"Normal" Japanese Movies

I'm becoming a HUGE fan of Takashi Miike. But alot of his movies ok almost ALL OF THEM are pretty warped.

I saw Battle Royale Yesterday......I was saying What the fuck more times than I care to admit.

The Returner was horrible.

Versus was brilliant but hardly normal.

I like Samurai Fiction and Red Shadow but those are pretty much action films.

So.......Any Japanese movies not about Samurai, Dismemberment or Yakuza that are worth seeing?

Somebody suggested Doll directed by Beat Takeshi. But not much beyond that.

 

i have a huge collection of obscure cat 3 movies on vhs, will have to dig them out, as cant remeber titles off the top of my head, but there are some pretty warped ones in there

 

Almost none. There's a handful, but I've seen only one of them: The original Shall We Dance which was pretty funny.

 

A few Japanese movies I've seen lately that I liked:

Adrenaline Drive
Cure
Bright Future (Akarui mirai)

Cure is slightly warped in its own way, but the other ones are pretty normal. Well, they don't have a lot of violence in them anyway.

 

There's... urm... Hinokio... which you might not want to watch unless you are an 8 year old kid, but the special effects are cool!

 

How about Tampopo? (A movie best described as a kind of quirky Japanese foodie western!) Still one of my favourite flicks.

I also enjoyed Ringu & Ringu 2 - not neccesarily cinematic masterpieces, but an entertaining enough way to waste a couple of hours.

 

Yeah what is it with the Japanese and Testicles?

Coughpompokocough

 

I was highly amused when that one actually got released in the US by Disney! Some nifty pouch work in that one! ;-)

 

Well, he didn't really specify what he meant by "normal." GOH, did you mean normal as in typical of Japanese cinema, or normal as in not shocking and weird to a westerner?

 

Normal as in not shocking and weird to a "Gaijin Baka"

 

imo.. Japanese Horror movies are the best.. There are those lovey dodey japanese dramas which the whole lot of Asian girls who will buy the box set n keep watching n watching plus crying and dreaming.

 

There are many normal Japanese movies but for the most part they are movie versions of existing TV dramas which means you get the same people in them that you see a million times every week on TV with the same crappy acting skills and over used BGM. Then there are the real movie but again they often star someone that you see on TV every day. however these are better quality than the crap based upon a TV drama. The latest ones are pretty much all what the Japanese call "Human Drama" if you don't know what the means then they also called The Terminal staring Tom Hanks a Human Drama. Anyway, latest movies to look out for for pure normal style are:

Life (Human Drama)
Haiko Haaaaan (Comedy)
Bizan (Possibly Human Drama)
Juon Pandemiggu (Horror) out in November
Bitter Ends (??? War?)

Yakumo

 

Last Life in the Universe (Japanese/Thai) quite a masterpiece

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0345549/

 

I'll second Last Life in the Universe, Akarui Mirai. Tampopo is nice and interesting if you're want to see a good story related to Japanese food culture. Other than those there are a lot of excellent modern movies. My recommendations are:

Dramas
Violent Cop, Sonatine and Hana Bi by Kitano
Nobody Knows and Distance by Kore'eda Hirokazu
All about Lily Chou-Chou by Iwai Shunji
Joze to tora to sakana tachi
other Movies starring Asano Tadanobu (e.g. Eli, Eli, Lema Sabachtani, he's also starring in Last Life in the Universe) or Yakusho Koji (e.g. Doppelganger, he's also in Akarui Mirai and Cure)

Action/Anime
Samurai Fiction (Samurai but funny, with great characters and a Rock Music soundtrack)
Mind Game (Anime, warped but clever)

 

I've seen some of Samurai Fiction yes.

 

dont know if any of you know about this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinea_Pig_(film_series)
but its really not for the faint hearted
i have only seen pictures myself not sure if i want to watch them lol

 

Simsons is a very good film, it's about a girls curling team in Hokkaido and is based on a real story. It may be difficult to find though, I saw it on a flight to Japan in 05 or 06.... not sure which.

Ah, some limited info from IMDB; http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0872019/

Casshern is one of my top 10 films ever. It's not WTF! at all but is firmly rooted in anime culture being based on an old 70's (I think) anime. It's a super hero flick but kinda updated for now.

The director is the lucky so and so who married (and divorced) Utada Hikaru and if you have seen some of her stranger PV's then you will know his style. Specifically Colors, Sakura Drops and Travelling.

 

How about "Shall we Dansu?"? I quite like it.. it's much better than the american remake.