Japanese films

I did a search to see what people's opinions were on films from japan, surprised to find no posts!

Does anyone have any opinions on the following films?:

Battle Royale
Brother
Hana-bi
Violent Cop
Audition
Seven Samurai
Rashomon
Throne of Blood
Yojimbo

Animation:
Blood : The last vampire
Princess Mononoke
Perfect Blue
Tenchi series

etc.

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henry hill - Disclaimer: This disclaimer disclaims any claims that could be claimed from my post.

I really wanna see "Battle Royale." I haven't seen it around here or anything, though...but I hear it's really good. The folks at AICN seem to like it quite a bit, at least.

You can pre-order copies of Battle Royale from places like www.play.com region 2

What's AICN??

It's worth having a copy

If not to view multiple times (and some bits in slow motion) so you can show it round...

I'd rather wait and see if I can rent it...dunno if I want to buy it before I've seen it. AICN is an acronym for Ain't It Cool News -- www.aintitcoolnews.com -- it's a famous movie site...even though it looks like crap.

Well I've mentioned these movies before on this site just not as threads. I love Akira Kurosawa's movies

(High & Low, Stray Dog, Hidden Fortress, Seven Samurai, Rashomon, Yojimbo, Sanjuro, Ikiru, Akira Kurosawa's Dreams, Ran Kagemusha)

it's discusses a bit in this thread check it out.

http://www.movieforums.net/showthread.php?threadid=1301

I love Takeshi Kitano Sonatine was awesome one of the best gangster movie in my opinion and Hana-bi was great but the structure was a bit to disjointed it slow the pace of the movie down I thought.

My main concern at the moment is the film called Audition

I saw it the other day and it left me completely shaken up.

It's definately not normal for me to be disturbed by a film, actually I can't remember the last time I was disgusted/scared/shivery (cue reminders from others of films that could have done so)

Only film I remember scaring me was Alien - I was eleven at the time...

For those who haven't seen it, it's a romantic film, but with a slight Japanese twist at the end...

If you haven't seen it DON'T READ ANYTHING ABOUT IT. It's best for you to just go in with unclouded mind and no expectations...

It's out on DVD, I doubt it would get a theatrical release (well definately not over here )

http://us.imdb.com/Title?0235198 heres the link to "odishon" only 531 votes! not many people seen it

I can't reccomend Battle Royal enough. It's the most disturbed, sickening, angry, violent, blackly funny movie since Pulp Fiction. This will never be released stateside because people will think it's glorifying murder. It definitely ISN'T, but that's what will keep it in Japan only. Lethal Weapon glorifies murder. Every hollywood shoot'em up action flick glorifies murder, but because they're not graphic, its supposedly okay. My ranting aside, BR is worth hunting for. I have a really lousy Chinese copy, and even through the bad picture quality and unreadable at times subtitles, th quality shines through.

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Princess mononoke is my favorite. i was really suprised that they could get that cool of an ensemble cast for the voices. Its really good and has that fantasy aspect to it, so if u like anime or fantasy you should definatley see it.

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"Who comes at 12:00 on a Sunday night to rent Butch Cassady and the Sundance Kid?"
-Hollywood Video rental guy to me

"It definitely ISN'T, but that's what will keep it in Japan only"

You can get yourself a decent region 2 UK copy if you have a multi-region player, 5 days till released date arghhh!

Princess Mononoke is one of my fav anime, but Blood's animation is the way to go! (that's still breathtaking!)

These sorts of movies do not receive a wide spread release in NZ and thus are difficult to find.

I managed to see Princess Mononoke which was amazing, while Blood was pathetic.

Audition was released at cinemas, surprisingly...but im too young.

I caught Hana-bi on Sundance Channel and found it extremely appealing.

Unfortunately, I havent got round to seeing the classics; seven samurai etc.

On a final note, has anyone seen Ring? I managed to see it at a local festival....but it hasnt been released on video.
It may have been released more widespread over in the states.....but i strongly recommend as it is the scariest movie i have ever seen.

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I am Jack's smirking revenge.

Ring did have its moment, but if it's the scariest movie you've ever seen stay WELL AWAY from audition

blood was not pathetic....the animation...the animation dood!

i cant see Audition yet, im too young.......only 16 where as it's rated R18.

and regarding blood, animation does not make up for poor voice acting and ridiculous plot D:

Can't believe I opted out of entering this thread with all the Audition talk. Sigh.

I've seen very few Asian films, I've seen many more European ones. Forgive me, I never even saw Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I havn't see Akira and didn't much enjoy Ghost in the Shell (call me a Disney Kid, go ahead!). I did enjoy The Castle of Cagliostro very much, and I really enjoyed a film from [I think] Korea, called The Little Family about a family who owns a hotel on the edge of the mountains. On the first night they're open a man kills himself in their room and in the morning, looking for ID, they can't find his wallet. This gives them a motive for killing him (stealing his wallet), despite it's being suicide. They bury the body, never speak a word of it and any other guest who gets close, they kill. Next thing you know, they find the wallet, down the side of the bed -- but now they're in too deep, and the police are begin to sniff around.

It's a black comedy and well worth looking into. I enjoyed it very much. I'm basically a fan of anything foreign. Loved La Femme Nikita more than most films I saw in the entire last year [saw it for the first time last year, I mean].

I wish Hollywood was more foreign.

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OOOH! Akira is good! Must watch... did I not stick that on my list? hotdamn

A few more japanese films I got to see recently:

Branded to kill & Tokyo Drifter - Pretty old but thoroughly entertaining films...

Boiling point - another Beat Takeshi film, I enjoy his style, but it's not one of his better ones...

Gonin - another action/drama film...(starring takeshi kitano)

I have a strange love for japanese films, even though they might be average, there seems to be some kind of added value from watching a different culture, different language, different people...

Also managed to see the prequel to ring - Ring 0

c'mon lads, you're taking the piss now.... it lacks what made the original so good, it's not a bad bad movie, but it feels...deceptive...

let's just hope the english remake of ring doesn't do well or we'll have to endure the deceptive prequels/sequels....

Last:

Zipang - this has to be the best film out of the lot! I can't believe it's only got 18 votes on imdb and it's been released since 1992!!!
Well it depends, I'm not sure if it's intentionally meant to be funny, but definately a laugh when you watch it with friends

more japanese films I managed to get hold of:

Life of Oharu Kenji Mizoguchi
Kuroneko - Kaneto Shindô
Onibaba - Kaneto Shindô
Kwaidan Masaki Kobayashi (usual suspect )


The first three are all Samurai films set in different japanese times, but Kwaidan is the best of the lot for me

Personally, I'm much more into European films than I am Japanese films, although I am impressed by Japanese films as well.

I've recently developed a strange obsession with the far east culture, prefer japanese films much more to chinese because all chinese/hong kong dvds seem to be of poor quality ie. you get blockiness! in a dvd! unbelievable in this day and age!

But there's a whole network of untouched brilliance in the japanese film industry!

TSB check out : http://www.movieforums.net/showthrea...&threadid=1710

i love anime, anime is the best. some directors and such copy there scenes from anime. but a greatly shot movie that came out last year was in the mood for love, vertical rays of the sun and anything by Takeshi Kitano (Brother, Kikujio, etc.).

Battle Royale was deffinetely an intersting movie. I recommend just because I think everyone should see it.

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