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Japanese horror films

Jade Jaguar

Jade Jaguar

Regular
In another thread, I was telling GKE that he should check out some modern Japanese horror films, and I see that one of my favorites is going to be on the Sundance Channel at 11pm EDT, Friday, Aug. 29. It is a seriously disturbing film, but I will let allmovie.com describe it:
http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=A181774

Actually, Sundance is having a film by the same director, Takashi Miike, on each Friday night in August. I have seen two of the other three, and can highly recommend them. The one I have not seen, on August 15, Dead or Alive: Final, is set in Yokohama in 2364. I am looking forward to seeing that. His films are wild, frenetic, genre and convention busting films. Check them out if you can!
 
Mindwalker, the films I mention most certainly AREN'T anime. Actually, I agree with you, in general anyway, anime does suck. I don't like the way that the heroes and heroines all have the same doll-like faces, and the style of most anime is so similar, you would have to be an expert to tell one artist from another. That said, there have been a very few I liked, Grave of the Fireflies is one.

If you have the Sundance Channel, check out some of these. With the exception of one, which is a sort of horror comedy, the directing style blends parts of Tarantino, Lynch, Hitchcock, and Pekinpah. They are action pictures, but aren't stupid and pointless, like most of their american counterparts. You don't have to be a Japanese film fan to enjoy them. You just have to be able to think fast, and not be squeamish.
 
you mean japan turns out somthing besides anime? when did this happen?

I have watched massive amounts of anime due to the fact the many of my freinds are anime freaks. I find that if I drink enough whsikey and smoke anough bud I can stand it becuase of the pretty colors.
 
.........

*just lost quite a bit of respect for two people... they know who they are*

Wow. What an.... ignorant view. God...... I'm just getting flustered sitting here...... :mad:

COME ON. Damn... Do NOT frelling judge anime by the appearance. I can name at least a dozen, if not more, shows that are vastly superior to ANYTHING on American TV right now (of course, the large influx of reality TV helps that along rather nicely). I'll not bother to list any, since I doubt it'll change any minds. If you get stuck on the fact that it's animated, I'm not even going to TRY to get you to watch it. And that's saying a lot, for those of you that know my driving purpose in life to get as many people as possible to watch anime.

Just because it's animated doesn't make it stupid. And that's all I can really say about that. :mad:

*takes a deep breath*

And since I have that channel, I'll try to remember to watch that movie you mentioned. It sounds pretty good.
 
Saying anime sucks is akin to saying TV sucks. Anime is a broad subject, containing most genres that live action shows have. It's like saying one hates all [insert nationality here]. It's superficial, and an excuse. It seems the problem most people have is that it's animated, and that it all looks the same. If you watch enough, you'll know that it indeed does not look the same, though some anime do look similar. I hate some of the animation too. Kikaider and Cyborg 009 use a type of anime that's just cheap in my opinion. But the stories for both were great and far surpassed most of what is on TV in this country today.

Which begs the question, what anime series HAVE you all seen?
 
AHEM... I believe he asked what you've actually SEEN. I mean, if the only anime you've seen was Sailor Moon or Dragon Ball Z, then maybe I'd understand (though I still like DBZ anyways). However, if you've seen something like... I don't know, Cowboy Bebop or Trigun, and you still say such ignorant things, then you need to be struck by a large vehicle repeatedly, until death occurs from massive trauma and bloodloss. But that's just my take.
 
CBO, you make a good point. It IS like saying TV sucks, and I think 99% of fiction TV shows DO suck, and I might actually like a higher percentage of anime than that.

First, let me be clear. I love lots of Japanese films, and I love lots of animation. And, when I first watched anime, the term hadn't even been coined yet, it was called japanimation. Besides Grave of the Fireflies that I mentioned above, I liked Princess Mononoke, and I have seen a couple of others I liked. I haven't watched Sailor Moon. I tried to watch Akira and didn't like it one bit. I ocassionally try to watch an anime movie on a premium channel, but almost never like them. They are at the same time cutesy and violent, not a combination I like. Also, the faces of the heroes show almost no trace of emotion, even though the supporting characters do! I don't care for that. Princess M. was that way too, but I managed to like it even so.

I guess I struck a nerve when I agreed to dis anime. I should have just said that most of it doesn't appeal to me. Obviously, anime has many fans, and like any genre, some is good, and some is bad. Sorry if I offended anyone. If anyone can suggest some good anime films that play on cable, I will try to give them a look.

Back to Japanese horror, or more like gangster this week, check out City of Lost Souls at 11pm EDT Friday on the Sundance Channel. Here is the allmovie.com description:
http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=A230231
 
I think 99% of fiction TV shows DO suck...
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Quite right INDEED. Hence the majority of my time watching the Cartoon Network. Hardly anybody wants to put in the time to make quality stories anymore.

All anybody can really ask is to give things tries and evaluate on individual merit, not a broad determination based on a minute sample. It's statements like "all anime sucks" and

the stories are stupid also...
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that really get on my nerves. Give some of the popular stuff a look, like Cowboy Bebop and Trigun, or maybe Spirited Away, which I hear (but personally have not seen) is great. And the Cowboy Bebop movie, of course.

Enough. This thread is WAY off topic now. Go to G'Kar's board if you want to learn/discuss more.
 
I generally don't like most anime that I have seen so far ... however ...

Miyazaki movies are great.
Cowboy Bebop is great.
Tenchi is fun.
Akira is entertaining and interesting.

BTW, those movies you pointed out JJ sound interesting so I might have to set the TiVo to record them. ;)
 
Although I suppose any further conversation should be relegated to another thread/board/etc., I just feel like saying just a WEE bit more.

JJ, you say MOST doesn't appeal to you. That just seems... too broad. After all, there are numerous series and movies floating around. If you can enjoy SOME anime, don't just keep to whatever it is you enjoy. Experiment some. That's how I tend to find new series to watch. Perhaps I don't REALLY know where you're coming from. Perhaps you've seen more than I realize. BUT... it just FEELS like you've maybe seen one or two things, and then based your judgment on perhaps a single film you saw that didn't appeal to you. All in all, I REFUSE to stand by when someone gets all uppity about something I really enjoy. ;) Anyways... That's about it.

And MW.... nevermind. Just... nevermind.

Also, I'll go ahead and make a list, despite the fact that I said before that I wasn't going to bother with it. Might as well give some good examples before I stop. :cool: And I'd add informative descriptions or opinions of mine, but I can't really think straight at the moment, so here's your basic list.

-Cowboy Bebop
-Love Hina
-Hellsing
-FLCL
-Inu Yasha
-Lupin III
-GTO
-Big O
-Trigun
-Excel Saga
-.hack//SIGN

There are, of course, many more than that. I just can't remember them or have yet to see them.

And with that, I'm outta here. I don't wanna have to do something I'd regret later. IF I'd regret it. :D
 
GKKR, okay, most that I've seen doesn't appeal to me. I have seen probably 15 - 20 anime films. Of those that I've hated, Tank Police comes to mind quickly... Here is a link to six animes that I saw in 1999 as part of a Japanese film series:
http://www.umich.edu/~iinet/cjs/events/film99s.html
Of those, I liked two, My Neighbor Totoro, and Grave of the Fireflies. It hasn't been posted yet, but this fall, the CJS film series theme is "The Other Anime," what ever that means, and I will attend it.

Am I wrong in my observation that the male and female leads in almost all animes have very similar doll-like faces that show little or no emotion? I find that very off-putting, and is in part the basis for my dislike of anime in general. But, as you can see, I do watch, and like some.

But, back to the posted topic - Japanese horror, and the films of Takashi Miike. Did anyone see The City of Lost Souls on the Sundance Channel Last night? It was relentlessly over the top, and lots of fun to watch. A half Brazilian, half Japanese guy named Mario, and his Chinese girl friend take on both the Yakuza, and the Chinese mob.
It's on again tonight, Saturday night 1:15 am. Check it out if you can.
 
Hrm. Well, out of those six films, I've seen... none of them. I DO own Grave of the Fireflies, but haven't watched it yet.

And I think I kinda liked Tank Police. Although, it was several years ago when I saw it, and I didn't even see all of it.

Also, I tend to keep to series. The only films I've actually seen completely are Vampire Hunter D and the Cowboy Bebop movie, Knockin' on Heaven's Door (or Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, as it's unimaginatively titled in America).

And I suppose that in some ways most styles of anime look similar, but they're not all clones, as some people tend to think. Besides, there's more to anime than just how it looks. ;) Also, I don't really agree with the lack of emotion on the faces of lead anime characters. Most of what I've seen generally gives plenty of emotion, or at least as much as can be shown with animated people. I dunno. Perhaps I'm wrong.

And I keep forgetting to watch those movies! :mad: I seem to barely be able to catch what I usually watch these days...
 
I figured I'd jump in since I just got through watching the last three episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion and Cowboy Bebop: The Movie this past weekend. Granted I'm still new to this whole anime thing, but it seems almost unforgivable to lump stuff like DBZ (even though I like it), Pokemon and Yu Gi Oh(sp) in with stuff like Trigun, Cowboy Bebop and Neon Genesis.

Anyway, I think I like anime (good anime that is) because its so fatalistic... I'm a glasses-half-empty kind a person and anime definitely appeals to me.
 
Most of what I've seen generally gives plenty of emotion, or at least as much as can be shown with animated people. I dunno. Perhaps I'm wrong.
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You aren't wrong. Last night I watched the finale of Trigun again. Plenty of emotion on the faces of the characters. Same goes for CB and others. It's definitely there.

Granted I'm still new to this whole anime thing, but it seems almost unforgivable to lump stuff like DBZ (even though I like it), Pokemon and Yu Gi Oh(sp) in with stuff like Trigun, Cowboy Bebop and Neon Genesis.
Click to expand...

I agree, though I like all the shows you listed, except I haven't seen NGE yet. I put them in two groups sort of: The more serious anime, and the stuff made for kids. I like both. Pokemon and YGO still appeal to me, as do others. But generally I do prefer the more serious/adult kind.

And I also just saw the CB movie for the first time this weekend. :D Very good stuff.

Last, if Japanese films are even half as good as the anime, I think I'll give them a try someday, especially the horror stuff. US films bore me.
 
CBO, you should try some Kurosawa films if you are interested in good Japanese flicks. I haven't watched much of his older stuff but I hear it is good too. ;)

JJ, I have the movie TiVo'd (or it's on the To Do list) so I hope I will be able to watch it soon.

All this talk about Japanese movies and anime reminds me of a post that I read from Fiona Avery the other day:

I was re-watching Spirited Away with a friend tonight when it occurred to me what makes Japanese film, anime, manga (art of that sort) so very different from the same kind of US stories.

Japanese art is fearless. If you watch Spirited Away, you're immediately aware of the fact that there were no suits saying to Miyazaki, "Well I'm not sure if people are going to understand No Face. I mean, what's his motivation? Is he really right for our target audience?" No, there's none of that. No Face makes no sense at all and in his utter lack of sense, he makes all the sense in the world. That's because Japanese art is fearless ... from the ground up.

I've now seen enough anime and manga to know it isn't just the masters like Miyazaki who are getting away with fearless art. The idea of commercial art isn't the same in their culture as it is in ours. First off, we are a culture of individuals and they are a group culture where the nail sticking up is hammered down. The idea of "commercializing" art there could never be what it is here, because of the very nature of artists operating in the context of their society.

Long story short: No one in Japan is fighting to make art make sense to the masses.

As a result, you don't see dumbing down of story-telling. In fact, they're so wildly obtuse that you go nuts just trying to figure out what the hell they meant in certain scenes. You don't see over-acting, you see deft use of understatement instead. They've truly mastered less is more and then come full circle to less is confusing. But they are fearless. And damned if I don't respect that. I want to be that fearless.
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I think that pretty much summed up what makes Japanese film, anime, whatever so much more interesting than what is being produced out of hollywood today. I don't watch a lot of it (although my husband has been and I get a small taste of it from his viewings) but from the little I have seen, I understand what she is talking about.
 
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