Any Japanese movie you'd like to recommend?

[h4k2z]

I guess overall Japanese movies are less popular then lets say Korean or HK movies because a lot of them require the viewer to understand a little bit (or sometimes a lot) of the culture in order to understand the story/jokes/whatever. But there sure are many great ones that remain quite unknown internationally.

So have you seen any good ones that you really like but think isn't that well known? If so tell us! I'd sure like to find out about it. If you have links to the movie, even better!

A movie I saw about 1 or two years ago was called "Daremo Shiranai" or Nobody Knows. Its based on a true story about 4 kids who were abandoned by their mother in a small apartment room. They had to survive on their own for about 6 months and have to depend on the oldest brother, Akira who is about 12-14 y/o i think. The story is not for everyone because it's quite slowmoving (not an action movie by the way). But it really is beautiful and a little bit sad. By the way, the boy playing Akira actually won best actor at Cannes film festival for this movie. He's so young too!!

I don't have the movie with me so can't really share it with you guys. But if you get a chance to watch it. I would highly recommend it.

[Rein]

I want to watch it..................................

[nukeu666]

first of all you just gotta watch the Kurosawa movies
seven samurai
rashomon
ikiru
yojimbo
sanjuro
blood throne(or something like that)

all of them are b&w but not to miss classics

after that u can try ringu for horror since its the only other japanese movie i can think of rite now

[h4k2z]

i don't know why buy i'm a bit biased against old b&w movies. i've heard those movies by kurosawa are great. but what's so great about them? i mean, if you compare them to today's movies are they still watchable/enjoyable?

[Ramen.Noodles]

battle royale 1+2
shinobi
azumi

[starviar]

I don't watch a lot of japanese movies (like korean movies more) but Japanese horror movies are the best:

"One missed call" and "Ju-on / ju-on 2"

and of course "Crying out loud in the centre of the world". It was the first Japanese movie I've ever seen.
They made a remake in korea (my girl and I) but I think the Japanese version is better.

[sakura_drops76]

anyone who likes j-horror has to see suicide club.  it's so creeepy but not just because of the physical horror elements like blood and gore but because it is represents the disconnection between people and their true self due to society's superficial demands

[darkzero2300]

yea i seen suicide club it was kind of sick

[Ramen.Noodles]

just watched that a few hours ago..didnt like it, kinna boring and the ending sucked...

[sour-chocolate]

I've watched some really good Jap dramas long , long, long time ago... uhmm...1 is called Lucky star or Blue Rabbit with main cast by Noriko Sakai. The other one is called Tokyo's love story. They are very touching and with great actors and actress... These days, it seems to me that Japanese actors (+ actresses) are not attractive enough...

[PrincelyLuna]

if u like Nobody Knows, maybe u'd like to see another good movie from the same director (Kore-eda) titled Maboroshi no Hikari. it's a beautiful and quiet movie which i love very much.

i also love Japanese movies as much as i love Korean movies but as u said h4k2z, they are not as easy to understand as the Korean ones. i'll recommend some of the good movies that i have watched:

some Shunji Iwai's movies: Love Letter, Hana and Alice, All About Lily Chou Chou;

some Takeshi Kitano's movies: Fireworks (Hanabi), Kids Return, Kikujiro, Sonatine, Zatoichi;

some random movies: Gohatto, Poppoya, Collage of Our Lives, Welcome Back Mr. McDonald, The Twilight Samurai, Shall We Dance, Waterboys, Quill, Ping Pong, Go, Laundry, Jose, the Tiger and the Fish, Satorare, Thirteen Steps, Last Quarter, Moon Child (heh heh ... though Gackt & Hyde can barely act, i still love this movie! it's fun watching Gackt acting all cool and silly at the same time) ...

if u like horror movie (which i make a point not to watch except for this one) u may want to watch this old movie Kwaidan. the movie contains four short stories. my favourite would be Hoichi, The Earless. u can go and read the synopis of this movie here: http://www.net-monster.com/classicfilms_kwaidan.html

for me ... a movie is a movie ... if it is good, it's good. so i just watch every movie that i chance upon and i love collecting those which i think are good. as for Kurosawa, i really like his Seven Samurai very much and Kagemusha is also good. i have his Ran and Rashomon but haven't seen it yet. i find Dreams boring ... maybe because it's tooo 'artistic' for me, just like Kitano's Doll. but then both films are gorgeous to look at!!

i hope this u'll find something that u like from my babbling there ...

[Vanillasugah]

I like

1 litre of tears, it's based on a true story.

It's really sad! I cried almost every episode...

I highly recommend it, but if you rather appreciate Horror or action...then I don't know.

Chakushin Ari ( one missed call), the one with many episodes...

I'm watching it right now, and I like it!

[eyeofI]

I've only watch a few through english subtitle but these are my favorites:

1)Kintaro
2)shinobi

[amilwu]

yeah, there's a movie that i watched, but i don't remember its japanese name.. but its rough translation is "the man who was overhead"... it was a sci fic where some special ppl's thoughts could be heard by others, and to protect them ,the govt had a program where they ask ppl to treat them as normal ppl and act/pretend not to hear their thoughts... it was quite interesting... has anyone watched it before?

[PrincelyLuna]

yeah, there's a movie that i watched, but i don't remember its japanese name.. but its rough translation is "the man who was overhead"... it was a sci fic where some special ppl's thoughts could be heard by others, and to protect them ,the govt had a program where they ask ppl to treat them as normal ppl and act/pretend not to hear their thoughts... it was quite interesting... has anyone watched it before?

i think u are referring to the movie Transparent: Sad Story of A Genius starring Ando Masanobu. i like this movie too ... although there are some funny moments resulting from his ability to hear the thoughts of others, i find the movie quite sad.