Japanese Cinema

I dunno how you guys think that Earthsea is bad - it's wonderful.....much moodier and slower paced. The storyline is just as good as any other, its just there's less fantastical animation. A really nice, mature direction for the Ghibli team to do IMO.

slower paced in the sense that nothing happens for half an hour, and then in one 10 second exchange a lot of information is given at once with no explanation?

I'm just watching My Neighbour Totoro. My favourite bit so far is Totoro's 180 varial over the river on the gold spinning top. Sick.

+1 for Twilight Samurai.
simply stunning.

Korean Cinema:

Old Boy is rightly at the top of the tree. The other two in the Vengeance series, were not as accomplished.
Thirst, is a different take on vampirism, and none the worse for it.
Arahan is excellent martial arts escapism. I've watched about 5 times, and still am not tired of it.
Shiri is a cop versus bad guy, with a twist - action drama. Very adequate diversion.
The Isle. Disturbing, but brilliant. A tale of dangerous love, on water.

Bittersweet Life as mentioned.
I'm a Cyborg Another Excellent Park Chan-Wook, but more light hearted than his other work Also JSA (Joint Security Area) again by PC-W.

The sequel to Twilight Samurai is good too - It's name eludes me.

Tokyo gore school was shit.

Old boy is a great movie, although its very predictable that *** **** ** *** ********. the 2nd to last scene is seriously grimy though

im sure everyone will pick up on this , but I dont want to spoil the movie for anyone

muchos recommend the moving-pictures adaptation of Shogun,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sh%C5%8Dgun_%28TV_miniseries%29

found it very refreshing..

Having a mini kurosawa season via lovefilm.com at the moment.
hidden fortress, stray dog, scandal, drunken angel so far and i think i'll finish on... Ran.

Tokyo gore school was shit.

Old boy is a great movie, although its very predictable that **** is *** *******. the *** ** **** scene is seriously grimy though

although i've seen it many times and am eagerly awaiting the will smith adaptation of it............(oh yes...) the old boy spoiler might be a bit of a bummer for those who haven't.

Agreed. Why tell someone the end of a film, and spoil their enjoyment of it?

The Crane.....modify post?

@ you 2 above.. in that case also don't read the back of the box. i sussed it before it was even in the dvd player

I never read the back of the box. I tell my girlfriend to shut up when she tries to read it out to me. It drives her to distraction, but I hate having any preconceptions about a film or book. I especially hate those film trailers at the cinema. Well done, you condensed a film down to 5 minutes, and the ending is now startlingly predictable. Cheers for that one.

i dont know any films but... Japan = awesome

hah, go on

Just watched Oldboy, excellent film.

someone mentioned it already but Survive Style 5+ is a real masterpiece!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0430651/

highly recommended

From Chinese cinema, I highly recommend IP MAN, known in some international markets as Yip Man.

I really enjoyed the Miku "Mike" Hama detective trilogy from the mid 90s- they had it on the NFT ages ago. The Most Terrible Time In My Life, Stairway To The Distant Past and The Trap. I remember them being really well made, a clever pastiche on the old hard boiled detective films and film noir.

If you like Takeshi Kitano's films I think you'll like these (based on the fact I liked both so therefore everyone else must like them also).

More recently I saw Still Walking which was reminiscent of Ozu's work. Beatifully shot and great pace.

Anyone else going to the terracotta film festival? http://terracottafestival.com/programme/2010
I reckon Ill be going to see:
Little Big Soldier
Fish Story
Vengeance
Bodyguards and assassins

The "Lone Wolf and Cub" films. Amazing.

True. Tomisaburo Wakayama, while a bit flabby and tired looking, sure wreaked sweet havoc.

Shinya Tsukamoto's Tetsuo: The Iron Man, Tetsuo II: Body Hammer and Tokyo Fist are quite effective. (It seems there's a third Tetsuo, too. Didn't know that.)

Seijun Suzuki's Branded to Kill is, I think, a bit of a classic. Yakuza coolness from the sixties!

I then watched Earthsea, which has the crappest storyline ever. I mentally gave it 2 stars, and they were both for the drawing skills

I love Le Guin's books and have understood that the anime version of Earthsea really is a major letdown. Damn shame.

The "Lone Wolf and Cub" films. Amazing.

Yes I was going to mention this.. awesome series

Audition
The Eye
Are worth checking out

Also these are pretty good but maybe not japanese and a little more mainstream
Shaolin Soccer
Oldboy
Ong-Bak
Ichi the killer (face sliding scene is damned funny)

Just watched NO BLOOD NO TEARS. An absolutely excellent piece of Korean film-making.

Havent heard of that, will have to check it out.
Just watched thirst last night, pretty weird but pretty awesome

Love hidden blade/twighlight samurai/when the last sword is drawn. All very good and sitting on the shelf :)

Anyone seen Itchi the Killer? a bit fucked up I enjoyed it.

Theres some good Thai films out there too. Always enjoy Ong Bak and Bang Rajan. Also enjoyed Chocolate (the film, though a bag of cadburry giant buttons wouldn't go amiss right now!)