Your favorite Asian movies

polkfarmboy

I will admit that ever since I found an Asian movie section with the tartan extreem collection at my local I have been hooked. My favorite was horror as me and the wife would watch them. The movies were more scarey because the culture is unkown so you dont know what to expect compaired to a western typical run of the mill horror.

Since them my tastes have changed beyond a simple fright and I watch a very wide variety of the Asian cinema. I really love tthe rich deep character development these movies have and most are way better than any western movie could ever achive as the culture is steeped in confusionism and it carries across onto the screen,

I wonder if any of you guys love asian cinema and what your favorite movie is or if you have a favorite director or actor?

cnh

Asian covers a HUGE range. I'm more of a classics man, Kurosawa, Ozu, Mizoguchi, Oshima, Kobayashi (Masaki, not the hot dog guy!), etc. in Japan. And, currently, you can't do much better than the works of Zhang Yimou in China, though Chen Kaige (who I've met and spent some time with) also has a few interesting films! Having listed these, I suspect that they would NOT be your cup of tea. The above are all directors in case there is any doubt.

I think, however, that you would be better served by an acquaintance of mine who teaches Japanese Film at the U. of Michigan. That boy has seen it all and is familiar with ALL the genres from Anime to serious drama! He has a book or two out that might be of some help-although probably unreadable because he's a "sucker" for French Postmodernism. I'll see if I can dig up the title because my mind is hurtling towards Alzheimer's-kinda waiting to be saved by Big Pharma, but they'll probably "poison" me first! lol

polkfarmboy

Cnh I am a huge fan of the classics too and my favorite was the lone wolf and cub series as well as Zatoichi the blind swordsman. Infact I learned that shintaro katzu and tomisaburu (shogun assasin)wakayama were both brothers in real life. Akira kurosawa did a movie called rashimon and it was supposed to be played by shintaro katzu but he was such a big star from the zatoichi series that he had all these understudie film students with him that mr kurosawa kicked him off the set and fired him so they got a different guy to play him.

I love mike takeshki in all his yakuza movies and also sonny chiba as his movies were raw! But I am familiar with all the classic japanese cinema too and there is tons of hollywood movies that have remade these. Bruce willis in last man standing was a classic remake of akira's Yojimbo. Also there was this tales from the cript one about a guy who is nearly eaten by a gargoyle and is set free as long as he never speaks of the incident or what he saw. I noticed this when I watched the movie kwaidan from the name maski you mentioned above.

polkfarmboy

It seems insulting that I dont give a shoutout to mieko kaji as I was listening to her new album she has out. To those who dont know she was the inspiration for kill bill from the lady snowblood. I have pretty much seen everyone of her movies as shes smoking hot and I fall in love with that girls eyes in every scene. From her movies it got me into many of the pinku movies from the kinda glory days of the violence sexploitation movies. Super stylish and fun to watch.https://youtu.be/7aar9H3yLhs

mrbiron

Asian movies eh.....Big Trouble in Little China! Jack Burton really embraces the culture like none other.

I've seen a couple of horror movies and you are right, they hit far deeper than their American counterparts who crank out "rinse and repeat" horror movies on the reg.

There is no doubt that the artistic direction of movies like Crouching Tiger and One are far beyond anything you see in the US. We just mask sub par with a few explosions and gratuitous b00b shots to over compensate for a crap movie.

polkfarmboy

If anyone wants to nmae some type of movie they have a preferance to I can have you a list to ones that will make you ball up in tears or warm your soul with humanity or make you laugh hard or scare the crp out ya.

afterburnt

I don't know about that stuff but I love Bollywood
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIJffKDOpAE

nguyendot

All my home movies are Asian.

polkfarmboy

nguyendot wrote: »

All my home movies are Asian.

I will watch any movie with Anthony Wong Chau-Sang as hes one of the greatest actors in china next would be Donnie Yen followed by andy lau.

nguyendot

Just watched IP Man 3 last night. It was a terrible acting job, but the movie was OK. Andy Lau is the name of my best friend in high school. He's got the biggest sushi restaurant chain here. Not same guy though.

Polkie2009

I enjoyed that movie Memoirs of a Geisha that came out years ago.

polkfarmboy

I was reading an aricle about a fight that broke out during the screening of ip man 3. Some guy went to watch the movie and apparently his wife showed up at the flick with anpther man lol. The guy waited till the movie was over and then attacked the man and there is lota of pictures and videos on the chinese youtube.

There is a donnie yen movie called Dragon that is just great and a super funny action packed one called ' the iceman ' they are golden!

teekay0007

mrbiron wrote: »

Asian movies eh.....Big Trouble in Little China! Jack Burton really embraces the culture like none other.

You can say that again! Wasn't there a stunning green-eyed lady in that movie that PFB could fall in love with in every scene?

mrbiron wrote: »

We just mask sub par with a few explosions and gratuitous b00b shots to over compensate for a crap movie.

In my culture, we find 15-20% gratuity acceptable!

polkfarmboy

Polkie2009 wrote: »

I enjoyed that movie Memoirs of a Geisha that came out years ago.

There is a movie about a geisha called Imprint and it was frieky scary horror, its imprinted on my mind.

polkfarmboy

teekay0007 wrote: »

mrbiron wrote: »

Asian movies eh.....Big Trouble in Little China! Jack Burton really embraces the culture like none other.

You can say that again! Wasn't there a stunning green-eyed lady in that movie that PFB could fall in love with in every scene?

mrbiron wrote: »

We just mask sub par with a few explosions and gratuitous b00b shots to over compensate for a crap movie.

In my culture, we find 15-20% gratuity acceptable!

Your talking about her from sexin the city? Not a very talented layerd actress like mieko kaji, Meiko can portray a whole entire scene and speak a 1000 words with just one glimpse. That other actress kim kantrel? Or something is not even in the same league.

trj

I have watched a lot of asian horror movies, but to name a few. The grudge, shutter, the ring comes to mind. All of them has been re-made in English, but the originals are spooky.
Only thing I don't like is having to read subtitles. I have been out of the game for sometime though. I don't know what kind of new asian movies are coming out.
I still watch shaolin soccer, kung fu hustle when I want to laugh a little and when I am in mood for proper cinematographic experience red cliff, war of arrows are the movies I can watch over and over again.

polkfarmboy

trj wrote: »

I have watched a lot of asian horror movies, but to name a few. The grudge, shutter, the ring comes to mind. All of them has been re-made in English, but the originals are spooky.
Only thing I don't like is having to read subtitles. I have been out of the game for sometime though. I don't know what kind of new asian movies are coming out.
I still watch shaolin soccer, kung fu hustle when I want to laugh a little and when I am in mood for proper cinematographic experience red cliff, war of arrows are the movies I can watch over and over again.

Watch the iceman with Donnie yen its awesome and a throwback to old school meets new stuff. Basically they are these super strong chi warrior super human kung fu masters from way back in like the ming dynasty and get frozen in the ice. They basicaly get thawed out and come back but hundreds of years have passed and they are walking around in modern society and are out of the loop big time. Its funny and has tons of action to keep you glued to the screen.

One of the greatest is detective dee and the phantom flame with Andy lau. This movie has the most expensive scenes ever created and its a tsu hark type of sherlock holmes. There was more extras in the scenes than any other movie before it. There was a statue they had to make for one of the scenes and alone just for that it cost over 12 million!

polkfarmboy

War of arrows was a korean movie and I loved it! Same with red cliff into the two part extended version.

cnh

Dxxm! If I didn't know any better, I'd say you've been on some heavy dose of Adderall of late? Limitless, anyone! How did you manage to refine your "prose" and also transform into an interesting conversationalist in such a short time? Just a year ago we were being treated to sentences from the primer Dick and Jane (and even those had spelling and grammar errors?). lol Are you even the "same" person? Or is there a "ghost" writer?

trj

polkfarmboy wrote: »

War of arrows was a korean movie and I loved it! Same with red cliff into the two part extended version.

I need sub titles for Korean too. Speaking 5 languages has filled up my quota of languages. I cant get any more languages in my head. I tried.

But yes, those two movies are my go to movies when I want to watch a good foreign movie.

voltz

here a funny, feel good, but kind of sad movie that is a excellent watch.

lightman1

nguyendot wrote: »

All my home movies are Asian.

Too damn funny!

Polkie2009

Just saw House of Flying Daggers on SD tv channel. Wow, what a great movie, bet it looks and sounds fantastic on Blu ray! Amazing scenery , definitely a must own.

mrbigbluelight

polkfarmboy wrote: »

Cnh I am a huge fan of the classics too and my favorite was the lone wolf and cub series as well as Zatoichi the blind swordsman.

The Lone Wolf with Cub is definitely on my Top 5 list. Unfortunately, it can't be found/located on YouTube (other than "Trailers"), but it is great.

Kind of funny/spooky PFB, that this thread came up. A couple of weeks ago, I spent some time searching and downloading martial arts flicks off of YouTube . Our cable had gone out (thanks Charter), the DIL was getting a little perturbed with me getting the grandkids wound up, so I had to find something productive to do.
A little bit of my d/l's:



Regarding subtitles, I prefer the movies in their original language with English subtitles. Too often, IMO, a dubbed movie winds up sounding like it was dubbed by the ghost of Edward G. Robinson. "Yeeeeah, muggsy Zatoichi, you're the dirty rat that killed my brother".
I personally feel that you get a little more of the flavor of the movie just from the inflections from an actor's voice, even if you don't understand a word.

Good stuff.

ledhed

I haven't watched a ton of Asian cinema be here are my faves:
Infernal Affairs (The Departed was a remake of this)
Yojimbo
The Raid
Attack the Gas Station

voltz

here another one for ya!

Il mare = the american remake was Lake house with Sondra Bullock
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0282599/

voltz

or Bangkok Dangerous! = not the one with Nicolas Cage either..

polkfarmboy

Thanks for that one Voltz! I suggest you chexkout Moss if you like strange and mysterious!

Attack the gas station one and two are really fun korean movies!

Mr blu I am with you 100%, you need to have subs to get the emotion from the characters.

If you want some main stream movies to ease you in then these two are awesome. Action movie to check out is 'The man from nowhere' and the other is ' I saw the devil' Those are two blockbuster box office smashes in Korea and can be found on netflix.

polkfarmboy

I loved both versions of that movie Voltz. Did any of you guys ever get to see the movie Gantz 1 and 2? Netflix has those on bluray and its stunning as are all the big live action movie manga adaptations. Those are more akin to Marvel action movies released here.

Polkie2009

Saw The Magnificent Seven on tv the other night, classic 60's western patterned from the Japanese movie Kurosawa"s Seven Samurai correct? What a masterpiece. PFB, you mentioned I.P. Man, I need to check this series of movies out, have heard they are incredible in HT.

mrbigbluelight

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions.

The Donnie Yen movie PFB mentioned, "Dragon" (full title "Rise of the Sea Dragon") has an official trailer on YouTube,

.......WOW . Just ...... WOW !!

The full movie isn't there, but ...... WOW.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doHAaothY70&list=PLaDpYsKblgDRpDSu_SP2CMUYmSn7Rm7Uk&index=3