so over the past year i have become obsessed with crazy asian movies, and i dont mean the typical martial arts stuff that all of a sudden everyone in america is the biggest fans and experts on. Im talking the really messed up horror and more artsy ones. Just in the last week I started watching some of the palm pictures releases after my friend at universal recommended them. One, Last Life in the Universe, is about 2 young adults obsessed with suicide. Makes you think, weirds you out, and is just brilliant. Now it is one of my favorite films. Im goin to check out Bright Future done by famed horror director Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Outside the palm pic realm is love Tale of Two sisters, Dark Water, Audition, Ichi the Killer, and Battle Royale.
I recommend Shinya Tsukamoto’s Tetsuo: The Iron Man.
Its a 1 hour long black and white film that kinda takes the ideas that Croenenberg and Lynch had to the extreme. Basically, its a masterpiece and as an added bonus, it has an industrial soundtrack…
Highly recommended.
BTW - although indeed a lot of great movies come from Japan, I find their more commercial films to be truly dreadful… The Ring and Grudge were simply pathetic (and yes, I did see them in their original versions).
I recommend Shinya Tsukamoto’s Tetsuo: The Iron Man.
Its a 1 hour long black and white film that kinda takes the ideas that Croenenberg and Lynch had to the extreme. Basically, its a masterpiece and as an added bonus, it has an industrial soundtrack…
Highly recommended.
BTW - although indeed a lot of great movies come from Japan, I find their more commercial films to be truly dreadful… The Ring and Grudge were simply pathetic (and yes, I did see them in their original versions).
That’s awesome. Do you know where i can get a copy? I enjoyed Ringu but no where near movies like Ichi the Killer. I just heard of the Guinea Pig films at http://www.guineapigfilms.com/ They are the most messed up looking films ever.
Do you check out any of the ones i recommended?
The only movie i’ve seen recently that comes close to fitting the “crazy asian” moniker is “Suicide Club”. Which is ok, not great, but ok.
I saw Last Life in the Universe a few months ago. It was pretty good.
ah asian movies, my favorites. firstly i recommend japanese cinema. their shit is way more fucked up than chinese, vietnamese, or korean from what i have seen. although wong kar wai makes some great artsy flicks out of hong kong. you mentioned ichi and audition. both done by takashi miike. a brilliant director who literally does like 10+ movies a year. check out visitor Q, its pretty fucked. he even did a comedy/horror/musical once. oddly my local hollywood video store carries about 10 or so of his flicks. blockbuster does as well. but they seem to sometimes have editied copies of them. if you’re going for shinya, tetsuo 1 is great. i also highly recommend most everything else he has done. tokyo fist, bullet ballet, gemini, and snake of june. i know major video chains are starting to carry snake of june and bullet ballet. snake of june is his best movie in my opinion. his new flick just came out in japan is is getting great reviews.
most anything by takeski kitano is good too. a lot of his titles are carried at the major US video chains. his old stuff is almost dirty harry like, but still very good. his last 2 movies, dolls, and zaitochi (won cannes i believe) are good too. hmn what else. old boy is a korean movie which i recommend if you can find it. i believe its just hitting select markets in theaters now. oh and yes, kiyoshi kurosawa has been making some good flicks as well. i liked bright future. he seems to be getting away from the “horror” genre finally. um, sabu is another good director, more offbeat. they should have “drive” at blockbusters. shit, too many to name. anyhow i suggest checking out midnighteye.com for reviews. and fantasticsuperclub.org is amazing for torrent files of asian movies. you should be able to find a lot of this stuff on there. anyhow, i watch too many movies.
takeshi miike’s stuff is seriously fucked up, he directed audition and ichi the killer. dead or alive is very cool, and has one of the most insane and audatious endings ever. visitor Q is one of the most fucked up and disturbing film i’ve ever seen.
nah, i prefer non japanese films from asia. japanese want to be so american it seems, make it more bloody and more weird just for the sake of it (Ichi The Killer).
but agree, Tetsuo is awesome (is that japanese) the sequel is terrible tho. Save the Green Planet i’ve still to see…
you want proper films check out Korea (OldBoy) and the zillions of cool comedy and kung fu films from the Chinese (how cool is Shaolin Soccer, Kung Fu Hustle looks good)
when i saw the title to this thread, i thought it was gonna be about Bollywood, now that is crazy [:P]
By the way, Old Boy won the Grand Prix of Cannes 2004, best prize after la Palme D’Or. Great movie.
And check also Sympathy for Mr Vengeance, from same Korean director Chan-Wook Park, that started his film trilogy about vengeance… This guy is very talented.
About Takashi Miike, I think he’s really inconsistent. Some of his films are good, other really crap…
nah, i prefer non japanese films from asia. japanese want to be so american it seems, make it more bloody and more weird just for the sake of it (Ichi The Killer).
Now i’d say that chinese (hong kong in particular) films would be the most “hollywood”. Just because they have the budgets to be hollywood style, and notice how a lot of hong kong movies get played at regular chain theaters in america, and even their actors get roles in american movies. i find hong kong conema too cheesy for my likings. i have a hard time comparing iichi to any hollywood films i can think of. and although that seems to be one of miike’s most popular movies, it is by far not my fav of his. he also does a lot of really good “regular” drama movies. check out bird people in china, blues harp, rainy dog. the list goes on and on. But he really does do like 20 movies a year so the list of bad movies is just as long. and yes “tetsuo” is japanese.
The Audition was totally fucked up. By far the most fucked thing I have seen in a long time. I typically don’t dig the horror movies, I dig the comedies and dramas more. If you can find Battle Royale and Oldboy you won’t be disappointed. The stories themselves are really cool. I also REALLY liked Hero. Yes its a Kung Fu flick, but its just visually fantastic and the story is quite cool too. One of the best written flicks I’ve seen recently is Infernal Affairs. Its a badass little movie that is marketed as a shoot up em up but there is VERY little violence in it. Just a very well thought out story.
i just watched “a tale of two sisters”.
until the final 20 mins i couldn’t understand a thing
and at some points it scared the shit out of me.
very fucked up movie.