Why are Japanese films so terrible?

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.

Suicide Circle/Club is genius, yes - but is it any better than Uzumaki? I think not, although for non-horror material Wild Zero is about as good as it gets.

Someone on this thread might know... I've managed to pick up a fantran of the second Ringu TV series (Saishuushou/'The Final Chapter') - has anyone ever seen a subbed version of either the first (Ring: Kanzenban, admittedly only a one-off rather than a series) or third series (Rasen: The Series)?

not sure those are easily available in uk. happy to be contradicted.

Not in physical edition or streaming no, thus my buying the box in Paris - I think they played at the BFI semi recently though, judging by letterboxd reviews. At any rate you could always learn French like a civiliaed person pirate them.

Battles Without Honour Or Humanity felt impossible to watch without an accompanying spreadsheet.

i need to transcribe that list of japanese atomic bomb films, see if i can dig a few more up.

i looked online and found this howler
https://katakurifilms.com/8-of-the-best-japanese-films-about-the-atomic-bomb/
(fireflies is about the firebombing of kobe, nothing atomic about it)

I watched four of those Tanaka films recently and yeah they were all good. Some great cinematography and mise en scene at times... she'd clearly learned some things from working with Mizoguchi.

watched Osaka Elegy just now. it's well regarded but probably one for the heads.

anyway, in one bit they go to the theatre to see Banraku, the classic Japanese puppet plays. i can't remember seeing this in any other film. are there any others?

Takeshi Kitano's Dolls:

The first story is the one on which the film centers. The film leads into it by opening with a performance of Bunraku theatre, and closes with a shot of dolls from the same. The performance is that of "The Courier for Hell" by Chikamatsu Monzaemon, and it alludes to themes that reappear later in the film. Because the rest of the film itself (as Kitano himself has said) can be treated as Bunraku in film form, the film is quite symbolic.

(imdb lists 4, Dolls and Oharu and something Western. i don't remember the bit in Oharu and haven't seen Dolls)

((also puzzled by the fact 'hair-bun' is a thing people tag movies with))

I saw The Courier for Hell when I visited the Bunraku theatre in Osaka, it was heartbreaking!

Not a movie but Tanizaki's Some Prefer Nettles has a lot of bunraku in it iirc

I know there's some films made of bunraku performances, but I can't think of any that are part of the plot. a lot more with Noh plays etc
feel like I should mention Thunderbolt Fantasy here, a Japan/Taiwan wuxia puppet TV show created by Gen Urobuchi of Fate/Zero, Madoka Magica, Psychopass etc. fame. it's as daft as it sounds!

Shinoda’s Double Suicide uses bunraku as a narrative element iirc

a lot of the bunraku plays themselves seen to involve double suicides (based on the list of 10 or so top chikamatsu whatsisname plays i found online)

the bookseller in the film i watched last week had a bunch of double suicide titles too, i wonder if they were the same ones?

I watched A Colt Is My Passport the other day: a superb noir with a lot of western (the genre) touches including a very good Morricone-esque soundtrack

xp yeah the film is a bunraku adaptation

Colt Is My Passport very good yeah, def the highlight of that criterion Nikkatsu set