on the filmmaker(s), I’d hardly see a thing.
Swarez 03/17/2008 @ 9:01am

I don’t know. I felt that Miike and co know that this is blatant advertisement and that they are whoring themselves out but are trying to have a little fun with it. It’s over the top, loud and has a cell phone as the hero. I’ll reserve judgment until I’ve actually seen an episode.
GAPS 03/17/2008 @ 9:29am

Sam Loomes> Yes indeed, Softbank (The 3rd place mobile service provider in Japan) announced the release of the SoftBank 815T PB at the same time as the series itself was announced. A google search will turn up much info. It’s a massive bit of product placement. Softbank have been building up their connections with other big companies for a while now in order to make exclusive tie-in phones, with Disney, Gundam, and Hello Kitty being notable. This is an extension of that, I’d say. It makes me wonder what lengths they’ll go to after this, though…

As to the directors, well the footage struck me as still being rather Miike-esque, and it looks about the same quality as any of the standard dramas playing at the moment, so it’s unlikely to stand out as being particularly crap or anything. I can’t think of anything Oshii has had a hand in that he hasn’t left a very distinct personal mark on, so it’s his episode I’m most curious about.
flick 03/17/2008 @ 3:58pm

The trailer doesn’t impress me very much actually… I can’t help but think it’s a little bit silly (such as the evil guy who meanders around his room only to stick his hand through the paper door, I mean...) The background music certainly reminds me of a blockbuster film though.