World Cinema - Recommendations

sokitume san

Hi there,

anyone seen any good foreign films lately? I particularly like Japanese and German film....I have heard the "Lichter" is very good - its an old one but impossible to find...

Dont be at yourself

It's been out a while, but Waterboys is a very funny Japanese comedy, telling the story of an all-male high-school synchronised swimming team.

What genres do you particularly like?

johnny_ultimate

Let's see.
On the German front I can recommend Goodbye Lenin and The Edukators. TE in particular is very very good.
Japanese is a wider choice.
My favourite are Studio Ghibli, who IMO make the best films on the planet, but if you're not into animation, stay away. Watch Laputa, Spirited Away, Grave of the Fireflies, Totoro etc...
Ran is a superb film, while I recently watched Table Tennis, which is a worthwhile curio. There's also all those films with evil Japanese girls, which is become a genre within itself.
And Audition is a great film, although not for the weak-stomached.

sokitume san

johnny_ultimate wrote:

Let's see.
On the German front I can recommend Goodbye Lenin and The Edukators. TE in particular is very very good.
Japanese is a wider choice.
My favourite are Studio Ghibli, who IMO make the best films on the planet, but if you're not into animation, stay away. Watch Laputa, Spirited Away, Grave of the Fireflies, Totoro etc...
Ran is a superb film, while I recently watched Table Tennis, which is a worthwhile curio. There's also all those films with evil Japanese girls, which is become a genre within itself.
And Audition is a great film, although not for the weak-stomached.

Cheers - seen them all actually...love Goodbye Lenin and the Edukators in particular...love Daniel Bruhl as an actor...

jomo25dub

You might like "After Life". It's been out a while. When a person dies, it seems you can only take one memory from your life with you. So angels interview several characters to help them choose; they then film it and they move on. It's Japanese, very sweet and very different. If you liked Wings of Desire, you might like this.

sokitume san

jomo25dub wrote:

You might like "After Life". It's been out a while. When a person dies, it seems you can only take one memory from your life with you. So angels interview several characters to help them choose; they then film it and they move on. It's Japanese, very sweet and very different. If you liked Wings of Desire, you might like this.

Thanks for the tip - I'll look it up...do you know who the director is?

Beetlebum

Have you seen a movie called 'Battle Royale'? It's Japenese and it's excellent. It's the kind of movie that you think about even weeks later. It's quite bloody in parts so be prepared, I watched it with a hangover and had to pause in the middle to splash water on my face!!
'Downfall' is a great German film aswell about the rise and fall of the third Reich. It's fascinating and really well acted...

LundiMardi

City of God

Awesome, but not German:)

projectmayhem

my favourite japanese film is "Battle Royale", and one of the most odd, and interesting german films i've ever come accross is "tattoo". worth checking out IMO

jomo25dub

sokitume san wrote:

Do you know who the director is?

Hirokazu Kore-Eda ... not the most famous director in Japan. Don't know his other films. As far as I can remember, he's also credited with editing After Life.

PWEI

Das Experiment is a particularly good German film.My favourite film that I've seen from Asia in the last six months was Korean,A Bittersweet Life.That was made by Kim Ji-woon who gave us A Tale Of Two Sisters which was also pretty good.

tman

PWEI wrote:

Das Experiment is a particularly good German film.My favourite film that I've seen from Asia in the last six months was Korean,A Bittersweet Life.That was made by Kim Ji-woon who gave us A Tale Of Two Sisters which was also pretty good.

"A Bittersweet Life" is the first thing that came into my head when I saw this thread's title... my favourite film so far this year, but might not be to everybody's taste

sokitume san

LundiMardi wrote:

City of God

Awesome, but not German:)

Saw that too - cinemetography was great!

I'd recommend a spanish film called "Only Human" or "Series Quidado" - very funny !