Miike is awesome, Visitor Q is the only one that kind of went over the line to me a little bit. Me and my wife ended up on other ends of the couch and disgusted by everything after that movie.
the cinematography, acting, music are great. the story line moves along well and you can feel the tension throughout. some parts of the story are choppy. the action scenes are phenomal. it was supposed to be a three part saga, but the other two movies never got made. would love to see the two sequels get made by a competent filmmaker. knowing that it was supposed to be a saga explains the ending.
This is a great thread - i will have to check out a few of these !! Here's two i bought over the holidays and enjoyed very much. Both are absolutely excellent Kwaidan by The Moog Image Dump, on Flickr 13 Assassins by The Moog Image Dump, on Flickr
I just watched Seijun Suzuki's "Youth of the Beast" a few weeks back and really loved it. Amazingly I found it on Youtube in parts of 10. Really great film with a great twist in the end. Now I want to see Tokyo Drifter.
Tokyo Drifter is also excellent, you can't go wrong. You can really see where 'western directors' have drawn from these films. The soundtrack is also stunning. After years of searching I managed to find a few tracks in MP3 format.
I watched Tomie: Unlimited last night, quality stuff. Driceted by Noboru Iguchi, the guy who did Machine Girl and Robo Geisha, creepy and fucking over the top insane at the same time, heavy Hausu influences as well. He also did this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdnnC43Cotw Which I'm dying to see.
Moog you were smart to buy that MoC version of "Kwaidan." It's vastly superior to the older original Criterion release. Criterion has rights to the same new/restored version but I don't recall if they've released it yet. If you guys like those New Wave-ish Suzuki films, be sure to check out the Criterion Eclipse series box set called "The Warped World of Koreyoshi Kurahara." His work is similarly stunning in its cool modernity. "Black Sun" blew my mind when I first saw it last year.
Yup, the latest in the series... I think there are 5, of varying quality http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1DTZ6slrjQ
mifune is such a great actor. him in sword of doom. don't know how everyone's library system works or how good they are, but the library system over here is great! there are about 20 libraries that are "connected" and you can order books/movies from other libraries to get sent to yours. they have a great selection of movies, and i have watched at least 20 classic japanese films in the past 3-4 months because of it.
Watched this last night - really funny quirky little comedy Turtles Swim Faster Than Expected by The Moog Image Dump, on Flickr
i don't really want to make a new thread for this, but i thought it was really funny. i don't think i'll look at yakuza movies the same way again http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17150847
Did you hear about the Olympus scandal that may have ties to the yakuza? http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/th ... 62012.html
This book deals with very similar subject matter about the Yamaguchi-gumi . . . . its a great read Tokyo Vice by The Moog Image Dump, on Flickr
I haven't liked a non-porn, or non-anime Japanese movie since A Taxing Woman (mid 80's). Since then the gangster, comedies, and horror flicks to me have seemed pointless with over the top, uninteresting characters. I keep giving up and then try again when something looks like it could be good, but then it sadly isn't. I am going to try again though with Monster's Club. http://twitchfilm.com/news/2012/02/japa ... s-club.php At least I have my Korean and HK flicks and now the Scandanavian film scene is booming as well.