Visitor Q (2001)

Written by Itaru Era, the 2001 movie from prolific director Takashi Miike Visitor Q tells the story of a family in disarray. The unemployed father (Ken'ichi Endô) a former newsman who laid off after an unfortunate incident, the mother (Shungiku Uchida) a heroin addict who prostitutes herself for money to get a fix, the son (Jun Mutô) is a victim of bullying who then bullies his own mother, and the daughter (Fujiko) who has left home to become a prostitute as well. When the titular Visitor Q (Kazushi Watanabe) shows up... things change.

Special guest Tom Mes (opens in a new tab), author of Agitator: The Cinema of Takashi Miike (opens in a new tab), discusses Miike's career. Co-Hosts Patrick Bromley (opens in a new tab) and Kevin Heffernan join Mike to examine Visitor Q as well as François Ozon's Sitcom and Pier Paolo Pasolini's Teorema (1968).