Japanese Movies

[Wence]

Japanese/HK-productions are often stupid, weird and not funny (in spite of trying their best to be it)
 
I remeber Takeshi Miike(Myike?)´s movies - ughh, what a boring trash !

Possibly they were throwing the dice for the plot, or were p**sed drunk when having a "brainstorming"-session for the story...

The problem is, as a westerner (american or european) you have no cultural connection i.e adequate understanding to chinese/HK-movies and even less to Japanese movies.

Many Japanese movies are so strange that it is (for me) no fun watching them:
often they have this common:

- you see school girls with their famous jap-school-uniform (i.e. little girls in short skirts). Often, very often there´s a scene where you can see their underwear!!!
(after having seen it 100times this is so f***** up and boring!)

- you see legions of transsexuals,transvestites, hermaphrodites, ladyboys etc.

- the humour is "japanese" - I mean, as a westerner it´s hard to bear all this silly, exaggerated slapstick action and behavior of the protagonists

Good examples for what I mean:
TOKYO DECADENCE (not that bad but weird, weird, weird!)
GUINEA PIG and all that Japanese-gore-nonsense
TAKESHI MIYKE(?)´s movies (all of them!)

[dudeman]

Miike does some plot driven stuff (dramas) but yeah most are a bit messy like Ichi and Gozu. Although I liked those movies. Cause they're strange and I like films the more stranger they are.

There's a lot of good Japanese/Hong Kong stuff that is fairly simple though. I was watching Postman Blues the other day, real good drama without humor that's too absurd.

I've heard Guinea Pig is trash even from Asian film fans so I never even bothered seeing them.

[Wence]

My opnion is not, that all eastern/japanese movies are bad.

There are enough good eastern films, like:
many Chackie Chan productions
most of the Bruce-Lee-Stuff
nearly every (newer) Martial-Arts-Movie - especially the Jet-Li-Movies.

What I want to say is that, compared to common western dramas and family films the eastern dramas and family films are more freaky&weird - many things that would disgust the average european/american is absolute normality in Japan:
- in many "normal" japanese movies you see (X-times) school girl underwear
- rapings/pervert actions
- bloody massacers
- often a plot that is so strange you can´t believe it (f.e. Tetsuo - the Iron Man I&II)

[dudeman]

yeah it is pretty weird, especially Tetsuo (one of my fav movies btw)

The funny thing actually is Japan has higher conduct in everyday life (even seeing pubic hair is a big deal) so the movies are like a product of their repression. I saw soem article saying Tetsuo was like a message about sexuality in Japan.

[dean]

Ever heard of the phrase 'fan service'?

That's a common term that I mainly heard in anime which can perhaps be taken here to, in which, despite the plot or situation, the girls show off their big breasts and cleavage, or a character will look up a skirt, or there is some sort of innuendo.

I love japanese and eastern films, not because of 'fan service' [though at times it helps] but because it is so different to the hollywood system [which i am growing to really despise]

Some stuff i don't understand, but i think alot of the material can be picked up eventually.

All in all it's good stuff!!

[Mr_Vindictive]

I'm with Dean.  I love Japanese films, as they are a welcome escape from Hollywood.  The plots are usually strange, but the films are fun as hell.

Some Examples:

Battle Royale
Battle Royale 2
Versus
Audition
Ichi The Killer
Returner
Wild Zero
Ringu
Ju-On
Oldboy (techincally Korean)


A perfect example is Happiness Of The Katakuris, which I watched yesterday.  It's a beautiful, yet strange, drama/comedy/murder musical.  It's this type of insanity that makes the films so much fun.

[BeyondTheGrave]

me three. I like japnese movies and since I live in NYC I see alot of them in the movies like Gozu and and Zatochi.  and skaboi I think we have the same taste in asian cinema because I own all the ones you mentioned on dvd. I recommed blue spring to you its has battle royale themes it in and very enjoyable.


"I know I know ive been exposed permeant psychoses..
at least the colors are nice"- Aeon Flux

[daveblackeye15]

Me too too too! I like a lot of them. As Dean said, I'm getting really (REALLY) p**sed off at Hollywood these days. I mean I love almost every Godzilla movies (Godzilla is my hero!) I love Battle Royale, I love a lot of the cartoons and comic books I love Gamera and I love the Giant Robot vs Giant Monster stuff. It's a frigging flash of freash air from Crapoloid Hollywood! (Lots of other foreign movies are freash air to me as well, also independent stuff is good also and the SUPER rairity when Hollywood does something good)

[Sugar_Nads]

I have to agree with you Wence. Japanese films do have all the "typical" borderline child pornography laced with obnoxious humor and homo erotic fantasies. Not my bag but hey, "it's cool" Not!

[Mr_Vindictive]

Rich,

Very cool.  It's extremely refreshing to find someone else here in the states that has seen OldBoy.  Fantastic film.

[Kory]

I don't think it's fair to just say "Japanese movies suck".  Look at Kurosawa films- The Seven Samurai, Ikiru, Hidden Fortress, etc- some of the best movies ever made ANYWHERE.   Then there's some awesome Japanese horror flicks- Ringu, The Eye, Ju-On.

There are bad movies in EVERY culture... it's no different than saying all American-made movies suck (a lot of them do...).  There are good ones and bad.

Just food for thought.

[peter johnson]

Yeah, genre films can be bizarro in any culture.  Look at the Italian horror crop --
But when you do get right down to it, there are films of great majesty & subtlety to be found in any culture as well -- and ESPECIALLY in Japan.
Someone has already mentioned Kurosawa, so I'll just name a few titles of other things I've seen that still blow me away:
Fires on the Plain(1962, or so).  I saw this on the big screen in college, and own a very poor bootleg VHS of, but still can't remember the director's name.  Shame on me.  This is an absolutely riveting study of the dissolution of humanity, set in the Philippines in February, 1945.  The Americans have cut the supply lines to the Japanese forces on the Phillippines years ago, and the military units that remain have reached a kind of Zen austerity that approaches theatre of the absurd:  Men are sent from one empty building to another, only with different names.  The "Infirmary" has no bandages, no medicine, etc.  It exists in name only.  The soldiers are told to march to the other side of Mindanao, told that relief forces are waiting for them there.  There is a scene shot silently in a driving rainstorm wherein we see only the feet of the men passing.  There is a corpse.  We see one man stop and remove the corpse's boots and leave his own, as the dead man's boots are slightly better.  The next man along does the same, leaving his own worn boots and taking the previously rejected ones.  And so on, until there is only the ghost of boots left.
Another scene involves an encounter with a wounded soldier reposing like the Buddha beneath a tree on a blasted landscape.   I won't give anything away.
There are strong meditations on cannibalism, shame, and what it means to be human.  A very deep and involving film.
Shall We Dance, on the other hand, is a funny-silly comedy, but with really sympathetic characters.  Very light, but fun and rewarding as well.
Spirited Away.  This cartoon resulted in its creator being named a Living National Treasure by the Japanese Government.  It was quite popular in America a few years ago, so should be easy to find.  Engrossing fantasy that avoids many of the anime cliches & pitfalls mentioned earlier.
So, in conclusion, I really do think that Japan has a lot to offer in the way of filmic distraction, and would think it a shame were you to write them off.
peter johnson/denny crane

[Sugar_Nads]

You do have a good point, Kory... I stand corrected because I have a special place in my heart for Godzilla and Martial arts films. ; )

[Master Blaster]

I must admit based on the movies I've seen I think Japan must have some of the strangest perverts in the whole world. Ichi, Fudo, Blue Girl, and Legend of the Overfiend all have some really weird eroticism in them. At least to an American anyway.

[Mr_Vindictive]

Legend Of The Overfiend.  LOL

I had completely forgotten about that one, Master Blaster.  LOTO aka Urisokidoji is an amazing film if only for it's disgusting nature.