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Asian Films
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Bittersweet life korean BD should be out in matter of weeks (region free, eng. subs). JP-BD is out already.Vard said:
Korea release
btw here is movie bit more on the line what op asked for. (probably isn't following this thread anymore :lol ) Small budget comedy from year 2009. It was entertaining enough and I think it has gotten US release too so check it out people if you want some easy going comedy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-hyc4trSe8&feature=related
EYEL1NER
Member
I'm glad to see this get bumped again. I forgot that there were some things I wanted to grab online that I saw ITT.
Anyway, the only Asian film I have seen recently is Red Cliff last night. I got the international cut on Blu Ray for $15 on Amazon. I watched it with a buddy, all 288 minutes and liked it quite a bit. I went into it expecting all action and battles, but it ended up being more like a soap opera, a lot of storytelling and drama, which I actually liked.
I don't know much about the RotTK though, outside of Dynasty Warriors, so I was hoping for some Lu Bu action and missed out.
And I missed a bit of the last battle due to fatigue and falling a bit asleep.
All in all, I was excited about a 5 hour movie and I was impressed with how the Blu copy looked. Pretty good.
Anyway, the only Asian film I have seen recently is Red Cliff last night. I got the international cut on Blu Ray for $15 on Amazon. I watched it with a buddy, all 288 minutes and liked it quite a bit. I went into it expecting all action and battles, but it ended up being more like a soap opera, a lot of storytelling and drama, which I actually liked.
I don't know much about the RotTK though, outside of Dynasty Warriors, so I was hoping for some Lu Bu action and missed out.
And I missed a bit of the last battle due to fatigue and falling a bit asleep.
All in all, I was excited about a 5 hour movie and I was impressed with how the Blu copy looked. Pretty good.
TheKaeptain
Banned
The rumor: The tin case got canned because it scratches really easily; the company didnt like the transfer. So regular case and somewhat better transfer, when released.CiSTM said:Bittersweet life korean BD should be out in matter of weeks (region free, eng. subs). JP-BD is out already.
Korea release
So we might have to wait a few months. Which explains why yesasia and other online retailers have no clue when it comes out.
However, yesasia told me they never had a date for it.
So yeah...
Wish a US company would pick up the rights and get it the release it deserves.
CaptYamato said:
Sucks!
BTW is there any word who was/is currently working on the korean BD release ? I really hope it's CJ Entertainment since they have only released quality products. I got bought Memories of Murder digipack from Ebay recently and dam it looks so fine and same goes for A Dirty Carnival and Lust, Caution.
Shrike_Priest
Member
I was very impressed with ISTD personally. Both Lee and Choi are amazing actors. I had no problem with suspending disbelief for all the crazy stuff Lee pulled. I think his eyes really sold me on the "crazy about revenge"-thing. I did have a problem with the speedy recoveries, but it didn't really
I'm not quite sure what to make of the ending, though.
Oh well, as you can see I'm pretty conflicted about it, but I loved it still. I think it did a great job of infusing some nice ambiguity into a genre that's been on the brink of over-exploitation. And as with all his other films, the craftsmanship is amazing.
I'm not quite sure what to make of the ending, though.
My initial reaction to his breakdown at the end was that it was due to the realization that he himself had become a monster as well by exposing the innocents family to the death of their son/dad. But then I figured it might have been the fact that his revenge didn't give him any relief? Or was it merely a reaction to the catharsis? I mean, in terms of the character, he really did descend into complete evil. The vengeance was over the top, and the collateral damage unjustifiable. I think that's one of the strengths of it, but I'm still not entirely sure I'm reading it the right way.
Compared to Sympathy For Mr Vengance, or Oldboy, where vengeance is problematised, but ultimately on some level "justified"(we root for Oh-Daesu), in ISTD the vengeance becomes so all-consuming that we end up feeling like the "hero" essentially is a villain. The whole "gimmick-guillotine" thing seems more like a call-back to "classic revenge"-films, where the villain sets up some ingenious torture device to kill the hero. The whole elaborate revenge thing is more of a bad-guy trait. And the part with the family is just awful. But that part, the fact that Lee actually hits on the one thing that Choi fears (his family finding out who he really is), makes it seem like Lee finally "wins". And that made me a bit weirded out, sure, he finally "beat the bad guy", but he did so by doing something equally awful. At first I thought that just came off as weird. I mean, I'd been on some level rooting for him, hoping he'd somehow break Choi down, but the way in which he did so left me feeling very unsatisfied. That victory comes at too high a price in terms of the suffering he causes the family. Which I assume is the point Kim is trying to make.
Compared to Sympathy For Mr Vengance, or Oldboy, where vengeance is problematised, but ultimately on some level "justified"(we root for Oh-Daesu), in ISTD the vengeance becomes so all-consuming that we end up feeling like the "hero" essentially is a villain. The whole "gimmick-guillotine" thing seems more like a call-back to "classic revenge"-films, where the villain sets up some ingenious torture device to kill the hero. The whole elaborate revenge thing is more of a bad-guy trait. And the part with the family is just awful. But that part, the fact that Lee actually hits on the one thing that Choi fears (his family finding out who he really is), makes it seem like Lee finally "wins". And that made me a bit weirded out, sure, he finally "beat the bad guy", but he did so by doing something equally awful. At first I thought that just came off as weird. I mean, I'd been on some level rooting for him, hoping he'd somehow break Choi down, but the way in which he did so left me feeling very unsatisfied. That victory comes at too high a price in terms of the suffering he causes the family. Which I assume is the point Kim is trying to make.
Oh well, as you can see I'm pretty conflicted about it, but I loved it still. I think it did a great job of infusing some nice ambiguity into a genre that's been on the brink of over-exploitation. And as with all his other films, the craftsmanship is amazing.
watched the The Stool Pigeon really fucking awesome! Loved the beast stalker alreay but stool pigeon is way better. If you want to watch a SMART HK action movie go for it!
trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DOL3EeOulU
trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DOL3EeOulU
Been going on a Korean binge myself recently. Watched Old Boy, Thirst, Bittersweet Life, and The Man from Nowhere. I have I Saw the Devil on the way.
Apart from the remaining 2 movies in the Vengeance trilogy, what should I watch that is a similar Korean movie? Something with action like TMFN or Bittersweet, maybe with crime, maybe not. That JSA movie from the first page seems interesting.
Oh also, don't know if it was mentioned earlier, but FRIEND was a great movie as well.
Apart from the remaining 2 movies in the Vengeance trilogy, what should I watch that is a similar Korean movie? Something with action like TMFN or Bittersweet, maybe with crime, maybe not. That JSA movie from the first page seems interesting.
Oh also, don't know if it was mentioned earlier, but FRIEND was a great movie as well.
CiSTM said:
Eh personally I found Mother to be a much better film and The Man From Nowhere. TMFN felt like a bit like a hollywood type movie, plus the ending...
The girl should have had her eyes taken out. The bad guy shouldn't have helped her just because she was nice to her, it just felt forced so that they could make a happy ending the type you see in hollywood movies.
Thought the same as well.
ZoddGutts said:
Mother was 2009 film. Haven't seen that many Korean films this year and from those few I have seen I would still go with TMFN.
I want to see at least these movies and we will see if any of them will top TMFN.
- Secret Reunion
- Happy Killers
- Enemy at the End
- Bedeviled
- The Unjust
- Yeouido
- Desire To Kill
Timbuktu said:
Edmund Pang Ho Cheung's Love in a Puff is probably my favorite romantic Asian film recently. Very natural dialogue and realistic in showing what life is like for normal regular people in HK today.
I just saw this movie and I love it. It's funny, charming, and most of all the characters feel so real. There's no stupid fluff or silly overacting in this movie, just one of the most well crafted and genuine HK movie I've seen in a while. I'm usually not one for HK romantic comedies, in fact I even hesitate to call it that in fear that I'll turn people off of this movie, but seriously in another life it feels like this story about chain smokers falling in love could have happened to me.
Dice
Pokémon Parentage Conspiracy Theorist
Originality is really hard to come by that I can't hold it up as a requirement for greatly liking a film. Ajusshi was competing in concept with Man on Fire and Taken and it completely obliterated both of them. It's also an action film by intent, meaning that everything else is only the motivation for the point, which is him kicking ass. In other genres things go the other direction, so there may be action but it only serves as the motivation for the point, whether it be relational or conceptual in nature.
I've seen a lot of people docking Ahusshi on the basis of the lacking story, but I think it is all a matter of misguided expectations because it is done so damn well that it's misinterpreted as being a different genre. Namely because of the way it keeps things at such a human level. He's extremely skilled, but it doesn't get incredibly ridiculous with the stunts he pulls like other action movies do.
I've seen a lot of people docking Ahusshi on the basis of the lacking story, but I think it is all a matter of misguided expectations because it is done so damn well that it's misinterpreted as being a different genre. Namely because of the way it keeps things at such a human level. He's extremely skilled, but it doesn't get incredibly ridiculous with the stunts he pulls like other action movies do.
demosthenes
Member
Speaking of asian films.
Anyone suggest some good Korean films? Trying to learn the language so more exposure would be awesome.
Anyone suggest some good Korean films? Trying to learn the language so more exposure would be awesome.
Kuro Madoushi
Unconfirmed Member
Fuck man from nowhere. The very very end was contrived to be happy.
I admit the action was good, but the rest needed a lot of work. Obama? Fucking serious!? Cops were wasted film in it and the villians needed focus. Not....ummm... Ok drugs AND organ harvesting and violence.
Like they'd let her run around in the fucking garage. Should've lost the eyes imo after seeing what the gang did
I admit the action was good, but the rest needed a lot of work. Obama? Fucking serious!? Cops were wasted film in it and the villians needed focus. Not....ummm... Ok drugs AND organ harvesting and violence.
Shrike_Priest
Member
demosthenes said:
What was posted above was true, most the movies discussed here recently are Korean.
Quick collection of some famous beginner's Korean movies classed by director:
Chan Wook Park:
JSA
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
Oldboy
Lady Vengeance
Thirst
Kim Jee Won:
The Quiet Family
A Bittersweet Life
The Good, The Bad & The Weird
I Saw The Devil
Bong Joon Ho:
Memories of Murder
The Host
Some random good movies:
My Sassy Girl
Save The Green Planet
Nowhere to Hide
Musa: The Warrior
Taegukgi
There are plenty more, but I've seen all of those and can vouch for them.
TheKaeptain
Banned
A Dirty Carnival is probably one of the best gangster movies made in the last 20 years.Ashhong said:
LethaL ImpuLse
Member
So I just watched:
A wholly beautiful and authentic glimpse of the beauty and hardships of family life, akin to Tokyo Story or Yi Yi. It's on Netflix streaming, watch it now! One of the best films I've watched period.
A wholly beautiful and authentic glimpse of the beauty and hardships of family life, akin to Tokyo Story or Yi Yi. It's on Netflix streaming, watch it now! One of the best films I've watched period.
Watched I Saw The Devil last night. That was fucking intense. Not much more I can say about it, but goddamn. Some twisted scenes too, damn..
What happened to the sister of his fiance? Was she the body that they show for like a second that was beaten up, found in like a tunnel? She's alive right?
diablopanqueque
Banned
Streaming Yatterman over at my livestream!
livestream.com/gulgagrimna
livestream.com/gulgagrimna
diablopanqueque
Banned
Pein said:
A Secret Reunion - Not bad. Has some funny moments and was pretty entertaining. One of the better Asian flicks of '10.
Detective Dee - lol at the CG in the first 1/5 of the movie. The wire-fu wasn't as bad as a lot of chinese martial arts flicks. Worth a watch, but I don't consider it a particularly good film.
Detective Dee - lol at the CG in the first 1/5 of the movie. The wire-fu wasn't as bad as a lot of chinese martial arts flicks. Worth a watch, but I don't consider it a particularly good film.
I would LOVE to see more war movies and historical epics come out of Korea. Musa is one of maybe two or three Asian historical epics that I really like (love the genre, but don't think Asian film makers do a very good job, for the most part) and fantastic war films are rarity.Shrike_Priest said:
TheKaeptain
Banned
Ashhong said:
She died. The father might have lived
diablopanqueque
Banned
diablopanqueque said:
Now streaming Kekko Kamen Returns
TheKaeptain
Banned
Ashong, you're from L.A. right? If "I Saw The Devil" plays there you down to watch it?
Angelus Errare
Banned
All I gotta say is
The Unjust
Awesome.
The Unjust
Awesome.
.
Anyways been enjoying Johnnie To movies. Though he seems to be a hit or miss a bit more on the hit side. One's I really liked are Election 2, Exiled, Running out of Time (the first one not the 2nd one which SUCKED), Turn Left, Turn right, The Mission, Breaking News, Mad Detective, Needing You..., and Throw Down. Haven't seen Vegenace yet. He's other movies have ranged from kinda bad to okay.
AquaticSquirrel
Member
Some great recommendations so far in this thread as I got completely out of the loop when it comes to Asian cinema.
So far because of this thread I've watched
Departing
The Chaser
Crying out love, at the centre of the world (I think that's the name)
I really liked Departing, when I began watching it for the first few mins I was like "Uh...ok..." and was ready to be disappointed, but as the film goes on it builds and is filled with charm, character and some solid emotional scenes. Also the first thing I noticed was the amazing soundtrack, first thing that popped into my head was "Sounds like Joe Hisaishi..." but I assumed it wasn't him.
After then reading up on this completely unknown film to me I find out that Hisaishi did do the music and that the film was nominated for like a billion awards, which were well deserved having seen the film now.
The Chaser was a good film I thought, it was well shot and it was great seeing the change that the main character goes through from the way he is at the beginning of the film and how he is by the end. It's sort of a thriller I suppose, I don't want to label it as a cop drama because although it involves the police allot it doesn't really conform to the genre standards for it.
Crying out love I thought was brilliantly shot, I liked the way the scenes in the past when times were happier and to evoke nostalgia the filters are really bright and the colours very clean and pronounced, whereas in the present things are more dull, muted, murky and grey so as to contrast each other.
I thought the premise of the film was quite good, some solid acting and some touching scenes, however I didn't feel that some of the motivations for why things were happening made allot of sense, and obviously its one of those fantasy romance/tragedy stories so some things are a bit over the top for my liking
but at the same time it was an enjoyable movie and I'm glad I watched it.
So over the next few days I'm going to be diving into allot of the other suggestions in this thread and expanding my taste in film etc... I'll report back with my impressions as I see each film, but thanks to everyone who participated in this thread because if it wasn't for you guys I would not have seen these films.
Also in terms of recommendations for Asian films I'm a big fan of Takeshi Kitano so I like:
Hana-Bi
Kikujiro
Sonatine
Kids Return
Zatoichi
I enjoyed My Sassy Girl when I first saw it a few years ago, very charming film and then tons of obvious ones such as martial arts movies and whatnot.
Mabudachi (Bad Company) is a great film I saw one night on TV without knowing anything about it, I can't really explain what its about without ruining it but I would recommend everyone watch it.
So far because of this thread I've watched
Departing
The Chaser
Crying out love, at the centre of the world (I think that's the name)
I really liked Departing, when I began watching it for the first few mins I was like "Uh...ok..." and was ready to be disappointed, but as the film goes on it builds and is filled with charm, character and some solid emotional scenes. Also the first thing I noticed was the amazing soundtrack, first thing that popped into my head was "Sounds like Joe Hisaishi..." but I assumed it wasn't him.
After then reading up on this completely unknown film to me I find out that Hisaishi did do the music and that the film was nominated for like a billion awards, which were well deserved having seen the film now.
The Chaser was a good film I thought, it was well shot and it was great seeing the change that the main character goes through from the way he is at the beginning of the film and how he is by the end. It's sort of a thriller I suppose, I don't want to label it as a cop drama because although it involves the police allot it doesn't really conform to the genre standards for it.
Crying out love I thought was brilliantly shot, I liked the way the scenes in the past when times were happier and to evoke nostalgia the filters are really bright and the colours very clean and pronounced, whereas in the present things are more dull, muted, murky and grey so as to contrast each other.
I thought the premise of the film was quite good, some solid acting and some touching scenes, however I didn't feel that some of the motivations for why things were happening made allot of sense, and obviously its one of those fantasy romance/tragedy stories so some things are a bit over the top for my liking
Getting a marriage license at 16? For a girl he never even slept with? Taking a terminal patient in a sterile room who we assume you want to live out into the germ filled environment to get a flight to Australia? I could go on but you get my point, a few things were a bit silly to me
So over the next few days I'm going to be diving into allot of the other suggestions in this thread and expanding my taste in film etc... I'll report back with my impressions as I see each film, but thanks to everyone who participated in this thread because if it wasn't for you guys I would not have seen these films.
Also in terms of recommendations for Asian films I'm a big fan of Takeshi Kitano so I like:
Hana-Bi
Kikujiro
Sonatine
Kids Return
Zatoichi
I enjoyed My Sassy Girl when I first saw it a few years ago, very charming film and then tons of obvious ones such as martial arts movies and whatnot.
Mabudachi (Bad Company) is a great film I saw one night on TV without knowing anything about it, I can't really explain what its about without ruining it but I would recommend everyone watch it.
TheKaeptain
Banned
Ashhong said:
This time it will be in a cinema with great audio and great PQ.
Shrike_Priest
Member
I just wanted to add to my list of Korean stuff: Ryu Seung Wan has made some really solid action flicks:
Arahan (urban wuxia)
Crying Fist (boxing drama)
City of Violence (badass martial arts goodness)
Crying Fist is easily his best achievement in terms of all around filmmaking, but both the others feature great action and are nice, tight, entertaining movies.
Arahan (urban wuxia)
Crying Fist (boxing drama)
City of Violence (badass martial arts goodness)
Crying Fist is easily his best achievement in terms of all around filmmaking, but both the others feature great action and are nice, tight, entertaining movies.
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