GS Wonderland


I really wanted to like this film. Since it has awesome set pieces, great cinematography, and also KICK-ASS music. This is the type of entertainment that everyone should enjoy. However, the film really just falters in the second-half due to poor storytelling. The first half is really good though. Mostly it's about a girl who dresses up as a boy in order to join a rock band. And she got exposed fairly quickly, which is great, because I thought they were gonna wait up until the end of the movie to reveal her. But people find out pretty quickly. However, the second half of the film really had no idea where it wanted to go. Therefore, just falters big time. However, Kill Bill fans might wanna check it out because it has Chiyaki Kuriyama (the crazy school girl) as the main lead. And she did a great job.

YouTube - GSワンダーランド　予告編

Ryuji　竜二


This is it. This is the type of film that I just love. And it just happens to be one of the best gangster flicks I've seen. This is freaking classic in every sense of the word. The film has heart-warming story about a man who tries to leave the Yakuza lifestyle and lead a normal Life, and it's done really-really well. It doesn't indulge in itself that it's a Yakuza film. It almost seems to be a Yakuza that tries to be a normal film. And the best thing is the main actor, you have to believe that he's probably a gangster in real Life....that's how good he is. And the dialogue is just classic, so many great lines (even better if you know Japanese, that's where it's the best). An awesome film in every aspect. You guys should really check it out.

By far my favourite Japanese movie has to be Love Exposure.(Ai no mukidashi)

Love Exposure - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It takes a good deal of controversial topics,wraps it in a tragedy/romance mix. I would strongly advise you to watch it.

Warning,it is a long one,at just over 4 hours.

休暇　Vacation


Another great Japanese film. In some ways, this film is just disturbing and dark with its moral implications. It's about a prison guard who develops a good friendship with a prisoner, the only problem being that the prisoner is going to be executed. And the prison guard doesn't know how to break the news to him. And he doesn't do it. Also, he's also marrying a recently divorced female who is "maybe" the prisoner's girlfriend. We're never really told clearly as to who she is, but man this is a heavy topic.

Great film though.

Realisim, I may be wrong, but I belive that film is the one with the longest continuing action scene? something like 6 minutes in one take?

Children of Men would be longer with 7.5 minutes.

What film?

Japan rarely makes any action films

(And the ones they do make suck anyways)

Geez people, size down your god damn images!

I watched Zatoichi yesterday, wasn't as good as I expected.

Zatoichi was already mentioned in the first page Suki. Please, check the pages whenever you suggest a movie, so that there wouldn't multiple promotions of the same movie.





ファンシィダンス Fancy Dance

Lately I've been interested in Masayuki Suo's movies, so I thought I'll mention few here. Fancy Dance Masayuki's debut movie which is a live action adaptation of a manga of the same name. I'm not really a fan of manga/anime/novel adaptations, but I must say I'm glad I decided to watch this movie.
The main protagonist, Yohei, who is played by Masahiro Motoki (who also plays the lead role in the movie Departures) is a rebelling rocker who has to become a zen monk so he could inherit a temple, in order to do that he must train in a monastery for a year. Will he succeed, and will he be able to return to his previous life after that?... Watch the movie if you want to know the answer. Throughout the movie you'll see what kinds of rituals and tasks a person must endure to become a monk, and how a monks daily life looks like. That alone, is a pretty good reason why you should watch it. So there you have it, a rebel + a place with a strong archaic discipline = a comedy with lots of interesting situations.

I'm not suggesting it, just felt like sharing I'd watched it and had been a bit of a disappointment. I didn't know movies only get to be mentioned once in this thread, thought the whole point was to discuss movies and share titles, but whatever.