Recommend me some more Asian movies

I've started watchnig more and more foreign language movies as of late and have found Asian cinema to be a real breath of fresh air. Very often the films I choose are innovative and very well made and I'm really enjoying watching them rather than going to the cinema and watching any one of countless remakes Hollywood is churning out at the moment.

The films I have seen so far are:

Oldboy
Save the Green Planet
Battle Royale
Infernal Affairs
In the Mood for Love

I have bought but have not yet had time to watch:

2046
Sympathy for Mr Vengeance


If any of you fine people could recommend some other titles for me I'd be very grateful. The sooner the better though, one of the DVD shops in my town are having a promotion on the Tartan Asia range of DVDs so I might pick a few up for the weekend.

Thanks

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The first two that come to mind are...
To Live (Huozhe) (1994) and Together (He ni zai yi qi)(2002).

Both are excellent. If you're intersted here's a link for Together . And LordSlaytan did an excellent review of To Live (Huozhe) here. You'll need to scroll down a little bit to see it ( I think it's the last review on that page).

Kill Bill...?

Just kidding


If you haven't seen The Killer or Hard Boiled, they are violent as all get out, but well-done, and showcase Chow Yun Fat before he came over to Hollywood. Directed by John Woo, who is now a household name.

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I've got the Criterion version of Hard Boiled but can't seem to get it watched. The picture on that version is pretty rough so it puts me off a bit. I'm keeping my eyes open for a copy on Ebay with a better picture. The Killer I am looking out for too, my brother recommended that one to me too.

Thanks for the replies chaps, keep 'em coming

Definetely check John Woo's Hong Kong action films- Bullet in the Head and A Better Tomorrow as well as The Killer and Hard Boiled.

The obvious ones like Zhang Yimou's Hero and House of Flying Daggers are worth while. And you should check into the rest of Wong Kar Wai's other works like Chungking Express and Ashes of Time.

Japan has some great messed up films, especially from Takashi Miike- Bird of People of China, Happiness of the Katakuris (and it's basis The Quiet Family), Gozu, Izo and you've probably heard of Audition and Ichi the Killer. Takeshi Kitano is also a great film maker, his remake of Zatoichi is probably better than Kill Bill but his other works are really original- Sonatine and Hana-Bi. Ryuhei Kitamura as got some well good action flicks like Versus and Azumi. The older stuff like Tetsuo is truly twisted.

Try some Thai film's as well, the bizzare Bollywood-esque Western Tears of a Black Tiger and upcoming martial arts supremo Tony Jaa's Ong Bak plus Last Life in the Universe.

But my favourite Asian place for films is Korea, you've seen my favourite flicks from there already but there's Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring, Taegukgi and Memories of Murder. Chan Wook Park seems someone you like so try Joint Security Area and keep your eye out for Sympathy for Lady Vengeance. If you like your J-horror, try A Tale of Two Sisters.

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Turtles can fly ( Iran )
Stray dogs ( Iran )
Tasogare seibei ( twilight samurai )( Japan )
A scene at the sea ( Japan )
The samaritan girl ( South Korea )
Howl's moving castle ( Japan )
Princess Mononoke ( Japan )
Children of heaven ( Iran )
Musa warrior ( South Korea )
The eye ( Hong-kong,China )
Shaolin soccer ( Hong-kong, China )
Shall we dansu ( Japan )
Ringu ( Japan )

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Is Iran part of Asia adi? Anyway agree with a lot of your picks....

Forgot about Steven Chow's Shaolin Soccer and Kung-Fu Hustle and one of the best J-horrors- The Eye, ironically not actually 'J'.

Then there's Anime- Miyazaki is the Eastern Walt Disney, the most recent ones Howl's Moving Castle, Sprited Away also Princess Mononoke, Castle in the Sky, Kiki's Delivery Service. Then there's more adult anime- Ninja Scrolls, Ghost in the Shell 2, Akira and ultra sick Urotsukidoji and upcoming Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children which looks great.

I'm sure you know Kurosawa, so no need to go into details there.

If you're into martial arts try Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao, Yuen Woo Ping, Simon Yuen, Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee as directors and stars. Drunken Master is my personal favourite but there are too many to mention, just remember to look for those names and you'll probably get a good film. Tsui Hark is also a good director though i'm not a great fan of his atm.

Also series of samurai films like Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman, Lady Snowblood and the excellent Lone Wolf and Cub (the first two installments wee merged into a film called Shogun Assassin).

Another is Takashi Ishii, a little trashy though.

hardy har har....

i'm serious, geopraphy isn't one of my strong points

yes....yes it is....atlas is your friend ....

i thought it was more africa, hmmmm, oh well, everyday.

Akira Kurosawa: Rashomon, Yojimbo
Wong Kar-Wai: Chungking Express, 2046, Fallen Angels
Hiroshi Teshigahara: Woman in the Dunes
Juzo Itamo: Tampopo
Miyazaki: Kiki's Delivery Service, Spirited Away
Isao Takahata: Grave of the Fireflies

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Going by your list, I'm recommending these 'cause they may be to your liking:

- Kikujiro, dir. Takeshi Kitano, extremely likeable sort of buddy movie with very unlikely partners

- Dead Or Alive, Fudoh: The Next Generation, dir. Takashi Miike (this is minus the rest that others mentioned; those are great too), chances are, if you loved Ichi the Killer, Battle Royale, and Audition, you'll probably dig these too

- 3 Extremes/3 Monsters, horror trilogy dir. by Park Chan-Wook, Miike, and Fruit Chan of Hong Kong, I haven't seen the first trilogy but this trilogy has more of the directors you're into anyway

- Bin-jip, The Isle, dir. Kim Ki-Duk (the others mentioned are great also), if you haven't seen S,S,F,W&S first, you should watch that and then if you're interested, check these out too

- 2LDK, dir. Yukihiko Tsutsumi, you might find this one dull in comparison to others in this vein but it has an interesting premise

- The Emperor and the Assassin, dir. Kaige Chen, period swords and sandals kind of movie, nice story

- Fulltime Killer, dir. Johnny To, probably one of the closest movies you'll find comparable to John Woo's HK stuff, if you enjoyed Desperado, you'll probably find this at the least, amusing

- Gonin, dir. Takashi Ishii, one of the better examples of the whole Japanese pop-violence wave

- NO. 3, dir. Song Neung-han, nice gangster film that more or less set the pace for other korean hits like My Wife is a Gangster etc.

- Suicide Club, dir. Shion Sono, another above average example of the J pop-violence wave of movies

I hope you find any of these to your liking and hope you enjoy.

P.S. - Pyro Tramp mentioned Tetsuo. To say it's bizarre is an understatement but you may find it worth your time. I thought A Snake for June was his better film but regardless, if you're looking for something different, that's definitely it.

It's called Dolls and you should check it out. Very excellent movie. I just saw it the other night. Available on DVD. Dolls is three intertwining stories about the beauty of sadness. I can't really describe it - just see it.

Of the Japanese films thus far mentioned there are plenty of good ones, Woman in the Dunes and Akira are musts.

I'm sad to see no one mentioning stuff by Shohei Imamura. I did a review for one of his most accessible films a couple years ago, you can find it here. I think it (my review) still holds up okay, if a bit clumsilly written. I'm actually tempted to recommend that nobody read any review of his films prior to seeing, as I find he's one of the most visually surprising directors around, and seeing one of his films without knowing what to expect is (I think) one of the most exciting cinematic experiences one can have.

Vengeance is Mine, Black Rain, The Eel, The Ballad of Narayama, The Insect Woman are all things that everyone should see.

On the Hong Kong side, I like Tsui Hark a lot, though be careful because his filmography is quite inconsistent, Once Upon a Time in China and The Blade are his obvious masterpieces, both being very different and innovative takes on the heavilly choreographed martial arts drama and both putting rather cliched story formulae to intelligent use. His Van Damme films are pretty forgettable. A lot of his films are failures but fail on their own terms (or at least have their own terms) and are quite interesting, Zu Warriors of the Magic Mountain being the best example. If you can track down a decent copy, Dangerous Encounters, 1st Kind, AKA Don't Play With Fire is a strong early example of the gritty stylized "new wave", and has aged surprisingly well in spite of (or perhaps because of) its obvious low budget.

among 10 000 others:
http://www.movieforums.com/community...t=10652&page=1

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I'd say Dead or Alive and Fudoh at the lower end of Miike's diverse filmography, that's not to say don't see them, just see some others as they'll likely give you the wrong idea of him. As for 3, Extremes, i guess you like the directors but it's quite weak, big fans only.

Well. I just watched Hard Boiled and have to say it was incredible. I'll get "The Killer" next I think

If you can, I'd abandon Three...Extremes and just go for the full length cut of Dumplings, which is easily the finest of the three stories (and one of my favorite's from 2004).

Kim Ki-Duk's 3-Iron is an absolute must see. I think it might just be the strongest film to ever come out of Korea since it has had its cinematic boom. I cannot recommend this film enough.

The Last Life in the Universe by Pen-Ek Ratanaruang is a fantastic movie as well. Somewhat similar to 3-Iron, but not as good - which is no knock at Last Life, 3-Iron is just that amazing. I'd also highly recommend Pen-Ek's 6ixtynin9, very cool and fun flick. Judging by what you've liked so far, if I had to recommend only one of Pen-Ek's, I'd go with 6ixtynin9.

And to reinforce some already recommended.

Infernal Affairs
Joint Security Area - Arguably Chan-Wook Park's most well rounded film thus far (haven't seen Sympathy for Lady Vengeance yet)
Memories of Murder - Amazing.
Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War - One of the most powerful war films ever made.
Bittersweet Life
The Eye (as Pyro said, the best of the J-horror bust)
Shutter (second favorite Asian ghost story, second only to The Eye)

And if you're feeling existential, IZO.

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I've been hearing good things about 3-Iron, looks like my next purchase. I've always had my eye on Taegukgi but read some bad reviews when it got released over here, so not too sure 'bout it.

Just watched Memories of Murder, highly recommended.

OG- where can you get the full length cut of Dumplings?