Comments on: Japanese movie recommendations

By: Amy

Amy — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 06:26:32 +0000

I'm surprised nobody mentioned Departures! It's a beautiful meditation on death in characteristic Japanese fashion. (I second Kevin's suggestion of After Life, which explores similar themes and is equally moving.) From the older, circa-Tampopo era, I particularly like Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald and Shunji Iwai's Love Letter. I've also heard great things about the documentary that recently premiered in Japantown, Eatrip.

By: ec

ec — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 06:59:47 +0000

Woah, I put my comment in before reading Kevin’s. That’s a good list.

By: ec

ec — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 06:58:57 +0000

Park Chan-Wook’s stuff (Oldboy, Lady Vengence, etc.) comes to mind first, and I think Korea does a fair amount of horror. But they do a fair number of smaller, more intimate films that have wowed the film circuit crowd too (I am just blanking on the titles right now).

By: Saheli

Saheli — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 01:44:46 +0000

This is awesome. Two good movie lists. We need a snarkmatrix productivity tag, for posts that yield nutrient rich comments.

By: Kevin Finlayson

Kevin Finlayson — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 16:37:22 +0000

Hey Robin

I second the recommendation on recent Korean film — a lot of these are genre pieces, not strictly drama/comedy etc.

Bin Jip (3 Iron) and ‘Spring, Summer, Winter Fall and Spring Again’ by Kim Ki Duk

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Oldboy by Park Chan-Wook (these are violent and bleak, but worth it)

Friend
Welcome to Dongmakgol
Taegukgi — The Brotherhood of War
Memories of Murder
Peppermint Candy
My Sassy girl (light comedy)
A Bittersweet Life (gangster/action flick)

The Host (monster movie) and Mother (in theatres now) by Bong Joon-Ho

By: Robin Sloan

Robin Sloan — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 18:27:23 +0000

Re: animation—you might be right! I think I’ve just seen all of those already. Like. All of them.

What are a few Korean recommendations?

By: ec

ec — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 16:48:27 +0000

Hm, I think the best Japanese films of the past 10 years may have been animated (but this is just judging from my limited, exported to America, only frame of reference). Along with what Saheli said, the Kurosawa series at New People in SF just ended, but if you want the classics, they are launching intoOzu and Mizoguchi (starting tomorrow and next week). In terms of the region, I think the most groundbreaking film in the last 10 years wasn't from Japan, but was from Korea, which has put forth a lot of fresh auteurs in the past decade.

By: Robin Sloan

Robin Sloan — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 16:43:53 +0000

Brilliant. This is great. Thanks, Kevin!

By: Mike Duncan

Mike Duncan — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 14:18:02 +0000

Nobody Knows, about a real family of four children abandoned in a Tokyo apartment, takes a tabloid situation and makes a film of great delicacy and beauty.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobody_Knows_(2004_film)

Come to think of it, you will not go wrong with any films of Hirokazu Koreeda. He is this generation’s Ozu.

By: leafar

leafar — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 12:54:46 +0000

Here are the top 100 japan movies from the 2000s according to the ulike.net community : http://www.ulike.net/clubs?order=popular&country=234&year=-1

You can change country and date in the selector to solve other what to see related query ! And you can try our suggestion engine it’s not a bad one.

Cheers.
Leafar