What Japanese films you may have missed in 2011? These annual Top Ten lists, published by two renowned film magazines in Japan, are often helpful to discover some J-movies that have only been released… in Japan.
These two magazines are usually quite different. Kinema Junpo always seems to make an “academic” selection listing the most noticeable films of the year. While Eiga Geijutsu tries to promote indie-artistic films, making more daring choices. Anyway, don’t expect any explanations from these magazines, just rough lists…
# KINEMA JUNPO
1. Postcard (Kaneto Shindo)
2. Someday (Junji Sakamoto) (last Yoshio Harada film)
3. Cold Fish (Shion Sono)
4. Tada’s Do-It-All House (Tatsushi Omori, director of A Crowd of Three)
5. Rebirth (Izuru Narushima)
6. Saudade (Katsuya Tomita)
7. Tokyo Park (Shinji Aoyama)
7. Love Strikes! (Hitoshi Ohne)
10. My Back Pages (Nobuhiro Yamashita)
10. Phone Call to the Bar (Hajime Hashimoto)
+ Kantoku Shikkaku (Katsuyuki Hirano) – documentary on AV actress Hayashi Yumika
So, in 2011, the best japanese film was directed by 99-year-old Kaneto Shindo – remember The Naked Island? That’s him! It’s also great to notice that truck driver-turned-indie filmmaker Katsuya Tomita is gaining some attention in Japan – his film has been screened in some festivals abroad, receiving overall positive reviews (and won an award in France).
(it would be interesting to know why KJ prefered Cold Fish over Guilty of Romance by the same director)
# EIGA GEIJUTSU
• TOP
1. Someday (Junji Sakamoto)
2. Saudade (Katsuya Tomita)
3. Life Back Then (Takahisa Zeze)
4. Tokyo Park (Shinji Aoyama)
5. Postcard (Kaneto Shindo)
6. Hospitalite (Koji Fukada)
7. Love Strikes! (Hitoshi Ohne)
8. Kantoku Shikkaku (Katsuyuki Hirano)
9. Mahou Shoujo Wo Wasurenai (Sadakazu Hori)
10. We Can’t Change The World But, We Wanna Build a School in Cambodia (Kenta Fukasaku)
• WORST
1. A Ghost of a Chance (Koki Mitani)
2. Scabbard Samurai (Hitoshi Matsumoto)
3. Guilty of Romance (Shion Sono)
4. Princess Toyotomi (Masayuki Suzuki)
5. Kantoku Shikkaku (Katsuyuki Hirano)
6. Cold Fish (Shion Sono)
7. Winter Day/Fuyu No Hi (Hiroshi Kurosaki)
8. My Back Pages (Nobuhiro Yamashita)
9. Pure Asia/Ajia no junshin (Ikki Katashima)
9. Mitsuko Delivers (Yuya Ishii)
9. Rebirth (Izuru Narushima)
Some surprising things here; Zeze’s new film has been generally considered as a huge disappointment – especially after Heaven’s Story last year. And both Sono films released in 2011 appeared in EG’s worst list – has the director now become too mainstream?
Sources: KineJun (Jp), Eiga Geijutsu (Jp)
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
No love for Kore-eda? and I don’t think 2 films by Sono are worst of 2011. There’s so much more worse film.
I haven’t seen most of these, but wasn’t a fan of “Mitsuko Delivers” either.
Yeah, agree, Sion Sono is much better than represented in this list.
In Eiga’s list, Kantoku Shikkaku (Katsuyuki Hirano) falls in both the top and worst lists. So where it actually belongs? Or is it love hate kinda movie?. And Mitsuko Delivers in worst?…Would like a critique on that one by Eiga….
From what I understand, Eiga asks its readers, journalists/critics, some filmmakers… to make their lists. That would explain why KS appears in both lists.