Hey GHOSTCHASE, I know you follow my Japanese film reccomendations pretty closely, and I have checked out every movie you've ever mentioned I hadn't seen previously. So I'm going to make two topnotch reccomends for you, as they are both films I rewatched recently and I have a great love for, and I think you will too...
BTW, I just randomly found this site...
One: THE MOST TERRIBLE TIME IN MY LIFE
Awesome 1994 relative obscurity reminds me of the excitement of the French new wave (which has never really been translated into many Japanese films I've seen -- another one would be the amazingly-titled and -edited "Bootleg Film"; obviously, there was the Japanese new wave, but that was RADICALLY different than any other "new wave"... or, any other film movement in history, for that matter... I maintain that the Japanese New Wave -- with films like GO GO SECOND TIME VIRGIN, PASTORAL, EMOTION, MAN WHO LEFT HIS WILL ON FILM, DIARY OF A SHINJUKU THIEF, FUNERAL PROCESSION OF ROSES, EMBRYO HUNTS IN SECRET, etc etc etc are the most awe-inspiring, genre-defying, EXCITING clash of images/sounds ever... I wonder why this movement has never really been covered in any meaningful way? If anyone can point me towards books or good essays on the subject, I'd be delighted. Anyway................)... uh, where was I? This is just a cool lil' film, one often forgot by time, I think you'd dig it. Kinda FNW with American film noir tradition, too. It's just so fucking cool, and the sequels (STAIRWAY TO A DISTANT PAST and THE TRAP) are cool, as well.
Two: THE MAN WHO STOLE THE SUN
The guy who made this only made two films. His other film is cool, but this? This is a masterwork. 10/10. We're talking BRANDED TO KILL levels of addiction and excitement when I saw this one. Just TRUELY excellent EXCELLENT filmmaking,
unbelievable filmmaking even, like.. how the fuck did they get certain shots... you know? It's clever, it's epic (2 1/2 hours long -- but not a wasted moment, seriously)... in a way, it resembles stuff like Taxi Driver, in that at the beginning it portrays the main character alone in his apartment, long scenes where nothing gets said or done.. but there's an incredibly long bus hi-jacking sequence that is just startling (and lasts like 40 minutes), a sequence -- from point a to point z -- where a mini NUKE is built (seriously! This is EXTREMELY comphrensive! I read this movie was banned for that fact! I mean, it shocked the hell out of me when I saw it), and after about 90 minutes of strange and quiet drama, the film becomes an epic almost-ACTION film as the villian plays with the cops... it feels like there are maybe 10 movies in here, each one perfectly executed, though each one would probably be the ENTIRE whole of a lesser film. Not in this film. This is truely epic, intelligent, brilliant -- with all sorts of cool little touches, like the "stop motion" (really ,just huge chunks of frames cut out) scene where the plutonium gets stolen. The main thing I really like about this film, which makes people uncomfortable, is how it jumps around from extremely serious (I mean, it's dealing with NUKES for fuck's sake -- Japan
was nuked. I mean, it really put things into perspective, but not in a cheesy way or a melodramatic way, but certainly in a way that makes most people uncomfortable)... and then it becomes sorta this light hearted but exciting action film... but then the main character crossdresses for a long scene... there's this weird part where the main character threatens nuclear holocaust on Japan if the Rolling Stones can't play there (which is based on a real life event where they couldn't play the BUDAKEN or whatever because of Keith Richards's drug charges!). Very unusual... Also, this box art really has nothing to do with the movie but it sure is rad, I'd LOVE to have a poster of this, holy fuck:
One mroe thing.. I highly reccomend reading the descriptions on this site...
http://www.multilingualbooks.com/foreignvids-jap.html ... don't buy the overpriced DVD's. While looking for a screenshot, I came across this site, and nearly every film here that I've seen is fucking EXCELLENT (Kamikaze Taxi, Hana and Alice [which made me cry], Gonin [Kitano is god here in one of the most exciting crime films ever], I Am an S&M Writer, Maboroshi, Evil Dead Trap, Gemini, 2LDK, Nine Souls, Fire within, Bullet Ballet, Another Lonely Hitman, All About Lily Chou Chou [Shunji Iwai is, in my opinion, one of the best directors in the world, and this film is just insane; beautiful, poignant, brilliantly crafted and scored and shot -- so fucking REAL in how it deals with youth, even though I'm not a Japanese teenager I can identify to a big extent with that level of isolation and abandonment; I HIGHLY reccomend this film, as I do
just about any of Shunji Iwai 's films, from his experimental shorts, to even a lot of his DV stuff.. a lot of
that stuff is silly, as is most DV junk, but even THAT he injects with style and wit... just a smart director], Blackmail is my Life!, Kamikaze Girls, etc., etc., etc.). But I found a few films here I'd never even heard of that I'm going to investigate ASAP. After being pretty depressed lately and not really caring about movies or music, some of these descriptions made me really excited. For example, ADRENALINE DRIVE -- I'd never even
heard of this one! Check this..
"Equal parts Takeshi Kitano-inspired gangster comedy, lovers-on-the-lam road movie, and fairy-tale romance, Adrenaline Drive is a triumph of low-key whimsy"
Wow. The last time I saw a film that was "Kitano-inspired", it ended up being the 10/10 "TOO MANY WAYS TO BE NO. 1". Anyway, so that sounds awsome, how about the description for BASTONI?...
" Director Kazuhiko Nakamura's debut is one of the few films to depict the porn industry with humanity and tenderness."
Wow.
So, yeah, great Japanese films, one of the few things that really excites me. Gonna check out all these films here in the next few months. As usual, everyone, if there are any great Japanese films you think I've overlooked, lemme know, because of the great user me. I discovered TWILIGHT (1994) which is one of my favorite films ever!