Movies From The Far East

[meppi]

While I realize that this topic might die a lonely death, I still want to give it a try in the hope that there are others out there who just like me might take the leap and start discovering some of the great films which have come from Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea.

First of a couple of links to some very helpful sites:

KFC Cinema

Love Hong Kong Film

Snowblood Apple

Asian Movie Web

Midnight Eye

For me it started of with watching the American remake of The Ring, which made me fall in love with the horror genre once again.

I used to watch every single horror movie I could get my hands on when I was young. Around the age of 15-16 (1993 or so).

There were so many being made and the quality was much higher than it it today, where every single movie seems to only try to shock the audience by being as brutal as possible.

At the end of the nineties, for some reason, horror movies were dying. And many years went by without me giving them a second thought.

That is until I watched the Ring on a hot summer night.

I was so intrigued by this one that I started poking around and found that many people were talking about how the original Japanese version was ever better.

So when coming across a 4DVD set box of the Japanese Ring movies for €13 I picked them up, only to have them sit on my shelf for about 5-6 months.

When I finally watched the first one on a boring winter night, I thought to myself: wow, could it be that there are other Japanese movies out there that are this great?

So I started looking for more Japanese horror DVDs, and picked up one after the other.

I even accidentally picked up The Eye Box Set and was disappointed when I found out these were Korean instead of Japanese...

Little did I know about Asian movies at the time.

As it turned out later, I loved The Eye just as much as The Ring.

I even went as far as to look for the original Ju-on movies, you know the Grudge V-Cinema movies which weren't released anywhere on DVD except for Germany, with German audio included.

So I found a Japanese VHS rip and took the movie itself from the German DVD and put the 2 together.

Till this day the original Ju-on is still my favorite Asian horror movie.

The DVD movies Jo-on The Grudge 1 and 2 are great as well, but for some reason don't have the same impact on me as the low budget V-Cinema original.

And for the love of God, please don't be tempted to get the Remakes of The Grudge 1 and 2 with Sarah Michelle Gellar.

I watched the first US one after seeing the original 4 Japanese movies and hated it so very much that I don't even want to watch the sequel even though I bought it along with the first one.

After watching some incredible Asian horror movies, I started looking for websites about regular Asian movies.

But it's very hard to find what you want when you don't even know what you're looking for in the first place.

This has been going on for over a year now and I have been buying films in genres that I normally wouldn't have given a second look, like drama's and romantic movies, and even a classic 1954 film called Seven Samurai by Kurosawa Akira. I never thought those old black & white movies would be for me, but this one changed my view completely.

I used to hate drama's and romantic movies with a vengeance, until I found out that when there's actually a great story underneath instead of just the sentimental sugary depressing stuff that most of those movies tend to be made out of, they can be very moving.

Well, better stop talking so I don't run out of things to say when someone actually posts in here.

I'll just give a couple of recommendations in various genre's for people who might be interested.

I'll keep it extremely brief so to not give away anything that might spoil the films. It's easy enough to find a Youtube trailer or a review of these on one of the above mentioned sites.

A Tale of Two Sisters: Thriller/"Horror"

Two sisters come back home to love with their father and cruel stepmother, but something isn't quite right as there are some things that feel off right from the start.

Incredible movie and one of my all-time favorites. Unbelievable atmosphere and beautiful cinematography combined with great acting and a very special story. Essential movie all the way.

Infernal Affairs: Thriller/Action

What could have turned out to be a simple cop vs criminal flick turns into a very carefully crafted thriller with some very smart tricks up it's sleeve.

Old Boy: Action/Drama

A man is imprisoned for 15 years without knowing by who he is being held or why.

Once he is free the search for answers starts and it's time for revenge, with a couple of roadblocks along the way.

Again, and essential film.

Survive Style 5+: Action/Comedy/weird stuff.

Didn't know what to expect from this one and I have actually no idea how to start describing it.

Extremely cool movie with incredible fight scenes, (not too many though), a completely non-sensical plot, lots of laughs along the way and one of my favorite actors ever (Tadanobu Asano) in a great performance!

5 different stories intertwine with one another in such a way that there is never a dull moment during the strange things that happen all the way up till the end.

[meppi]

Yeah, yeah, no one cares.

Well I don't care that no one cares.

I'm a Cyborg but that's OK.

Just done watching this movie as it came out over here a week or so ago.

I can't believe how much hate this film gets.

Must be the expectation of people who only wanted to see another movie like the Vengeance trilogy by the same director.. :-/

I'm normally not for these romantic comedy kind of films, but after falling in love with Chungking Express a couple of months ago when I ordered a copy on import, (it was actually also just released over here in a 4 DVD Wong Kar Wai set just now, which I also bought) I'm much more open to give these kinds of movies a try.

Also ordered My Sassy Girl, but they sent me the US remake, so a new original copy should be on it's way as we speak.

I'm a Cyborg, but thats OK does take it's time to get going on it's first viewing though.

It's quite slow for the first half hour or so, but after that you get sucked into the story and it's just a crazy butt, but sweet ride on the coocoo express.

Very touching film in it's own kind of way.

Don't think we'll ever see one quite like this ever again, but that's OK.

Anyway, if you're still on the fence about this one and have been scared off by the hate it gets, don't be.

Yes it's special and I can understand that not everyone will like it, but knowing what I know now I would be sorry if I had missed out on this one.

An absolute wonderful review which hits every spot of the movie perfectly can be found here:

http://www.mandiapple.com/snowblood/imacyborg.htm