South Korean or Japanese?

liah

Most people tend to default to Japanese films being top of the line for weird/strange/interesting/beautiful Asian cinema, but I tend to disagree.

After seeing the Vengeance Trilogy (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance), A Tale of Two Sisters, Epitaph, Cut, and a variety of others I'm firmly of the opinion that South Korea is very, very underrated for the quality it produces.

Now theoretically I could be easily won over by cinematography, because these films are absolutely stunning to look at, but when I look at the well-known Japanese films such as Audition, Ringu, Ichi the Killer, Box, etc, while I love them, they just don't have that same touch of humanity and beauty that seems to be consistent in the more well-known Korean films.

Korean films tend to balance out better overall between the strange and beautiful and human, Japanese films tend to feel disconnected and rely a bit more on shock or disconcerting the audience than actual characters or simple "humanness."

That doesn't hold true completely across the board, mind, but when I look back I always find the ones that stand out most in my mind (and I've seen a LOT of Asian cinema) are the South Korean ones.

What do you think? Do you have a preference?

Spunge

Admittedly i havent seen tonnes of SK or japanese movies but id definitely rate the SK ones over the japanese ones. Disregarding anime of course.

Id rate some SK films as my top movies of any country like the revenge trilogy and memories of murder or possibly JSF.

liah

I also think a lot of the Japanese cinema hyping has an awful lot to do with people thinking that Asian = Japanese when it comes to film, can't count the amount of times someone's raved about "you know that Japanese film Oldboy?" :pac:

Could be just lack of exposure to SK cinema though, too..

johnny_ultimate

I think both have a vibrant film scene, although am probably more familiar with Japanese film on the whole.

From South Korea, the contemporary scene is pretty fascinating. The two directors I'd be most familiar with are Chan Wook Park (Vengenace trilogy, Thirst, I'm A Robot, Joint Security Area) and Bong Joon-ho (Mother, Memories of Murder, The Host), although there are a few other significant ones. I was a big fan of The Chaser, Save the Green Planet, A Tale of Two Sisters and many others.

But Japanese cinema I tend to gorge on. I'm far more familiar with classic Japanese directors, and a handful like Kurosawa (whose filmography is filled with too many gems to mention, but start with Rashomon), Ozu (Tokyo Story is one of my all time favourites) and Mizoguchi (I've only seen O-Haru, but it's one of the most beautifully directed films I've ever come across) made some of the greatest films of all time. The contemporary scene is extremely vibrant, from the epic four hour lunacy that is Love Exposure (watch this film, seriously) to the poetic, muted films of Hirokazu Koreeda (Still Walking, Nobody Knows) through epic blockbusters (20th Century Boys, the upcoming Space Battleship Yamato which is being advertised to **** over here at the moment) through the extreme stuff many lap up. And I haven't even mentioned some of the bigger directors like Takeshi Kitano, whose films are always wonderful little gems. And of course the ever exciting anime scene, with Studio Ghibli's output and a tonne more (recent highlights being the new Evangelion films, Summer Wars and 5cm Per Second).

I'm bias towards Japan: in fact, I'm typing this sitting in an Osaka hostel! But they have one of the most exciting and varied cinema scenes around. I think it's unfair to say a country has a single style, because Japanese cinema varies from hyperactive to some of the most slow-paced, sombre films in the world. As said, I'm not as familiar with South Korean cinema, but their recent output has been fantastic too. Let's just be glad there are great directors from both putting out a huge range of genre-busting films!

liah

I'm not trying to brand the whole scene as one style I tend to drift towards a certain type of Asian film anyway so my bias is spun in that particular direction. I just think that not enough people give South Korea credit for the quality it produces and quite often people mistake it for being Japanese, which is a shame.

I have a load of favourite Japanese films, too, but time and time again I just can't get past the Korean ones. I'm not sure what, exactly, it is, it's certainly not anything I could put my finger on, they just have a different feel.

Though admittedly another thing that puts me off all things Japanese is that I grew up around anime freaks (term of endearment, btw ) and Japanophiles and after awhile I couldn't take it anymore. I understand the country is fascinating from a cultural perspective but most of the people who like anime/Japanese cinema go waaaaaaaaay overboard, to the point it's all they talk about, they try to learn Japanese, rave about anything Japanese even if it sucks, watch every single anime ever, have thousands of manga, etc.. gets exhausting.

Why are Japan fanboys/girls (I actually know more girls like this than guys now that I think of it) so extreme in their fandom? I rarely meet a moderate fan who only likes a few select things.. they seem decidedly all or nothing, and favour all things Japanese over any other culture.

Not trying to sound offensive, btw, more a rambling curiosity than anything else :pac:

Nolanger

liah wrote: »

What do you think? Do you have a preference?

Yes, North Korean cinema. The only country in the world to use American defectors to play baddies in their movies!

losthorizon

Watched Mother (Madeo) the other night surely it must be one of the best films of 2010 anywhere? The first five minutes alone are simply amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPcijFQ4PpU

A quirky Japanese film from the 80s is Tampopo about noodles and Truckers.

Not in the same league as Mother but diverting and not many people have seen it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbp5xm8R2VQ

S.M.B.

Does it really matter? Is there ever a debate about the merits of the current state of the French film industry over the Spanish one?

There's also some excellent Asian movies outside of these 2 main regions. And not in the standard Asian Horror mold. I grew tired of those a good 10 years ago.

e_e

6 decades of great cinema vs. 1 or 2

No competition really. There is just so much variety in Japanese cinema.