recommend good chinese/japenese films

Placebo

something along the lines of 'Sympathy for Mr Vengence' or even 'Old Boy'
ive seen good few on ch4 ages ago, cant remember ne names. Im sure il have to go to LASER for these.
films not anime btw.

thanks

RotalicaV

Battle Royal

BlitzKrieg

Placebo wrote:

something along the lines of 'Sympathy for Mr Vengence' or even 'Old Boy'
ive seen good few on ch4 ages ago, cant remember ne names. Im sure il have to go to LASER for these.
films not anime btw.

thanks

those are actually Korean films and both by the same director (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0661791/) who turned down remaking evil dead btw ...uhmm try Save the Green Planet thats quite good. Shiri is an average action film and Purple Mist is also quite good. If you get desperate try Nowhere to Hide, which has noticable influences on the matrix trilogy...but overall is'nt that great of a film.




From Japan try the Beat Takeshi films like Hana bi and Sonatine, alot slower movies but very good. Or the Happiness of the Katakuri's which is quite absurb

From china i dont know many except maybe the infernal affairs trilogy (hong kong) which is very good.

Karl Hungus

See Memories Of Murder NOW. Aswell as Save The Green Planet, and from the same director as Oldboy/Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance, Joint Security Area.

Although it's not an Asian film, I cannot recommend Dead Man's Shoes enough, and should go down a treat if you're looking for an original revenge movie, definetly worth seeing.

Blitzkrieg is right on the money by recommending the films of 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano, and Hana-bi is certainly cheif among them. Utterly staggering piece of cimena right there, and easily one of the greatest films ever made. Infernal Affairs is also worth seeing.

As for other Chinese movies, try some classic John Woo, such as A Bullet In The Head, and Hard Boiled, and for some great Kung Fu action, you simply can't beat Iron Monkey.

For Japanese films, it's always great to go back to the master himself, Kurosawa, so see Seven Samurai, Throne Of Blood, Ran, Yojimbo and Sanjuro. All total masterpeices. Then you can always check out more films by Takeshi Kitano, Takashi Miike, and others.

Hope all that helps. I can give a lot more indepth recommendations if you've seen those though, so let me know.

BlitzKrieg

yojimbo rocks!!!

Karl Hungus

BlitzKrieg wrote:

yojimbo rocks!!!

Don't doubt it!

"Kill me if you can!"
"It'll hurt..."

WUSBDesign

Have you seen "Hero"? Good use of imagination and psychological play.

Karl Hungus

WUSBDesign wrote:

Have you seen "Hero"? Good use of imagination and psychological play.

Shallow version of Rashomon jazzed up with wire-fu and CGI more like. :rolleyes:

BlitzKrieg

i personnally dont like hero that much it always feels like a propaganda film to me.

i have to dig up Rashomon been recommanded to me so many times.

Kazaanova

BlitzKrieg wrote:

i personnally dont like hero that much it always feels like a propaganda film to me.

I think that was the point, it was a film about duty to your county and honour and all that stuff. Its in contrast to the film Yimou Zhang followed it up with, Hosue of Flying Daggers, which is more about love and friendship.

I don't know excactly what you're looking for, the Revenge Trilogy is kind of unique. But if you want a brilliant brutal Korean film, check out Tae Guk Gi.

BlitzKrieg

Kazaanova wrote:

I think that was the point, it was a film about duty to your county and honour and all that stuff.

just because its the point doesnt mean i have to like it. but i do tend to be a selfish prick...

Kazaanova

No you dont have to like it. I didnt like it that much when I saw it either. Its kind of grown on me lately the more I think about it though.

WUSBDesign

The storyline uses the background of honour, duty, etc., but the REAL story is that of how the hero tries to convince the emperor Shih Huang Ti to be allowed to come closer so that he can do the assassination. Sub-plots then get inserted into the story...and the emperor starts to believe. The different colours used depict the twists of the story the emperor is told.

BlitzKrieg

...ok

thats all dandy, but when the moral at the end of the film is that its A OK to kill hundreds of people to unite china, then it smells like a propaganda film, esp with China's track record with Tibet.

WUSBDesign

What happened to the hundreds killed 4000 years ago is no different to what wars in Europe (oops) were all about.....I enjoyed Gladiator, and will just treat it as part history, part entertainment. Chill out!

Kazaanova

Blitzkrieg isnt wrong. Its just that, yeah, it could be a propaganda film, but you shouldnt say that its a Chinese propaganda film, just because its a chinese film and doesnt have an anti-china message.

I think the moral at the end is that its ok to kill a small number of people, to save a much greater number of people. Its pretty simple, I never looked into it any deeper than that, and I dont think you were supposed to.

BlitzKrieg

...i never said they were. The difference is that the films that were made about the wars in europe (i'm assuming you mean 1914 and 1939) is that when at the end of the film you have the US marine jumping through a window and shoving a grenade up Hitler's ass everyone goes AHHH Propaganda film (please see: Sink the Bismarck and that John wayne one in Vietnam...uhh THE GREEN BERETS).

But Hero is treated with awe and respect and i have too many people come up to me saying:

"I saw HERO, its asian and mysthical (they do the hand movements with that) and shows us how much more honourable and Brave asian people are and Tarintino liked (or worse in some cases Directed) it therefore its also Artistic and cool"

Then of course i reply

"You know i watched another film just like that, its called Triumph of the Will, Its German and Mystical and A absolute Genius Directed it but..."

Its about here they scream Nazi and run around like headless chickens.

I mean i will not deny that Hero is well made but i can never honestly recommand the film to anyone without at least speaking my concern over its message.

BlitzKrieg

Kazaanova wrote:

Blitzkrieg isnt wrong. Its just that, yeah, it could be a propaganda film, but you shouldnt say that its a Chinese propaganda film, just because its a chinese film and doesnt have an anti-china message.

I think the moral at the end is that its ok to kill a small number of people, to save a much greater number of people. Its pretty simple, I never looked into it any deeper than that, and I dont think you were supposed to.

better look back at that *small* number, we are talking about (and is stated in the film) numerous WARS...

And it is a Chinese Propaganda film because A)pretty much most of the budget came from the Chinese Government

and

Its a moral about trusting the leader who has just conquered your land. For the good of the many over the few (nationlism meet communsim)

Kazaanova

Its small compared to the lifes that would of been lost.

I don't think it is a propaganda film. I know it has similarities to one, and it could be seen as one. I've heard people say that its "like" a propaganda film. And its your opinion if you think it is, and its a fair one.

It was funded by China, but if the film hadnt of been about war at all, and had no political message at all, would you or anyone else say its a propaganda film? No, of course not. It just so happened that it DID have a political message. I think Hero is just a great film about ancient China, proudly backed by the country it features, that does happen to have a strong political message that could be seen as pro-china.

The director Zhang Yimou took two of his films out of Cannes in 1999, because they were misunderstood as propaganda films. He wrote a pretty good letter explaining why, heres some of it because I think its kind of relevant to this debate:

"Whether a film is good or bad, each person can have his or her own way of looking at it, this is only natural. But I cannot accept that when it comes to Chinese films, the West seems for a long time to have had just the one 'political' reading: if it's not "against the government" then it's "for the government". The naivete and lack of perspective [lit. "one-sidedness"] of using so simple a concept to judge a film is obvious. With respect to the works of directors from America, France and Italy for example, I doubt you have the same point of view."

BlitzKrieg

fair comment by the director makes sense...but abit niave...any movie regardless of its content will reflect socially and politically. Look at the success of Easy Rider, its not just the film itself but also the atmosphere of america it was released into. Again at 9/11 the effect it had on all the hollywood films that followed. Hell i have seen numerous reviews and comments linking Spielbergs War of the Worlds to 9/11.

Now when it comes to Chinese films i dont automatically go Anti-goverment, pro-government. House of the Flying Daggers didnt come at me as being too political (maybe due to its human nature, despite the political elements of the plot) But Hero because it bluntly placed a nameless warrior before the leader and is directly the authority versus the rebel, it removes common elements like love and family and turns it into a almost pure political dialogue. And when i said it was a propaganda film i never meant PRO-China for the outside world, i meant Propaganda within China, for the chinese populace to emote with on a nationalistic level.

on the amount of lives lost...that is entirely questionable.


Anyway we should let this lie by now. We'll get back ontopic...uhhh film to recommand...uhh i'm stumped at moment, get back to you in a few hours...

Necronomicon

Infernal Affairs, Zatoichi, Battle Royale, House of Flying Daggers, Brother....there's a few off the top of my head, probably a few more.

koneko

Other than the ones already mentioned, I'll go with

Audition
Ringu
My Sassy Girl

Lemming

Pretty much echo what's been said here already by KH et al.

Any of the Kurosawa films; Rashomon, Yojimbo, Seven Samurai, etc
Zatoichi
When the last sword is drawn

Hard Boiled
Infernal Affairs

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Ju On: The Grudge
The Ring Trilogy
Gozu
Battle Royale

Not seen Old Boy or it's two associated films yet so I cant' comment on those.

I didn't like House of Flying Daggers - brutally overhyped. Hero, not seen it but if it's anything like HoFD I wont be impressed.

Ramses

If you'd like to kick back and watch 2 hours of style and action with no real plot, you can't go wrong with Versus. The camerawork, editing, and action scenes are highly impressive.

Also a good much slower paced film which relies more on plot than action is The Twilight Samurai.

Both films mentioned above are Japanese.

Also I definately recommend Dead Man's Shoes. Great film, as Karl Hungus already said in this thred.

nadir

there have been alot of good films/directors mentioned, here is another.
Hana to Alice
I can not praise this movie enough, I may make a thread on it if I can come up with decent words.
It's a drama though, so if you are looking for lots of blood, and toshiro mifune type people on the rampage, stay away.

PWEI

I went through a phase there for over a year where I was only buying Asian films.I have over 30 now.I don't have time to explain my favourites so I'll just list out my top ten;


Shiri
Internal Affairs
Musa
Hana Bi
Zatoichi
Sympathy for Mr Vengeance
Old Boy
Audition
The Twilight Samurai
Crouching Tiger,Hidden Dragon (the original big budget wire-fu and still the best)