Asian Movie Challenge

No worries.

The Chaser - Hong-jin Na Another cop thriller from South Korea. This one is really good. If you like that genre at all don't miss this one. As in Howling the best thing about it is the transformation of the lead character this time an ex-cop who is now a pimp. The pacing is near perfect and it's taut and tense. I was completely invested the entire time and didn't feel let down by the end. It's not a movie that relies on any twists like so many of this type do.

There are a couple of things that happen that left me scratching my head, but compared to something like Prisoners this is shear gold. B+ (Graded against other similar movies)

My Asian movie count 7

Assault! Jack the Ripper (1976; Yasuharu Hasebe; Japan)

The type of movie you don't tell your friends about because they will think you are weird for liking it.

My count: 1

Harakiri (1962) - Masaki Kobayashi
One of the more highly acclaimed Japanese movies for good reason.

Samurai Rebellion (1967) - Masaki Kobayashi
Just as good a story as Harakiri but other aspects of the movie were a little bit weaker.

Time (2006) - Kim Ki Duk
In many ways this is quite a conventional film for Kim. It's focus is plastic surgery and he uses a relatively standard love story approach to get his point across... But because it's Kim it does eventually get a bit nuts

Shirin (2008) - Abbas Kiarostami
Well, you don't see films like this every day ... We spend an hour and a half looking at the faces of 114 Iranian actresses (+ Juliette Binoche) whilst they watch a movie that we never see. Seriously. It actually works quite a bit better than I thought it would and I quite enjoyed it.

My Asian Movie Count: 11

Harakiri! Yes! I told my brother to watch it, but he went and saw the 70's remake by accident... that goof...

The 1919 version is the best one

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Mubi

The remake isn't even japanese how could he screw that up

I told him specifically to watch the 60's version, and not the remake. I dunno, and so he didn't even bother to watch the original. He isn't a movie buff though, and kinda has more mainstream taste.

The Spiders, Part 1: The Golden Lake is more hilarious!

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Preserving the sanctity of cinema. Subtitles preferred, mainstream dismissed, and always in search of yet another film you have never heard of. I speak fluent French New Wave.

The Man from Nowhere (2010) - South Korea

A man with a mysterious past who can handle himself, befriends a young girl who has barely got a family. It's an action film / thriller. I don't normally go for action films but as we know, Asian cinema does action films, and they do them well. I'm not even particularly enthralled by fight scenes but this movie had a few very very good ones that even made me take notice. There is also an extremely jaw dropping bit of camerawork involving a window fall. Anyone who's seen it will know what I mean. It's a fast ride which doesn't let up. Constant thrills and hardly a placid moment in the whole film. As a result it's obviously far fetched at times (the ending is a bit hollywood) - but of course it is - it's an action movie. And a good one.

7/10

Asian Movie count since May 1st = 1

Leda: The Fantastic Adventure of Yohko (1985)

A charming OVA barely over an hour in length about a girl from our world transported to a fantasy realm where she must battle evil.

Zotis' Asian Film Count: 4

I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK (2006) - Park Chan Wook +
A slightly dark romantic comedy set in a mental hospital. Looks great and has good performances from the cast - including Korean superstar Rain.

Kwaidan (1964) - Masaki Kobayashi -
Visually this is a masterpiece but I didn't find a few of the stories, of which there are four, particularly engaging.

My Asian Movie Count: 13

I love both of those, and got to see Kwaidan on the big screen a couple years ago. Definitely one of those films best seen as such.

I would imagine so. I watched it half on an ipad and half on a TV which probably wasn't ideal. I was amazed by how it looked but just couldn't get into the stories unfortunately.

The God of Cookery (1996) - Stephen Chow/Lee Lik Chi
I'm generally not a fan of comedies from China or Hong Kong. They tend to be really silly but not actually funny IMO. This, however, was both and it does a great job of using the standard kung-fu movie formula in a film about cooking.

The Blue Umbrella (2005) - Vishal Bharadwaj
This was an interesting movie. I have little knowledge of Indian movies apart from those by Satyajit Ray so it was a new experience. Visually it was excellent but for much of it I felt it was all too lightweight (which is probably OK for it's target market because it's meant to be a family movie). However, it got quite serious in the last half hour and overall I enjoyed it. I'll be trying to find more by this director.

My Asian Movie Count: 15

A Brighter Summer Day from Edward Yang is a great film. I highly recommend it!
My review is here.

Dang Sane, you're going to win this thing eh?

13 Assassins - Takashi Miike This isn't normally a type of movie that appeals to me but it was done so well that I ended up really liking it. The battle scene was crazy good; especially the first part of it. Towards the end the swordplay got a little repetitious but that's nitpicking. At first I didn't like the ending in regards to the 13th assassin, but it's grown on me. B+

My Asian Movie count: 8

The CGI'd bull was off putting for me, but I enjoyed everything else about 13 Assassins.

Maybe I've just had some time on my hands over the last week so put it to good use. My study stuff is about to get busier and my wife and I are going away in a month so my numbers will drop. We are going to China though so maybe I'll see some stuff in cinemas.