Net-Lex wrote:Here's a guilty pleasure of mine: Ninja Bugeicho Momochi Sandayu (Shogun's Ninja), starring Hiroyuki Sanada. In a nutshell, it's a revenge story, chock full o' martial arts action, and a 70's/80's-ish funky Jazz score.
I liked it quite a bit, Though I still don't understand the impromptu dance number by Sanada.
LMAO, my wife and I get a huge kick out of that scene. Eh, it was the early eighties, dance fever was still in full swing.
Currently making my way through the Silent Naruse set Criterion put out. I kind of wish they got some more mature period Naruse, and not just stopped at When a Woman Ascends the Stairs. There's so much from his library to choose from. Meanwhile, Criterion can't seem to release enough of Ozu these days. Which is funny since Ozu was pretty underrated in North America until the last 10-15 years.
I find when it comes to international and classic film on DVD, the U.S. is the absolute worst of all the major countries. There are stuff that were released years ago on DVD in Europe that still haven't seen a DVD release in North America. There have even been American classics that saw release in Europe before the U.S.! I don't know how Johnny Guitar went years without an American release until this year. Absolutely shameful.
I recently watched Boys on the Run on Netflix. It was okay, but I find many Japanese films to be too awkward for me to watch. The only ones I really love and watch frequently are Ping Pong and Kamikaze Girls. I really enjoyed Viz's film releases in general, they always chose great movies.
Japanese film today is definitely not as large and vibrant as they were in the 50s, 60s and 70s. There are still good Japanese films being made today, but you have to know where to look. I find the South Korean film industry has lapped both Japan and China when it comes to output and quality.
llj wrote:Japanese film today is definitely not as large and vibrant as they were in the 50s, 60s and 70s. There are still good Japanese films being made today, but you have to know where to look. I find the South Korean film industry has lapped both Japan and China when it comes to output and quality.
I have to agree. I've actually been watching a few Korean movies, and if I compare how many Korean movies I took a chance on to Japanese ones, I preferred and even really liked the Korean movies much more. I tend to watch more Korean dramas versus Japanese ones as well. I recently watched the movie Glove on Netflix, it was so good.
ryoran wrote:I recently watched Boys on the Run on Netflix. It was okay, but I find many Japanese films to be too awkward for me to watch. The only ones I really love and watch frequently are Ping Pong and Kamikaze Girls. I really enjoyed Viz's film releases in general, they always chose great movies.
I also watched Boys on the Run on Netflix. I actually liked it quite a bit. I found the pulling no punches(pardon the pun in this case) with the cringe inducing failures of the protagonist to be rather refreshing.
By the way, props to Netflix for the movies they get up there. Lots of interesting foreign movies.
So, this thing with South Korean dramas. My dental hygienist says her cousin likes the K-dramas more because the Korean men are so much more sensitive than Japanese men now. A couple of weeks ago I was enjoying the futuristic South Korean action-drama series HERO (2012 release, not the 2009 series) on Mnet. Only 8 episodes long:-( It ends sort of like Batman, with the hero, at night, vowing to continue his fight against an evil corporation in Bright City. And someone sent Athena: Goddess of War (South Korean) action tv series that I look forward to watching. (Actually I thought I had ordered the compilation movie, not the series.)
The last Japanese movie I watched was (some long title, but I just call it) Kamen Rider 000 Meets Abarenbo Shogun. Silly, fun, and only an hour long, so I made everyone watch it at my November anime show.
13 Assassins was a great movie, like one of those old action samurai films, instead of recent crap like Tajomaru: Avenging Blade (supposedly a remake of Rashomon, made for the Japanese pop music crowd). To bad I didn't go see 13 Assassins when it when it was playing at the theater downtown. Takashi Miike's remake of Harakiri will be out on dvd in January.
Watched Time Traveller: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time a few days ago. Favored it much more than the anime version (didn't really like the anime ver at all). Riisa Naka is such a great Japanese actress! It's on Netflix if anyone else wants to check it out. :> I highly recommend it.
