Let's have a thread about Japanese live-action films. Post about any Japanese live-action film that is good.
I found this at my uni's library yesterday. It looks really cool, im looking forward to watching it. It's also a plus that it's about Zen Buddhism, which is something I've also been interested in for quite some time.
Colton Rodriguez
I really hate Shunji Iwai. What a trash director.
Camden Allen
How did Shinya Tsukamoto get a career when he's a total piece of shit?
Evan Parker
What's he done? I'm pretty sure I've seen one of his movies. Really boring, about school children doing nothing.
Luis Watson
Just finished download Musashi the TV series. It's a big fucking file.
Dominic Phillips
Only seen Ozu, Sono, and Kurosawa directed joints.
OH, and humanity and paper baloons...
Hit me up with some recommendations, the less "western" the better, I just want to see different forms of storytelling. i dig formalism
Jeremiah Torres
bump out of protest.
Julian Jenkins
I recommend Sogo Ishii. Depending on how you define the term I think it could be argued that he's one of the most formalist artists that has ever lived.
Dylan Butler
Hana and Alice? That was ok. He was memed in Japan for Swallowtail. Tarantino memed him for Lily Chou. Vampire exposed him as a hack.
I really hate him
Leo Wright
Seeing some like way punk charachters in his films. I like where this is going.
Just googled Burst city: >Punks, 1980's
That's my catnip! Even if I was looking form something a bit more, well ya know "patrician"
Austin Ramirez
I feel like anime is too popular compared to live action in the west, though that's probably because Japanese blockbusters are shit.
Aaron Adams
Can't say enough great things about this. It's about samurai, but is hardly an action film, although there is fantastic violence to be had. It's one of those films where so much care and talent goes in to all aspects of the film, each scene is a joy to watch, even ones where nothing really happens.
Parker Myers
Japanese cyberpunk goes to some somewhat patrician places at times. Ishii's crazy experiments were the start of it all, but far from the end.
As the genre developed through the 80s and into the 90s some directors started to take a more refined approach. You might like what Mamoru Oshii did. With 'The Red Spectacles' and 'Stray Dog: Kerberos Panzer Cops' he applied Ishii-like techniques to conventional narratives to create some really interesting psychological police thrillers.
The Japanese live-action film industry has done a better job than most at breaking into the west. Anime's always going to do better because the universal medium of animation sets a far lower cultural barrier but they've had some solid influence all over the world.
Everyone who's studied film with more than a glance knows Kurosawa and a lot of their style has found its way into foreign works.
Gavin Rogers
The yakuza papers series. 6 movies.great shit. Also check nikkatsu noir series (not sure if name is correct)
Hudson Butler
A 10/10 right here. Food and love.
Jackson Long
eat shit pleb
Robert Rodriguez
Absolutely patrician taste sir. I'll also add 13 assassins too.
John Garcia
Gonna note down all of those >Burst City >'The Red Spectacles' >'Stray Dog: Kerberos Panzer Cops'
I saw some of Avalon I think it was called, seemed like crap to me. Are these other Oshii ones better?
Jaxon Myers
For those with a taste for the bizarre.
Dominic Fisher
I haven't actually seen any of Oshii's other live-action work, but I think I might have heard here that Avalon is cool. I've been meaning to find that one.
Jonathan Mitchell
I want to watch this but I've only seen Rashomon and it bored the shit out of me, which put me off Kurosawa. Is it actually an exciting movie?
Jason Cook
Okuribito is oscar bait but a decent movie nonetheless. The encoffining scenes are absolutely gorgeous.
Juan Collins
The other two films in Yamada's samurai trilogy are fantastic as well, but the first one is breathtaking. I enjoyed 13 Assassins, but I don't place it in the same league. I do consider my self a Miike fan, however.
If you like Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness, you'll enjoy picture related.
Gabriel Morales
Cool, will watch your recommendations if I can get my hands on them. Gonna start off with Burst City though -- looks pretty damn comfy in a punk kind of way.
Luis Stewart
Picture related, aka Spiral (2000) is a very good adaptation of a fantastic manga. You won't see too many horror films like it.
Bentley Foster
And I'll stop after this one, but as a grizzled horror fan, picture related scared me more than most. You do have to pay attention to how they fit the pieces together.
Dylan Young
Kurosawa's cop movies created the genre pretty much. I'd start with Stray Dog. If that movie bores you you have a ways to go with this stuff.
I'm a pretty big fan of Junji Ito's work but I have a hard time imagining a movie doing him justice. Uzumaki was genuinely disturbing at times.
I don't know if that's how I'd describe it but I certainly found it enjoyable. If I were to call any movies in the genre 'comfy' name Oshii's. 'Kerberos Panzer Cops' in particular has an amazing acoustic guitar soundtrack.
And on a not really related note, any 'Scorpion: Female Prisoner' fans on Sup Forums? Probably one of the most iconic protagonists in Japanese live-action media that isn't wearing a rubber suit.
Joseph Garcia
>For those with a taste for the bizarre. that's a pinku film
Blake Rogers
Didn't mean "comfy" as in Wes Anderson. I found the Destruction of Western Civilisation comfy and nostalgic.
Is there a word for when you find Punk nostalgic and inviting? >Aside from calling me a poseur
Jeremiah Richardson
>Pinku Kino Fixed that for you. It'd be cool if America were more open to these kinds of ideas in mainstream movies.
Gavin Wilson
Have you seen any of his other films?
Grayson Clark
Only in the broadest definition. Now THIS is a pinku film, and a damn good one at that, if you're in to this sort of stuff.
Luke Rogers
Kitano's Sonatine/Hana-bi don't get enough credit for how intensely personal they are. They're essentially the same story told twice, once before Kitano tried to kill himself and once after. I rarely ever see that mentioned and it opens up so much in the way of interpreting the films
Liam Price
Alas, no. Anything to recommend?
Gavin Gray
>Vampire exposed him as a hack.
How did vampire expose him as a hack?
Nathaniel Phillips
I can't wait for the criterion blu to be announced.
Ayden Allen
>They're essentially the same story told twice, once before Kitano tried to kill himself and once after. Never really thought of them that way but that makes sense.The movies are kind of like different routes to the same place. You could probably also throw in Violent Cop and maybe even Boiling Point if you really wanted to look at this issue closely.
Kitano's an interesting guy and the way that he treats his protagonists could be saying all kinds of things about him, not much of it good though.
William Torres
I've only seen the two so far. I think he gets better emotionally as the decade progressed.
In Sonatine his character is miserable beyond the point of caring and can't find any consistent happiness or escape from his life. So he kills himself. Pretty straightforward though I'm selling that film way short
In Hana-bi he and the other protag have all the same reasons to want to die. But the other guy focuses himself in his art and finds new ways to appreciate life even as he is paralyzed (BIG nod there at Kitano's own facial paralysis following the "accident"). Kitano's character manages to put off his own unhappiness to make someone else's life worth living for a while before doing the deed anyway. Here he seems to acknowledge the possibility of this all coming back to him but is now capable of working through it for the benefit of someone else. There are reasons to keep trying, even if they can't change the problem at heart.
I think together they're the best discussion of suicide in film
Andrew Cruz
That's a pretty reasonable way of looking at it. His post-accident characters are still unhappy, but his work at least seems to consistently steer in directions other than raw despair.
Noah Nelson
please shut up
Jose Robinson
have you seen anything by sato?
Luke Ramirez
Make me.
And for the guy who was interested in punk, consider 'Love & Pop.' I just remembered that it's a sort-of-sequel to Tokyo Decadence. It's a weird and experimental take on a teenage coming-of-age melodrama which I absolutely love to death. Directed by Hideaki Anno, known for his work in the Chinese cartoons industry as well as directing the most recent Godzilla film.
Charles Bell
>sato If you meant Hisayasu, I've only seen Naked Blood: Megyaku and Rampo Noir. If you meant Toshiki, not a one. Not really a favorite genre, but the Joy of Torture films were just so over the top, I love them for their audacity, especially the second one.
Landon White
I really enjoyed all the kurosawa (kiyoshi not akira) that he did with yakusho like cure, charisma, pulse etc. They're all really well made.
Josiah Clark
yakusho is goat
btw i love this film and nakashima's other films (besides kamikaze girls haven't seen)