Any Asian cinema fans?
 

The BBC is starting a season about Asian cinema tonight. My flatmate/best friend is a massive fan of Asian cinema and over the past two years or so has been giving me a massive crash course.

He is a particular fan of Takeshi Kitano so I have seen a lot of his stuff. Of his things I liked Brother and Zathoichi especially. He tells me I have to see Hana-bi but I haven't yet.

Beyond that I have enjoyned a wide variety from In The Mood For Love to the original Dark Water. I particuarlly enjoyed The Bicyle Theif.

Any other Asian cinema fans with particular faveorites?

Story of Ricky

a classic.

I'll check it out.

Should have mentioned Stephen Chow films like Kung Fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer. I liked Kung Fu Hustle better than Shaolin Soccer but they are both fun.

Try out some of Lino Brocka's stuff from the 70's. Another Filipino cinematic genius is Raymond Red. His short film "Anino" won in Cannes in 2000. http://www.cinemanila.com.ph/news_redtrospective.htm

India, Philippines, and China have lots of great films to share to the world.

Crouching Tiger is just one of those nice Asian movies I've scene. :thumbsup

I am a huge fan of ichi the killer (ichi is a common nickname for the first born son of a family). Almost like anime on film, but with bucket loads of guts and blood.

Truly classic.

http://www.ichithekiller.net/


Alex

the house of zen
so close
the returner
initial d

i dig asian chicks kicking ass!

Jacky Chan movies are my favorites.

We're getting into Anime :) We're big fans of Full Metal Alchemist, and we're thinking about learning Japanese.

I like Farewell My Concubine that starred Gong Li, and Seven Samurai and rashomon by Kurosawa

Full Time Killer
Once Apon a time in China series
Fly Me To Polaris
Failan
Hard Boiled

come to mind

Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon, and all those Police Story films of Jackie Chan, are just few of my all time favorites when it comes to Asian films. :)

A few of my favorite asian movies...

Hana-Bi by Takeshi Kitano is stunningly beautiful. Slow, contemplative, yet surprising at times, I personally consider it his best film (Sonatine being a close second, or maybe Dolls).

Tokyo Monogatari by Yasujiro Ozu may well be the best drama ever made. At least, in my opinion. It's slow, introverted and extremely realistic in its depiction of the tragedies of life.

Shichinen no Samurai by Akira Kurosawa, of course, needs no introduction. It's the original action movie, and still one of the - if not the - best ever. Other great movies by Kurosawa are Ikiru (a must-see), Yojimbo, Rashomon... pretty much everything he made, actually.

Bin-jip by Kim Ki-duk is a wonderful experiment in unconventional filmmaking, and definitely worth a watch. Other good movies by him are Samaritan Girl and Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring Again.

The Killer by John Woo is one of the best Hong Kong action flicks there are, and one to watch if you haven't seen it already. Avoid the dubbed version at all costs though, it sucks.

Oldboy by Chan Wook Park is a great gritty action movie/thriller with some very unusual and some rather sick elements. Unexpectedly raw, but more balanced than his Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, which seemed somewhat forced.

Takashi Miike has tons of movies, and quite a few of those are worth watching. Over the top action/gore/weirdness is his main style, although he sometimes does completely different things. Ichi the Killer, Dead or Alive, Dead or Alive 2, Full Metal Yakuza and Audition are some movies of his I liked.

Koroshi no Rakuin by Seijun Suzuki is a gangster movie with a very specific, unusual style. I saw it about a decade ago, and although I don't remember much of the story it had some really powerful images I still remember.

Chungking Express by Wong Kar Wai is a combination of two loosely related stories, shot in such a way that they almost become urban fairytales of a sort. Absolutely beautiful (like most of his movies).

Infernal Affairs (forgot the name of the director) is somewhat of a generic action/crime movie, but the acting is done really well, and the story and shooting are good enough to make it worth watching.

Yi Yi by Edward Yang is great if you like extremely long movies with little action and a lot of contemplation on the meaning of life. I do, so I enjoyed it.

Rajio no Jikan is an extremely entertaining comedy about a rather unlikely subject. Mostly meaningless, but rather enjoyable.


Well, I could go on for a while. Lots of good stuff to be found in asian cinema.

So Close is really good.

Bangkok Dangerous - The Pang Brothers/Thailand
Versus - Ryuhei Kitamara/Japan
Time and Tide - Tsui Hark/Hong Kong
JSA (aka Joint Security Area) - Can-Wook Park/Korea

You'll love them. Trust me.

I love TOM-YUM-KUNG Thai action Movie :) By Tony JA

When my flatmate moved in he brought 400 dvds with him and about 100 of them are anime/manga. I am being educated but I don't really get much out of the ultra monster/space stuff. A few of the series that are a bit more reality based I do enjoy.


I see a trip to Japan sometime in the next five years or so. I am really nervous about it because of the language issues but I don't want to let that stop me seeing such an interesting place.

Last asian film i watched was Sympathy for ms vengeance just came out on dvd...

oldboy was great but seemed a little too far fetched... sympathy for mr. vengeance to me is the best in the trilogy...

Oldboy, Itchi the killer, Koma, A tale of two sisters, The eye, One missed call etc... there are tons of good asian movies...

Asian horror movies esp. Koreans are far more scary than those Hollywood remakes.

Kung Fu Hustle, So Close, Crouching Tiger, and more of Jacky Chan's are in my fave list of Asian movies too.

Oh by far. I wouldn't even see the Hollywood version of Dark Water.