Why are Japanese films so terrible?

'for the damaged right eye'

that's a great one. though I like 'Atman' as a study, and 'White Hole' is incredible for the electronic music by Yuasa, and 'KI or BREATHING' is a little slow but ends up working because of the Takemitsu score. I still haven't seen 'Funeral Parade of Roses' yet -- it looks so amazing

julio, have you seen Shinoda's 'Petrified Forest'? That one has such a great Takemitsu I'm thinking of hunting it down

― Milton Parker, Monday, January 9, 2012 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Milton watched this last night - score was amazing, really one of Takemitsu's best. Almost overwhelmed the film.

Really sucks that the Asian film dvd releases have dried up so much, especially when all sorts of stuff is coming out on fancy bluray editions. Maybe the main audience for a lot of this stuff is just torrenting everything?

Third Window is still going but there's no sign of any of Sion Sono's films since Land Of Hope.
Here's their 2015 releases, which I hope there will be more of.
http://us1.campaign-archive2.com/?u=75efa0407558406b19a943c40&id=d69b433f90

Here is a piece about some of the difficulties Third Window have had from a few years ago. Some things specific to way UK film business works. Don't know if much will have changed.
http://twitchfilm.com/2012/06/third-window-films-stops-with-theatrical-distribution-and-this-is-why.html

yeah, that's sad. i try to buy their stuff when i can. but i admit i often save my cash for blu-rays, since i often get burned when i buy a DVD import only to see it come out on blu-ray subsequently.

Have to admit that most of the Third Window stuff looks too much on the quirky kooky indie side for my taste (which nonetheless appears to be more poppy, wild and imaginative than American indie films). But I don't think they can afford a lot of the stuff Tartan used to put out.

here in the states the studio boutiques like sony pictures classics occasionally pick up a japanese film they think might get a little awards buzz but in general its terra incognita. i actually /have/ to use torrent sites to find a lot of recent japanese stuff; it's the only place to get subtitled copies.

i emailed third window with some suggestions of 1980s and 1990s japanese films they might consider picking up, but i'm not in the business so i wouldn't presume to know what their economic calculations are when they decide what to release.

so many important japanese directors of last 30 years are almost completely unknown in the states, e.g. jun ichikawa (only "tony takitani,' not one of his better films IMO, got distributed here), sogo ishii, shuinichi nagasaki, shinji somai, masayuki suo....

in the states, and i presume in the UK too.

I was thinking of emailing dvd labels about what I'd like to see. Is that something they're known to appreciate or expect?

Sogo Ishii for sure. I'd like Angel Dust and Crazy Thunder Road in particular.

I think Ghost Of Yotsuya is the most glaring absence of classic asian horror for home viewing. Especially considering it's way better than most of the other classic asian horror films.

I've always wanted there to be a site dedicated to showing what was in demand, like database listings for all manner of films, books and music and a petition on each thing so that publishers know how many people would like this or that.

The festival I'm at has Japanese theme. Any of these I need to check out? http://filmweb01.filmfestival.org/filmfestival/info/sv/festivalprogram/programentry?page=searchlist&filmId=185481

http://filmweb01.filmfestival.org/filmfestival/info/sv/festivalprogram/programentry?programSectionId=185488

Think you meant to post this link?

Tsukamoto's Fires On The Plain definitely. I hope it isn't too long before I can see it.

I think Terracotta might be picking up a lot of the new Asian films for UK home releases and cinema. But the releases haven't been that frequent recently.

I was pleased to discover Survive Style 5+ on YT. Strap in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5Av8RGht0M

The Japanese Embassy in London puts on free movie showings, this month it's Yasuo Furuhata's 'Station'

http://www.uk.emb-japan.go.jp/en/webmagazine/2015/01/film.html

crazy thunder road should be a huge cult film everywhere, not just in japan

if i ran a cinematheque i'd program a thunder road / crazy thunder road double bill for sure

I saw Tokyo Sonata yesterday and liked it but is that really possible for a boy that age to be locked up with adult criminals in those circumstances?

The Japanese Embassy in London puts on free movie showings, this month it's Yasuo Furuhata's 'Station'

http://www.uk.emb-japan.go.jp/en/webmagazine/2015/01/film.html

― MaresNest, Sunday, 1 February 2015 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Thanks for the reminder I should go there sometime. At a three quid too.

i think part of the requirements might be difficult:

"To know where you heard about this event"

er, on an ile thread called 'Why are Japanese films so terrible?'

ICA is doing a week of japanese films. i saw 2 yesterday and 3 on saturday. would love to see them all actually. never seen anything by naruse before so was good to see one of his last night though i think i wasnt awake enough to really engage with it fully. but of the others, i loved pretty much all of them, esp blood and bones with takeshi kitano. looking forward to seeing a rare seijun suzuki one on tuesday. theyre mostly more genre-y movies, but not formulaic, so its good to see stuff that isnt just arthouse fare for your berry eating snobs at curzon and isnt straight commercial popcorn fodder either. sort of slapping myself for not going to the japan touring programme's events before.

details here for the curious:

https://www.ica.org.uk/whats-on/seasons/japan-foundation-touring-film-programme

Was toying with going to see Scattered Clouds yesterday. Love so much of Naruse but didn't get round to it.

Have been to the touring programme before. Kind of local, forgettable fare that costs way too much to see (see also the Polish/Spanish/Czech 'festivals' mounted at a cinema in London). xp

im not claiming theyre masterpieces (though takeshi kitano did make blood and bones completely unforgettable), but idk, i like seeing east asian genre stuff too. sometimes people only want to see 'foreign' movies if theyre exotic or presenting/doing something stylistically different to generic stuff from the US/UK, but i dont mind seeing the regular stuff too if it does it well. they did a reasonable multibuy offer too.

I'm not saying you are claiming they are masterpieces.

I just don't take much of a liking to this block of films of 'heart warming tales' or (in Japan's case) cartoons Anime that don't seem to be deemed interesting enough to sustain even a one week showing at a cinema in London (they aren't great judges of this, and I guess it doesn't work that way) although cultural instiutes (Japan embassy, Goethe, I think the Korea embassy also) in London can do a fairly good job with cheap one-off screenings.

i think a lot of films get passed over by distributors for cinema release tbh. they appear and go down well at festivals but no one picks them up after that. not always to do with their quality. but yes, i dont think half of these films *would* do well as theyre not really 'interesting' enough for arthouse audiences who often like international movies for their novelty aspect or a window into another world etc, or show you the most extreme part of the society theyre from (or a chocolate box version of it), but even something like trash humpers only got shown at the ica for idk, one week when it came out. the japan touring programme i would say is a bit like the indian film festival in london, mostly for the people the films are made by.

I looked at the films for that Indian film festival last summer and didn't appeal. People turning up to see faces they are more comfortable in seeing is not my thing.

I bother with films from other parts of the world to see different worlds and extremities and aesthetics, often tied to politics most people find boring - which gives them an internationalism. Or so that is the case for much of the time..

"People turning up to see faces they are more comfortable in seeing is not my thing."

this is not behaviour limited to any one group...

the indian film fest had some good stuff in there (eg - miss lovely, which even S&S seemed to like iirc). theres more to indian cinema than satyajit ray. and i imagine for a certain type of cinephile, the japan touring programme reminds that there is more to japanese cinema than idk, ozu.

anyway, i saw this last year at the terracotta film fest, and apart from over-using the intro of be my baby, it was a really good modern japanese micro budget movie.

http://astore.amazon.co.uk/thiwinfil-21/detail/B00SBS0B34

third window put out a lot of good stuff. if tartan was still around i imagine they would have picked some of this stuff up.

and actually its not just about the audience wanting to see people who look like them (as if white western audiences dont do this), i think its simply about films that dont seek to explain certain things to an audience; it assumes there is that understanding already. basically it assumes the audience is a domestic one, rather than international one.

Well Ray or Ghatak or Oshima didn't seek to explain their content to a foreign audience. Not sure many international auteurs do this.

"People turning up to see faces they are more comfortable in seeing is not my thing."

this is not behaviour limited to any one group...

Of course not. However this kind of programme tends to reinforce this behaviour.

perhaps not 'explain' but 'awareness of who is watching this on the international arthouse/festival circuit' i think cant help but have some effect

"However this kind of programme tends to reinforce this behaviour."

are you saying there shouldnt be ___ (insert country) cinema festivals?

I view these touring festival programmes with suspicion.

'awareness of who is watching this on the international arthouse/festival circuit' i think cant help but have some effect

That may come in, but actually it could just as easily be the case that the film might be analysing something that easily crosses borders.

Does anyone recommend Blind Woman's Curse?

anyone seen this or any of the other 'continental trilogy' propaganda films?

http://www.japansociety.org/event/china-nights

http://www.midnighteye.com/features/midnight-eyes-best-and-worst-of-2014/

I could have swore I was checking for this more recently than early February but here it is.

The japanese films I've seen lately - Still the Water, Tokyo Tribe, Over Your Dead Body - really hasn't been that good, though Tokyo Tribe is ok. Doesn't seem to have been a banner year to me. I really like that the list ends with They Have Escaped being named 'Best Finnish Film'. That is both a nice non sequiteur, but also very very true.

When was the last Japanese masterpiece? Tokyo Sonata?

Have you seen Fires On The Plain yet? I really want to see it because it's Tsukamoto. The only nearby cinema cancelled it due to tech problems.

The report last year was similarly bleak. It's really sad to hear that a lot of the 80s-90s generation of directors have not been able to continue making films.

I've tried to catch it at two festivals, but scheduling, man! But yeah, I want to watch it.

Anybody keeping up with Kiyoshi Kurosawa?

Kinda. 'Penance' had it's charms. 'Real' goes off the rails and the most spectacular fashion I've seen in a looong time. That is one batshit final stretch. Haven't seen 'Seventh Code'.

Tokyo Tribe is getting UK disc releases by Eureka in June.

Wonder if that's the guy from Schaa Dara Parr I can see

I found Tokyo Tribe pretty disappointing. It's very ambitious, has some impressive visuals and some funny stuff but I think the whole thing just didn't work often enough. The music too rarely took off and the bad guys were extremely tiresome.

ooh, upcoming dvd box sets:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Battles-Without-Humanity-Blu-ray-Limited/dp/B013V721SC - 12 discs, £100

this is a bit more reasonable
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B013GM4KDG
THE SHOHEI IMAMURA MASTERPIECE COLLECTION - 5 BR, 6 DVD, 1 CD, £47

(would've liked Black Rain in that last one as well, been a while since i've seen it)

http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/lists/mikio-naruse-10-essential-films?utm_content=bufferac4f0&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitterbfi&utm_campaign=buffer

Yearning is settling nicely into the Late Spring slot in Naruse's body of work. (In other words, it's a favorite among those who go beyond the typical headliner, e.g. Tokyo Story, When a Woman Ascends the Stairs.)

Perhaps someone familiar with japanese can correct me, but I've been wondering about what on earth the title of Naomi Kawase's film Still the Water is supposed to mean. The japanese title is Futatsume no Mado, which for my limited understand of grammar I would thought have been adjective + noun as in 'The Still Water' or just 'Still Water'. So I checked it on google translate, and it said Still the Water. So then I became a bit suspicious, and went on AsianWiki, which told me the title literally means The Second Window. And now I'm wondering if someone somewhere has actually google translated a film title and made it nonsensical, and I'm wondering how much of the dialogue was mistranslated as well. There were definitely some weird quotes when I watched it.

Anyways, watching lots of Kawase, and I really like most of it. One of the most unique japanese directors at this moment, definitely, though Still the Water is not as good as the earlier stuff. Has anyone seen any of her documentaries?