What are your favorite movies...

[Coquito]

Specifically '45 till all the monster movies became commonplace. I'm currently watching "Kwaidan" right now(Yojimbo later), & while not mindblowing, I've come to appreciate the culture & view things from a different stance. Not scary per say, but the ideas put forth certainly strike despair & pull at you. Don't know many other supernatural Japanese tales, but I'm keeping my eye out.

A big portion of the recommended classics come from Akira Kurosawa, but Hiroshi Inagaki, & Masaki Kobayashi have also made it onto my Blockbuster queue. Besides the obvious movies everyone has to see, what else is out there? Recommendations please.

 

[Sphexi]

Sanjuro and Yojimbo are both excellent movies. Also, watch The Street Fighter and Return of the Street Fighter. Obviously the latter two aren't nearly as good, but are still good in their own right.

 

[Feldenak]

Don't know that I've ever watched a movie specifically from "post-war era Japan".

 

[Howard]

Seven Samurai is about the only one I've seen. I liked it though.

 

[Super56K]

Post WWII era Japanese films are consistently among my favorites of all films. Obviously, Kurosawa is the most notable...watch 'em all they're amazing especially Stray Dog (mentor/pupil detective story), The Bad Sleep Well (excellent revenge movie), High and Low (solid noir), and I Live in Fear (atomic bomb paranoia).

The two latest Criterion Collection films from Kon Ichikawa - Fires on the Plain (saw it and thought it was pretty good) & The Burmese Harp (haven't seen it yet, but I'm looking forward to it after seeing Fires on the Plain)

Another director that has nice Criterion Collection editions is Seijun Suzuki. I suggest watching Youth of the Beast. Very, very fun and cool Yakuza movie. Story of a Prostitute was pretty good too.

Sword of Doom - Tatsuya Nakadai is great in this playing a psychotic samurai.

I've heard that the mini series The Yakuza Papers is great too, but my BB queue consistently has them at long wait...never available.

If you've never seen Yojimbo before then you're in for a treat. Screw Eastwood...Mifune is just too damn good.

 

[Super56K]

Originally posted by: Sphexi
Sanjuro and Yojimbo are both excellent movies. Also, watch The Street Fighter and Return of the Street Fighter. Obviously the latter two aren't nearly as good, but are still good in their own right.

I bought some crappy editions of those two Street Fighter movies in a double pack once. Not very good by any means, but there were a few scenes in each one that made it worthwhile..almost.

 

[Coquito]

Originally posted by: Super56K
Post WWII era Japanese films are consistently among my favorites of all films. Obviously, Kurosawa is the most notable...watch 'em all they're amazing especially Stray Dog (mentor/pupil detective story), The Bad Sleep Well (excellent revenge movie), High and Low (solid noir), and I Live in Fear (atomic bomb paranoia).

The two latest Criterion Collection films from Kon Ichikawa - Fires on the Plain (saw it and thought it was pretty good) & The Burmese Harp (haven't seen it yet, but I'm looking forward to it after seeing Fires on the Plain)

Another director that has nice Criterion Collection editions is Seijun Suzuki. I suggest watching Youth of the Beast. Very, very fun and cool Yakuza movie. Story of a Prostitute was pretty good too.

Sword of Doom - Tatsuya Nakadai is great in this playing a psychotic samurai.

I've heard that the mini series The Yakuza Papers is great too, but my BB queue consistently has them at long wait...never available.

If you've never seen Yojimbo before then you're in for a treat. Screw Eastwood...Mifune is just too damn good.

Thanks for the great reply. I actually have "Bad Sleep Well" in my queue comming up, but I had to get "Fires on the Plain" somewhere else because of the very long wait over at Blockbuster. The stores have absolutely nothing. Right after these, I have 47 Ronin(Chushingura;1962), but it'll take some time to get there, due to the length of alot of these movies. Lots of chips.

Speaking of Eastwood, I didn't even know Kurosawa had writing credits in "A Fistful of Dollars". Even "The Magnificent Seven", althought hat one isn't Clint.

 

[rasczak]

I loved the hidden fortress...

 

[imported_Lothar]

Originally posted by: Coquito
Specifically '45 till all the monster movies became commonplace. I'm currently watching "Kwaidan" right now(Yojimbo later), & while not mindblowing, I've come to appreciate the culture & view things from a different stance. Not scary per say, but the ideas put forth certainly strike despair & pull at you. Don't know many other supernatural Japanese tales, but I'm keeping my eye out.

A big portion of the recommended classics come from Akira Kurosawa, but Hiroshi Inagaki, & Masaki Kobayashi have also made it onto my Blockbuster queue. Besides the obvious movies everyone has to see, what else is out there? Recommendations please.

Takeshi Kitano.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001429/#director

Kinji Fukasaku.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0297935/#director

They've directed some spectacular ones.
Weed through their director history in those links...In general, add any movie you see there above 7.0 rating to your queue.

 

[pyonir]

"The Last Samurai" Tom Cruise is so dreamy...

 

[Ricemarine]

Um, I've seen Ping Pong and Shall we Dance (the Japanese version)... they're ok I guess.

 

[eplebnista]

Originally posted by: Feldenak
Don't know that I've ever watched a movie specifically from "post-war era Japan".

Me either.

 

[angminas]

Rashomon is very interesting and very different from any other movie I've ever seen. It's like existencial Shakespeare samurai Law & Order. You'll need to give it time to get going. It's from like 1954.

If you want to see one of the best East meets West movies, check out Yakuza. The one from the 70s with Robert Mitchum. Not The Yakuza with Viggo Mortensen. I don't think it's a Japanese movie per se, but it's about and set in Japan.

I didn't see in 7Sam what so many others did. It's a decent movie, to be sure, but it doesn't impact me like it apparently does so many others. Like so many other critically acclaimed movies (Miller's Crossing, Memento, Fight Club, Mystic River), it left me wondering what the point was.

One of my favorite anime is Windaria, from around 1984. I don't watch it much, because I don't like crying. I can hear the music right now...*shivers*

 

[dennilfloss]

Never mind. Misunderstood the OP.

 

[andylawcc]

does pron count?

otherwise, the only one I have seen are Ran, Battle Royale, the warm fuzzy movie about a kid with Beat Takeshi, and that big-budgeted bank heist movie with "Kim Sing Woo" (he has a japanese name but I forgot.