Why are Japanese films so terrible?

Were the Gamera films Japanese or Korean?

I dunno, but it's kinda irrelevant, considering the universality of their wonderful theme song:

You are groovy Gamera
groovy, groovy Gamera

Betcha that Rock concert to stop pollution would've worked if they'd played that!

is anyone familiar with Terayama's cinematic output?
(Emperor Tomatoketchup, where children rule the world and have grown ups as there slaves, and Throw away your books, go out into the streets! which is like a japanese Brecht protest film)

Nothing like eating cornflakes and watching a blind masseuse take out a dozen people in a few seconds with a katana hidden in a cane.

Yes! Mizoguchi is less known than he should be. Other good films of his are "Sisters of the Gion", "The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums", "Women of the Night", "Miss Oyû", "Tales of Ugetsu", "Gion Festival Music", "The Woman of Rumour" and "The Tale of the Crucified Lovers".

Toky Decadence
Tetsuo
Tampopo
Akira
Audition

Spirited Away hasn't had its official release in Belgium. Waiting.

Jan

Search: Ugetsu, Onibaba, Kwaidan, Audition, DeadorAlive, Battle Royale, Tetsuo, Tokyo Fist, Electric Dragon 80000, Angel Dust, Ringu, Blind Beast, Tokyo Drifter, Sonatine, Hana-bi, Afterlife, Hole in the Sky, In the Realm of the Senses, Tampopo, Throne of Blood, Bullet Ballet, Uzumaki, and random Godzilla films i liked as a child.

there should be more Kurosawa, Miyazaki and Ozu and stuff but they somehow don't fall as much into my "canon". maybe i am just being contrarian.

Still must see: Dark Water, Love & Pop, Gemini, Happiness of the Katakuris, A Snake of June, Juon, Eureka, Cure, Tokyo Decadence, Branded to Kill

Akira Kurosawa is one of the greatest filmmakers of all time! The 'Baby Cart' series are AMAZING! The Godzilla films from the 60s (especially) are great fun with tremendous scope photography and set design and modern Japanese cinema has belched out such instant classics as 'Audition', 'Tokyo Fist', 'Uzumaki', 'Hypnosis' and 'Dark Water'. I saw 'Inugami' last week and it has style for sale! Man, they know how to make a film look good in Japan.

Kill this thread. I mean, whatever next - Hong Kong cinema, a load of shit or wot???!!!???!!!

Note for people who haven't seen Afterlife, the Ritzy is showing as its world cinema matinee all week from Friday. 1-ish I think, £3 a pop. I am ver ver tempted to go see again.

"bright future" was pretty good.

because we were yammering about stuff and it was really, really gross.

although i guess the dancing is foreshadowed a few times

that film left me pretty cold overall

anyone for Hiroshi Teshigahara?

http://www.bfi.org.uk/showing/nft/teshigahara/calendar/index.php

Will def see 'rikyu' the following week.

I found UB at Borders this weekend, but haven't had a chance to watch it.

(ooh, my preordered Zen and Sword box has been dispatched, 10 days ahead of release)

went to the Samurai exhibition at the British Museum (easter holidays, too many kids. too many people in general) and they were showing the new Shogun and the new Last Samurai thing (netflix apparently) and not much else in the way of films. but there was a tiny screen later on that was showing, of all things, both versions of 13 Assassins, which is not the most obvious (i don't remember kurosawa or mifune being mentioned at all, but i must be wrong)

this was coincidentally the day the new Arrow box of 13 Assassins, The Great Killing, 11 Samurai. they are all very similar, same antagonist for the first and last even (ok, different name, same initials, still the shogun's brother). and the fighting is so (realistically) scrappy. but nice upgrade from my ntsc video copy of 13A.

the commentaries for those have put me on a 47 Ronin jag. the 1958 Daiei doesn't appear to be in print anywhere but i've watched the 4 i have (Ako Castle rewatch tonight). it's nice how similar those are - you can track the same character across the different films by their mon. slightly annoyed that the 1941 Mizoguchi version has the actual raid offscreen. it was 3 and 3/4 hours long and they skipped the big action scene...

Wandering Ginza Butterly and Bushido disks have just turned up. i think that's the last of the 11 things i was particularly looking forward to.

that netflix thing apparently Last Samurai Standing which is a modern japanese jidaigeki. maybe it'll get a dvd release. i still occasionally look for Shogun, but it's never there.

Shogun is Disney + in the UK.

slightly annoyed that the 1941 Mizoguchi version has the actual raid offscreen.

When I went through Mizoguchi's entire (sound-era) filmography recently that is the one movie I skipped as it looked too boring. I'm kind of bemused by the amount of adaptations of this story -- I've seen the Inagaki film and wasn't thrilled by it despite the star-filled cast.

That 1958 version can be streamed at jp-films should you be interested in watching that way.

I rewatched Street of Shame just last night, such a great movie.

the 1958 version is showing at the japanese embassy this month incidentally

https://www.uk.emb-japan.go.jp/JAPANUKEvent//event/2026/202604/12-JHL-TheLoyal47Ronin.html

(the timing of that is pretty much perfect, the location is fine (walkable), the thought of sitting and watching a film for early three hours WITH PEOPLE means it'll never happen)

loved the Mizoguchi 47 Ronin when I saw it, but then I'm a sucker for slow films with men on their knees for hours wracked with Feelings about Honour and Shame
also funny that it was commissioned as wartime propaganda about loyalty and sacrifice, yet underneath it's really a tragedy about the pointlessness cruelty that fealty demands

> I'm kind of bemused by the amount of adaptations of this story

it's hard to think of an English equivalent (ie real life event filmed endlessly). in a completely different vein, maybe the ripper murders? d-day landings?

The Fall Of Ako Castle is a very watchable version - hits all the same plot points, has good fighting.

https://www.radiancefilms.co.uk/products/the-inugami-family-le

Kon Ichikawa's film of the Kindaichi detective movels. this is relevant to at least a couple of my interests

(annoyingly it's only available as dual blu ray and 4k and £7 more than usual. maybe i will wait)

I read that book, it was pretty terrific. I’m going to have to track this down.

oh, that's not true - i had a saragossa manuscript page open at the same time and that's BR+4K, the inugami family is the usual £18 for the LE

he's done a few adaptations, none available outside of japan until now. but this makes a lot of sense given the (relative) popularity of the books (which you can see by the flood of other japanese detective stories that are being released)

Director Kon Ichikawa made six films about Kindaichi, starring Koji Ishizaka:

The Inugami Family (1976)
Akuma no temari-uta (1977)
Gokumon-to (1977)
Queen Bee (1978)
The House of Hanging on Hospital Slope (1979)
The Inugamis (2006)

I had no idea Ichikawa was making films into the 2000s, given that his first was in 1947 that's an almost 60 year directorial career, pretty amazing