japanese cinema is fucking CRAZY

[salaciousx]

so, I just watched battle royale 2, and it was a complete letdown. it was nuts, and it hads it's moments, but it didn't live up to the hype. if nothing else, watching the sequel made me nostalgic for the times I watched the first battle royale, laughing my ass off with good friends (excluding the time with unappreciated interruptions throughout

Comments

i'm Violent Cop

[xfinnpetersx]

for realz for real.
all BR2 is is people yelling out other peoples' name and stretching out their arms towards them. much like the "NOBU!!!" "SHUYA!!!" moment in BR, but way less meaningful.

most Takashi Miike is shock over substance (much like [but much more than] David Lynch)... but you gotta respect someone as prolific as Miike, he's the MF Doom of Asian Shock Cinema.

i've seen:
Dead or Alive
Audition
Ichi The Killer
The Happiness of the Katakuris
... That's not even a dent in his filmography
i suggest "Happiness of..." & Audition. Ichi is good but doesn't live up to the hype (and is incredibly long) and Dead or Alive is a tepid bore-fest.

peep SuperHappyFun or YumYumAnime if you wanna buy some of the rarer ones (e.g.: Full Metal Yakuza ["remake" of Robocop], etc..).

enjoy,
Davidb

Re: i'm Violent Cop

[salaciousx]

yeah, I've seen Audition, Dead or Alive, and Happiness of the Katakuris... I'd have to disagree with you about Dead or Alive, though.. it could use about 30 minutes of editing but there's a huge payoff at the end. I thought I was tripping.

Re: i'm Violent Cop

[jamesdbr]

Personally, I think the EXTREMELY boring middle... well... 2/3rds of it really helps with the payoff. It totally lulls you into a false sense of security.

[jamesdbr]

Dammit, how many times do I have to apologize?!!!

Personally, I've heard that "Freeze Me" is good. And, while not by Miike, "Uzumaki" (or "Spiral" or "Vortex" or "Swirly Thing." The translation can vary a bit ) is a SWEET horror movie. Be sure you don't get the movie Rasen (also translated as "Spiral" sometimes), because I hear that's a Ring rip-off, and kinda lame.

The Tomie movies (there are like 5 or 10 of them) have a neat concept, and are very Italian in execution, but they may or may not be your thing.

"Returner" is a really good sci-fi/action flick. It's one of those movies, like "Equilibrium", that rips off/is better than The Matrix trilogy.

"Princess Blade" is a modern day chambarra movie, standard plot, but awesome action sequences.

Those movies are listed in order from Most->Least fucked up, FYI.

Let me know when you start getting into Italian stuff, by the way.

[jamesdbr]

Also, you know that Miike did two Dead or Alive sequels, right?