You want to discover great japanese movies but you don’t know where to begin?
Here we go!
#10 – Tetsuo – IMDb Rating: 7.1/10
A kind-of live version of Akira, a cyberpunk manifesto full of crazy ideas you’d have never thought about. That’s pure indie-undeground movie.
# Review: MidnightEye
# From the same director: Tokyo Fist
# Trailer:
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#09 – Funeral Parade Of Roses – IMDb Rating: 7.9/10
Well, A Clockwork Orange stole some ideas from Funeral Parade of Roses. Yes Kubrick did love Japanese Cinema. Anyway, this is a gay version of Oedipus Rex set in Tokyo, 1960′s. No way you want to miss it!
# Review: MidnightEye
# From the same director: Shura
# Trailer:
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#08 – Graveyard Of Honor – IMDb Rating: 7.4/10
Before Battle Royale, there was this nihilistic-violent-bloody yakuza movie where hope, honor and dream are just dead. One of the best japanese crime movie ever made!
# Review: DVDVerdict
# From the same director: Under the flag of the rising sun
# Trailer
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#07 – The Great Killing – IMDb Rating: 8.5/10
Imagine a violent samurai showdown shoot like French Connection, a story a la The Battle of Algiers, and you’ll have a little idea of what is The Great Killing!
# Review: MidnightEye
# From the same director: The Thirteen Assassins
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#06 – The Man Who Stole The Sun – IMDb Rating: 7.5/10
The Japanese Taxi Driver, except here, a young teacher is building his A-Bomb to threaten his government. Just amazing!
# Review: MidnightEye
# From the same director: The Youth Killer
# Clip:
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#05 – Branded to Kill – IMDb Rating: 7.3/10
Remember Ghost Dog? Well, Jarmusch was deeply influenced by Branded to Kill, an abstract and insane yakuza movie with a killer who wants to be the number 1!
# Review: KFC Cinema
# From the same director: Tattooed Life
# Trailer:
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#04 – The Streetfighter – IMDb Rating: 7.0/10
If you’ve seen True Romance, you should know what is The Streetfighter! A pure badass movie with no limits in violence! A violent japanese version of Bruce Lee.
# Review: KFC Cinema
# With the same actor: The Shogun’s Samurai
# Trailer:
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#03 – Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion – IMDb Rating: 7.4/10
One of the best women in prison film! It’s violent, visually astonishing, even anarchistic. With Lady Snowblood’s actress as a cold-blood prisoner.
# Review: Sarudama
# From the same director: Female Convict Scorpion Jailhouse 41
# Trailer:
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#02 – Red Angel – IMDb Rating : 8.1/10
It shows the cruelty of war seen through the eyes of a beautiful nurse. Don’t except drama or pathos, it’s about dehumanization. A very pessimistic and sad story!
# Review: MidnightEye
# From the same director: The Blind Beast
# Trailer:
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#01 – Hitokiri – Tenchu! – IMDb Rating : 8.1/10
This is how the samurai film genre ends. Fights without honor or humanity, blood everywhere… Best known for Yukio Mishima harakiri scene.
# Review : MidnightEye
# From the same director: The Wolves
# Clip:
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And you, what do you recommend?
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Le site est devenu officiellement anglais ou c’est juste passager ?
Well, judging by the ‘treasures of asian cinema’ tagline, there’s no doubt that WG has gone english! It’s certainly not a problem from my side, we are now waiting internatinal moviegoers to share theirs thoughts & comments!
Also from the director of “Red Angel”, “Giants and Toys” and “The Wife’s Confession”
Might I also suggest Moju, aka Blind Beast:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0140384/
Brilliant gem that deserves more attention.
While we’re talking Masumura, A Lustful Man starring Raizo Ichikawa is a hoot. Ichikawa plays a dimwitted Casanova, bonking his way across Edo-period Japan. However, Giants & Toys is my all-time favorite.
Patrick, now that you mentioned Raizo portraying a Casanova, it reminds me of a Toei-studio flick I saw here in Honolulu during the 1970s that was entitled “Hanjiro,” also a period-piece about a lecherous philanderer. Have you seen that one? I saw it at the Toyo Theatre which screened Toei movies only. Regrettably, the Toyo Theatre has long been torn down. What I lament about its passing is not only the fact that it showed chambara films but also because it included a pond filled with koi-fish. Passing over the koi-pond was a small nihon-bashi, which is the Japanese-type bridge seen in all the chambara films. Gone are the days.
I am not familiar with the film you mention. However, during the 70s, there were many a Japanese theater like you describe dotting the landscape of our country. And, sadly, they have all flown to the four winds.
Your list of 10 “must see” films is all pulpy fun stuff rather than established classics. I love these titles too but I’m not Quentin Tarantino and so I just can’t put The Streetfighter ahead of The Seven Samurai. Actually, there are so many great Japanese films that I couldn’t begin to isolate just 10. But I can pick 10 directors whose best films are also Japan’s best.
Yasujiro Ozu: no guns, Yakuza, girls, fast cars, swords, or wild jazz music but he’s the best Japanese director. He’s not flashy but he gets to comedy and emotion unlike any other director. Most people pick Tokyo Story as his masterpiece but I’m more fond of The End of Summer which I think captures everything he wishes to say about zen & society. That said, I Was Born, But…, it’s remake Ohayo, The Only Son, Late Spring, and Early Summer are all equally wonderful.
Seijun Suzuki: guns, Yakuza, girls, fast cars, swords, and wild jazz music! Style over substance and an amazing visual sense. Ironically, his best film is a WW2 movie that takes Bushido to task, The Story of a Prostitute, though it isn’t as much fun as the others.
Akira Kurosawa: I like even the minor ones like Scandal, I Live in Fear, and The Lower Depths. My favorite two are No Regrets For Our Youth and The Hidden Fortress, but nearly every film by him is a wonder.
Kon Ichikawa: His best films are atypical-Tokyo Olympiad which is just amazing, one great image after another, and Alone on the Pacific, which is, again, more visual than narrative. But The Burmese Harp, Enjo, An Actor’s Revenge, Being Two Isn’t Easy, and others are well worth looking at.
Shohei Imamura: Pigs and Battleships, The Insect Woman, Intentions of Murder, The Pornographers, The Profound Desire of the Gods, and The Ballad of Narayama are just amazing.
Kenji Mizoguchi: From his early film The Water Magician through Osaka Elegy, Story of the Last Chrysanthemum, Utamaro and His Five Women, My Love Has Been Burning, Miss Oyu, Ugetsu, Sansho the Bailiff, and even Tales of the Taira Clan, again comes a director whose name is attached to just one great film after another.
Hiroshi Teshigahara: Again most people pick Woman in the Dunes as his masterpiece but I pick another film, The Face of Another, as his best. That said, Pitfall, Summer Soldiers, Antonio Gaudi, and Rikyu are all worth looking at.
Mikio Naruse: I haven’t seen his early comedies but Mother, Repast, Sound of the Mountain, Flowing, Late Chrysanthemum, Floating Clouds, and When A Woman Ascends The Stairs assure him a place in the top 10.
Masaki Kobayashi: Like Teshigahara, he made but a handful of films but The Human Condition, Harikiri, Kwaidan, and Samurai Rebellion are all he had to make.
Yasuzo Masumura: He’s only recently shown up on my radar but Manji and Blind Beast are so incredibly out there that I’m still recovering. Black Test Car and Giants and Toys completely destroy corporate culture once and for all time while Irezumi and Red Angel are the Japanese equivalent of Verdi operas.
In addition to these directors there are one-shot films worth considering. Certainly Funeral Parade of Roses listed above as well as Kazuo Kuroki’s Silence Has No Wings, Hiroshi Shimizu’s Children of the Beehive, Yukio Mishima’s Patriotism, and Nagisa Oshima’s Cruel Story of Youth. The best Kihachi Okamoto (Sword of Doom), Kinji Fukasaku (Blackmail Is My Life & Black Lizard), and Hideo Gosha (The Wolves & Onimasa) films rank not to mention the best J-horror films of the last 20 years. Anime features and series are their own category but some of the all-time best Japanese cinema certainly falls into it, with Hayao Miyazaki being only the tip of an amazing treasure trove.
If you’re into straight up weirdness I recommend Funky Forest. It’s the weirdest movie I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching.
I would love to hear what anime you are fond of, Alchemist.
Does anybody know who played the role of Kitoh in “Female Prisoner #701 Scorpion”?
Yumiko Katayama
http://rarerecord.img.jugem.jp/20080429_346686.jpg
(not 100% sure …)
Kitoh? Was it this character?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v716/HungFist/Hung/YumikoKatayama.jpg
That would be Yumiko Katayama. You can see her in a whole bunch of pinky violence movies from Inferno of Torture to Delinquent Girl Boss: Worthless to Confess and Criminal Woman: Killing Melody.
Thanks a million, guys! Much appreciated.
BTW, cool book, Martin!
Here’s the cast list for Female Prisoner 701 Scorpion. See if you can find a “Kitoh” (character names are in parentheses).
* 梶芽衣子 カジメイコ （松島ナミ）
* 扇ひろ子 オウギヒロコ （進藤梨恵）
* 渡辺やよい ワタナベヤヨイ （木田由起子）
* 横山リエ ヨコヤマリエ （片桐）
* 三原葉子 ミハラヨウコ （政木）
* 根岸明美 ネギシアケミ （大塚）
* 小林千枝 コバヤシチエ （土橋）
* 国景子 クニケイコ （根元）
* 谷本小夜子 タニモトサヨコ谷本小代子 （保谷）
* 片山由美子 カタヤマユミコ （鬼頭）
* 城恵美 ジョウエミ （森川）
* 三戸部スエ ミトベスエ （井棟）
* 織田英子 （小岩）
* 山本緑 ヤマモトミドリ （小沢）
* 由貴利恵 ユキリエ （竜野）
* 園かおる ソノカオル （高木）
* 渡辺文雄 ワタナベフミオ （郷田）
* 室田日出男 ムロタヒデオ （仲崎）
* 堀田真二 ホッタシンジ （古谷）
* 沼田曜一 ヌマタヨウイチ （曽我）
* 伊達三郎 ダテサブロウ （海津敏）
* 日尾孝司 ヒオコウジ （竹中）
* 藤山浩二 フジヤマコウジ （保利）
* 夏八木勲 ナツヤギイサオ （杉見次雄）
Are people reading comments before posting?
I read the comments. However, in the cast list above, Yumiko Katayama is listed as playing a character named Onigashira, not “Kitoh.” It’s been awhile since I’ve seen the film, so she may have been called “Kitoh” in the subtitles — I don’t recall. Nevertheless, that is not how she’s credited on movie.goo.
http://movie.goo.ne.jp/movies/PMVWKPD19778/cast.html
OK, upon further investigation, I realize the kanji for Onigashira can be read as Kito. So my mistake. Cheers, Martin