What are you watching lately?

[Ichabod]

I've watched three movies and one short film in the past few days, all rare Japanese movies obtained in a tape trade. Shitty quality because the guy kind of screwed me and just taped over old stuff. I've actually had the tapes for months but put off watching them because of the horrible quality.

First up was Crazy Thunder Road, a 1982 movie from so-called "punk rock director" Sogo Ishii. I was pretty excited to see this because Ishii's Electric Dragon 80,000V and Gojoe are two of my favorite movies, and this is reputedly one of his most intense and raw movies. I guess it was pretty good, but I just couldn't get into the movie or relate to it until somewhere near the end. Repeat viewings (possibly of a better quality copy) might change that, but that remains to be seen.

Next up was Denshu Kozo, a short film (46 minutes) that was apparently shown alongside Shinya Tsukamoto's Tokyo Fist at it's 1995 premiere. Extremely bizarre stuff. I could barely follow the plot, yet I found it to be entertaining in a very peculiar way. A bombardment of very cool imagery, heavily experimental filmmaking, appealing anime-like plot that involves time travel and vampires, and me feeling sleep deprived at the time of viewing all led to a very unique viewing experience that seems surreal when I try to recall it. Good stuff, a reminder of why I ever liked strange Japanese movies in the first place (something I needed after the letdown of Crazy Thunder Road).

I watched Katsuhiro Otomo's World Apartment Horror last night and I must say I really enjoyed it. It's a live action movie made after the success of Akira, starring director Hiroyuki Tanaka AKA Sabu (who can also be seen as the ex-cop in Ichi The Killer). A young yakuza is sent to an apartment building to rid it of it's inhabitants, but finds it to be inhabited by strictly foreigners, all the Japanese on the first floor having apparently been scared away by a ghost. Elements of Juzo Itami (think Minbo or A Taxing Woman) and horror movies are combined with a cool multi-cultural cast, great comedy, and a heartfelt underlying theme about cultures coming together. Very entertaining movie, I will definitely be watching this again. It's one of those movies where I can watch half of it, go to sleep, then wake up the next morning and still be in the exact mindset to finish watching the movie and be interested in it.

Finally, I watched another Sogo Ishii movie called Crazy Family from 1984. I came into the movie with vague expectations, my opinion of Sogo Ishii having been broken down somewhat by Crazy Thunder Road. I really didn't know whether I was in the mood to watch this or not. Damn, I was taken by surprise. I liked this just as much as World Apartment Horror, if not more. It's all about a Japanese family that is, well, crazy. It starts out nicely enough, with them moving into a new house and the head of the household, a middle-aged salaryman, finally finding himself feeling fulfilled. Things begin to go wrong (and the movie begins to shift to the dark comedy that it is) when his father comes to visit and never leaves, basically moving in without ever asking. Things degrade from there into the final battle royale, which I'm not sure I could accurately describe even if I wanted to spoil the suprises of this movie. The characters in this movie could easily be featured in a fighting game, each one becoming a crazed eccentric anime-like caricature by the end. The father is a salaryman with a construction hat, his father is a military man circa Japan's occupation of China, the daughter is a pro-wrestler/singer, the wife is a cook (with accompanying pot-on-head and knives), and the son is psychotic, pyramid-obsessed, and constantly studies to get into Tokyo University. I think I've spoiled enough, I'll just say that this was one of the best movies I have seen in a long time, and I would recommend it to anybody and everybody. I think this one is a bit easier to find than the other movies I watched, so if this sounds vaguely interesting to you, definitely seek it out. My description can't do it justice, I haven't even mentioned the soundtrack or a million other things.

[Green]

The last out there thing I watched was the Director's Series dvds. Palm put out 3 dvds each featuring the works of music video directors Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry, and Chris Cunningham. They're all great. While the dvds don't contain the entirety of each director's work, they do contain alot of extras and non-music video shorts. They cost around 15 dollars a peice, and if you're remotely a fan of music videos or experimental film then I reccomend them.
Anyways, glad you're back, Ichabod!

[kabuki]

Wow Ichabod, all of those sound interesting. Thanks for the post

[Drewbacca]

I just watched the The Hulk on DVD and I'm currently watching Buffy Season 4 on DVD (and after that 5). Buffy and Angel are two great shows. I used to think they were garbage before I actually got in to them, but they are well written.

[Salsashark]

I just typed a really long response, but I was not logged in and it got destroyed. Soo, I will just say that I got the Criterion DVD's of two of my favorite movies, Good Morning and In the Mood for Love, which is a really nice luxury compared to the quality I'm used to. Also the extras on ItMfL are very nice.

Also in the past day or two I've watched Battle Royale II, Leon, Charisma, the xmas episode of the Office, Lilja 4-ever, and..that's all I remember having watched. Queued up for today are Bright Future, Kourei, Legend of Zu, Elephant, Onibaba, My Own Private Idaho, and The Woman in Black. I will probably watch a few of those.

Ichabod, thanks for the impressions of those movies. You have piqued my interest in those Sogo Ishii movies again, where did you make that trade? I sort of gave up fast looking for his other movies, I have only seen Gojoe and Electric Dragon still. That Katsuhiro Otomo movie sounds worth tracking down as well.

[Megatron]

Star Wars Ep4
Star Wars Ep5
Star wars Ep6
Beast Wars
Yu-Gi-Oh

[Ichabod]

The last out there thing I watched was the Director's Series dvds. Palm put out 3 dvds each featuring the works of music video directors Spike Jonze, Michel Gondry, and Chris Cunningham. They're all great. While the dvds don't contain the entirety of each director's work, they do contain alot of extras and non-music video shorts. They cost around 15 dollars a peice, and if you're remotely a fan of music videos or experimental film then I reccomend them.
Anyways, glad you're back, Ichabod!

Happy to be back as well, though this place seems a bit different. Not necessarily a bad thing, there's probably a lot of cool new people. Probably a lot of idiots as well . Anyways, I really want that Spike Jonze DVD. I already have almost all of his 40 videos on tape, though it couldn't hurt to see some of them in DVD quality. My main interest stems from the inclusion of some sweet extras, such as Amarillo By Morning, commentary from the Beastie Boys and Bjork, and the 52 page book. The other two Director's Series DVDs look interesting too, but my want for this one eclipses that interest.

Wow Ichabod, all of those sound interesting. Thanks for the post

Don't thank me, I love talking about movies I've enjoyed. I find that the range of movies which that applies to is more limited lately, but no matter. As long as there are good movies out there I haven't seen (and I know there's tons), I try to not to be disillusioned in them.

I just typed a really long response, but I was not logged in and it got destroyed. Soo, I will just say that I got the Criterion DVD's of two of my favorite movies, Good Morning and In the Mood for Love, which is a really nice luxury compared to the quality I'm used to. Also the extras on ItMfL are very nice.

Also in the past day or two I've watched Battle Royale II, Leon, Charisma, the xmas episode of the Office, Lilja 4-ever, and..that's all I remember having watched. Queued up for today are Bright Future, Kourei, Legend of Zu, Elephant, Onibaba, My Own Private Idaho, and The Woman in Black. I will probably watch a few of those.

Ichabod, thanks for the impressions of those movies. You have piqued my interest in those Sogo Ishii movies again, where did you make that trade? I sort of gave up fast looking for his other movies, I have only seen Gojoe and Electric Dragon still. That Katsuhiro Otomo movie sounds worth tracking down as well.

I loved the Criterion DVD of In The Mood For Love, especially the short film by Wong Kar-Wai. I actually have Good Morning on tape somewhere, but I've never gotten to around to watching it. I sort of got disinterested in Ozu after I watched Floating Weeds and could barely stay interested. Tokyo Story is one of my favorite movies, I really should give Good Morning a shot.

What did you think of Battle Royale II? I downloaded it the other day and tried to watch it earlier, only to be foiled by the subs not playing after about 19 minutes. I think I've fixed it now, so I'll probably try to watch it again later. I must say that the 19 minutes I saw was not very encouraging. The characters remained undeveloped and overall seemed unlikeable, not helped by their stupid looking hair. BR1 hooked me from the very start and only got better from there. Hopefully the sequel is just a late bloomer. I want to like it, which is usually what will cause me to end up not enjoying a movie. When I restart it, I'll try to keep an open mind...

I got the movies in a tape trade with this guy:
http://www.panix.com/~damaged/trading/index.html
I don't know if I'd recommend dealing with him, though. Taping over old stuff for a trade is a no-no. I don't know if he always does that, but he certainly did it to me, while I went out of my way to buy high-quality blank tapes just for the trade (as per his instructions). Kind of pisses me off...

[Salsashark]

I guess I enjoyed Battle Royale II since I had little to no expectations for it, but I don't know if I'd watch it again. Battle Royale was just something special, I think, and even before trailers and reviews came in I didn't think any sequel could capture the freshness it had again. I was pretty sure a sequel would either be more of the same, or just the next level of over-the-topness and that (the latter) is pretty much what it is.

Everything about it as a movie is just way more silly than the first (which was already up there on that scale). And as far as the characters, none of them really get developed any further than you saw, with a couple exceptions, but still not very much. The main new character, who was in All About Lily Chou Chou and some other movies but I don't know his name, was completely dispensable. Riki Takeuchi was less painful than I thought he would be, but there is one scene at the end with him that is just completely rediculous.

The terrorism aspect of the movie also took me by surpirse, I had no idea it would be so prevalent. On one hand I kind of admire the movie's politics, if you want to call them that, but on the other hand the entire scenario seems kind of forced for the movie's purposes, and Battle Royale definitely seems like it should be a movie over any kind of commentary.

Also, one of the best things about Battle Royale (the action, violence, whatever you want to call it) is totally gone, and the whole war thing has a few moments, but overall feels either like a total parody of Saving Private Ryan or just completely unentertaining/moving.
So I guess you can tell I think it's a pretty unexceptional movie, but there's just something I have to admire in it's craziness. Definitely not even near the movie that the first was though, and I am not that movie's biggest fan either.

Ichabod, you should definitely give Good Morning a go, it's a really good and enjoyable movie. It isn't laborious to watch as apparently some of Ozu's movies are (I can't say for myself because I've only seen his better known ones).

And to continue this thread, and this really long post, I just watched Elephant and Bright Future. I thought Elephant was really good for what it was, and also probably the most effectively realistic filmed high school I have ever seen (whether that's good or bad).
Bright Future was a bit different than the other Kurosawa movies I've seen, but I liked it a lot. Todanobu Asano was in it too, which surprised me. But I liked many things about that movie.

[kabuki]

Buffy and Angel are two great shows. I used to think they were garbage before I actually got in to them, but they are well written.

Can you convince one of my friends for me?
Nevermind, he pre-judges almost every movie/show, so I think he's a lost cause.

[soundwave]

I used to dislike Buffy for the simple fact that I had several friends who tried to get me into the show. It was a good show but I found last season's Angel to be amazing.

In terms of what i am watching I just got the Ben Stiller Show on DVD and have been watching all 13 episodes constantly.