Japan-o-rama
I recently had a great opportunity to view a three episode BBC series by eminent journalist Jonathan Ross on the Japanese, Korean and Hong Kong cinema. The episode on the Japanese cinema started with “how it has started losing its sheen in the recent years,” which got me thinking and is the reason of this article. Now, I know there are a lot of people here who are huge fan of the world cinema. I have come across people who swear their allegiance to French new wave, Italian neo-realism, Iranian movies and all the so called ‘new waves’. For me however, Japan has always been the mystic land. I love its culture, its people, all the ‘made in Japan’ gizmos… but more than anything else I love its cinema. Like most others my initiation into the Japanese cinema was through Kurosawa and Yasujiro Ozu. Though my diet also included arthouse works of masters like Kenji Mizoguchi, my favorite genre remained the Samurai movies.
Over the years however, I have tried watching all kinds of Japanese films I could lay my hands on, but animes have been an out-of-the-world experience for me, an automatic graduation from manga- Japanese comics. Though the Japanese animated films were around as far back as 1917, the real invasion started with 1988’s Akira and over the years they have continuously strived for perfection with films like Sprited Away and Steamboy. Forget live action, who could have thought that animation could have such a huge psychological impact accompanied with social messages.
Though the quality of films being produced in Japan has been steadily declining, or so a lot of critics seem to think, I fancy otherwise. According to me the Japanese cinema is still as vibrant as ever – infact I will like to take the liberty to put it over even the South Korean cinema. Over the years Japan has continued to define one genre after another – horror/gothic films, zombi films, slasher films, gangster films, arthouse films, romantic films, popcorn films, pinkus(softcore porn) and lately animes. There are classics everywhere. Hollywood stalwarts like George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola and Quentin Tarantino have always acknowledged the influence of Japanese cinema on their filmmaking.
Anyway here is my list of favorite Japanese movies in no order of preference. Would love to know about the picks of others.
1. All Kurosawa – My Japanese top ten will probably start and end with Kurosawa, so I decided to lump all Kurosawa movies together.
2. Tokyo Story – 1953 (Yasujiro Ozu) – For a country that respects its elders so much, Tokyo story takes a deviation and takes us into the life of an elderly couple trying to come to terms with the indifferent attitude of their children. The movie ends in tragedy and is widely considered to be Ozu’s best work.
3. The Life of Oharu – 1952 (Kenji Mizogutchi) – Mizogutchi’s film always dealt with the plight of women. This film is no different tracking the rise and fall of a geisha.
4. Late Chrysanthemums -1954 (Mikio Naruse) – Compared to his peers, Naruse never got as much acclaim outside his country as he deserved. This film interweaves three short stories of four geishas, adopting a narrative plot unheard of in the 50’s Japan.
5. Ringu – 1998 (Hideo Nakata) – The movie that took Japanese horror to another level. Was remade by Gore Verbinski, a version that I like better.
6. Audition – 1999 (Takashi Miike) – A normal film turns into gore in its last stages from a marvellously talented director who has made more than 90 films in around 15 years. A movie every two months…. the guy is crazy.
7. Sonatine – 1993 (Takashi Kitano) – If you happen to be in Japan, Kitano is one guy , you’ll find everywhere. From TV ads, serials, newspaper articles, billboards to films. Starting out as an actor Kitano acted and directed in this crime drama which is one of my favorite gangster flicks.
8. Double Suicide -1969 (Masahiro Shinoda) – Japanese new wave masterpiece. Period.
9. Akira – 1988 (Katsuhiro Otomo) – the film that brought Japanese anime to the world.
10.Spirited Away – 2001 – (Hayao Miyazaki) – The master animator’s work is my all time fav anime.
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last watched – Zodiac (4/5)
listening – best of yardbirds
reading – painting with light
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Thanks for the post. Too bad I missed the show.
I work with some student filmmakers from japan and they were telling me that the J-movie industry is absolutely in the doldrums. There is no money for live action. Even known actors/stars and directors of repute can’t raise money for movies. A lot of the money goes into anime and TV. For a newcomer, it is virtually impossible to breakthrough in live action in Japan now. A lot of the movies are made on DV (not even HD) and are direct to video.
Even Miike has trouble raising money but that should be expected since he makes a million movies a year. My friends also could not understand the obsession and following Miike has in the US and around the world. They didn’t particularly care for him.
I love Miike and for some time was trying to catch up with all his movies but that’s virtually impossible. He makes movies faster than I can watch them. He said in an interview, that he thinks a movie is worth making if it has one good shot. That explains his outrageously prolific ouevre.
Audition is one of my favorite movies of all time, as is Ichi the Killer and Zebraman from 2006. Zebraman is unlike anything he has done. Sweet family film! The other thing he does is routinely give the editor on his film the opening sequence to direct which makes for some thrilling openings of his movies. Dead or Alive Part 1 (there were 4 of these like Ju-Ons), one of his earlier films is worth watching just for the opening alone.
Ichi the Killer has a great opening sequence too and it’s just some guy riding a bicycle! On Ichi the Killer (one of the most comically violent movies made and inspiration for all the blood geysers from the neck in movies such as Kill Bill), the producer asked Miike, “Is this much violence necessary. Can’t we tone it down a bit?” To which Miike said, “It’s a film. What’s ‘necessary’ in a film?” The producer got it.
Japanese movies over the years have consistently been defining and creating genres like the samurai films (which went on to become westerns), Yakuza films (redfined the gangster genre) , J-Horror (again redefined horror and made me scared of pale boys and girls with freakishly long straight hair) and of course the popularity of animated films around the world is in no small measure due to the influence of Japanes anime.
It seems like they create or re-define a genre and have a severe case of bandwagoning which lasts several years when they make every possible movie in that genre. Like locusts preying on a field till they ravage it barren, then they export it to the US and the rest of the world. :d
Tokyo Story is brilliant, but I actually prefer the cinematography in Ozu’s Floating Weeds. Some of those shots are brilliant in their simplicity and help define the feel and pace of the film.
Have you guys discovered Kon Ichikawa yet? ‘Burmese Harp’…’Ten Dark Women’,'Punishment Room’etc..really one of the best Japanese helmers and unfortunately least known.. Started his career as an animator, so his frames are composed like manga… not as restrained as the rest,quite eclectic,diverse and rebellious…
Ichikawa san…only watched Punishment Room. I couldn’t place my finger on what it was about his visual style that stayed with me until you pointed out his manga influence. I personally quite like doing live action with not just the framing of manga but also the frame skip (for lack of a better word) camera movements of 80’s animation.
Watch Freesia for a very faithful (visual) adaptation of a manga. It’s about a post apocalyptic world where the Govt. sanctions contract killing for revenge and the bureaucracy of running a state sponsored revenge institution.
Dabba, thanks for the amazing post. ^:)^ And I thought I knew so much about the Jap cinema. You are bang on when you say that Miike’s movies have great opening sequences but I never knew that part of it is because he allows his editors free-hand during the same.
“What’s necessary in a film”:-? I guess there are a lot of people here who might find that blasphemous. Also I never knew that currently, the financial situation is that bad in Japan.
You say your friends can’t understand the kind of following that Miike has in the US. I guess one thing that does define most of his movies is that they seem to be straight forward till the very end before everything starts turning topsy turvy. My favs apart from Audition include Dead or Alive, Itchi the killer, Visitor Q and Gozu.
Once again thanks for a brilliant post.
Gozu! That movie is so weird, love it. One of the standard requirements for horror is to build the creepy/weirdness factor in addition to the actual horror element (ghosts, slahers, zombie etc). Miike does it in Gozu by taking the ordinary and mundane and skewing it a little.
Examples –
An adult woman bottling her breast milk almost like a factory production
An adult man being born out of a woman’s holiest of holies, covered in slime and blood.
guy going crazy and then whirling a dog for the longest time in recorded motion picture history and flinging it against a glass pane.
And that cow!
Maybe I’ll do a Projekt iview of the best shots and opening sequences (subjective – my opinion) of all the Miike movies i’ve seen.
Shripriya, I guess I love Floating Weeds as well his “late spring” and “early summer”. I wanted to inclue only one and that’s why Tokyo Story -his most widely accepted work.
Viczee, I have only seen Ichikawa’s war drama “Fires on the Plain”. Watch it, if you haven’t done so already. It’s a great film. And now that you have pointed out his other works, I’ll try to watch them as well.
Dabba, how did u manage to catch freesia?? it’s only available in Japan. am sure u have contacts
:d
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last movie – fando y lis(Jadorowsky) 3/5
listening to – best of yardbirds
You are the man Dabba…
would eagerly await for your Projekt Iview write-up on Miike.
Contacts and a little something called the NY Asian Film Festival. I watched all 40 movies at the Fest and am broke now.
They had a movie at the fest – EXTE, which was a J-horror spoof but more tongue in cheek and definitely scary (people dying and shit) and the premise is Killer Hair Extensions!
Must say though, I am partial to the Koreans over the Japanese and you and I may never get along because of that :(
i actually submitted a post on B.R. Chopra’s Mahabharatha for Projekt iView. Want to see if that gets accepted. I’ll see if my writing style works and what is needed before I do a Miike post. I’ll definitely be commenting though so please keep the posts coming.
dabba, you are one lucky b!@#$d. >:)
so what if you are broke. I’m sure the feeling of having watched some great flicks far outweighs that.
What about a post on Korean cinema. Am sure that would be a very interesting read.
Pankaj/dabba, great post guys, thanx.. need to brush on Jap cinema on my part…:(
My love affair with Korea is all encompassing.
I went from not knowing how to pronounce Seoul correctly (I’m sure most of you do, but I am kinda ghati like that and thought the ‘e’ was for enunciating) in 2004 to now having watched and admired the “Cinemania” of Korea (trend of large quantities of young people obsessing over cinema in S. Korea); Studied the socioeconomic and political circumstances that led to the birth of the SoKo New Wave (I made that term up, feel free to use), dated a Korean American and one from the motherland itself, trying to learn Korean so I can appreciate the movies better, cooking Korean food and an upcoming trip to SoKo at the end of the year (which I may not be able to make cos I blew my saved airfare money on the NY Asian FF – It was definitely worth it though).
All because of one movie that I watched. A movie that I did not want to end. A movie after which I thought, it must be a great country that can produce something so moving that even my jaded cynical brain said, “Yes, life is like that.”
That is the power of cinema. No points for guessing what movie that was.
hey dabba.. you see i am one of the lesser intelligent people.. could you throw some light on the movie you are talking about..
Dabba, ur post on Mahabharta rocks..trust oz to acknowledge anything interesting and adding to PFC’s depth,breadth and range..
And like Pankaj i m also keen to know the name of the movie that led to your Sokomania.
A lot of ink has been spilled on discussing the merits or demerits of Oldboy. It changed my life and perhaps I should do a post on the emotional impact of Oldboy. Leave aside the excellence in storytelling and film making. The story alone changed me and gave me so many insights into Korean society.
thanks krysh.
Dabba, hi..so many people have spilt their guts about Oldboy and I just cant figure out why…
For some reason that film did not resonate with me on an emotional level at all. Sure it was stylistically engaging but I found it too cold and frigid to really pull me in. I guess I’m not a big fan of ‘intellectual masturbation’. Or maybe I just need to watch it one more time…and then get back to you. But in general I’m more into American,Latin and Indian cinema (the cream of it, of course)Asian films seem to be spiritually barren to me, and lack the human touch..with some notable exceptions of course…
Viczee,
that is the beauty of art. it affects different people differently. you can’t convince yourself to like a film because then it becomes pretentious. Liking something for the sake of liking it. There is not one movie by Goddard or Fellini or any of the “masters” that I like or has affected me.
When i watched Oldboy, i did not know a single thing about the movie. Nor had i read a review. The only thing I knew was that it was in Korean. And while it was stylistically engaging, that did nothing for me. It was the emotional impact of the story that affected me. Wait for my post.
I’m looking forward to it Dabba…and speaking of the ‘masters’, I dont know if you checked out the link I sent yesterday…very interesting and funny article that appeared in the Guardian, demolishes a
few myths…:)>- do take a look…
http://film.guardian.co.uk/patterson/story/0,,2125669,00.html
Dabba you sound like my friend Neil. He went crazy after watching OLDBOY. He started learning Korean. I lived in Koreatown & Korean Food happens to be my fav food. So we would go every night to a Korean rest & he would practice his Oldboy korean. There was a time when Oldboy played nonstop for a whole week in my appt. Almost 13 people saw it atleast once.
But SYMPATHY FOR Mr VENGANCE is the one for me. Maybe because I saw OLDBOY with so much hype & expectations attached to it. But still OLDBOY is a masterpiece. But SYMPATHY moved me. Every frame in that film is magic. Kang-ho Song is right now my fav actor. Esp after watching my second fav Korean film Salinui chueok(Memodies of a Murder). I agree with Dabba on Koreans taking the edge over Japanese right now. But then I haven’t seen much of the stuff that Japan is famous for – gore & anime. I’m not into both.
Yeah Dabba most of my Japanese friends are not that impressed by Miike either. Infact they don’t like most of these guys who are more famous wordwide. I love his AUDITION. But his segment THE BOX in THREE EXTREMES is my least fav. Park Chanwook kicked ass with his CUT in that. Infact that movie is the best example of why Korean Cinema is playing in a diff universe. They are getting amazing style with philosophy & soul perfectly right. I have not seen such an amazing balance in any kind of cinema. Its hard to have so much style yet be so deep.
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Last Film – Manchurian Candidate(8/10)
Music – www.pandora.com
Pankaj have you seen any of NAGISA OSHIMA’s work? Esp In the Realm of the Senses?
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Last Film – Manchurian Candidate(8/10)
Music – www.pandora.com
Dabba, like Vickzee and Mainak I have never been a huge fan of OldBoy though I do like it a lot. Infact I was hoping that that this wasn’t the reason for ur SoKo mania. Alas. I have always been amazed by the huge popularity of OldBoy. For me Park Chan Wook’s best movie is “Sympathy for Lady Vengeance”,his last of the trilogy, and among his earlier work – Joint Securuty Area. My fav Korean director remains Kim ki Dook along with Hang Sans-soo and Lee Chang-dong. My cult Korean fav “Nowhere to Hide”
Vickzee, why would u call Asian cinema spritually barren. It’s as spiritual as`any cinema, especially Jap and Hong Kong ones.
Mainak, though I have been desperately trying to get hold of Nagisa Oshima’s work, it’s been tough here in India. Unlike you lucky guys out there in the US, the only option for me is to order from Amazon with huge shipping charges or to request my best mate in NYC.
I dont know Pankaj, I can’t put my finger on it…when I say Asian, I mean Jap,Chinese,Korean etc…that’s the term we use in the U.S..I guess you guys would say Oriental.But maybe ’spiritually barren’ wasn’t the right term to use after all…!It’s just that the earlier Jap cinema and some of the newer Korean stuff seems so…dry,cold and too obsessed with itself, its own private universe to really resonate with the world outside…of course people like Wong Kar Wai dont fit into that paradigm..the HK guys are definitely a livelier bunch, but that’s because of the Asians, the Chinese have always been mother civilization.The Koreans and Japanese took the philosophical and artistic sensibilities,bushido,discipline,social hierarchies et al but unfortunately in isolation from the whole…which made them dismiss emotions and treat humanity almost like a necessary evil.In the swords of that great Vulcan Spock -’Logic is only the first step on the road to Wisdom’, which he realizes after decades of dismissing emotions as secondary.
But then again that’s the classical view, all that is bound to change, and in fact is changing in this overlapping world we inhabit nowadays..
I havent seem ‘In the Realm… but will soon. Am currently watching ‘Stalker’ by Tarkovsy…very,very tripped out and ‘psychedelic’ Pankaj!
Viczee, one thing that I do agree is the extent to which Japan and Korean cultures have borrowed from China but I really won’t agree with your “dry-cold” part of the statement. But then you love Jodorowsky. For me his films are too surrealist and avante garde. Recently bought “fando y lis” and “holy mountain” but everytime I try sitting through them I switch off. one of these days for sure.
Psychedelic??.. Yeah!!!:d watched tarkovsky’s mirror recently. trippy
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“I am categorically against entertainment in the cinema; it is as degrading for the author as it is for the audience,” – Tarkovsky
Mainak,
Kang-ho Song is a delight to watch and very versatile. If you haven’t watched The Host (Godzilla meets Little Miss Sunshine), do it soon. Thorughly entertaining. Also, his “The show must go on”. This was just released this year so don’t know if you’ll be able to watch it yet. both movies are fantastic as is his performance in all movies. Did you watch Zodiac? I felt that they were trying to do a Memories of Murder, but couldn’t quite get it right. If you are in NY, we should go to k-town for some sang yap sal and rumyun one of these days.
Pankaj,
I’ll make you a deal. I come to India (Mumbai and Chennai usually but also Delhi sometimes) every 1.5 years. I was there is March this year. I’ll bring hard to get movies in India when i come for you and other PFCers to watch. Are you in Mumbai?
And, i agree with your alas sentiment. Hype is the surest way to blunt a movie’s impact.
If you guys can believe it, I don’t watch TV, don’t read the news and don’t read reviews.
Dabba, as I said earlier you are really the man^:)^Though there is a lot happening right now and I really don’t know what I would be up to when u are here, but it would really be a pleasure to catch up. And no, considering the time you spend watching all the stuff that you watch, I am not at all surprised with your last statement.
Gawd, it really makes me jealous when I see you PFCers in the US and Bombay meeting and hitting it off ah so often.
Mainak, what is it with IT and soon-to-be-filmmakers. High time someone wrote a post on this soon.:-?
I’m not in IT :-?
Dabba, I want to see those movies too!! please keep me posted.
no you are not dabba. but there are loads. ask mainak and Oz. And BTW I really loved Zodiac. Could be because I’ma hardcore Fincher fan.
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last watched – Intermission (4/5)
listening – best of velvet underground
Pankaj I love the whole ‘Propoganda’ gang (they all started out at Propoganda Films making commercials and music videos) – Spike Jonze,Charlie Kaufman,David Fincher,Michel Ghondry.Absolutely love ‘Adaptation’, ‘Eternal Sunshine…,’Fight Club etc..
Tarsem Singh seems to be the new entrant to this clique – his new film ‘The Fall’ was EP’d by Fincher and Jonze.
i was wondering what happened to Tarsem. “The cell” had some of the most stunning images i have seen and it seemed to take so long to get him to make another film. viczee, any insights on that?
That “gang” is united in their quirky sensibilities and technical prowess and ofcourse their love for Bjork. Eternal Sunshine was perhaps the only other movie in recent times that moved me so much and made me not want the movie to end.
I ran into Gondry in NY. He was at a video store and I struck up a brief conversation with him. This was before Science of Sleep had beeen released and I was asking him about that and working with Kaufman. No real dirt or insight (hello! crazy stalker dude talking to me at a video store) and then his model girlfriend came by and I slinked away.
suchita, before i come to india next time, i’ll take requests.
‘The Cell’ unfortunately didn’t catch fire at the box office, also he was accused of visual plagiarism by a couple of French directors (justified or not, I don’t know)…so he stuck to commercials for a while… and he’s back with ‘The Fall’ which I saw recently…also visually stunning and deeply surreal (major chunks shot in Rajasthan) but hasn’t yet found a U.S theatrical distributor. His sensibilities are a bit too alien for the American mind…definitely an acquired taste.Even though it was EP’d by the Propoganda boys, it was financed by a rich NRI.
I’m not sure about using the word ‘plagiarism’ but I definitely saw a lot of visual parallels with Ron Fricke’s absofuckinlutely incredible,non-narrative 70mm feature ‘Baraka’…you simply must watch this,preferably on a big screen, if you haven’t already….
I guess all’s fair in love and war and filmmaking.. eh, Dabba?
Summit is distributing The Fall worldwide. You’re right, he is an acquired taste, but like good whiskey, once you’ve acquired it, you can’t let go. The Fall for me was mind-boggling.
Well, pleeease see Baraka, that’s something I tell everyone I meet, its the only way I can let people have a glimpse into the raging universe in my mind, through that film, its so freakin good! My bible,my koran,my gita….that good. My next post will be on Baraka, I promise.
Did you read my previous one V?
All’s fair Vic.The Cell really hurt from bad writing i think. Eager to catch The Fall and Baraka. On the other thread regarding writers in India vs US, easily screenwriters in Hollywood command more respect (a lot more) and also more money, but they are still the red-headed step children of the movie world.
Gary Oldman does not read screenplays.
Thought you may like to know – Ichikawa’s 1976 Murder of the Inugami Clan was touched up/modernized by him in 2006 and was a major event in Japan.
North American premiere of the above on Wednesday in NYC and I’ll be out of town! Shit. The travesty of it all…
Yeah Baraka is great! Visually mesmerizing, though I must admit I have never seen it on print, only on DVD. I can only imagine what it would be like on 70mm. Not sure if can draw the visual parallels you are talking about but am certainly interested in knowing more. When The Fall releases, you should do a post on a visual comparison with Baraka.
I have always thought Baraka being inspired from “Koyaanisqatsi”, where director Ron Fricke served as DP and editor. BTW I recently saw “Visions of Light”, a must-see for any film student.
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last watched – better luck tomorrow – 4/5
all about lily chou chou – 4/5
listening – United Abominations (Megadeth) – 3/5
a little late to the discussion, but thanks for all the movie suggestions guys.. am a big horror fan otherwise, and albeit a newcomer to asian and J-horror, from what little i’ve seen, i loooove it! horror the only way it was meant to be.. with gore aplenty! it’s where the american horror films just don’t cut it. will be watching miike’s “audition” and “one missed call” next week.. can’t wait!
I watched One Missed Call last weekend. In the middle of the night. Basic preface is about a ghost attacking people through a missed call and foretelling their death through a voicemail. And there’s a scene in which this girl is staring at her phone, and my fucking phone rings!!!!! Right at that moment. And the caller hangs up and my phone says 1 missed call. I got so shit scared I turned everything off and went to sleep.
=)) vijay, i find your story even more hilarious bc i can actually picture you reacting the way you did when we watched “the descent”.. speaking of which, it’s one of the better horror flicks i’ve ever seen.. i just put the director, neil marshall’s “dog soldiers” on my netflix q.. has anyone seen that?
Saale Decent deadly movie tha! Phat gayi! I love watching scary movies, but I’m also easily scared. Fuck even that RGV zombie movie with Sush and the Satya dude scared me.
Vastu Shastra.
Dog soldiers was a guilty pleasure. Had some good scares to it but ending didn’t do it for me. I think the hardest pasrt of a good horror flick is delivering on the premise and having a killer climax. Literally. I think Descent did a hgood job of this.
Another movie along the lines of Dog Soldiers is the British “Severance”. Decent idea, 3 laughs and two scares. Nothing more.
Striker, watch Slither if you haven’t already. Horror comedy at its best. Delivers on the spooks and laughs. Equally.
awesome.. will add that as well.. thx dabba.. another one along the horror-comedy lines is bubba ho-tep.. they don’t call bruce campbell king of B-movies for nothing!
dabba, since you’re in NY.. if you’re not doing anything on thursday evening.. come out for the screening of this movie.. myself and ravptor [another PFC author] will be there..
http://brownscapeprod.com/July19.html
the trailer of my upcoming film “browntown” will also be premiered at this screening.. http://browntownthemovie.com/
Bubba Ho Tep? Isn’t that the movie you were watching when we were in Oz’s house? Kaisa kaisa pichar dekhta hai???
i’ll add bubba ho tep to my list. I will be out of town on thursday but will be back for the weekend. if you and ravptor wanna catch a movie and drink…i’m all up for that.
will check out ur film on myspace.
vijay, yup.. that’s the one.. shuru se baith ke dekh.. fultoo timepass picture hai!
dabba, unfortunately won’t be sticking around for the weekend, so next time.. NY trips for me are plentiful however, so no worries.. definitely soon. in the meantime, if you’re coming down to DC, do drop a line.