Any other Asian film fans?

[pigmode]

List some of your favorites. Brief descriptions would be helpful.

[Claus]

All BRUCE LEE movies!!!

[Lord Hawthorne]

One Japanese film I really liked was "Ugetsu".

[soundboy]

Big fan of comedies by the Hui Brothers (known as Mr. Boo in Japanese) and the movies from the Cinema City studio, such as the "A Better Tomorrow" series and the "Aces Go Places" series, which broke the mold of Hong Kong action films.

[Ken_McAlinden]

Akira Kurosawa's "Ikiru" is one of my three favorite films of all time. On a less serious note, though, I'm also a sucker for a lot of the 80s-early 90s Hong Kong Jackie Chan films, especially when he is teamed with Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao.

Regards,

[charlie W]

"Ran" by Kurosawa. Ran is Shakespeare's "King Lear" reset in feudal Japan and done extremely well. I like some of John Woo's works from the mid-80's like "Hard Boiled" and "The Killer", both of which are violent crime dramas about loner cops featuring Chow Yun Fat of "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon"(another favorite. "The Killer" is ripe for a Hollywood make-over as a single cop hunts down a remorseful mob assassin while trying to help a young singer he accidently blinded on his last hit.

[Ken_McAlinden]

another favorite. "The Killer" is ripe for a Hollywood make-over as a single cop hunts down a remorseful mob assassin while trying to help a young singer he accidently blinded on his last hit.It's kind of like "Magnificent Obsession" as reimagined by Martin Scorsese, Jean-Pierre Melville, and 1,000 stuntmen. :)

Regards,

[soundboy]

The Best 100 Chinese Motion Pictures (http://www.monkeypeaches.com/050316A.html) as selected by the Hong Kong Film Awards.

[Jimbo]

Personally, I'm partial to Yojimbo. Something about that title... :winkgrin:

[Lord Hawthorne]

Personally, I'm partial to Yojimbo. Something about that title... :winkgrin:
Yo!

[ZIPGUN99]

"Chung King Express" is a fave of mine, if you are a fan of the song "California Dreaming" you'll be right there. Hmmm, no "Hero," too recent?

Also recent, "Infernal Affairs," four stars from this film fan.

[charlie W]

no "Hero," too recent?
I saw "Hero" in the theater and I didn't like it. Don't know why but it didn't entertain me.

[pigmode]

Yeah, Kurosawa, Mizoguchi, Wong Kar Kai, Zhang Yimou, Bruce Lee! I have all but a few Kuro's, either on DVD or VHS, and have a pretty good collection of Mizoguchi's, including Ugetsu. I could go on and on. Zhang Yimou did Hero (thought it was great) and House of Flying Daggers, but made his name on such films as Ju Dou, Raise the Red Lantern, and To Live.

Here are a few recommendations:

- The Scent of Green Papaya: a beautiful film, one of my absolute all time favorites.

- Last Life In The Universe: a Thai film with Tadanobu Asano (Ichi the Killer, Zatoichi 2003) as lead actor. Very different, a neat experience. Takashi Miike makes a cameo appearance.

- Ong Bak: Sometimes some mindless action can be a good thing, and Tony Jaa delivers. Tony Jaa is baaad. A must for muay thai fans.

I'm a cinema buff, and have a good collection of euro titles as well. At least half of my collection is subtitled.

[FredCamp]

I just saw Battle Royal last night. Anyone else seen this one?

[RexKramer]

I just saw Battle Royal last night. Anyone else seen this one?

I really liked it, but I think it's a case where a movie was over-hyped. Brutal flick, not
for those who hate violence against children.

I do like well-done Japanese Horror, Ju-on being the creepiest film I've ever seen, but its
plot got far to repetitive. I feel the best mix of horror and story out of the recent
Japanese horror boom is "Don't Look Up" (Ghost Actress) by Nakata.

Outside of horror, I love Woo's "The Killer" and "Hard Boiled" and was fortunate enough
to pick up Criterion releases while they were out. Takashi Miike's my current favorite,
but you have to be selective because there are some clunkers. "Audition," "Visitor Q",
and "Gozu" are great but again, aren't for everyone. The opening and final scenes of
"Dead or Alive" (the first one) are among the most entertaining in cinema history, there's
just an overwrought movie in between speckled by some outrageous moments. Or
perhaps it's all a parody of John Woo's melodrama?

Mark

[Rich Malloy]

I'm really getting into some of Miike's earlier films, particularly "Ley Lines" and "The Bird People In China". "Audition" remains his masterpiece, IMO, and "Visitor Q" is probably his most wildly successful experiment, but there's something about those early, more elegiac films that I really like.

On a completely different note, I think Edward Wang's "Yi Yi" (aka "A One and A Two") remains one of the finest films of the 90s (also his "A Brighter Summer Day"). It's a very affecting family drama that's also an incredible window into the life of what seems to be an average, middle-class Taipei family. Touching, fascinating, brilliantly directed. Unfortunately, this film was barely released in theaters here and the North American DVD is horrible. Fortunately, however, there's an excellent Starmax DVD that happens to be R0 and NTSC... highly recommended.

If you liked "Oldboy", and want to check out some other outrageous and outrageously good recent Korean cinema, put your eyes on "Save the Green Planet", easily the kookiest sci-fi/horror/comedy/satire about aliens invading the earth (or maybe not?) I've seen since, well... I don't know if I've seen anything quite like it.

And, of course, Wong Kar Wai. The second story of "Chungking Express" is like a favorite record, and I've been known to watch it on successive days!

I guess most folks in this thread are somewhat familiar with the Japanese masters (Kurosawa, Ozu, Mizoguchi), but you may not have seen much Kon Ichikawa. There was a traveling retrospective of his films a couple of years ago that came through the Boston MFA, and I'd especially recommend "An Actor's Revenge", "The Makioka Sisters", "Fire on the Plain" and "The Burmese Harp", if you get a chance to see them!

[The Wanderer]

"Raise The Red Lantern" is classic.
Awaiting the American version of "Janghwa & Hongryeon, A Tale of Two Sisters".
A big fan of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", "The Ring" and "The Grudge".