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Asian Films

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W

wolfwolfwolf

Member
Vard said:
Trailer for Park Chan-wook's next film, The Handmaiden (which is showing at Cannes and supposedly coming to the U.S. in September): http://youtu.be/IkvHtfRAKNk

Based off of early impressions, it will be better than Stoker (that's a low bar though). I'm excited for this one.
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Never saw Stoker. For some reason Korean directors doing movies in the West doesn't interest me in the slightest.

In for Park Chan-wook's Korean return, Ha Jung-woo and Jo Jin-woong though.

Really like the poster for it:

The%20Handmaiden%20I.jpg
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Haven't seen it mentioned in here but I highly recommend Assassination.

Directed by Choi Dong-hoon (The Thieves) and has a fantastic cast. Jeon Ji-hyun, Lee Jung-jae, Ha Jung-woo, Jo Jin-woong, Oh Dal-soo.

Assassination_(2015_movie)_poster).jpg
Click to expand...
 
T

thenexus6

Member
I watched Love and Honour by Yoji Yamada.

It was pretty good. Never seen it before, but really he's movies. Need to watch more of them.
 
V

Vard

Member
I'm really interested in the Gamera reboot directed by Katsuhito Ishii (also directed Taste of Tea, Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl, and Funky Forest). A bit worried that this kind of big budget film will lose much of his "good weirdness" in the process though, similar to Sam Raimi directing Spider-Man.
 
L

Llyranor

Member
I've seen Mother, Memories of Murder, and The Host recently. Bong Joon-ho has such a dark sense of humor, he might be my favorite Korean director so far.

thenexus6 said:
I watched Love and Honour by Yoji Yamada.

It was pretty good. Never seen it before, but really he's movies. Need to watch more of them.
Click to expand...
I'm still waiting for that one to come out on Blu :(

Did you see Twilight Samurai, or the Hidden Blade?
 
L

Llyranor

Member
I've been doing a marathon of late 70's/80's Jackie Chan/Sammo Hung/Yuen Biao films in the past few weeks. They are just amazing choreographed films. It's a shame we might not get another golden era of HK cinema like that anymore.

Amedo310 said:
Anyone mention "Dolls" by Beat Takeshi? A great romance movie.
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It's a visually gorgeous film with great Joe Hisashi music, but I found it very slow-paced with lots of 'nothing happening' scenes (I guess to soak in the mood). It was late at night and I was tired, but I nodded off a few times. Maybe it was too art film for me. Actually, it was mostly the 'bound beggars' scenes at the beginning and end that dragged on, the rest were fine.

Actually, that kind of reminds me of The Assassin, though I think I was in the proper mindset for that and appreciated it more (but not fully)
 
T

thenexus6

Member
Llyranor said:
I've seen Mother, Memories of Murder, and The Host recently. Bong Joon-ho has such a dark sense of humor, he might be my favorite Korean director so far.

I'm still waiting for that one to come out on Blu :(

Did you see Twilight Samurai, or the Hidden Blade?
Click to expand...

I have seen Twilight Samurai, which is really good. Haven't seen Hidden Blade yet. I am interested in his newer retelling of Tokyo Story.

Bong Joo-Ho is a favourite of mine too.

Amedo310 said:
Anyone mention "Dolls" by Beat Takeshi? A great romance movie.
Click to expand...

Yeah its a great movie. I've seen it a few times. I actually got it again on blu ray recently via TWF releasing Kitano's movies for the first time on blu ray. I have these three so far. Kids Return and Scene at the Sea are coming in Autumn.

ChXAnWDU8AE6tdr.jpg:large


It's a shame to think Dolls was the last movie Kitano and Hisaishi worked together on. They are probably one of my favourite Director / Composer combinations in film.
 
J

jetpacks was yes

Member
Llyranor said:
I've been doing a marathon of late 70's/80's Jackie Chan/Sammo Hung/Yuen Biao films in the past few weeks. They are just amazing choreographed films. It's a shame we might not get another golden era of HK cinema like that anymore.
Click to expand...

Yeahhhh. I mean, part of why those guys were so good was because they went to the same Peking Opera school, during a time when according to Jackie Chan and the others, the physical rigor and discipline they were under would be considered child abuse today (which is why they don't operate that way any longer). The kind of performance martial arts that they perfected in those schools lent themselves really well to the style of extended, rhythmic, acrobatic, stunt-filled a choreography that you see on display in their movies. Benny "the Jet" was an anomaly among traditional martial artists, apparently, in that he was able to keep up with that kind of choreography. Other real martial artists didn't fare so well, and had to be doubled (like in Who Am I). It's good that they can no longer torture kids like that, but those schools are what gave us the kind of skill that resulted in those movies. There is no longer anything quite like it in the world. We'll still have great choreography, but not the same kind at the same level of quality.

Have you checked out some early Sammo/Biao stuff like Magnificent Butcher, Knockabout, and The Victim?
 
J

JLynn

Member
I dunno if this has been posted but a good number of classic Shaw Brothers films are on Netflix including Come Drink With Me, The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, and The Five Deadly Venoms.

Also, some of Golden Harvest's films such as Sammo Hung's Pedicab Driver are now available through Warner Brothers' Archive shop.
 
G

gwailo

Banned
It's a shame that it took WB so long to release Pedicab Driver in any form. They have a pretty big backlog of Hong Kong films that they have been sitting on for quite a while that it seems like they are slowly releasing through the Warner Archive now.

The Shaw Brothers stuff on Netflix is usually dubbed and the SB films on Hulu are subititled.
 
K

kidtamagotchi

Member
One HK martial art movie I have not seen yet (and heard a lot of good things about) is Dirty Ho. I really want to see this movie, but it doesn't seem to be available for the U.S.

Also what is the latest, greatest movie from South Korea?
 
J

jetpacks was yes

Member
JLynn said:
I dunno if this has been posted but a good number of classic Shaw Brothers films are on Netflix including Come Drink With Me, The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, and The Five Deadly Venoms.

Also, some of Golden Harvest's films such as Sammo Hung's Pedicab Driver are now available through Warner Brothers' Archive shop.
Click to expand...

Pedicab Driver has probably the single best staff fight in movie history. Sammo vs Lau Kar-Leung!
 
C

Cripplegate

Member
kidtamagotchi said:
One HK martial art movie I have not seen yet (and heard a lot of good things about) is Dirty Ho. I really want to see this movie, but it doesn't seem to be available for the U.S.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I had trouble tracking this one down. I found a bootleg a long time ago (like one of those old vcds you see kicking around in Chinatowns). It's a great movie, for sure, but holy damn the quality of that copy was abysmal. Having a good copy of Dirty Ho has been on my wishlist for some time.

I've never seen Pedicab Driver, gonna have to correct that.
 
G

gwailo

Banned
kidtamagotchi said:
One HK martial art movie I have not seen yet (and heard a lot of good things about) is Dirty Ho. I really want to see this movie, but it doesn't seem to be available for the U.S.
Click to expand...

There is a US DVD out by Panmedia that you can find at Amazon and stores like FYE, but it's a bootleg with crap quality.

The official Celestial DVD and VCD went out of print, but you can get it on iTunes and Amazon.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/dirty-ho/id958147606

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00V2MTDGW/?tag=neogaf0e-20

I've never seen Pedicab Driver, gonna have to correct that.
Click to expand...

It's worth it for the Sammo Hung/Lau Kar-Leung fight alone. It's phenomenal.
 
S

sixteen-bit

Member
I watched A Brighter Summer Day a couple days ago and thought it was really good. Exhausting to watch though, I don't think I've ever seen a film with a 4 hour runtime.
 
G

gwailo

Banned
Hmm, maybe they put on the Chinese language tracks now. I know the first batch that was up was dubbed only.

It looks like Netflix will be losing a lot of Miramax films next month, so that may affect the movie Miramax/Dimension/Dragon Dynasty stuff they have up.
 
J

Jason

Member
I saw The Wailing today.

Definitely a lot less straightforward than The Yellow Sea and The Chaser but still one hell of a thriller.

That last act was something else.
What. The. Fuck.
 
F

firehawk12

Subete no aware
Saw The Flowers of War finally, the big budget Nanjing movie, and it's a strange film since it's trying to tell this Chinese story but with Christian Bale at the center of it. It plays like any number of "white man helps minorities and learns about himself" sports movies, but set against what is essentially the Chinese version of a holocaust story.

Perhaps the strangest thing is that it's so nationalistic in terms of portraying the Japanese as cartoon villains, featuring a 15 minute sequence where Japanese soldiers run around a church trying to rape school girls and killing some in the process, and another sequence where they rape a woman and then bayonet her to death, with her blood and guts splattering the background.

I'm not sure what this movie is about, other than being a woman during the Japanese occupation guaranteed that you were going to be a victim of rape at some point.
 
G

gwailo

Banned
firehawk12 said:
Perhaps the strangest thing is that it's so nationalistic in terms of portraying the Japanese as cartoon villains, featuring a 15 minute sequence where Japanese soldiers run around a church trying to rape school girls and killing some in the process, and another sequence where they rape a woman and then bayonet her to death, with her blood and guts splattering the background.
Click to expand...

The nationalism/jingoism is very common in Mainland Chinese movies because the government has a very heavy hand in censorship and wanting to use movies as propaganda. It's a big reason I don't like many Mainland movies. It even affects a lot of Hong Kong productions now because they are so dependent on Mainland box office.

BTW for the same subject matter (Nanjing Massacre) I much preferred City of Life and Death and Black Sun.
 
T

thenexus6

Member
Watched a couple of movies recently.

Tampopo Been meaning to watch this for ages. My teacher bought it so lent it to me.
I thought it was great, liked the main story and all the random little bits. The egg scene is so weird and funny.

Time Traveller: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time Going into this I thought it was a straight remake of the anime. So it started and I didn't like it much, then a friend said it was based on a different novel in the Time Traveller series. It was just okay, won't be watching this again.

Getting Any? So good. I found it cheap on eBay and had to buy it. I watched Time Traveller with a bunch of friends as soon as it ended I sneakily put Getting Any on to show them. They loved it. It's so weird and funny. One of my favourite comedy films.
 
F

firehawk12

Subete no aware
gwailo said:
The nationalism/jingoism is very common in Mainland Chinese movies because the government has a very heavy hand in censorship and wanting to use movies as propaganda. It's a big reason I don't like many Mainland movies. It even affects a lot of Hong Kong productions now because they are so dependent on Mainland box office.

BTW for the same subject matter (Nanjing Massacre) I much preferred City of Life and Death and Black Sun.
Click to expand...
Oh yeah, I understand that. I think John Woo's The Crossing was filled with many of the same problems.
But this was just so blatant and was about as subtle as a hammer.

City of Life and Death looks kind of crazy... at least the wikipedia page makes it out to be. lol
 
R

Ratrat

Member
I watched Memories of Murder(great) and Fairwell my Concubine(fucking amazing) recently. Just got Sanjuro which will be my 3rd Kurosawa, so looking forward to it!
 
J

JLynn

Member
Is there an advantage of importing the HK bluray of The Mermaid to waiting less than two weeks for the Sony Pictures US release aside from the 3D Bluray?
 
D

demosthenes

Member
wolfwolfwolf said:
Never saw Stoker. For some reason Korean directors doing movies in the West doesn't interest me in the slightest.

In for Park Chan-wook's Korean return, Ha Jung-woo and Jo Jin-woong though.

Really like the poster for it:



Haven't seen it mentioned in here but I highly recommend Assassination.

Directed by Choi Dong-hoon (The Thieves) and has a fantastic cast. Jeon Ji-hyun, Lee Jung-jae, Ha Jung-woo, Jo Jin-woong, Oh Dal-soo.
Click to expand...

Watched Assassination on a Delta flight and instantly bought it. Watched it again last night. It's such a great movie.
 
M

meppi

Member
As I've finally started settling into the new home, I've started unboxing my film collection and came across my Hong Kong Legends boxes.
Most of these have been boxed up for a long time now, so I've decided to make them all into untouched mkv files before the discs go bad.
Including all the audio commentary tracks and special features and such.
Damn, so much good stuff in here!

Sgxr5VQ.jpg
Click to expand...
 
P

Peru

Member
"Our Little Sister" hit hard in a way 'Like Father Like Son' didn't. Good people being good to each other, letting some of the things kept inside out. No real conflict, just people dealing with small developments and the daily smaller struggles. Beautiful.
 
L

Llyranor

Member
Peru said:
"Our Little Sister" hit hard in a way 'Like Father Like Son' didn't. Good people being good to each other, letting some of the things kept inside out. No real conflict, just people dealing with small developments and the daily smaller struggles. Beautiful.
Click to expand...
I really really liked Our Little Sister. A nice slice of life film. Better than I Wish. Haven't seen LFLS yet.
 
B

bwakh

Member
TCRS said:
didn't like the first one very much but the others are great. other movies to watch:

- New World
- Vengeance trilogy (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy, Lady Vengeance)
- Breathless
- Commitment
- The Suspect
- A Company Man
- Ode to my Father

great stuff. why doesnt netflix hurry the fuck up and add more korean movies?

netflix korea doesn't have english subtitles I'm guessing just like netflix japan :(
Click to expand...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Td--1IVPNZ0
 
P

Prologue

Member
Llyranor said:
I'm trying my hand at Korean film. The only one I've seen is My Sassy Girl a lifetime ago :p

On my list of potentials:
- The Good, The Bad, The Weird
- The Man from Nowhere
- I Saw the Devil
- The Chaser

The first seem to be my style, being action films. I've been highly recommended the last two, but I'm not sure how into revenge thrillers I would be. I'm usually pretty fine with graphical violence and gore, but not sure how I would swallow extensive torture/rape. What can you guys say about these movies?
Click to expand...


The Tower

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCQ1EemWIxo

Great action movie. Made GF cry too.
 
S

sunshine and gasoline

Banned
Peru said:
"Our Little Sister" hit hard in a way 'Like Father Like Son' didn't. Good people being good to each other, letting some of the things kept inside out. No real conflict, just people dealing with small developments and the daily smaller struggles. Beautiful.
Click to expand...

Finally got around to watching the movie because of your post.

Hirokazu continues to amaze me as a director, "Our Little Sister" might just be my favorite film from Hirokazu. The films strongest part, for me, is how the sisters come across as organic and very likeable. Its feels as if they are an actual family and that makes the interactions between them all thte more delightful to watch. The snapshots of the sisters interacting with events/people outside of the family just adds nice flavours to the film from Sachi bittersweet lovelife to Suzu's developing bonds at her new school.

Prologue said:
The Tower

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCQ1EemWIxo

Great action movie. Made GF cry too.
Click to expand...

The Tower is a nice disaster film, recall some parts made me tensse at the events going on in the film. Can't go wrong with it if you have some time to kill.
 
D

Daft_Cat

Member
The Wailing. Demonic neo-noir. Moments of greatness pulled down by strange tonal jumps, and an unjustifiable length. I'm surprised at the glowing reception - it's an interesting film (worthy of repeat viewings), but also unpleasant to watch, and not particularly rewarding. Similar in feel - at times - to Memories of Murder, but the screenplay isn't really on that level. The direction is incredible from moment-to-moment, but overall, it lacks the focus of The Chaser and The Yellow Sea.

I don't know - I'm really torn. On paper, it's the sort of cinematic concoction I should love, and it is one of the more interesting films I've seen this year... but there's just something about it that fundamentally doesn't work - at least for me. Could be the result of culture clash, but I'm a big Korean-film guy, so I doubt it.
 
J

JLynn

Member
meppi said:
As I've finally started settling into the new home, I've started unboxing my film collection and came across my Hong Kong Legends boxes.
Most of these have been boxed up for a long time now, so I've decided to make them all into untouched mkv files before the discs go bad.
Including all the audio commentary tracks and special features and such.
Damn, so much good stuff in here!
Click to expand...

HKL was the envy of American HK cinema fans. When I was able to get a Bluray player with PAL to NTSC conversion the aftermarket prices on those discs made me lean back. Hmm. Perhaps since the GBP is so below the USD now it's silly I could check back on some of those discs.
 
L

Llyranor

Member
I've bought a lot of HKL (and a bunch of Fortune Star) DVDs this past year, mainly old Jackie Chan/Sammo Hung/Yuen Biao films. What an amazing golden era that we'll never see again ;__;

Shame about the embarrassing transition to Blu :/
 
S

sora87

Member
Watched a few films recently

All About Lily Chou Chou - about teens dealing with life while being obsessed with a singer called lily chou chou. It's pretty bleak to be honest and I didn't really enjoy it as much as I thought I would, plus it just seems really disjointed.

Castaway on the Moon - about a man who tries to kill himself but ends up stranded on an island on the han river, under the bridge he jumped off. A woman who's a shut away then spots him through her camera and tries to connect with him. This was a real gem, so wonderful and the two leads give some brilliant performances, especially Jung Jae-young. Really good mixture of comedy and drama.

Pained - about a debt collector who can't feel pain who meets a woman with hemophilia. I really enjoyed this, was a nice change of pace from the other stuff I'd been watching and it's great watching the chemistry develop between them. Ending spoilers..
I really didn't like how it ended though, felt like tragedy just for tragedies sake. I know a lot of Korean movies have kinda developed this rep for ending like this but I felt Pained really could have had a happy ending and not feel cliche or out of place.

Love Exposure - erm, yeah. What the fuck was that? I have no idea and I don't know how to explain the plot without spoiling it but I was strangely glued to my screen for the full 4 hours of madness. Sion Sono is one crazy guy and I've enjoyed the majority of his films but Love Exposure really was a experience like no other, I've not seen anything else like it. I'd love recommendations for anything similar!
I also can't believe Channel 4 once showed it on TV here ha.
 
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