Asian Movies

tread_softly

Sounds very generalised, but my favourite genre of movies has to be Asian, whether they're from Korea, Japan, China etc., though so far Korean cinema seems to just outstrip the rest.

It's a sweeping statement because I generally do enjoy any type of Asian movie from thriller to horror to historical so anything floats my boat!

From serious to stupid (the ninja in the ceiling scene from Red Shadow springs to mind......), I'll sit through anything to see what it's like!

I don't know what appeals to me the most, i just think the acting is decent and the cinematography is normally above par. and of course the storylines are normally like none you've encountered before!

anyway, make the point i intended to make! they have a pretty decent asian section in tower and hmv now, and most of the movies aren't that expensive off ebay, so can anyone recommend me some good asian movies that i might not have seen yet?

I've seen the more popular ones of course, and some i just randomly picked off the shelf that surprised me, but i need some good recommendations!

(let's exclude any takeshi miike work, cuz let's face it, who hasn't watched him!?)

whatsgoinon

I love korean movies, and pretty much everything to do with Korea:D top place.

i just watched welcome to dongmakgol last night, wartime thing between the south and north, really enjoyed it
Chingu is brill (it means friend) talks about school friends realtionships into adulthood
Old Boy is another great, a bit bizaare but great
Marathon is very moving

Have you ever heard of Wasabi it's japanese/french with jean reno in, good chuckle that too

yeah asian movies are way classier i suppose for want of a better word, more of a story to them, i'm way into more independent low budget stuff than the hollywood blockbusters. Again that said, saw The Kite Runner the other night, really enjoyed that too. I like the ones that make you think

tread_softly

absolutely loved oldboy, saw the film first, then read the manga it's based on; film is a million times better!

saw the host recently as well, didn't know what to make of it, but it was humourous in parts!

if you like korean then no doubt you've seen a tale of two sisters? one of the best horror/thrillers out there.

i'll have a look into the ones you recommended, thanks! i haven't heard of that wasabi one either so i'll check that out.

i know, i'm not one to exclude all movies, but asian ones have a particular thing about them!

whatsgoinon

didn't see the host, i was living in korea at the time, no subtitles, my brother saw it and thought it was mental?!!

i saw the original of the grudge, the japanese one, not a fan of horrors at all, didn't sleep for 3 nights after watching the ring on dvd which took about 8 hours cos I kept having to stop it!!

Can't think of the name of the other korean horror, think its red shoes or pink shoes, hollywood horror ok, asian stuff is seriously scary!!

There's one called cinderella, a korean horror.

you know that korean lad in Lost, by all accounts his korean is pathetic when he speaks on it, my students used to be rolling round the place laughin at it!

tread_softly

wow, so you're obviously fluent in it!? i'd love that!

currently trying to teach myself japanese and failing miserably!

one of my life's goals is to get there one day, no matter what! the whole country intrigues me, you can move from the most simple temple to a bustling metropolitan centre in ten mins, it's incredible!

i would love to see korea too though.

I'm not the biggest fan of asian horror either, i like some miike ones, especially the audition but i've never really been in to the whole j-horror thing that much.

a tale of two sisters isn't gory, it wrecks your head though, when you've watched it through you're left sitting there going, "wait...... what?!" but i thoroughly recommend it if you haven't seen it!

johnny_ultimate

*prepares token Asian movie thread response *

Have you seen the works of Akira Kurosawa (e.g. Ran, Rashomon, Seven Samurai) or Takeshi Kitano (e.g. Hana-Bi, Kikujiro)? Two of the greatest film-makers of their respective times.

Check out the numerous threads on Save the Green Planet!
. Certain members of this board worship this film and will come to your house and taunt you at a moderate volume if you do not watch it. It isn't the greatest film ever made, but is a wonderful, nutty watch.

whatsgoinon

far from fluent let me tell you!! enough to get by and have the most random conversations with taxi drivers on the way home after a night out!!
best 2 years of my life to date were spent in korea, did temple stays, hung out with korean families for their thanksgiving, i could go on forever but i'd spoil your thread!!:p

tread_softly

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

*prepares token Asian movie thread response *

Have you seen the works of Akira Kurosawa (e.g. Ran, Rashomon, Seven Samurai) or Takeshi Kitano (e.g. Hana-Bi, Kikujiro)? Two of the greatest film-makers of their respective times.

Check out the numerous threads on Save the Green Planet!
. Certain members of this board worship this film and will come to your house and taunt you at a moderate volume if you do not watch it. It isn't the greatest film ever made, but is a wonderful, nutty watch.

i actually watched seven swords tonight, chinese movie based on the same story as seven samurai. i liked it, but it could have been much better. heard it was cut from 4 hours to 135 mins tho so that's a possible reason!! >.<

i'll check out the other tho, thanks. love kitano!! but i can't find kids return ANYWHERE, any tips!?

oh and whatsgoinon, tell me as much about it as you can, i'm very jealous!

glad i'm getting a decent response to the thread

im_invisible

battle royale would be one of my favourite.

i remember seeing one where there was a murder in a hairdressers(?), upstairs anyway, and the body was seriously cut up into bits. when the police gathered all the bits, they had three extra fingers and an extra tongue, i think.... cant remember the name of it, but i love films like that

tread_softly

film you're talking about is the audition by takeshi miike, brilliant movie, after watching it couldn't get kiri kiri kiri kiriout of my head for days, creepy :eek:

battle royale is brilliant, the second was a big disappointment. the manga of the first film is pretty decent too, but very VERY explicit!!

doctor evil

Love that genre!

Used to work in a DVD shop that has quite a good foregin film section.

I loved the film "Dumplings", not your conventional horror film but leaves you with shivers none the less with regards to how far a person would go for beauty and youth.

"Tale of Two Sister" was a bit of a headwrecker alright. Still to see Audition. Really enjoyed the Mr and Mrs Vengeance and Old Boy trilogy.

So many titles I am trying to remember!.

Battle Royale is class. I can never understand how people can be just so turned off by a film with subtitles.

johnny_ultimate

Careful with this "genre" talk now. Asia is just one place films are produced. It is like calling American films a "genre". As much as I love many of the films Asian film-makers produce, don't think they can all be lumped into one category: plenty of Asian horrors, romances, action, animation out there: all very different genres.

But on a less anal note, the Vengance trilogy is indeed very good. If you've only seen Oldboy, Sympathy for Mr Vengance is a must see. Lady Vengance is a bit weaker, but still an interesting and unique watch.

unreggd

my faves:

Oldboy
Zatoichi
Ringu 0,1&2
Battle Royale
Infernal Affairs
Audition
Save the green Planet
Versus

I havent seen a bad asian flick!!

Lochaber

No time for a full reply but if I have a chance later I'll post a proper one...

So just a note to say I was very impressed with Memories of Murder. It's a Korean film by Joon-ho Bong about the investigation into a string of killings in South Korea in the '80s... I would certainly recommend it anyway. In a complete departure he also directed the monster movie The Host that was out in 2006...

IMO he's very effective in balancing slapstick humour with very serious subjects... sounds strange I know but it worked for me.

Karl Hungus

tread_softly wrote: »

i'll check out the other tho, thanks. love kitano!! but i can't find kids return ANYWHERE, any tips!?

It's not released on DVD for the UK/Ireland market. I had done some digging around, firing off a load of emails, and the rights to both Kids Return and A Scene At The Sea are owned by Artificial Eye. I contacted them, but they've no plans to release either film on DVD.

Shame.

Wacker

The few Asian films I have seen have singularly failed to instil any major desire in me to see a whole lot more of them. Similarly, while I liked Amelie, Delicatessen, Brotherhood of the Wolf and Days of Glory, I feel no major desire to see all the French movies. A brief run-down on some Asian flicks that I’ve seen:
I enjoyed Oldboy, but I was far from blown away by it. 7 or 8 out of ten would be sufficient.
I didn’t think too much of Battle Royale – simple things like an Uzi that seems to have infinite ammo just annoy me. That goes for the John Woo films I’ve seen too, as well as any movie that features it.
Brotherhood was pretty cool, with very impressive battle scenes, but I found the emotional arc a little over the top. It would have been more effective if it was toned down.

I would be receptive to recommendations, but no horror please. I can rarely handle horror movies.

Karl Hungus

As for recommendations, A Bittersweet Life. Same director as A Tale Of Two Sisters.

Pigman II

My favourite genre of movies is "American". I find their culture different and interesting to study. Most of the time I don't even know what's going on and that only adds to the entertainment/curiosity value.

Yep, nothing like a good American movie.

tread_softly

Karl Hungus wrote: »

It's not released on DVD for the UK/Ireland market. I had done some digging around, firing off a load of emails, and the rights to both Kids Return and A Scene At The Sea are owned by Artificial Eye. I contacted them, but they've no plans to release either film on DVD.

Shame.

are you serious? that's ridiculous. I would have expected there to be some demand for it, i don't understand why it won't be released.

Oh and as for Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, i do want to see it but my friend told me not to for the simple reason that my ultimate fear is any cutting or otherwise of the Achilles' tendon and it's in that movie apparently.

strange and irrational fear i know, but i'd rather get knifed in the eye than get my heels slashed, even thinking about it now makes me feel sick!

oh and @johnny_ultimate, i know the mention of asian movies as a genre irked you but you know what i was getting at!

monosharp

Best Korean movie I've seen (and I've watched a lot) is 천군 (Heavens Soldiers)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foOLfNX1JeU

Oldboy was great too, but the Host was utter muck I thought.

mewso

Wouldn't be a huge Asian fan. No more than any other genre. I will watch a film if it comes recommended, subtitles or not. I did like Chan-wook Park's earlier movie Joint Security Area alot. But then most Asian movie fans have probably seen it.

Otis Driftwood

Some good ones,horror and otherwise

Shiri
Full Time Killer
Ebola Syndrome
Bullet in the Head
A Better Tomorrow
Sonatine
Brother
Violent Cop
All Night Long Volumes 1-3
Evil Dead Trap
Dog Bite Dog
Stacy
The Guinea Pig series
Run and Kill
Red Room 1+2
Oxen Split Torture
Human Pork Chop
2LDK
Bio-Zombie

And alot more,most of which have been mentioned already.

And the Lone Wolf and Cub series are awesome for some blood soaked samurai mentalness.

Galvasean

Few faves of mine:
Oldboy
Ichi the Killer
City of Lost Souls
Audition
Visitor Q (I'm just putting that in to be hard core, I'll never watch it again)
Battle Royal
most Godzilla movies
the Killer
Bullet in the head
Hard Boiled

flybynight

Interesting thread! I've just recently discovered Takeshi Kitano's films and have loved those that I've seen:
Zatoichi
Hana-Bi
Dolls
What other Kitano films would you recommend I check out next?

Have you seen any of Satoshi Kon's movies? If not I'd definitely recommend checking them out even if you're not an anime fan - 'Paprika' and 'Millenium Actress' in particular are amazing films.

Otis Driftwood

How could I have forgotten about hard boiled????

What a kick ass movie.

PWEI

flybynight wrote: »

Interesting thread! I've just recently discovered Takeshi Kitano's films and have loved those that I've seen:
Zatoichi
Hana-Bi
Dolls
What other Kitano films would you recommend I check out next?

Have you seen any of Satoshi Kon's movies? If not I'd definitely recommend checking them out even if you're not an anime fan - 'Paprika' and 'Millenium Actress' in particular are amazing films.

I only watched Kitano's Brother two days ago but it wasn't great to be honest.The story is based in America and its fine until some of the Japanese actors start speaking English and then it falls flat on its face.I found Dolls a very strange film,its made up of three stories,a yakuza boss, a pair of beggars and a pop star.The theme of film is about undying love but Kitano seems unsure what theses stores are supposed to say.When Zatôichi was voted film of the week recently I was to first person to vote for it.I actually prefer Hana-bi but voted for Zatôichi because I knew it had a better change of winning.Both films are fantastic though and a must see for anybody interested in Asian cinema.My favourite film of 2006 was A Bitter Sweet Life,its probably also my favourite Korean film and even for me shades Oldboy.

tread_softly

PWEI wrote: »

its fine until some of the Japanese actors start speaking English and then the it falls flat on its face

speaking of which, how does everyone feel about Sukiyaki Western Django!?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S61ySyaJQSE

koneko

tread_softly,

It's a bit different from the usual Asian films I'd watch, and what's been recommended so far, but have you seen My Sassy Girl? It's an adorable Korean movie.

My name is Todd

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

But on a less anal note, the Vengance trilogy is indeed very good. If you've only seen Oldboy, Sympathy for Mr Vengance is a must see. Lady Vengance is a bit weaker, but still an interesting and unique watch.

I've seen quite a few Asian films in the last year or so. Overall, the Vengeance trilogy is superb but Sympathy for Mr Vengance is infuriatingly slow - I know it's intentional but I couldn't bear it at a certain point. The direction was amazing and the acting was magnificent, the storyline was strong but the pacing, for me, impacted negatively on it.
I'd watch it again though. Just to see if I think the same second time round.

Otis Driftwood

Forgot to mention Sonny Chibas movies.Ive seen 11 or 12 of em and thoroughly enjoyed each and every one.

Hes certainly up there with Bruce Lee in the martial arts genre and dare I say better than Bruce.

doctor evil

Whoops, my mistake about the genre yoke, in my defence it was late.....


"A Bitter Sweetlife" is high quality.

PWEI

My name is Todd wrote: »

I've seen quite a few Asian films in the last year or so. Overall, the Vengeance trilogy is superb but Sympathy for Mr Vengance is infuriatingly slow - I know it's intentional but I couldn't bear it at a certain point. The direction was amazing and the acting was magnificent, the storyline was strong but the pacing, for me, impacted negatively on it.
I'd watch it again though. Just to see if I think the same second time round.

Sympathy for Mr Vengeance is the weakest of the three and the only one that I wouldn't watch again.I have watched Old Boy and Lady Vengeance twice and would watch them again but not Mr Vengeance. This is how I would rate the three;

Old Boy - *****
Lady Vengance ****
Sympathy for Mr Vengance **

indiewindy

I thought brother was pretty good, another good Takeshi film is violent cop.
Asian films seem to get away with a lot more than US films, you cant really see something as nasty as audition being relaeased by a big hollywood studio. Hana Bi is one of my top 10 all time, everything about it is perfect

Karl Hungus

indiewindy wrote: »

Asian films seem to get away with a lot more than US films, you cant really see something as nasty as audition being relaeased by a big hollywood studio.

I thought Hostel was nastier than Audition.

PWEI

And what about Wolf Creek which I thought was even more intense and horrific than Hostel.That was Austrialian though..:rolleyes:

kryptyk500

Another vote for A Bittersweet Life here. One asian film that really impressed me recently was 3-Iron. I think that Lady Vengeance is the best of the trilogy and I really enjoyed The Host. Cello is a decent horror film, even though it contains all the usual asian horror cliches, it's still worth a watch.

Dumplings is very good, but I wouldnt recommend it if you've got a weak stomach.

PWEI

The Host was great.I loved the way the director was brave enough to shoot the creature in daylight instead of the dark which monster/disaster movies are filmed in.He obviously had faith in the CGI/special effects department to do so.I think it was the same team behind the LOTR special effects that did the effects for The Host.The initial daylight catastrophe sequence is superb and I also like the way the director kept switching from horror to moments of humour.A must see for Korean film fans....

tread_softly

has anyone seen The Isle??

it was edited for the UK release, two distinctly nasty parts were edited out, including the slicing up of a live fish which was released back into the water and a scene that involves our lovely protagonist, a set of fish hooks and her ladygarden.

i haven't seen the unedited version and i don't think i want to :S

Otis Driftwood

Dunno if its been mentioned but The Story Of Ricky is the dogs knackers.

For those that havnt seen it think Braindead-Zombies+a prison and kung fu=a totally over the top bloodbath that is soooooooooooo much fun.

Its a definite pizza and beer movie and I love it.

User45701

My 3 most favurate Asian movies are

death note,
Akira
Old Boy

dereko1969

Tampopo http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092048/
has to be one of my favourite films ever expensive to get on dvd though
hana-bi would be up there too, thought memories of murder mentioned earlier was brilliant too and old boy. seen the uncensored version of the isle, bit gruesome and not a brilliant film

i really enjoy asian cinema. its less sugar-coated than the western stuff. some of my favourites are:
Ju-on series
Chakushin Ari 1&2 [3 was a bit of a let down D=]
OldBoy
Ichi the Killer [KAKIHARA!]
Battle Royale 1
Deathnote 1
Dark Water [not as good as the book though]

i heard battle royale and oldboy are in line for getting american remakes, which i will probably boycott, considering how laughable the grudge and one missed call were =.=

tread_softly

i heard battle royale was, didn't know oldboy was too tho.

that'll be an experience.

tman

Can't see the Battle Royale remake ever getting off the ground tbh... A film about schoolchildren killing each other, that'll go down well:p

Oldboy is my favourite film of all time. I'd rather chew on rusty staples than watch whatever pathetic excuse for a remake they come up with. Having said that, the departed has proven that Asian cinema can be remade for a western audience...

A bittersweet life and the host are another 2 fantastic movies

Karl Hungus

There won't be an Oldboy remake. It's been scrapped because of the Virgian Tech massacre, supposedly Seung-Hui Cho was a fan, and had a picture of himself wielding a claw hammer. Hollywood execs aren't going to touch something so controversial now.

I'd imagine the Battle Royale plot would be drastically changed for a remake.

Dont be at yourself

Bravo to whoever recommended Tampopo. Forget about run-of-the-mill horror and yakuza flicks, Tampopo is true Asian cinema.

PWEI

NekkidBibleMan wrote: »

Bravo to whoever recommended Tampopo. Forget about run-of-the-mill horror and yakuza flicks, Tampopo is true Asian cinema.

What is Tampopo about? It would want to be something special for 30 pounds sterling;

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tampopo-Tsutomu-Yamazaki/dp/6305154880/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1200318772&sr=1-1

faceman

johnny_ultimate wrote: »

Careful with this "genre" talk now. Asia is just one place films are produced. It is like calling American films a "genre". As much as I love many of the films Asian film-makers produce, don't think they can all be lumped into one category: plenty of Asian horrors, romances, action, animation out there: all very different genres.

But on a less anal note, the Vengance trilogy is indeed very good. If you've only seen Oldboy, Sympathy for Mr Vengance is a must see. Lady Vengance is a bit weaker, but still an interesting and unique watch.

I completely agree with you.

I dont want to sound like a moan, but i think i will. One of my pet hates in life is when people jump on the foreign film (world cinema) band wagon and call it a genre. No disrepect to anyone here.

I used to go mad for world cinema and then i began to realise that there are just as many poor films in world cinema as there are from America/Uk. What it comes down to is your exposure to film.

Here is my theory. Not many people are world cinema film fans and tend to only watch them based on recommendations (nothing wrong with that). So what happens is their exposure to world cinema is limited to the good films and it forms a bias view to world cinema. Again, i stress there is nothing wrong with only watching the good ones! This forum is a great place to pick up recommendations.

There are quite a few posters here who do watch world cinema releases regularly and get a greater sample for the poor films. Im sure they will agree that there is a lot of rubbish out there too.

Unfortunately the big problem with the US is that fillm studios have "final cut" over a film, we dont often get to see the director's vision as intended. The commerical gurus instead of the creative talent call the shots much of the time on the mainstream films.

In saying that, Kurosawa is one of my favourite directors and i love japanese horror.

Just as an aside, technically "Clerks" is foreign film as it was originally listed as a film in world cinema!!! (I doubt it still is!) There are plenty of independent films produced in the US that are top class.

Anyway, not trying to put a dampner on the thread, just wanted to have a bit of a rant!

Karl Hungus

faceman wrote: »

I dont want to sound like a moan, but i think i will. One of my pet hates in life is when people jump on the foreign film (world cinema) band wagon and call it a genre. No disrepect to anyone here.

I doubt anyone would take any disrespect from that state, and I would completely agree, calling world cinema a genre is a bit ridiculous. The same could be said about animated films as well. The only use of such categories, is making DVDs easier to find in shops.

faceman wrote: »

I used to go mad for world cinema and then i began to realise that there are just as many poor films in world cinema as there are from America/Uk. What it comes down to is your exposure to film.

Here is my theory. Not many people are world cinema film fans and tend to only watch them based on recommendations (nothing wrong with that). So what happens is their exposure to world cinema is limited to the good films and it forms a bias view to world cinema. Again, i stress there is nothing wrong with only watching the good ones! This forum is a great place to pick up recommendations.

There are quite a few posters here who do watch world cinema releases regularly and get a greater sample for the poor films. Im sure they will agree that there is a lot of rubbish out there too.

You know, you do make a good argument, but I think I'll play devil's advocate here and disagree...

For example. I've seen a fair few Asian horrors in my time, and I think that on the whole, they are of a higher quality than American horrors. Don't get me wrong here, I think the Asian horror scene is extremely stagnant, and a lot of Korean ones especially are just copying what the Japanese film makers had accomplished, so there's a lot of very mediocre and unoriginal Asian horrors.

But even some of the worst of them I've seen, all I can really say about them is "Meh, that was alright..." whereas I've seen absolutely hundreds of American horror films where I'd say to myself "Dear jesus that was ****!". I think I've only seen one Asian horror where I had a reaction like that, Bangkok Haunted, and even then, there's dozens of American horrors I'd seen that are worse.

Lets take the film R-Point. Fairly unoriginal, nothing particularly brilliant about it, but it accomplishes what it sets out to do, and it's quite scary. I find that's true on the whole, most Asian horrors are actually scary, or at least creepy, which is a hell of a lot more than one could say for a lot of American ones.

Now, I'm sure someone will come along and shoot me down for saying that, but I just felt like playing devil's advocate for a bit, and stir things up.

faceman wrote: »

Anyway, not trying to put a dampner on the thread, just wanted to have a bit of a rant!

Not a bother, you bring some interesting discussion to the table, which is always welcome.

johnny_ultimate

I'd tend to agree with Faceman, who pretty much elaborated my feelings on the matter.

I am a huge fan of Asian culture, and would watch more Asian cinema than would be considered average (amongst my friends and acquaintances anyway). But that is because through experience I have discovered there are alot of Asian film-makers that are absolutely fantastic, producing output superior to the majority of Western film-makers. These are the Kurosawas, the Kitanos, the Miikes, the Parks, the Mayasakis and so on. Their films are amongst the finest ever produced, and they just happen to be made in Asia. Since I have an interest in the Asian way of life, I always find these films fascinating as they depict a culture I am interested in and not entirely familiar with. This is perhaps why I prefer the Japanese themed Ghibli films (e.g. Spirted Away, Totoro, Pom Poko) to the European set ones (e.g. Porco Rosso, Howls Moving Castle).

But these are just a few of the Asian film-makers out there. Similarly, in the west we have Wes Anderson, Michel Gondry, Darren Aronfsky, Chris Nolan and more who are also making spectacular films above the average standard we are used to with Hollywood. In both cases though, these excellent film-makers are in the minority, and both Asia and Hollywood are more than capable of producing utter crap. In fact, probably more capable than making good ones, whether it be another Japanese Yakuza film or another generic Hollywood spoof comedy ala Scary Movie.

There is no issue with people asking for recommendations of Asian movies, as there are lots out there that provide unique and cultural experiences removed from the Hollywood norm. It is the whole Asia-centric favourtism that can get a bit tiresome e.g. people watching crap just because it is subtitled. It is still crap, subtitled or not.

tread_softly

of course you have to consider the bad films aswell. let's not look at asian movies with rose tinted glasses!

i have experienced a few disasters in my time, mainly because i have a bad habit of not reading about a certain movie, just seeing it in the shop or on ebay and buying it because it sounds interesting.

akakage springs to mind.....

of course to fully appreciate the good ones out there i feel you have to have an understanding of different cinema cultures. then, as with my experience, you'll have a better idea of which appeals to you most.