Asian Movies - What do you think?

TerrorFirmer

I LOVE Asian movies! Something about them, they are just made with so much class and style!

Some of my favourites are The black sheep affair, Battle Royale I and II, The Avenging Fist, Police Story, Story of Ricky, The Killer, Dead or Alive and probably many, many more.

What about anyone else?

jor el

Battle Royale is a great flick, but BR II, uugh. I have The Killer in my DVD collection too and that's one hell of a film. I recently got the Once upon a Time in China Trilogy box set from Play. Haven't watched them yet, need to get a chance some weekend.

I have loads of other Jet Li DVDs too like Fist of Ledgend, Last hero in China, Evil Cult, Hitman and so on. Any Jet Li or Chow Yun Fat films get my vote. Except for Bulletproof Monk, what was he thinking.

Most of the tripe coming out of Hollywood these days just doesn't hold a candle to the quality or style of the Asian films.

Incidentally, I notice in Chartbuster Video they have an entire Asian movie DVD section now (at least in Limerick anyway).

koneko

Chartbusters here are the same, World Cinema section. Very handy. Got out Tetsuo and Princess Blade a while back.

TerrorFirmer

Tetsuo, isnt that the iron man thing? never seen it, but hear it was pretty controversial in uncut form...?

@Jor el, is fist of legend any good? considered buying it. And yes, generally anything with chow yun fat gets my vote, but also for me, Bulletproof monk...what a flop.

Jet Li is good but some of his films i despise....Kiss of the Dragon, and ESPECIALLY "The one", what a crap movie. Too hollywood. well, they try to be, they to me are more like a mixture between bad attempts at typical hollywood action and unexciting fight scenes (although Kiss of the dragon was a little better in this regard)

Interesting newish movie, Jet Li version of "Die Hard", Called "meltdown", not very original, but some of the choreograhed scenes are spectacular. Got it for 9.99 in HMV.

Eye

got a whole pile of jet li movies, big fan of his, jor el you will not be dissapointed with the once upon a time in china trilogy, 3 top notch films, fight scenes in the first (well in all 3) are top notch

not a huge fan of jackie chan although i do have drunken master and island of fire which i thought were pretty good but not great, have yet to see any of the police story's but have been told they are very good so might get one in the future.

other notable jet li films would have to be Black mask and the defender, really liked the fight sequence near the end of the defender where they were fighting in the kitchen

*edit* almost forgot to mention Iron Monkey, have'nt gotten it on dvd yet but must get it sometime, dont actually know who is in it but it is also another excellent martial arts film with some fantastic fight scenes.

jor el

Fist of Ledgend, can't say if it's any good or not as I can't remember if I've even watched it yet. But for £5.99 on Play you can't really go wrong. That's another one I must either watch or re-watch. I forget about most of the films I watch, possibly because I have so bloody many. I took a fit of buying DVDs from Play before Christmas and haven't watched most of them yet. Lots of Jet Li and Chow Yun Fat DVDs for cheap.

Kiss of the Dragon, I liked that movie, probably because Bridget Fonda looks so damn fine in it though. I like the fight scenes too, especially the twins. I agree with you about The One, pretty crap overall.

Karl Hungus

Right, where the hell do I start?

Big fan of Asian cinema in general, so lets start with some of my favorite directors...

Takeshi Kitano, obviously. I have quite a lot of his films, but I'm still waiting for a few to be released, namely Kikujiro and Kids Return. On DVD, I have Hana-bi, Boiling Point, Dolls, Zatoichi, Sonatine, Voilent Cop, Brother, aswell as a few that he acts in, Battle Royale obviously, Gonin, and Gohatto.

Another obvious one being Akira Kurosawa. I own a good few of his films on DVD also, Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Throne Of Blood, The Hidden Fortress, Rashomon, Sanjuro, Ran, Kagemusha, Red Beard. I've also a few films that star Kurosawa's usual leading man, Toshiro Mifune, one of the greatest actors who ever lived, such as the Samurai Trilogy, The Sword Of Doom (Although that film was absolutely dominated by Tatsuya Nakadai. Talk about a powerhouse preformance! Shocking he never managed to take over as Kurosawa's leading man once Mifune fell out with the director).

Hayao Miyazaki being a definite favorite as far as Anime goes. I've got Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Castle In The Sky, and Kiki's Delivery Service. I hope to god they hurry up and release Nausicaa of the Valley Of Wind (Which I've already seen mind you, what a film!), My Neighbor Totoro, Crimson Pig, and I cannot wait for Howl's Moving Castle. Hurry up, damn it!

It's also worth noting that I'm a big fan of composer Joe Hisaishi, who scores all the Miyazaki, and most of the Kitano films. I've got the soundtracks for Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Castle In The Sky, and Hana-bi.

Takashi Miike is another favorite of mine, and I was hooked since seeing Ichi The Killer. You might take note that the guy who played Jijii is none other than the director of the Tetsuo films! Other films of his I've got are Audition, Dead Or Alive, Happiness Of The Katakuri's, Gozu, Rainy Dog, and Fudoh: The New Generation. I've also got Visitor Q, Young Thugs: Nostalgia and volume 1 of MPD Psycho on the way, but there's still a lot of his films I've yet to see, like Ley Lines, and a few that haven't been released yet like The Bird People In China, and Zebraman, which I'm really looking farward to seeing. Definetly a very eclectic director, and the sheer amount of films he makes is unreal! He made 9 films in 2001 alone. Breath-taking.

I also like some of the off-the-wall silly action that Ryuhei Kitamura makes, namely Versus, and Azumi. I don't think anyone will match the opening scene of Versus! And of course, for action, you can't beat John Woo! A Bullet In The Head, Hard Boiled, and The Killer being some favorites, but I've still to see a lot of his films. Pity he's now in Hollywood, making flaccid popcorn flicks with equally as flaccid twonks like Tom Cruise.

There's plenty of great Asian horror films also, like Ring, Ju-On: The Grudge, The Eye, Dark Water, and A Tale Of Two Sisters. Although there's seemingly quite a few cash-ins being produced these days, like Phone, and Into The Mirror which I can't be arsed seeing.

Obviously there's some excellent Anime, barring the well known films like Akira, Ghost In The Shell, and the Miyazaki films, I find the best Anime can often be in TV Series format. Berserk being absolutely staggeringly good! There's also Cowboy Bebop, Hellsing, and the infinetly funny Puni Puni Poemi!

I'm not so much into Kung Fu movies, but I have Police Story, and Iron Monkey. Although since Iron Monkey, I find the whole "Wire-Fu" thing overkill. Wasn't really a fan of Hero, seemed too much like a rehash of ideas already presented in Rashomon. So generally I stear clear of Jet Li, Jackie Chan and suchlike films.

I find there's some absolutely staggering films coming out of Korea nowadays. The first of which I saw was Musa: The Warrior, which was excellent medieval battle fare, and featured Iron Monkey himself Yo Rong Kwong as the main baddie. I went from there onto the likes of Chan-Wook Park's Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance, and of course Oldboy. I'm also looking farward to seeing Park's previous film, Joint Security Area whenever it's released, and Three Extremes which is a film he did with Takashi Miike and Fruit Chan.

Save The Green Planet is another fantastic film to check out. I simply cannot praise it enough, probably the best film I've seen in 2004! Quite a hybrid of styles, but it's blended together effortlessly, and really engages you emotionally with all the main characters. Memories Of Murder is another one to check out, which is a film about South Korea's first Serial Killer, and features an excellent preformance from Kang-ho Song (who was also brilliant in Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance). It really blows the crap out of every contrived serial killer film made in America since Se7en, because it provides such a breath of fresh air alongside an utterly gripping true story.

Anyway, I think that about covers it.

PWEI

I went through a phase there for nearly a year when I was only buying Asian films that's why I was asking here for some European recommendations.
I've seen a lot of great ones but also a lot of crap like Phone,Into The Mirror and the bore that was 2046.I also like a lot of Takeshi Kitano's stuff,Zatoichi is superb and Hana Bi is also very good.I found Sonatine very very slow but
still wasn't bad.I have Dolls also but haven't looked at it yet.
My favourite Korean films would be Shiri and Old Boy.
I loved Takashi Miike Audition and also have Dead Or Alive and Ichi The Killer but I wasn't a big fan of Ichi.I just thought the violence was way over the Top.My favourite Asian horror would be The Eye,Ring,A Tale Of Two Sisters and the extremely creepy Dark Water.Horrors best avoided are Phone,Into The Mirror and Gozu and I didn't think much of the Grudge also.
Other films definitely worth seeing are are Internal Affairs, Musa
(very long but worth it),Azumi. and The Killer.
I enjoyed Hero but there wasn't much of a story and no emotional
connection to the characters whatsoever.House Of Flying Daggers
wasn't bad but both weren't a patch on Crouching Tiger.
My top ten would be;


The Eye
Dark Water
Zatoichi
Audition
Internal Affairs
Musa
Old Boy
Hana Bi
Shiri
Battle Royale

Karl Hungus

PWEI wrote:

Horrors best avoided are Phone,Into The Mirror and Gozu and I didn't think much of the Grudge also.

Indeed, Phone and Into The Mirror just struck me as formulaic cash-ins, but I thought Gozu was a absolutely fantastic altogether! I loved it, but I can indeed understand why some people who hate it. I wouldn't exactly call it a horror though, more David Lynch style surrealness.

TerrorFirmer

Dead or Alive - What did anyone else think of the ending? Not mentioning what happens in specific, dont want to give away the story to anyone who has interest in seeing it. But I personnally thought it was a bit ridiculous, in fact, totally ridiculous (Trust me, you have to see it to understand). Great film apart from this!

Versus - Good film? Never got around to buying this one yet! Anyone want to sell it, incidently?

Some good taste Karl! Although I have to say I'm big into the martial arts movies, not "wire-fu" ones though, I hate those...but I love martial arts/action films such as "Red Wolf", "The Black Sheep Affair" and "police Story", to name but a few.

Anyone seen Story of Ricky? that was one of the most entertaining films ever. The gore was on a level of Braindead in terms of both the liquid itself and the level of silliness

Rasputin

Watched the movie and promptly bought the book and then waited for the second movie.

BR1 was awesome, the book was 10 times better than the movie and
BR11 sucked but there were some interesting bits, like shooting apart of it in Afghanistan.

I think BR2 was worth the watch just because of BR1.

Read the book people!

Raoul Duke

A lot of good movies have been mntioned allready.

Karl, I'm surprised you don't have Ikiru yet. Of Kurosawa's dramas it's my favourite. Takashi Shimura, who plays the lead, was also in more Kurosawa films than Mifune (I think). Hollywood is also making a remake so get the original before that travesty. Even though it will be Sheridan at the helm it wil have Hanks as the lead. I'm actually still a bit of a fan of Hanks (Big allows for a lot of crap films) but this should not be touched.

Decent romantic films: Christmas In August; My Sassy Girl; One Fine Spring Day

Some mad crzy cool ones: Electric Dragon 80.000 V; Wild Zero;

I thought Woman in the Dunes was a masterpiece.

I also liked Returner; Ping Pong; Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring; Takashi Miike's Visitor Q.............


And you'll all go mad for Kung Fu Hustle when it comes out.

QC

Has anybody seen The Happiness of the Kamakuri's (I think that's the name). It's about a Japanese family who buy a guesthouse in the mountains, but nothing seems to go right for them. It's one of the most bizarre and funniest films that I've seen in a long time.

PWEI

Karl Hungus wrote:

Indeed, Phone and Into The Mirror just struck me as formulaic cash-ins, but I thought Gozu was a absolutely fantastic altogether! I loved it, but I can indeed understand why some people who hate it. I wouldn't exactly call it a horror though, more David Lynch style surrealness.

I'll have to give Gozu a second look as i watched it after I had been out for a few beverage's so I probably didn't get it in my merry state.
Incidentally I looked at Dolls last night.I've had it for months but never got around to watching it.All I can say is if your looking for an uplifting film,Dolls isn't it.And if your want to look at a Takeshi Kitano film for the first time,dont pick this one.Get the excellent Zatoichi or Hani Bi.