Asian Cinema Thread

Really? It was getting rave reviews here, but I couldn't see the point in forking out good money to see half an epic. Anyway, back to the topic. Someone mentioned older Asian films. I was watching a few a while ago and I was blown away by Ozu's Tokyo Story. Just as an observation, this thread seems to focus on martial arts and cop thriller genres. There is much, much more to Asian cinema than that.

Intellectual property man??

Originally Posted by Toiletduck

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Intellectual property man??

are you talking about Ip Man?
that's just how the main character's name is pronounced in Cantonese

Originally Posted by pronxs

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i absolutely love god of gamblers. no joke.
Me too. I also like those old wuxia tv series, especially the classic one with the young Tony Leung that everyone has seen. I used to watch it with friends who would translate what they said while the tape was running, which made it all the more fun. Now you can find them with english subs. Korean tv dramas are also pretty good if you like supercorny romance/melodrama.

Originally Posted by California Dreamer

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Someone mentioned older Asian films. I was watching a few a while ago and I was blown away by Ozu's Tokyo Story.
Agreed! I'm surprised it's only been mentioned once. I enjoy Ozu in general but Tokyo Story is particularly good.

Originally Posted by laughwithm3

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red cliff is terrible on so many levels, don't bother

Lin Chiling's completely unneccesary sex scene makes it totally worthwhile!

Point of no return

and IP Man II will release in 2010

Korean films:
Oasis and Peppermint Candy both by Lee Chang Dong

Japanese films:
9 Souls by Toshiaki Toyoda
Kikujiro by Beat Takeshi
Toni Takitani by Jun Ichikawa

Chinese films:
Fallen Angels by Wong Kar Wai - saw and own all his films but this I consider this his crown jewel
Shaolin Soccer by Stephen Chow

Any newish (say 2007-2009) films I might have missed you'd recommend?

Originally Posted by superfans124

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Lin Chiling's completely unneccesary sex scene makes it totally worthwhile!

Very true! there were just too much stupid things in that movie for me to find it entertaining. The name of the new born pony..., the scene where LiuBei makes shoes, Zhangfei writing.. (seriously, he was a butcher for god sake). i can understand these unneccesary changes if the original novel was bad, but it was awesome... he could just tell it like what it is.
I never bothered to watch the second one.

I just watched Goemon yesterday, i don't even know what to say. The CGI looked great at first, but it was too over done. Not enough fighting scenes, not enough japanese girl drop it like it's hot, plot was terrible (Japanese Robin hood?). and i thought the director was going to compensate the whole movie by making an super overkill CGI ninjia fight in the end, but nah...
what's up with him trying to squeeze through the crowd to save Saizou? he jumped for about 200 ft in the last couple scenes, couldn't do that to save his friend?
what's with nobunsage dress like an english knight, and some of the soldiers look like storm-troopers. the director seemed very confused about what he was making.

Originally Posted by Fuuma

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Any newish (say 2007-2009) films I might have missed you'd recommend?
Hope this question was directed at me. Unfortunately, I haven't seen any new Asian films that I would recommend to anyone (a few I saw were complete train wrecks). I have not actively pursued watching Asian films in the past few years. I attribute my lack of interest to the proliferation of Asian Horror and attempts at blockbuster movies; genres I do not care for. However, I have the following movies in my Netflix queue/save list and am hoping they are worth my time: Thirst by Park Chan Wook Departures by Yojiro Takita All Around Us by Ryosuke Hashiguchi

Originally Posted by billsayers

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Hope this question was directed at me. Unfortunately, I haven't seen any new Asian films that I would recommend to anyone (a few I saw were complete train wrecks). I have not actively pursued watching Asian films in the past few years. I attribute my lack of interest to the proliferation of Asian Horror and attempts at blockbuster movies; genres I do not care for. However, I have the following movies in my Netflix queue/save list and am hoping they are worth my time: Thirst by Park Chan Wook Departures by Yojiro Takita All Around Us by Ryosuke Hashiguchi
It's directed at no one in particular I'm supposed to watch Thirst and departures soon. I recently watched: Goemon (meh, as far as those kind of big blockbusters go I liked Shinobi better) Who's Camus anyway (for the second time) The good, the bad, the weird (not as good as his first movies, I didn't like a bittersweet life either) Still life (Jia Zang-Ke, one of China's best directors IMHO, been following him since Platform and Unknow pleasures) Will watch: Summer palace Swing girls One million yen girl crows zero II the foreign duck, the native duck and god in a coin locker still walking (newest Kore-eda) Dream (Kim-Ki-Duk) Hello schoolgirl Vengeance (If I can find it ;( ) Insadong scandal, the I am aware some of these aren't that good but I sometimes enjoy crappy movies. I haven't even seen Kitano's recent movies but Takeshis sucked so bad I had to take a long break from him. I'm particularly interested in: -what you'd call "arthouse" which is just a way to say great movies/directors transcend their subject and, of course, these are the films I really wanna watch -gangster movies, particularly good HK fare(rare these days) -Romance movies, especially if it's (melo)drama. Suggest away.

You guys can try "Great Happiness space", it's a documentary about Japanese male bar host and on netflix, available for instant stream. I really enjoyed it, the description provided by netflix gives nothing away. Very candid. On second thought the director of this isn't Asian.

Another one available on netflix is "Tears of Black Tiger", A Thai spaghetti western. Luckily the over the top scenes don't dominate the movie. Some scenes were shot on a sound stage with beautiful backgrounds and the leading lady is georgeous and does a very good job considering...

Originally Posted by thats.mana

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You guys can try "Great Happiness space", it's a documentary about Japanese male bar host and on netflix, available for instant stream. I really enjoyed it, the description provided by netflix gives nothing away. Very candid. On second thought the director of this isn't Asian.

Another one available on netflix is "Tears of Black Tiger", A Thai spaghetti western. Luckily the over the top scenes don't dominate the movie. Some scenes where shot on a sound stage with beautiful backgrounds and the leading lady is georgeous and does a very good job considering...

+1 on great happiness place.