Japanese Movies/Discussion/Recommendations

^ Thanks for the article... Interesting read. :victory:

Interesting read, indeed! I completely agree. Many mainstream Japanese films (and dramas) are immature in subject manner and storytelling. They don't try very hard to stimulate the viewer's intelligence.

I'm personally sick of those terminal illness movies/dramas. It's like every other movie that's come out since Sekachu ends with a "tragic" death followed by the leftover bf/gf sulking about it forever.

If you absolutely must do a terminal illness storyline, be creative and do it with style and a bang like Kisarazu Cat's Eye! :hehe:

Thanks too for the article, :mrgreen: I don't watch all that many newer films, tend to stick more with the oldies. Didn't know that was her mother who starred in the Red Peony Gambler movies, now those were good. :victory: Vibrator was a good film too, like she mentioned, no mainstream actress would take a role like that. :shakehead:

strawberryfzz wrote:They don't try very hard to stimulate the viewer's intelligence.

They try to stimulate their wallets and it works, so don't expect anything to change. As long as the young 'tarentos' bring in the cash, they'll continue to get the starring roles in tv shows & commercials.

That goes for american cinema as well. It seems like the average american cinema's target is 8 or 9 years old. And I won't talk about French cinema, they don't even care about writing a scenario...

Also just watched Monday, a Sabu film. Too many classic scenes in this movie to pick out a fave one, after 10 views just keeps getting better every time. He's not the most prolific of directors, but he makes up for it in the quality of them, seen 5 of his films, need to find more.

Oh man, I remember watching this late at night when it aired on TV (Channel called showcase which LOVED to air Kitano Takeshi and Wong Kar-Wai films) and loved every minute of it. Was able to record most of it, but the tape is in bad shape these days... not to metion the VCR died of jealousy towards me using the DVD player more and more over the years :hehe:

Still crack up thinking of certain scenes...

Spoiler — click to reveal

Exploding pacemaker, Dude dancing like an idiot infront of the yakuza in their bar, and of course, the finale when he finally leaves the hotel and confronts the cops. Tremendous stuff right there.

Triky, if you're still on the lookout for yakuza films. You can't go wrong with Dead or Alive, Sonatine, Branded to Kill, and Tokyo Drifter. Just look up films by Kitano Takeshi, Miike Takeshi, Suzuki Seijun, and Fukasaku Kinji and you're set.

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Watched Sanshiro Sugata last night... It was okay, not great.

Even though it was Kurosawa's directorial film debut, you could see some of the stylistic touches that he would use in many of his later films. For that reason, it made the film quite interesting to watch.

Another interesting fact about the film is that it was cut (i.e., censored) by the Japanese government before the film was released in 1943 and this was pointed out at the beginning credits of the film: This film has been modified from the original version of Akira Kurosawa's debut film, which opened in 1943, without consulting the director or the production staff. 1,845 feet of footage was cut in 1944 to comply with the government's wartime entertainment policies.

Rev wrote:

Also just watched Monday, a Sabu film. Too many classic scenes in this movie to pick out a fave one, after 10 views just keeps getting better every time. He's not the most prolific of directors, but he makes up for it in the quality of them, seen 5 of his films, need to find more.

Oh man, I remember watching this late at night when it aired on TV (Channel called showcase which LOVED to air Kitano Takeshi and Wong Kar-Wai films) and loved every minute of it. Was able to record most of it, but the tape is in bad shape these days... not to metion the VCR died of jealousy towards me using the DVD player more and more over the years :hehe:

Still crack up thinking of certain scenes...

Spoiler — click to reveal

Exploding pacemaker, Dude dancing like an idiot infront of the yakuza in their bar, and of course, the finale when he finally leaves the hotel and confronts the cops. Tremendous stuff right there.

Triky, if you're still on the lookout for yakuza films. You can't go wrong with Dead or Alive, Sonatine, Branded to Kill, and Tokyo Drifter. Just look up films by Kitano Takeshi, Miike Takeshi, Suzuki Seijun, and Fukasaku Kinji and you're set.

Hard to believe that they would show it on TV, not overly violent but plenty of gunplay. :sweat: I gotta go with the funeral scene as my fave, :dancing: though there are many classic ones in it, too many to mention. :victory:

Big movie week as dramas took a break for a few days :hehe: ...Swing Girls, :victory: Zero Focus, :dancing: Death Note 1 & 2 :bow: and Wakeful Nights. :applaud: They're all great, the last one is quite good though probably not too well known, quite funny, only the Japanese could make going to wakes a rip roaring event. :rofl:

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Watched Part 2 this afternoon... The film's quality was worse than in the first film, but I guess it's better than nothing. A total restoration would probably take a great deal of time and probably not worth it, seeing that it was Kurosawa's earlier, less acknowledged works.

But definitely worth a viewing for any Kurosawa fan.

Seeing that this film was made in 1945, it's very nationalistic and anti-American. Thing is, where did they find all the Caucasians for some of the scenes? I would've thought that since the film was made during the war, the Caucasians in the film would've been POWs or similar... Or maybe it was made at the tail end of 1945 after the war ended. If so, I'm surprised that the Occupation would've allowed the film to be made/released... Curious.

bmwracer wrote:[image]

Watched Part 2 this afternoon... The film's quality was worse than in the first film, but I guess it's better than nothing. A total restoration would probably take a great deal of time and probably not worth it, seeing that it was Kurosawa's earlier, less acknowledged works.

But definitely worth a viewing for any Kurosawa fan.

Seeing that this film was made in 1945, it's very nationalistic and anti-American. Thing is, where did they find all the Caucasians for some of the scenes? I would've thought that since the film was made during the war, the Caucasians in the film would've been POWs or similar... Or maybe it was made at the tail end of 1945 after the war ended. If so, I'm surprised that the Occupation would've allowed the film to be made/released... Curious.

In Stuart Galbraith IV's exceptional book, The Emperor and the Wolf, he mentions that the movie came out in May 1945 (the war was in its final months). The non-Japanese actors were all legal foreign residents (Galbraith notes that one of the actors was a Turk). Also, according to Galbraith, Kurosawa didn't want to do a sequel but was pressured by the studio to make one; the director himself said the result wasn't a good movie, and apparently, most critics agreed. As to why the movie visually doesn't look good, Galbraith writes that it was made using unstable nitrate film stock, stock made of inferior recycled film.

shin2 wrote:In Stuart Galbraith IV's exceptional book, The Emperor and the Wolf, he mentions that the movie came out in May 1945 (the war was in its final months). The non-Japanese actors were all legal foreign residents (Galbraith notes that one of the actors was a Turk). Also, according to Galbraith, Kurosawa didn't want to do a sequel but was pressured by the studio to make one; the director himself said the result wasn't a good movie, and apparently, most critics agreed. As to why the movie visually doesn't look good, Galbraith writes that it was made using unstable nitrate film stock, stock made of inferior recycled film.

Ah, I have that book... But I only read the first couple of chapters... Guess I should finish it. :ashamed:

Yeah, I've heard that nitrate film stock just slowly disintegrates over time, thus the urgency to find and copy/restore old films before they turn to dust. :sweat:

hitomi #1 wrote: Wakeful Nights. :applaud:

Stingray :naughty:

bmwracer wrote:
Ah, I have that book... But I only read the first couple of chapters... Guess I should finish it. :ashamed:

Not counting the appendices, it's only 649 pages long.

shin2 wrote:Not counting the appendices, it's only 649 pages long.

I was hoping there would be a documentary or something on PBS that follows the book... :beaten:

I'm a child of television. :mrgreen:

Just viewed Black Test Car, from 1962. :victory:
Itfs industrial spy vs. industrial spy when rival car companies roll out their latest test models. Frenzied boardroom meetings ensue while trade secrets are revealed in the backroom and in the bedroom. Careers are made and ruined and souls are bought and sold for the slightest competitive edge.
Japanese New Wave Master Yasuzo Masumura's darkly hilarious satire of the Japanese auto industry takes industrial espionage to James Bond-ian heights of deceit, blackmail and mayhem.

If you've seen Masumura's film Giants & Toys, it's along the same lines, Hideo Takamatsu reprises the role of sale-are-everything, overworked executive, plays the role so well in both films. :applaud:

^ Hmm, interesting.

EDIT: I just noticed that ADC has it available for download. :victory:

Available for download at Asian DVD Club....

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"In Yoshihiro Nakamurafs seriocomic thriller, when easy-going Aoyagi meets an old friend for a fishing trip, he ends up drugged, framed for the Prime Ministerfs assassination, and on the run from corrupt cops. Itfs only the beginning of what quickly becomes the worst, weirdest day of his life. But hefll get by with a little help from his friends, who include a famous pop diva, a rockabilly deliveryman, a crippled old gangster, and the worldfs most cheerful serial killer."

Golden Torrent too! :D

IMDB-link.............: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1413529/

niknik wrote:Golden Torrent too! :D

I'm there. :victory: :applaud:

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Just finished watching this. Very entertaining albeit a bit long. Sakai does a fine job, but my favorite character is Gaku Hamada's... :D