Japanese Movies/Discussion/Recommendations

bmwracer wrote:and free shipping, too!

i know amazon has free shipping to hawaii (over $25 purchase), but i wonder about the dvd site. will have to check it out later....

DVDsoon is chep but their name is a joke. Sometimes it takes weeks before they get the order shipped. But the prices really are great sometimes. For exaple the upcoming Zatoichi box is 56$ at dvdsoon, while at amazon it's 76$. Shipping cost is really low too. So, if you are not in a hurry, then dvdsoon is a good place.

Before I used dvdpacific which used to be outstanding. But then somebody broke into their database and stole credit card info from them. I didn't lose any money but I got a new visa just for sure. I guess everything is allright now but I still ain't giving my credit card number to them again.

Talking about it, the japanese drama "Nobody Knows" had its premiere just a few days ago in the states, and as far as i know it is doing well!
You who live there should go watch it and support japanese cinema :)

" Four siblings live happily with their mother in a small apartment in Tokyo. The children all have different fathers. They have never been to school. The very existence of three of them has been hidden from the landlord. One day, the mother leaves behind a little money and a note asking her 12-year-old boy to look after his younger siblings. And so begins the childrenfs odyssey, a journey nobody knows.

Despite their mother's abandonment, the four children do their best to survive in their own little world, devising and following their own set of rules. But when they have no choice but to engage with the world outside the apartment, the fragile balance that has sustained them collapses."

http://www.ifcfilms.com/

IFC Films' Nobody Knows introduced itself at the forefront of last weekend's iW BOT (indieWIRE box office tracking), opening at a pair of engagements with the highest per screen count. Hirokazu Kore- eda's Nobody Knows provided some box office luster in an otherwise un-noteworthy week in the specialty realm. The IFC Films release had two playdates, taking in $32,393 for a strong $16,197 per screen average.

We are ecstatic with the opening numbers of [the films], commented Mark Boxer, the new head of distribution at IFC Films, told indieWIRE. Several shows sold out over the weekend and we anticipate continued strong word-of-mouth translating into increasingly strong numbers. Boxer said that the weekend audience was mixed with a broad age range and skewed somewhat female.

Nobody Knows will open in Los Angeles on Friday and will go to the top 20 markets in the following three weeks.
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jholic wrote:i know amazon has free shipping to hawaii (over $25 purchase), but i wonder about the dvd site. will have to check it out later....

I've bought a ton of stuff from DDD and I've never had a problem (knock on wood)... More times than not, their prices are better than Amazon's, although Amazon has a better selection.

And the free shipping and no sales tax is tough to beat. :woot:


Here's my near-complete list of DVDs/LDs: http://dvdaficionado.com/dvds.html?cat=1&sub=All&id=bmwracer

bmw: that is QUITE a collection! did you get them all from the dvd site? or amazon?

Wondering if anyone out there has shelled out or will shell out the large amount of money for either or both Juzo Itami Box Collections? The first one came out last month and consists of the following five movies: The Funeral, Tampopo, Tales of the Golden Geisha, Last Dance, Quiet Life. The second one comes out the end of this month and also contains five movies: Taxing Woman, Taxing Woman Returns, Minbo, Supermarket Woman, Women of the Police Protection Program.
Both sets are Region 2, come with English subtitles, have some extra features (not sure if those are subbed), and a booklet. Cost per box--$306.94. From the first collection, The Funeral and Tampopo are, imo, superior films; I haven't seen the other three but the reviews I have read of them are lukewarm at best. From the second collection, I have seen both Taxing Woman films and Minbo and enjoyed them very much; reviews I read of the other two films were positive.

Any new japanese comedy or action movie coming out soon????

And whats the movie that deals with baseball and is almost like shoalin socce? the store owner told me its funny especially when the guy spins around and creates a tornodo and throws like a 500mph pitch......... :sweat:

jholic wrote:bmw: that is QUITE a collection! did you get them all from the dvd site? or amazon?

Thanks, but there are others that have double or triple the number of flicks that I have... :sweat:

I'd say the majority of my discs are from DDD... Amazon seems to have been more competitive lately (the past year or so), so I've purchased some stuff from them as well. I haven't bought a DVD from Best Buy or the like in ages... They just can't compete.

shin2 wrote:Wondering if anyone out there has shelled out or will shell out the large amount of money for either or both Juzo Itami Box Collections? The first one came out last month and consists of the following five movies: The Funeral, Tampopo, Tales of the Golden Geisha, Last Dance, Quiet Life. The second one comes out the end of this month and also contains five movies: Taxing Woman, Taxing Woman Returns, Minbo, Supermarket Woman, Women of the Police Protection Program.
Both sets are Region 2, come with English subtitles, have some extra features (not sure if those are subbed), and a booklet. Cost per box--$306.94. From the first collection, The Funeral and Tampopo are, imo, superior films; I haven't seen the other three but the reviews I have read of them are lukewarm at best. From the second collection, I have seen both Taxing Woman films and Minbo and enjoyed them very much; reviews I read of the other two films were positive.

Whoa, that's some serious money. It appears many of the Japanese sets are outrageously priced for some reason... Even the doramas... Do the folks in Japan really shell out the bucks for these things?? Seems like the studios releasing this discs are shooting themselves in the foot. :crazy:

Just a quick follow up.

Manny and I were talking about the The Yakuza Papers the other day.

He loved the series, and I said I'd seen them in the theater years ago, and wasn't wild about them.

Cut to the chase, since Manny was so enthusiastic about them, I put them on my Netflix Queue to give them another shot.

The first, The Yakuza Papers: Disc 1: Battles Without Honor and Humanity arrived yesterday, I watched it and:

1) I can see why Manny liked them so much.

2) I remembered why I had so much trouble with the series.

For me, when I saw the movies about 20 years ago, there was just too much going on.

The dialogue, the introduction of dozens of characters, the plot twists and turns, and the changes of loyalties within the movie were simply done at too rapid fire a pace for me back then.

Put simply... even with the subs I couldn't follow the movie.

Now, after all these years of watching Japanese Movies and TV, after becoming familiar with the Japanese movie idea of Yakuza culture, after becoming very comfortable with the idea of reading subtitles... I did better. Understood more of the movie, and the relationships of the characters...

But there were points where I still got lost.

The movie was good. I'll definately watch more of them.

But I can see where owning a series like this would be valuable, because they are the kind of movies you have to go back and watch 2 or 3 times to really understand what's going on.

Thanks for the endorsment, Manny. I never would have gone back to these movies if you hadn't said anything. And, for me, I think they're worth taking a second look at.

bmwracer wrote:
It appears many of the Japanese sets are outrageously priced for some reason... Even the doramas... Do the folks in Japan really shell out the bucks for these things?? :crazy:

That's a decent point. But, yeah, I'm sure folks from all over buy 'em. Overall, I agree with you, 'racer; your Shinsengumis, Musashis, etc. (exceptions being stuff like Tokyo Love Story and Odoru Daisousasen, even if they WEREN'T Eigo subtitled [please research The Man's previous posts for further details]) aren't worth it to me unless I learn a little bit more of the Japanese lingua.

Stuff subtitled like that Gojira perfect collection are pretty expensive. Subtitled, and one of those things only hard-core fans'd get even though'd look real nice as part of ya'll collection.

Geezer wrote:
Just a quick follow up.

Manny and I were talking about the The Yakuza Papers the other day.

He loved the series, and I said I'd seen them in the theater years ago, and wasn't wild about them.

Cut to the chase, since Manny was so enthusiastic about them, I put them on my Netflix Queue to give them another shot.

The first, The Yakuza Papers: Disc 1: Battles Without Honor and Humanity arrived yesterday, I watched it and:

1) I can see why Manny liked them so much.

2) I remembered why I had so much trouble with the series.

For me, when I saw the movies about 20 years ago, there was just too much going on.

The dialogue, the introduction of dozens of characters, the plot twists and turns, and the changes of loyalties within the movie were simply done at too rapid fire a pace for me back then.

Put simply... even with the subs I couldn't follow the movie.

Now, after all these years of watching Japanese Movies and TV, after becoming familiar with the Japanese movie idea of Yakuza culture, after becoming very comfortable with the idea of reading subtitles... I did better. Understood more of the movie, and the relationships of the characters...

But there were points where I still got lost.

The movie was good. I'll definately watch more of them.

But I can see where owning a series like this would be valuable, because they are the kind of movies you have to go back and watch 2 or 3 times to really understand what's going on.

Thanks for the endorsment, Manny. I never would have gone back to these movies if you hadn't said anything. And, for me, I think they're worth taking a second look at.

Hhehehe. Nice. I'm quite humbled, Mr. Geezer, to say the least. I'm glad you got to enjoy 'em on a second look, and let's hope the ENTIRE board gives this one of many Fukasaku masterpieces a look-see. Yeah, just the entirety of that series is too good. I'm jealous you got to see them on the big-screen, no matter how you felt about 'em at that time, hahah. Maybe the local film festival can end up showing one of 'em . . . hmmm . . . yeah, lemme give 'em a call.

I picked up MY boxed set of The Yakuza Papers, but, guess what . . . I gotta wait 'til AFTER Easter to watch 'em . . . I've refrained from watching DVD movies (and drinking soda) during the season of Lent (which stared this past [Ash] Wednesday). :grumble: , hahha.

The Man wrote:I've refrained from watching DVD movies (and drinking soda) during the season of Lent (which stared this past [Ash] Wednesday).

let me get this right. in another thread, you said you don't eat meat. now you're not drinking soda or watching dvd's? how are you able to go ON?!! what is the point of LIFE?!? :rofl:

i give you kudos for your commitment, Man!

jholic wrote:

The Man wrote:
I've refrained from watching DVD movies (and drinking soda) during the season of Lent (which stared this past [Ash] Wednesday).

let me get this right. in another thread, you said you don't eat meat. now you're not drinking soda or watching dvd's? how are you able to go ON?!! what is the point of LIFE?!? :rofl:

i give you kudos for your commitment, Man!

The nai soda and DVD movies are only through Lent, until Easter.

The Man wrote:

The nai soda and DVD movies are only through Lent, until Easter.

Easter is pretty far from now, good luck with fighting the temptation :woot:

finally found out the movie's name i was talking bout, the baseball one. Its called Battlefield Baseball, i still don't know how good it is until i watch it. It came in a limited addition set, including tax it cost $92.00 :shamefulcry: so i hope this movie is really really good :fingerscrossed:

Might I recommend: The Daimaijin series, Lonewolf and Cub series,

Kwaidan, anything with Yokai in it.

Let me know what you think.

K.T.Tran wrote:Its called Battlefield Baseball, i still don't know how good it is until i watch it. It came in a limited addition set, including tax it cost $92.00

oh, no!! KT, is there a way you can still cancel your order??? i mean it. had i known that was the movie you were referring to, i would have warned you earlier. i watched it, and it was quite horrible. i wouldn't even pay $10 for it. and it was rather confusing as well. not very well made at all.


thewanderingjap: the lone wolf and cub series is awesome! 'kozure ookami' kicks some serious azz. KT, this is a much better deal.

anyone know of these two movies: "Sekai no owari"(World's End) and "hana and alice" ???
I watched them and must say, they where great and I strongly recommend them!

I just watched a very good movie called "9 Souls". 2003. Directed by Toshiaki Toyoda.

A quick warning, for those Matsu Takako fans who might want to get this movie to see her... her's is a cameo role. She's in the movie for all of 2 minutes, and has two lines.

The movie stars Yoshio Harada, and it's about 9 guys who break out of prison... and what happens to them on the outside.

It's very funny, very sad, and in the end, it's a movie that will actually give you cause to think about what the writer / director was saying.

Good movie. Jeez, maybe there still are one or two directors living and working in Japan.

jholic wrote:
oh, no!! KT, is there a way you can still cancel your order??? i mean it. had i known that was the movie you were referring to, i would have warned you earlier. i watched it, and it was quite horrible. i wouldn't even pay $10 for it. and it was rather confusing as well. not very well made at all.


thewanderingjap: the lone wolf and cub series is awesome! 'kozure ookami' kicks some serious azz. KT, this is a much better deal.

Nope, way to late to cancel it, but i found it a lil stupid, with some very odd humor in it. I only got like 4 laughs out of it, but o well. I'll look up The lone wolf and cub series, thanks though