Japanese Movie Recommendations

sinc_vision · Post by **sinc_vision** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 10:48 am

Me and my girl have been on the lookout for some new Japanese films of late (new as in haven't seen before, not necassarily 'modern'). Anyone got any recommendations, preferably on the deeper side of things?

I've seen most of the better known films but wanna expand my knowledge even further, doesn't matter how old or what genre it is, quality is the key.

To give an idea of the kinda stuff I've seen, off the top of my head a list of my favourites are Hana-Bi, Audition, Taste of Tea (Cha no Aji), Ping Pong, Ring, Perfect Blue, When the Last Sword Is Drawn, The Hidden Blade, Spirited Away, Twilight Samurai, Kagemusha. A lot of these films changed my life.

Currently in the process of getting After Life (aka Wonderful Life), have wanted to see this for yeeeears. Also got Tampopo and LindaLindaLinda lined up. Then gonna kane up a loada Kurosawa and Ozu, my knowledge on those two is shamefullly lacking.

datura · Post by **datura** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 11:35 am

I am a little behind these days as well, a good resource is here:

http://www.midnighteye.com/

generally I seem to agree with their reviews so it's introduced me to a lot of good films.

I see no Kiyoshi Kurosawa films on the list? I'd highly recommend Cure, Charisma and Bright Future, all three are excellent, as good as any modern Japanese films I've see, although he is more famous for his j-horror's Pulse and Seance.

deapoh · Post by **deapoh** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 11:40 am

Well I dunno about Japanese, but if you want some Chinese Horror, go with The Eye!! Quite a deep film still.

sinc_vision · Post by **sinc_vision** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 11:52 am

datura wrote:I am a little behind these days as well, a good resource is here:

http://www.midnighteye.com/

generally I seem to agree with their reviews so it's introduced me to a lot of good films.

I see no Kiyoshi Kurosawa films on the list? I'd highly recommend Cure, Charisma and Bright Future, all three are excellent, as good as any modern Japanese films I've see, although he is more famous for his j-horror's Pulse and Seance.

Nice one, will try to hook a few of those (though saw Pulse a few years back and wasn't feelin it).

Used to check Midnight Eye a few years ago but wasn't big on downloads at that point, might have to get on the research tip from there.

Deapoh wrote:Well I dunno about Japanese, but if you want some Chinese Horror, go with The Eye!! Quite a deep film still.

Ye, quite liked it but at the mo def lookin to rinse the Japanese side of things partly for the language aspect.

datura · Post by **datura** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 11:54 am

DJ Sinc Vision wrote:
datura wrote:I am a little behind these days as well, a good resource is here:

http://www.midnighteye.com/

generally I seem to agree with their reviews so it's introduced me to a lot of good films.

I see no Kiyoshi Kurosawa films on the list? I'd highly recommend Cure, Charisma and Bright Future, all three are excellent, as good as any modern Japanese films I've see, although he is more famous for his j-horror's Pulse and Seance.
Nice one, will try to hook a few of those (though saw Pulse a few years back and wasn't feelin it).

Used to check Midnight Eye a few years ago but wasn't big on downloads at that point, might have to get on the research tip from there.

I didn't like Pulse much either, you could hardly tell that the same director made it compared to the three I recommended. Unfortunately it is the most well known as people were looking for another 'Ringu' and picked up on it and overhyped it.

sinc_vision · Post by **sinc_vision** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 12:02 pm

datura wrote:
DJ Sinc Vision wrote:
datura wrote:I am a little behind these days as well, a good resource is here:

http://www.midnighteye.com/

generally I seem to agree with their reviews so it's introduced me to a lot of good films.

I see no Kiyoshi Kurosawa films on the list? I'd highly recommend Cure, Charisma and Bright Future, all three are excellent, as good as any modern Japanese films I've see, although he is more famous for his j-horror's Pulse and Seance.
Nice one, will try to hook a few of those (though saw Pulse a few years back and wasn't feelin it).

Used to check Midnight Eye a few years ago but wasn't big on downloads at that point, might have to get on the research tip from there.
I didn't like Pulse much either, you could hardly tell that the same director made it compared to the three I recommended. Unfortunately it is the most well known as people were looking for another 'Ringu' and picked up on it and overhyped it.

Ye, that phase got a bit much at one point, though thankfully the saturation of Asian Horror films lead to 'Shutter' being made. Though not up to the Sadako Standard it had a constant air of fear about it and was the first film to properly shit me up since Ring itself.

Have you seen Seance? Any good?

datura · Post by **datura** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 12:12 pm

DJ Sinc Vision wrote:Ye, that phase got a bit much at one point, though thankfully the saturation of Asian Horror films lead to 'Shutter' being made. Though not up to the Sadako Standard it had a constant air of fear about it and was the first film to properly shit me up since Ring itself.

Have you seen Seance? Any good?

It's not bad, although I would go for Cure which is not a typical J-Horror but is about the creepiest film I've seen, and also one of the most intelligent films of it's type.

Have you seen 'Last Life In the Universe'? It's a Thai film but Tadanobu Asano is one of the leads. He has always been a good fallback for me if i'm looking for a good Japanese film, i've been meaning to catch a 'Taste of Tea' and 'Woman of Water' for a while. I also have Vital to watch at some point.

sinc_vision · Post by **sinc_vision** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 12:31 pm

datura wrote:Have you seen 'Last Life In the Universe'? It's a Thai film but Tadanobu Asano is one of the leads. He has always been a good fallback for me if i'm looking for a good Japanese film, i've been meaning to catch a 'Taste of Tea' and 'Woman of Water' for a while. I also have Vital to watch at some point.

Yeah, love 'Last Life in the Universe' bigtime, was gonna include it in my initial post but concluded it was technically a Thai film so left it out. Also agree with you when it comes to him as a fallback, he never really disappoints. Just watched 'Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl' last night, he was quality in that without even really doing much. He's also really good in 'Survive Style 5+', def worth checking that if you haven't seen it.

d-T-r · Post by **d-T-r** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 12:51 pm

Akira Kurosawa's : Dreams

1990: strange but quite beutiful/hypnotizing. basically a series of the directors dreams. not a continual plot just cool looking imagery and visuals

christophera · Post by **christophera** » Sat Jul 19, 2008 4:08 pm

Woman in the Dunes

Hana-bi

betamaxnomates · Post by **betamaxnomates** » Sun Jul 20, 2008 8:47 am

datura wrote:
DJ Sinc Vision wrote:Ye, that phase got a bit much at one point, though thankfully the saturation of Asian Horror films lead to 'Shutter' being made. Though not up to the Sadako Standard it had a constant air of fear about it and was the first film to properly shit me up since Ring itself.

Have you seen Seance? Any good?
It's not bad, although I would go for Cure which is not a typical J-Horror but is about the creepiest film I've seen, and also one of the most intelligent films of it's type.

Have you seen 'Last Life In the Universe'? It's a Thai film but Tadanobu Asano is one of the leads. He has always been a good fallback for me if i'm looking for a good Japanese film, i've been meaning to catch a 'Taste of Tea' and 'Woman of Water' for a while. I also have Vital to watch at some point.

Cure is indeed fantastic. Very atmospheric movie.

No love for Beat Takeshi? His version of Zatoichi from a few years ago was a blast! Part musical, part comedy, part action adventure - it's all over the map genre-wise but 'tis great fun.

Pistonsbeneath · Post by **Pistonsbeneath** » Sun Jul 20, 2008 10:31 am

Deapoh wrote:Well I dunno about Japanese, but if you want some Chinese Horror, go with The Eye!! Quite a deep film still.

pretty sure it's thai man

danny pang innit

Pistonsbeneath · Post by **Pistonsbeneath** » Sun Jul 20, 2008 10:52 am

BETAMAXNOMATES wrote:
datura wrote:
DJ Sinc Vision wrote: No love for Beat Takeshi? His version of Zatoichi from a few years ago was a blast! Part musical, part comedy, part action adventure - it's all over the map genre-wise but 'tis great fun.

that is a fantastic film....I watch it a lot

sinc_vision · Post by **sinc_vision** » Sun Jul 20, 2008 11:52 am

BETAMAXNOMATES wrote:No love for Beat Takeshi?

DJ Sinc Vision wrote:I've seen most of the better known films...To give an idea of the kinda stuff I've seen...Hana-Bi

I do love most of the Beat Takeshi stuff but Hana Bi is the only film of his that I view as a complete masterpiece tbh, the rest are great yet flawed.

I saw about a third of one of his most recent films on TV in Japan recently, it's kalled 'Kantoku - Banzai!'. It's really surreal, it follows Takeshi as himself, carrying an inflatable doll as he passes through loads of film genre ideas. It's much closer to his original slapstick comedy work than any of his better known films.

sinc_vision · Post by **sinc_vision** » Sun Jul 20, 2008 11:59 am

Piston wrote:
Deapoh wrote:Well I dunno about Japanese, but if you want some Chinese Horror, go with The Eye!! Quite a deep film still.
pretty sure it's thai man

danny pang innit

the directors are thai but i think it's technically a hong kong film with a pan-asian cast and multiple filming locations/languages (cantonese/thai/english/etc).

biomat · Post by **biomat** » Sun Jul 20, 2008 1:34 pm

Ritual
Grave of the fireflies
MushiShi
Mindgame

datura · Post by **datura** » Sun Jul 20, 2008 5:17 pm

This looks like it could be good:

http://twitchfilm.net/site/view/full-tr ... oris-ichi/

betamaxnomates · Post by **betamaxnomates** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 2:15 am

DJ Sinc Vision wrote:
BETAMAXNOMATES wrote:No love for Beat Takeshi?
DJ Sinc Vision wrote:I've seen most of the better known films...To give an idea of the kinda stuff I've seen...Hana-Bi

I do love most of the Beat Takeshi stuff but Hana Bi is the only film of his that I view as a complete masterpiece tbh, the rest are great yet flawed.

I saw about a third of one of his most recent films on TV in Japan recently, it's kalled 'Kantoku - Banzai!'. It's really surreal, it follows Takeshi as himself, carrying an inflatable doll as he passes through loads of film genre ideas. It's much closer to his original slapstick comedy work than any of his better known films.

Oopsies. Missed that. Yeah, Hana Bi is probably his most 'complete' film. As you say, much of his work is great yet flawed - hardly surprising considering his workload. I'd put Miike in this category too. Flashes of genius here and there but inconsistent overall.

mezi · Post by **mezi** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 3:35 am

Takashi Miike's "Graveyard of Honor" [2002]

christophera · Post by **christophera** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 3:37 am

my favorite miike films are bird people of china, happiness of the katakuris, zebraman, gozu

Japanese Movie Recommendations

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