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Your Favorite Japanese Movies

patty diaz said:
Also love a lot of Takeshi mike films
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Audition :love:

Usually i am not interested in war-themed movies, but Eien no Zero was very, very good. When Manager rented it (it was a "heavy snow" day so she assumed the evening would be quite free), me and the other girl on shift that day were quite "meh" at first, but the three of us got really into it. It's really a tearjerker (when the movie was over we literaly had a MOUNTAIN of tissues on the table :joyful:) but it's really moving.
In spite of some controversy when it was released, i didn't get any "pro-war" or propaganda feeling while watching it. It's just a beautiful story.

Also, it's quite old but 花芯の刺青 (i have no idea about the English title, in french it's called "la vie secrete de madame Yoshino") is worth seeing too. Well, the story is quite common exploitation stuff (it's a pink movie from Nikkatsu, no need to say more) but the way it's narrated/shot is very artistic and clever, there's a lot of sophistication. I love the tattooing scene so much, and Naomi Tani was such a beauty.
 
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All the 70s ultra violence movies & "pinky violence" movies rocked.

All Itami Juzo directed films in the 80s

All Kurosawa movies

All Zatoichi movies (formula but good like Tora-san)

Grave of fireflies was good but all the other cartoons make me wanna fork out my eyeballs.

Notice how I listed nothing after about 1990? That's because the Japanese film industry pretty much died then.

roots reggae said:
Later, I bought all 48, with English subtitles.
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Holy crap! Did you actually watch all 48? How much did this set cost?
 
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I am a collector but I haven't had time to watch more than a fraction. Miike used to be good when he broke out but now he's mostly shit since he went blockbuster.
Sion Sono surpassed him for me.
Feel like Japan has hit a slump in movies in the last 10 years or so.
If excluding Ghibli films, my favorite film is probably Strawberry Shortcakes, a slice of life film about 4 young women.
I also really like Sogo Ishii's film Gojoe, mostly for the amazing imagery.
More recently, I also enjoyed the Rurouni Kenshin movies a great deal, I'm a sucker for cool sword fights.
 
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roots reggae said:
The discussion going on in the Shinjuku Swan thread got me thinking about great Japanese films.

What are some of your favorites and why?

One evening, long ago, just after I married in 2002, I was channel surfing on my TV cable provider, JCom, looking for English programs. My wife was out and I was bored.

I stumbled upon a movie in Japanese, of which I understood just a few words, back then, hardly much more, even now.

Yet, I seemed to understand what was going on, without subtitles.

When my wife got home, I started describing the film. She laughed, and recognized it immediately.

It turns out that it was a series of 48 films, spanning from 1968 to 1995 called Otoko Wa Tsurai Yo -It’s Tough Being a Man and NHK was showing the entire collection, something that happens every now and then.

We watched the remainder of the series and I was hooked. Later, I bought all 48, with English subtitles.

For those of you not familiar, here are a few links, describing the Tora-san series:

All the Tora-san films had broadly the same plot. In each, the hero meets, falls for and loses the girl. Individual entries were distinguished mainly by the casting of the heroines, known collectively as Tora-san’s “Madonnas.” Likewise, each film depicted the hero’s awkward interaction with his family.

But it is too simplistic to say that the series was formulaic, since the formula itself was the pleasure. From Tora-san’s unchanging opening narration and the whimsical theme tune, to the film-parody pre-credit dream sequences with which later episodes began, the viewer had the sense of returning to a familiar world, and reacquainting himself with characters that he had come to know intimately over the years. The regular twice-yearly installments, released to coincide with Bon summer holidays and New Year festivities, began to feel like visits from beloved relatives.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2008/11/14/films/114980/#.V5U-lBV94uo

Tora-san arrived on the screen when anything was possible if you worked hard enough, and people were forward-thinking and full of energy… A penniless, comic anti-hero, Tora-san lacked good looks and smarts and remained oblivious to the country’s modernization, living solely to bring happiness to those he loved.
- Yoji Yamada, Director

https://www.japansociety.org/content.cfm/best_of_tora-san

Otoko wa Tsurai yo(男はつらいよ?, "It's tough being a man") is a Japanese film series starring Kiyoshi Atsumi as "Tora-san" (寅さん?), a kind-hearted vagabond who is always unlucky in love. The series itself is often referred to as "Tora-san" by its fans.[1] Spanning 48 installments released between 1969 and 1995,[2] all of the Otoko wa tsurai yo films except episodes 3 (Azuma Morisaki) and 4 (Shun'ichi Kobayashi) were directed by Yōji Yamada, who also wrote (or co-wrote) all the screenplays.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otoko_wa_Tsurai_yo

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Last time I visited Tokyo in 2011, I ran into a comedian that dresses up just like Kiyoshi Atsumi. This comedian actually inherited his famous brown briefcase after he passed away because he is supposedly his biggest fan. I was able to get a funny photo with him that I treasure lol.
 
Hmm, difficult.

Shurayukihime because of Kaji Meiko.

Koushikei (Death by hanging) because of Ohshima Nagisa, a highly political director who asked questions which nobody in Japan asks anymore.

Seppuku (Harakiri), directed by Kobayashi Masaki, starring Nakadai Tatsuya, Tamba Tetsuro and Mikuni Rentaro, one of the rare jidaigeki movies which do not glorify the samurai's way of life.

Patlabor: Shuto Kessen because one of my favourite Anime series got a real movie.
 
TheWhiteBear said:
Also thank you grandpa Roots :D
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Verbal said:
Aye, it's the familial connection hard at work. Thanks gramps
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OK you two young whippersnappers (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=whippersnapper)
I am not a grampa. My sons are eleven and eight. I hope I live long enough to be a grandfather, though, since I am sixty-five.

whippersnapper.jpg
 
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matthk said:
Confessions (Kokuhaku), one of the best revenge movies I have seen together with Old Boy.
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I'm gonna go with Kokuhaku as well. I'll second that with Shokuzai, even though it's a mini-series. Anything written by Minato Kanae is pretty awesome.

Also, Love Exposure (Ai no mukidashi)!
 
TheScientist said:
All the 70s ultra violence movies & "pinky violence" movies rocked.

All Itami Juzo directed films in the 80s

All Kurosawa movies

All Zatoichi movies (formula but good like Tora-san)

Grave of fireflies was good but all the other cartoons make me wanna fork out my eyeballs.

Notice how I listed nothing after about 1990? That's because the Japanese film industry pretty much died then.



Holy crap! Did you actually watch all 48? How much did this set cost?
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Yes, indeed, I've watched them all. I can't find the email from the original order-back around 2003, but I think I bought them in three large sets. The only ones I can find now is the complete set available from YesAsia for US $1,513.49. I doubt I paid that much, but it was rather expensive. I still have the complete set, so I guess it's a little valuable.
 
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roots reggae said:
Yes, indeed, I've watched them all. I can't find the email from the original order-back around 2003, but I think I bought them in three large sets. The only ones I can find now is the complete set available from YesAsia for US $1,513.49. I doubt I paid that much, but it was rather expensive. I still have the complete set, so I guess it's a little valuable.
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I admire your dedication. I can't actually watch two Tora-san movies in a row. We're I to spend big money I'd go for the Itami Juzo DVDs sets first.
 
TheScientist said:
I admire your dedication. I can't actually watch two Tora-san movies in a row. We're I to spend big money I'd go for the Itami Juzo DVDs sets first.
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Thank you...I think. What some call dedication, others call obsession, me, when it comes to Tora-san, I call love.

He falls in love, ends up helping her to find happiness with another. The poor guy keeps getting back on his feet and renews his spirit.

I also enjoy the way the director gives us a glimpse of all the prefectures of Japan. We see Japan in a transition period, moving from tradition towards embracing the future.

I'll check out Itami Juzo-thank you!

By the way, I've taught film study classes and have an extensive collection of film on DVD.
 
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roots reggae said:
What some call dedication, others call obsession, me, when it comes to Tora-san, I call love.
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Tora-san is one of my early favorites too, though I have not been as dedicated as you to see all of them. Back in the day they were still on TV and the first one I saw had a foreign sales guy visiting Japan. He was struggling to learn the local customs and language and so when he met a pretty girl with Tora-san he enthusiastically greeted her with "itadakimasu!". I was immediately hooked to the series. ;)
 
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I also enjoyed Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress. Film critics credit this film as inspiring George Lucas to frame the narration from the perspective of two minor characters.

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160104-the-film-star-wars-stole-from

Here's an excerpt from a review:

Starting with the aspects of an epic on militarism in medieval Japan—with a great big thumping battle in which hundreds of snarling foot-soldiers and grunting samurai are involved—it flows into a seeming contemplation of the corrosive effects of greed upon two chicken-hearted soldiers who are escaping from the battle scene.

http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9D02EFDE1531EF3BBC4C51DFB7668389679EDE?

And here's a link to the entire film in Japanese-no subtitles:

https://archive.org/details/The.Hidden.Fortress.1958.480p.BRrip.x265.10bit.PoOlLa
 
Technically not a film (but I suppose because they ended it with a film).....

Nobunaga Concerto / Nobunaga Kyousoukyoku 信長協奏曲

high school kid time slips back to Sengokujidai, is the spitting image of Oda Nobunaga, so they switch places. He's got to become the Oda we all know in history. It started out as a manga, then turned into an anime series (with a rather unique art style), then a live action drama. The drama series was finished up with a movie

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobunaga_Concerto
 
TheScientist said:
All the 70s ultra violence movies & "pinky violence" movies rocked.

All Itami Juzo directed films in the 80s
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A second for Itami Juzo. Start with Tampopo.

Also saw two on the airplane a while back about a Roman bath designer that gets magically transported to modern Japan for ideas. Films only the Japanese could make.
 
Chiasa#1 said:
A second for Itami Juzo. Start with Tampopo.

Also saw two on the airplane a while back about a Roman bath designer that gets magically transported to modern Japan for ideas. Films only the Japanese could make.
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That is Thermae Romae. Also started as a manga.
 
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Chiasa#1 said:
A second for Itami Juzo. Start with Tampopo.

Also saw two on the airplane a while back about a Roman bath designer that gets magically transported to modern Japan for ideas. Films only the Japanese could make.
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My wife loves this film. Nothing too deep, but entertaining. We have been to every onsen in the film, two of them I reviewed on TAG, so it's even more fun to watch.
 
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Tora-san's first movie is on NHK BS Premium tonight at 9:00 PM. It's called Otoko wa Tsuraiyo, "It's tough being a man," which became the name of the remainder of the series with changes depending upon the location and plot.

Watch it, even if you don't understand Japanese well. You'll still understand much and enjoy it.

This is the time of the year, towards Obon, that NHK usually airs Tora-san, so I expect more in the coming week, if not every evening.
 
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