Asian Film Hall of Fame
 

Re: Asian Film Hall of Fame
 

Re: Asian Film Hall of Fame
 

well, well well!
Looks like I'm off to pick me a proper nomination lol

Thank you SO MUCH CR for taking on the Hosting mantle for this!!

Cool! glad to have you join.

Re: Asian Film Hall of Fame
 

and very glad to be here.
Just sent my nomination over

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I'll consider this. I have no idea what to nominate, though. Quite a few titles that have popped up are hard to find or bound to piss other participants off or even both.

bring it on

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I've never gotten the chance to participate in a HoF. I'm in for sure.

I actually hope you do join. Outside of Pretty Baby, and Tideland I’ve liked your nominations. Angel Heart especially was a pleasant surprise, and In a Glass Cage, while not “great”, was full of style.

Oh, and in.

Re: Asian Film Hall of Fame
 

I'm in. I'm only in the mood for a small HOF at the moment (but if this ends up having lotsa participants I don't mind that either).

I'll be interested to see how many noms we get that aren't from Japan or South Korea.

Re: Asian Film Hall of Fame
 

Sounds good. Sign me up!

I figure most noms will be from Japan and South Korea as well (spoilers: mine isn’t). Followed maybe by Hong Kong/ China, Taiwan, India. If we’re lucky, maybe a few from Indonesia,Iran or Palestine. I doubt it, but it’d be very interesting

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My nom is from Thailand, but I'm not against watching a bunch of Japanese films. or South Korean films.

Me neither, just curious what they are.

Join: It doesn't really matter if lotsa people hate your nom. Besides, it's cool to introduce people to unfamiliar parts of cinema.

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Now that the thread is real, it looks like I'll have to rewatch the film I was considering nominating sooner rather than later haha.

So far we have eight members, yahoo! Even if we get a lot more people there will be extra time if needed for this, so no worries.

We have some awesome films so far! When I have some free time I'll post a teaser with the names of countries are noms came from.

If it isn’t Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives I’m flipping this table in front of me......unless it’s any film from
Apichatpong Weerasethaku.

It's not from Joe, so go ahead and flip it.

*flips table*

+1 rep for referencing him by his nickname.

Re: Asian Film Hall of Fame
 

May I join?

Re: Asian Film Hall of Fame
 

I'm in! PMing you my nomination shortly

Re: Asian Film Hall of Fame
 

Just for reference, here are the Asian films that are already in our illustrious Hall of Fame:

Sansho The Baliff (1954 Kenji Mizoguchi)
High and Low (Akira Kurosawa 1963)
Raise the Red Lantern (Zhang Yimou, 1992)
Spirited Away (2001 Hayao Miyazaki)
A Separation (2011 Asghar Farhadi)

Not many.

Please do!!

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When is the deadline for nominations?

Yes, of course, anyone can join. I hadn't posted the detailed rules as most of us already know them, but for new people I just now posted the rules on the 1st post.

I think I'll do the reveal on this Friday.

Re: Asian Film Hall of Fame
 

sounds like a plan

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I sent in my nomination. It shouldn't cause as much anxiety in people as In a Glass Cage did (I had a bit more triggering option as well, but decided otherwise). Let's hope people like action films :)

I rewatched the film I was going to nominate last night but...I wasn't super into it this time around. Still really like the direction it takes, and appreciate how it doesn't go down the expected route, but the runtime just felt really long this time. My second choice, which I'm rewatching this evening is actually half an hour longer, so we'll see how that goes haha.

I do have a third film in mind to rewatch in case that goes poorly too. Hopefully I still like at least one of these.

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This is shaping up pretty nicely:) PahaK just sent his nomination in and that makes 10 members so far. I will do the reveal on Friday.

Re: Asian Film Hall of Fame
 

Will sit this out mainly due to time constraints but look forward to seeing the noms

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Damn, too much things going on. Barely holding on to the HOF24 and the Personal Rec and now this :laugh:

After trying and failing to sit through option #2, I might actually go with my first choice now. Hopefully I have time to watch the third one before Friday.

So how is the breakdown by country represented so far?

An Asian Action Film!?!

YOU BAST@RD!!


:D;)

you're over thinking this -

https://th.bing.com/th/id/Rf8836e560...sl=&pid=ImgRaw

OK so far:

Leading the pack is Japan with 6 films.
Then Thailand with 2 films.
And Hong Kong & Taiwan with 1 film each.

Thailand second is a surprise.
No nominations from South Korea is an even bigger one.

And not a one from Kamchatka;)

None from Korea IS a surprise. I had a couple I love from there and ended switching out, figuring others would cover Korea. . .

Yes, I 100% am. I've been doing that a lot when trying to think of what to nominate for these HoFs for some reason. I think I'll just go with my first choice, since I was going to nominate it for a previous HoF as well, but changed my mind then too.

I think when I rewatched it, I wasn't in the right mood, and since I knew everything that was going to happen, that made it feel longer than it was. I still like it though, and it would be interesting to see how everyone feels about it.

Alright, mind made up. Going to send CR the film asap so I don't back out or change it haha.

When looking for a poster to send CR, that little google information sidebar gave me this absolute gem of a genre :p:

https://www.movieforums.com/communit...chmentid=75384

LOL
There's been SO many times I second guessed myself and wished I went with something else later, so now I just let a film pop up, trust my gut and run with it.

Regardless, I'm pretty d@mn happy to have a Cosmic film to look forward to :)

I went with a Japanese film that was the best of it's genre in the hopes it makes the top 100. It has zero chance at winning but for those that watch it they should enjoy it.

Your nom looks real interesting and I think people will appreciate its uniqueness. We have a number of unique films, I think everyone will be surprised and happy with the noms when they are revealed tomorrow.

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And Cosmic now makes it 11 members...and adds a new country: South Korea.

No Indonesian horror :(

If you gottem, PM me some Indonesian horror recs.

Yep. Joko Anwar has one that looks interesting, Impetigore. Hopefully it’s better then Satan’s Slaves.
Was hoping to see one from them as wel

A great place to start is the director Joko Anwar. Impetigore and Satan's Slaves are both good.

May the Devil Take You is also considered quite good, but I personally prefer Timo Tjahjanto's action films. There's also a sequel that I haven't yet seen.

Re: Asian Film Hall of Fame
 

@jiraffejustin @edarsenal @HashtagBrownies @Allaby @Siddon @Wyldesyde19 @ueno_station54 @rbrayer @pahaK @CosmicRunaway

The movie nominations are up on the 2nd post!

Lots of great choices! Thanks all for picking such cool stuff:)

Deadline to watch the movies and submit a voting list is June 1st, that's 11 weeks (if I counted correctly):p

Looks like a great lineup! Happy viewing everyone!

Thanks! Super excited - I've seen Rashoman and Paprika but the rest is new. Looking forward to it!

Those are the same two that I've already seen out of the bunch.

Yeah don't do that...but yes Daimajin is on youtube

Oops! Thanks for pointing that out. Sick and not thinking clearly!

Rashomon: A Kurosawa that I find slightly over-rated, but that opinion could change greatly on a re-watch
Black Rain: Never heard of this before, but I like a good drama
Mother: I love a good murder thriller.
Drunken Angel: Haven’t seen much if any of Kurosawa’s crime films, so this’ll be cool to check out
Tears of the Black Tiger: Never heard of this, but from a quick google search it looks cool.
Chocolate: Nice! We don’t get enough good autistic person representation in cinema, and apparently this is a good example of that. It’s been in my watchlist for a while and I love a good martial arts film.
Paprika: A Kon film that I haven’t seen yet, cool.
Daimajin: Only added this to my watchlist recently funnily enough, so I’m eager to see it.
Hanagatami: Nice! I always wanted to be more acquainted with Ôbayashi’s later films.
Dust in the Wind: Not familiar with this one, but it looks good from a quick google search.
Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow: My nom. I’ll post a writeup for it soon.

Awesome picks everyone!

Great lineup! My thoughts.


Rashomon*'Rashômon' (1950)
Just watched this last year. Wonder if my opinion on it has changed any?

Black Rain*'Kuroi ame' (1989)

Shohei never seems to be mentioned among Japans greatest directors but he was a driving force of the Japanese New Wave film movement. His accolades are as impressive as any other. This film, dealing with with the effects of the nuclear bomb on its citizens, is as good as any place to start. Solid choice

Mother*'Madeo' (2009)
I figured we’d see either Bong or Park get nominated.
This one is streaming on Hulu, and I’ve had my eye on it for awhile now.


Drunken Angel*'Yoidore tenshi' (1948)

Between this and the Personal Recc 3 foreign edition, I’m good. To have plenty of Kurosawa films to watch.

Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow*'Se ying diu sau' (1978)

Hmmm. Not familiar with this one.
Tears of the Black Tiger*'Fah talai jone' (2000)
This is that western style film isn’t it? Heard of it, unless I’m mistaken it for some other film.
Chocolate*(2008)
Same director as Ong Bak, right?
Paprika*'Papurika' (2006)
Anime. And one I’ve been meaning to check out as well.
Daimajin*(1966)
Japanese Kaiju says what? The first of the Daimajin trilogy.
Hanagatami*(2017)
Vaguely know of this, but haven’t looked into it previously. Good pick
Dust in the Wind*'Liàn liàn fengchén' (1986)
My pick. 🙂

This looks like it's going to be an interesting Hall of Fame, and I'm glad I didn't miss out! I've only seen a few of the films, and there are quite a few that I haven't even heard of, but I liked what I saw in the quick google searches I did of them.

Rashomon (1950) - It's been ages since I've seen this, and it was in that block of time during high school when I consumed so many Japanese films in a short period of time that they all started to blur together over the years. I'm looking forward to experiencing this one again, and finally pulling it out of that memory mass!

Black Rain (1989) - The title sounds familiar, but I don't recognize the images that turn up at all, so I certainly haven't seen it before.

Mother (2009) - This is my nomination! I'm going to write something about it soon (hopefully).

Drunken Angel (1948) - I've seen parts of this film before, but not the entire thing. I've been meaning to rectify that, and now I'll finally have the motivation to do so.

Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow (1978) - I haven't seen this one either, and it's been a long time since I've watched a Jackie Chan film, so I'm looking forward to it!

Tears of the Black Tiger (2000) - I've never heard of this before, and the images that come up when I search it look quite intriguing.

Chocolate (2008) - Another film I've never heard of that seems interesting.

Paprika (2006) - When I first saw this I wasn't a huge fan, but when I rewatched it for a previous tournament, I really came around on it. The same thing happened with one of Satoshi Kon's other films, Millennium Actress. It's nice to see animation get some more love!

Daimajin (1966) - The title doesn't seem familiar, but for some reason the screenshots do. Perhaps I've seen references to this film in passing, but never quite picked up on it.

Hanagatami (2017) - Yet another film I've never heard of.

Dust in the Wind (1986) - I've at least heard of this one, but that's about it haha.

Taking a quick peek, this looks like a very fun and exciting HoF list of films. Some intriguing unknowns, a few revisits. . . Thanks to everyone participating and nominating such a wonderfully diverse selection of films!


Rashomon 'Rashômon' (1950)
Dir: Akira Kurosawa Country: Japan 1h 28min Allaby This is actually gonna be a two-fer for me since I was lucky enough to have it as a Recommendation in the Foreign Language HoF along with being a Kurosawa I need to see.

Black Rain 'Kuroi ame' (1989)
Dir: Shôhei Imamura Country: Japan 2h 3min Citizen Rules This is unknown to me but it looks like a great watch

Mother 'Madeo' (2009)
Dir: Bong Joon-ho Country: South Korea 2h 9min CosmicRunaway Have not seen this intense film in quite some time so looking forward to a revisit

Drunken Angel 'Yoidore tenshi' (1948)
Dir: Akira Kurosawa Country: Japan 1h 42min Edarsenal This is a Blind Grab for me with Toshirô Mifune's very first film with Kurosawa so it should be a great fit in this

Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow 'Se ying diu sau' (1978)
Dir: Woo-Ping Yuen Country: Hong Kong 1h 30min Hashtag A young, pre-Hollywood Jackie Chan?? Hell yeah!

Tears of the Black Tiger 'Fah talai jone' (2000)
Dir: Wisit Sasanatieng Country: Thailand 1h 50min Jiraffejustin Been over a decade since I first saw this. The color scheme in this is almost hallucinogenic (in a glorious way). Looking forward to this revisit

Chocolate (2008)
Dir: Prachya Pinkaew Country: Thailand 1h 50min PahaK This is an unknown and when I checked it out, something told me to watch the trailer. . . and HOL-EEE SH#T I am SO gonna enjoy this Thailand Action Flick!!

Paprika 'Papurika' (2006)
Dir: Satoshi Kon Country: Japan 1h 30min Rbrayer This has been on my Watchlist for EVER. YAY

Daimajin (1966)
Dir: Kimiyoshi Yasuda Country: Japan 1h 24min Siddon What looks like the first of a trilogy this should be a very interesting watch. I was a huge fan of the Giant Monster films as a kid and this looks like it has some serious gravitas to it.

Hanagatami (2017)
Dir: Nobuhiko Ôbayashi Country: Japan 2h 49min Ueno_station54 Don't believe I've ever seen an Ôbayashi so this should be a wonderful introduction

Dust in the Wind 'Liàn liàn fengchén' (1986)
Dir: Hou Hsiao-hsien Country: Taiwan 1h 49min Wyldesyde Another unknown that I'll have the pleasure of discovering.

Re: Asian Film Hall of Fame
 

Mother (2009) is on Hulu FYI

Re: Asian Film Hall of Fame
 

Rashomon - Seen this about a year ago, but I'm down to watch this again. It'll probably be near the last thing I watch for this as I want fresh stuff first. It is great, but not near the top of my favorite Kurosawa films.

Black Rain - I've been meaning to see some Shohei Imamura films, but I thought I was going to start with Vengeance is Mine. Maybe this will be a pleasant surprise. Looks very heavy.

Mother - Been on my radar probably since it came out, just never gotten to it. I was in the mood for South Korean thriller last night, my brother is here visiting and had never seen Oldboy, so we watched that. Mother was an option I passed over.

Drunken Angel - Much like Hitchcock films, I know that I will eventually see them all, I just don't know what order. This one has been rattling around my watchlist for awhile, but probably more towards the mid-priority than top-priority behind Stray Dog and a couple others.

Snake in the Eagle's Shadow - I'm down for some Kung Fu.

Tears of the Black Tiger - I nominated this mainly because I wanted a reason to watch it again. It's pretty crazy, I hope others like it too.

Chocolate - I know of it, but I don't think I would have really ever gotten to it unless I decided I wanted to take a deeper dive specifically into Thai films. I'm usually pretty happy about films like that when they pop up in one of these, as they often are worthwhile.

Paprika - I really dug this one when I saw it several years ago. Looking forward to it again. I've also been meaning to get around to Perfect Blue as well.

Daimajin - I've heard of this film, but just briefly. I don't know that I would have chosen to watch it on my own accord any time soon. I'm open to a fun time with it.

Hanagatami - This was already on the top-priority watchlist. I expect to love this.

Dust in the Wind - Pretty similar feelings to the ones I wrote for Black Rain just replace Shohei Imamura and Vengeance Is Mine with Hsiao-Hsien Hou and A City of Sadness.

I've only seen 5 so I may try a couple of these out. I saw Black Rain from 89 and thought what the hell that's an American movie until I found the other one.

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Rashomon - It's been a long time since I've seen it, and I hope for my own sake I enjoy it more this time around but as of now I'll be keeping its spot at the bottom of the list warm for it, lol.

Black Rain - I've always known about this film because it was the first film Takashi Miike worked on (he was my gateway to non-American film). I've been meaning to watch some Imamura forever now.

Mother - Not a Bong Joon-ho fan really. I liked this when it came out but I don't know if it'll still appeal to me.

Drunken Angel - I do need to see more of Kurosawa's non-jidaigeki stuff.

Snake in the Eagle's Shadow - Want to dig in to this era of martial arts films a lot more. Very hype.

Tears of the Black Tiger - I bought a region 3 DVD of this from a second hand store (even though I don't currently have anything to play it on) just because it looked that cool. High expectations for this one.

Chocolate - I remember seeing this DVD cover all the time at Blockbuster. Should be fun.

Paprika - Very happy to get to revisit this. Paprika rules.

Daimajin - I'd never heard of this but I'm extremely excited for it now.

Hanagatami - I picked this because its my favourite applicable film for this. I hope everyone gets as much out of it as I did and if not sorry for that runtime lmao.

Dust in the Wind - A friend of mine who digs on Taiwanese film big time gave it 3/5 and that's the extent of my knowledge about this film. The poster looks lovely and that's usually enough to sell me on a film.

Looks like mostly cool stuff got picked, I'm looking forward to this.

Which of his other films have you seen? I didn't like The Host or Snowpiercer. Okja was okay. Really liked Parasite though.

I didn't like Snowpiercer at all. I did like The Host but I like Mother better.

Okja is probably my favourite of his from what I've seen. The Host is alright, Snowpiercer is god-awful and I liked the first half of Parasite well enough.

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I've seen The Host and liked it. I seen Snowpiercer and didn't care for it at the time, but I think I was wanting a realistic sci-fi when it was more like a Terry Gilliam film...I should rewatch it one of these days. Still haven't seen Parasite yet.

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Parasite was REALLY good. His best of what I've seen, and I'm of the rare breed who liked Snowpiercer. Liked The Host more the second time around. Remember being very caught up with Mother even with the slow pacing of it.

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You guys should check out Bong Joon Ho's Influenza. It's an interesting short film that is all security camera footage that shows a criminal doing worse and worse sh*t.

My pick for the Hall of Fame. It's not entirely unknown or anything like that, but I wanted to pick something that maybe not many had seen before but something that was also highly entertaining.

Jackie Chan plays a mistreated orphan who comes under the wing of a kung-fu master, but soon has to come to his master's aid with his kung-fu skills. If you have to watch this film for any reason, it's Yuen Woo-ping's fantastic fight choreography (Same fight choreographer as Kill Bill and the Matrix btw): The fights go on for excruciatingly long periods of time but they are never boring, they constantly maintain their excitement with amazingly smooth movement and attacking. Not to forget it's combined with the bizarre sound design, where a thud that plays after every punch makes it sound much more impactful.

Another aspect to why the film is so entertaining is its comedy: Sure it contains a fair bit of the Jackie Chan style comedy within the fights, despite it being quite early in his career, but a lot of the characters are such walking clichés and stereotypes (the spoiled rich kid for example) that you can't help but laugh at it. The most bizarre character and most bizarre element of the film is a white priest that shows up out of nowhere and yells at people for sinning, hilarious stuff. I don't know about you guys, but I like to watch old kung-fu movies with the English dub, the cheesiness of the voice actors adds a whole other scale of entertainment.

I surprisingly have not yet checked out Yuen Woo-ping's much more popular action comedy 'Drunken Master' yet, so I should do that soon.

Also a note to animal lovers: One of the key scenes in the film involves a cat fighting a snake. In some cuts of the film, real footage of a cat fighting a snake is shown. From what I've seen though, most of the versions of the film on YouTube have heavily edited the scene so that no contact between the snake or cat is seen, so you should be fine.

In regards to Bong, I loved Parasite, liked The Host (even if I was left scratching my head about how much it is raved about), didn’t care for Barking Dogs Never Bite.

I prefer the more gritty and violent films of Park.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4urb...nel=TheCurator

Does this look like a good copy of Daimajin to use @Siddon?

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Let's see what we have here...

Rashomon: I may or may not have seen this ages ago. In either case, I don't remember anything about it. I've never seen a bad Kurosawa film, though, so it should be at least OK.

Black Rain: I think I've heard of this before, but I don't know anything except it's related to the Hiroshima bombing.

Mother: Again, don't know anything more than the name and the director. Snowpiercer and The Host are OK. I've also seen Memories of Murder but it's been too long (and I may have it partially mixed with another film).

Drunken Angel: Same as Rashomon, except I'm sure I've never seen this before.

Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow: I truly respect Jackie Chan's stunts and athleticism, but I haven't exactly enjoyed his movies. I haven't seen his old stuff in like 30 years or something, though, so maybe my opinion will change now.

Tears of the Black Tiger: Never heard of this one. It appears to be a comedy, so it may not be for me. It sort of looks interesting though, and it's definitely the first Thai western I'm going to see.

Chocolate: My nomination. Great martial arts action (especially towards the end), likable/sympathetic main, and a small cute girl kicking ass. what's not to like. And @Citizen Rules might consider changing the length to 92 minutes (110 min is, according to IMDb, a Thai version but I've never seen such in reality - even the blu ray only has the shorter one).

Paprika: Again, a familiar name but not much else. Oh, I was pretty sure it's anime and it looks like I was right.

Daimajin: Never heard of this. Too few HoFs have films about giant living stone statues, though, so at least this one's cleared for that.

Hanagatami: Nope, never heard of this one. It's long, though, so hopefully it's good too.

Dust in the Wind: Never heard of this either. No apparent joke comes to mind either.

Looks like a fun line-up with a good portion of stuff I'd never seen otherwise.

Sure I can change that. BTW I should tell everyone that I did find a link in Thai with English subs, in case someone needs it.

Chocolate (2008)

I've always been a fan of martial arts films. It's probably the most long-lived cinematic passion I have, and while it's been overtaken by a love for horror, these films still have a special place in my heart. It's a physical brand of film-making that's often at its best when you can feel the actors hurting. That's what generally separates western films from Far Eastern ones; the crazy stunts where people put their health and life at stake.


Besides the fights, you usually need a sympathetic hero or someone likable for the hero to defend (Steven Seagal manages without this, but he's a special case). JeeJa Yanin's portrayal of an autistic girl trying to get money for her mother's hospital bill is sympathetic for sure. Acting, in general, is above average for an action film like this, but JeeJa is easily the star.

The action in Chocolate is a mix of Thai-style Pinkaew created in his earlier films (Ong-bak being the most famous) and Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee. JeeJa being this small lady, the fights require a dose of suspension of belief. She does a great job with the fights, though, and especially the ones later in the film are amazing. As usual, there are some bloopers at the start of the end credits that show how much it hurts to make a film like this.

On the negative side, the main villain of Chocolate is bland and forgettable. Also, the introduction is a tad too long. Production values are clearly lower than, for example, The Man from Nowhere that was in the 24th HoF. Overall, the positives far outweigh the negatives (for me, at least), and Chocolate is one of my favorite action films of this century.

大魔神 (1966)
aka Daimajin

I love how the Japanese don't care about genre restrictions, be it music or movies or, presumably, any form of art. Daimajin is, at the same time, a samurai epic, a kaiju horror, and a fantasy adventure with the most cliched plot of an evil usurper and a righteous heir in exile (sort of). While the result may not be great, it's quite entertaining and definitely charming.


The production values are good for an obvious B-movie. I suppose samurai films were so popular that costumes and sets and props were abundant. But even the more unique aspects are well-made. The mountain hideout and the nearby statue look good, and once the god awakens, it's surprisingly effective and lifelike in its rampage. I was a little disappointed by the lack of blood, but maybe this was meant to be a family-friendly film.

I don't know what else to say. Daimajin is an interesting mix of genres, and I wouldn't have watched it without this HoF. It'll never be my favorite, but it was definitely worth a watch. While it's not exactly my kind of movie, it's exactly the kind of nomination I love.

https://gojirakingdom.files.wordpres.../daimajin8.jpg
Daimajin (1966)

Forgive me if you have zero interest in pro wrestling, but everything is pro wrestling. Watching this film I couldn't help but to think back to two specific pro wrestling matches from the largest pro wrestling company's most lucrative time period: The Undertaker vs Mick Foley in a Hell in a Cell match and Triple H vs Mick Foley in a Hell in a Cell match. The Undertaker and Mick Foley is maybe the most famous pro wrestling match of all-time, if you are a fan of the sport(s-entertainment) you've seen at least the two major clips. Mick Foley goes off the side of the cage through the announce table and later goes through the top of the cage to the hard ring below. As far as I know, there was not any sort of build that said Foley was going through the cage in that match, but when it happened, it was organic and it was bananas. Foley vs HHH on the other hand, was built entirely around Foley being willing to dive off the cage to take out HHH. The anticipation for a single moment was off the charts. And while Foley did go through the cage again, it was far less organic, far less satisfying (, and far safer) than the other match. The match with Undertaker had probably worse work outside of the two big spots than the HHH match, but the work itself didn't matter nearly as much to the fans who had sky-high expectations.

Daimajin has a very cool look, like a Hulk that I wanted to see smash, and that's pretty much all I wanted in this film. I was promised that Hulk smashing all kinds of sh*t, but I guess, just like the WWF fans in 2000, I should have managed expectations and appreciated what I was getting for what it was. There was a decent enough samurai film going on, but we were all here for the Hulk and not Bruce Banner. But this was like sitting through an hour of decent Bruce Banner for a fantastic ten minutes of Hulk smashing.

I just rewatched Rashomon, and I think I actually saw this not too long ago and simply forgot. Maybe in preparation for the Japanese Hall of Fame? I think I need to start keeping a movie diary or something, since my memory for these things is getting even worse haha.

letterboxd... do it.

Re: Asian Film Hall of Fame
 

Daimajin (Kimiyoshi Yasuda, 1966)

https://mikestakeonthemovies.files.w...daimajin17.jpg

It is so messed up that this dumb monster movie looks better than anything that's come out in the last 30 years. This looks so good I can 100% forgive the boilerplate story and weak dialogue and honestly it might even be better for being as simple as it is in those regards. The lighting, camerawork and even the colour grading are very expressive and definitely carry the bulk of the film along with the impressive sets until (obviously) the kaiju action kicks in and oh man it is so, so satisfying when it does. Marked out huge for basically everything the Majin did and the miniatures are maybe some of the best I've ever seen. The only real downside is the score. It's very similar to the Gojira score and leaves no impression whatsoever. That's my only gripe. I was completely blown away by this. Definitely gonna watch the rest of the trilogy at some point.

everything really is wrestling

Just a heads up, if anyone hasn’t mentioned it yet, but Dust in the Wind in available on Amazon Prime if you have it.

Re: Asian Film Hall of Fame
 

Oh yeah, if anyone needs help finding Hanagatami hmu, I have it up on a google drive.

I haven't looked for any of the movies yet, and I should as some might be hard to find.

Could you PM me your link to Hanagatami hmu? I'm not familiar with Google Drive so probably couldn't find it on my own.

I found a very accessible link to it, I'll send it to you.

Cool, thanks.

So it turns out that I had actually seen Snake in the Eagle's Shadow before!

The first couple scenes didn't seem familiar, but by the time the training montage started, I knew I had seen it before, and could even remember how to rest of the film played out. There were often Jackie Chan marathons on one of the channels we had when I was younger, so I must've caught it on tv at some point.

Chocolate (Prachya Pinkaew, 2008)

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So I don't really want to hold this against the film because it was clearly made on the cheap but this was shot on a potato and its hard to look past sometimes. It's a shame too because the choreography is certainly there but its done such a disservice by the filmmaking. I mean, they definitely tried to give it some visual flair but it backfired more often than actually improve the film, most notably in the fight at the butcher shop where I couldn't read a single thing that happened. In the other fights I at least can tell what's going on but the camera and edit still manage to suck most of the life out of them. Honestly the film just feels extremely slow and dull overall and its most memorable moments are indebted to the soundtrack which has these surprisingly great bargain-bin dream pop bangers sprinkled throughout. Now, as a neurotypical it wouldn't be my place to make a judgment on whether this character portrayal is ableist or anything but it was certainly pretty cringe to watch. Yeah, didn't really like this much.

me too please and thank you

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Hanagatami

Speaking on an Obayashi film is not an easy thing to do, because he didn't make films that fit within convention. I could describe to you the things that he did that others didn't, but it would fail to really show why those things worked so well. I would love to spend a day travelling around his mind and seeing it at work, because he was totally unique. I've only seen three of his films, but two of them from 40 years apart both being legitimate five-star classics tells me what I need to know about him. He made gorgeous films that stunned me and grabbed me with their playfulness, inventiveness, and audacity. Hausu was a crazy ride, Hanagatami was maybe the best coming-of-age film I've ever seen. With Obayashi, a simple descriptor such as that fails to do it justice, but I don't think I could do this film justice anyway.

easy

Re: Asian Film Hall of Fame
 

Drunken Angel (1948, Akira Kurosawa)

This is a fascinating, if minor film in the Kurosawa oevre. As many note, it is primarily worth mention for the first casting of Toshiro Mifune as Matsunaga, a vicious gangster with TB that forms an unlikely friendship with alcoholic slum Doctor Sanada (Takashi Shimura). The film tricks you into thinking Mifune is the protagonist - a nice idea unfortunately undercut by Mifune's amazing screen presence and energy. Indeed, from the second Mifune appears, his intense physicality overpowers virtually everything else in the film. Kurosawa eventually focuses more heavily on Matsunaga, implicitly acknowledging the issue.

The film also features what would become some trademark Kurosawa visual flourishes - including framing multiple speakers in different parts of the screen looking in different directions, a stunning technique that looks like fine art - and one used to perfection in the far better Yojimbo. There is also a breathtaking three mirror shot in the final fight and several other hints of the genius work to come from Kurosawa.

The film is strong thematically - it reflects the sorrow and disarray of post-war Japan and slips in several negative references to Americans, averting censorship. Notably, the Yakuza dress and act American. It is a nice touch too that Doctor Sanada is far from a perfect messenger to help save Matsunaga. It's difficult for him to persuasively insist Matsunaga quit drinking to avoid more damage from his TB when the Doctor himself is drinking. Similarly, the Doctor's fits of anger and arrogance mirror the very qualities he hates in the Yakuza, a sign of the moral rot that had infested Japan (along with the less subtle toxic waste river in the middle of town.)

The biggest drawback is Shimura's performance, which is over-the-top even for Kurosawa, though undoubtedly a lot of that is in the writing. There is also a thread with a woman he is harboring from the Yakuza that only sort-of gets paid off. The film is a bit wobbly all in all, but interesting historically, if nothing else.

On a personal note, it's a funny coincidence that I was strongly considering nominating the movie that this film directly led to - Red Beard, in which Mifune plays the doctor that confronts the Yakuza. It's a far stronger film, but I'm glad I got to see this one anyway, as I would have watched it eventually and there are some great moments. If nothing else, it's worth a watch to see the incredible Mifune performance and the beginning of one the most fruitful and visionary pairings between actor and director in cinema history.

3/5 stars.

Re: Asian Film Hall of Fame
 

Is the best copy of Daimajin (Kimiyoshi Yasuda, 1966) only on YouTube? If someone has a better link could you PM me?

I don't usually read the reviews of films I haven't watched yet until I've written my own piece about them, but I had noticed this bold part while scrolling down the page at the time, and read the note.

Even though I ignored the advice and did not watch the copy on Youtube (and even worse, watched the original version) I just wanted to say that I appreciated the warning.

Re: Asian Film Hall of Fame
 

I'm glad Cosmic just posted about that, cause I didn't see the bolded part in Hastag's review. Think I'll watch the YouTube version so my wife stays happy:D I'll be happier too.