rictor
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Post by rictor on Apr 4, 2018 0:32:51 GMT 1
Then I guess, judging by the amount of titles I watched already, I'm a big, or great even, geek LoL Though I'm not into collecting merchandise, cosplaying or other things like that. I just simply enjoy stories, so I almost literally devour many books, movies, tv series, comics, animations etc., anime and manga included. Of course the better the story the better watch/read, and not everything I stumble upon ends up being at least decent, though definite outs are only things that offer nothing more than fanservice. Guess that's kinda off-topic though. Looking forward to it. Let's see if it lives up to the original. About "The Death of Superman". Remember reading the actual comic back then
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Post by K1power on Apr 4, 2018 21:12:55 GMT 1
Nothing wrong with being a geek. I'm an absolute story junkie as well. As for the Steins;Gate teaser you posted, while it doesn't actually give away much of the story, the aesthetics of it somewhat remind me of the Persona game series.
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rictor
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Post by rictor on Apr 5, 2018 15:10:01 GMT 1
Not that I'm ashamed of being one Moreover, you can find manga or anime (animations and comics as well) that have better story than a huge chunk of those live-action tv series or Hollywood movies, watching which is still considered totally normal.
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Post by K1power on Apr 7, 2018 12:19:27 GMT 1
Very true, though I do like my Hollywood movies & live action series as well. I really do.
BTW can anyone recommend me some good Japanese movies? I have a pretty wide interest, but I do gravitate toward crime stories a lot.
As a non-Japanese it's difficult to get a grasp on what's actually good as I get the impression the average quality from anime to live action has a noticeable drop off.
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rictor
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Post by rictor on Apr 7, 2018 18:13:07 GMT 1
Sure I can make you some recommendations, though I can't guarantee everything will be to your liking.
I'm a big fan of Beat Kitano and most of his movies are yakuza or police dramas so it's definitely worth watching. Violent Cop, Boiling Point, Sonatine, Hana-bi, Brother, Outrage trilogy. Zatoichi is a samurai movie but is also worth watching. Kikujiro I would also recommend but this one is a drama with comedy elements.
Takashi Miike is another known director, though from his works I'm only familiar with Ichi the Killer so I can't say much more. To be honest, from Japanese cinematography I've watched more of the total classics like Akira Kurosawa and the like.
If you're interested in some dramas I can recommend titles like The Twilight Samurai, Okuribito or The Mourning Forest.
If you're interested in not only live-action movies but also anime ones, Satoshi Kon's works like Memories, Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress and Paprika are good ones to check out as the stories aren't your typical anime ones, though again, none is actually a crime story.
Of course, when talking not only about Japanese but asian cinematography as a whole, horror stories are a must-check. So Ring or Ju-on, and the like.
Lastly, if you're interested not only in Japanese crime stories but also Hong-Kong or Korean ones, Infernal Affairs trilogy is definitely a good watch and is much better than it's Hollywood remake, The Departed.
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Post by K1power on Apr 7, 2018 19:42:32 GMT 1
Oh man funny coincidence, but from the few Japanese movies I've seen Outrage, Outrage Beyond and Okuribito definitely stood out to me. We might have some similarities in taste. I haven't seen the third Outrage movie yet as it's relatively new and I simply haven't been able to find it yet.
I've actually seen Brother and while I liked parts of it, other parts felt a bit cheesy and overall it gave off a vibe as if there was a huge language barrier between the Japanese and American team members during production of the film.
Definitely find Kitano/Beat Takeshi an interesting character, though I have little interest in watching the Ghost in the Shell adaptation just to see how he does in it. It's funny, but the first thing I was exposed to that had him in it were old Takeshi's Castle reruns (with bad Dutch commentary!) on Comedy Central. From that I could have never guessed the Gangster image he has. In two weeks the western localisation of Yakuza 6 comes out on PS4 and he's one of the characters in it, can't wait for that.
As far as Takashi Miike goes I think the only work I've seen from him is the adaptation of the above mentioned videogame franchise Yakuza / Ryu Ga Gotoku which was actually pretty good, especially considering videogame adaptations often aren't very good. I've seen bits and pieces from Ichi the Killer, but never saw it properly from beginning to end. I remember it being pretty violent.
Haven't seen anything by Akira Kurosawa and not a lot of old movies in general, but definitely willing to try anything out. So thanks for all the suggestions.
As far as Asian cinema as a whole goes, I've watched some stuff. Of course as a kid I've watched countless wire-fu martial arts flicks which back as a kid I just ate up. Some of them were just mediocre low-budget films in retrospect, but some definitely stood the test of time.
I like the old Bruce Lee films and early 'Hong Kong Cinema' by Jackie Chan and Jet Li from the 80s & 90s. Jet Li's Bodyguard specifically comes to mind. Also a fan of Chow Yun-Fat and his A Better Tomorrow trilogy.
Such a shame that more recently Chow Yun-Fat was part of the Hollywood abortion that was DragonBall Evolution. Due to my deep love for DragonBall I still consider that to be the absolute worst movie I have ever seen. But I digress..
As far as modern Asian cinema goes I really liked Ong Bak and Tom Yum Goong. I haven't really watched any of Tony Jaa's films after that as I felt I'd be getting more of the same without it ever topping those original two. I've also watched the Korean 'Vengeance Trilogy' or Oldboy Trilogy and liked that as well, though I haven't read the original manga. Two real surprise hits were The Raid 1 & 2 with the second one being even better than the first: a pretty rare thing to happen.
But I've kept the best for last: Yip Man.
Yip Man is not only my favorite 'martial arts movie', but also a generally great (Asian/Chinese) movie that transcends the genre and is probably one of my top 10 favorite films of all time. I fully realize that a large part of the story was made up and it has a few less than realistic fights in it, but in this case the changes were (probably) for the better as far as film entertainment value goes and I absolutely love every second of it. I regularly watch the scene of him vs. 10 Karate black belts just to get my blood boiling. The sequels are also good & decent films, but they don't come close to the greatness of the first one.
I've probably forgot to name drop some films, but I feel this covers most of it.
Didn't intend the wall-o-text, but oh well..
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Post by K1power on Apr 7, 2018 19:44:06 GMT 1
BTW I did not like The Departed at all, despite the talent involved and feel that movie got way more hype than it deserved, but then I often disagree with popular opinion to begin with.
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rictor
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Post by rictor on Apr 7, 2018 20:25:33 GMT 1
I'm actually one who doesn't mind reading walls of text so it's all ok. Will get back to the thread later cause I must first recall a bunch of titles as most of the those movies I watched years ago on TV and don't own a copy or have it downloaded on a pc. Two things I can say though. DB: Evolution was indeed a bad movie that I only watched years after it premiered by an accident LoL And I didn't like The Departed at all as well but on the other hand I have the Infernal Affairs trilogy in both mandarin and cantonese versions. That's how big of a fan I am
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rictor
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Post by rictor on Apr 9, 2018 16:16:26 GMT 1
Sorry. Tried to remember some other movies from everything that I watched but didn't come up with anything new. Gozu and Dead or Alive series from Miike might have been recommended to me as yakuza movies worth watching, so that's that. I guess most Japanese things I watched are samurai movies and period dramas after all.
Might otherwise recommend some action and crime movies from Hong-Kong, China or Korea if you want.
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rictor
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Post by rictor on Apr 9, 2018 16:55:12 GMT 1
As far as what I've seen from Asian cinematography, well, I've seen many things. From the various martial arts movies (I'm a big Jackie Chan junkie and I've seen many of his movies, movies with his bros Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao, Bruce Lee, Jet Li, Chow Yun-fat, Stephen Chow etc.), samurai movies and period dramas, through horrors and thrillers, to live-action adaptations and comedies (and even some Korean romances on a friends recommendation). From your list of "have seen" haven't yet watched Bodyguard, A Better Tomorrow, V engeance Trilogy other than the Oldboy and The Raid. Will probably check it out sometime. I'm actually watching Shock Wave just now and so far it looks decent.
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Post by K1power on Apr 9, 2018 18:30:50 GMT 1
Oh yeah, almost forgot about Stephen Chow! Seen some of his work as well, but mainly more 'Western mainstream' comedic stuff like Kung Fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer. I was looking forward to his take on Journey to the West, but it kept getting delayed and by the time I finally got to see a trailer it looked off. I might still check it out, but I suspect I will end up liking The Forbidden Kingdom - which starred both Jackie Chan and Jet Li - as the better 'Monkey King' story.
Edit: clicking on your Shock Wave link, something reminded me of the fact that Keanu Reeves actually directed a Chinese martial arts flick called Man of Thai Chi - and it's pretty decent!
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Post by Shadess on Apr 9, 2018 21:27:46 GMT 1
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rictor
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Post by rictor on Apr 10, 2018 0:06:07 GMT 1
Of course I would mention the first two if K1power hadn't said Japanese movies This one is also a good watch. Wouldn't have made that kind of scene with that music and yet it somehow worked great, at least for me. Definitely saw Audition as well. Creepy. And since we're at it, this one is a great movie.
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Post by K1power on Apr 10, 2018 19:14:04 GMT 1
Some interesting looking recommendations, Shadess. Will definitely look into those as well, thanks! It's funny how Choi Min-shik seems to appear in so many of the recommended Korean films. I specifically asked for Japanese recommendations, since I'm especially interested in Japanese culture and found it a bit harder to get strong recommendations for them just by browsing the net. I welcome any interesting looking recommendations, though.
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rictor
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Post by rictor on Apr 10, 2018 23:56:24 GMT 1
Got around to this movie today, and yeah, it definitely is worth recommending.
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