Movies! First of all I should probably mention for anyone who hasn’t really watched any, there are some pretty evident differences in the style of movies that one would see in “West” compared to those screened in Japan (though they do ‘import’ Western movies too). The reasons behind this can be generally less interesting and pretty lengthy so lets not go there. Japan generally have been pretty famous for 2 main movie genres, horror and anime. Horror however, is not really my cup of tea, the large gaps between anything happening in the movie bores me. And anime/animation movies in Japan, they are pretty different in Japan it seems compared to what you would see over here. Most animation based movies I see here seem to be aimed at the young maybe upwards to young teens? In Japan though the anime/manga subculture is pretty vastly spread through the age groups soo as you can imagine the target audience for animation movies generally can be a little larger, though still appealing to the young often, but not always the older.
There are also a lot of drama movies, based on high school students and likely aimed at people from the same age groups, hence I end up watching them. Maybe I just don’t get out enough, but it seems to me that there isn’t quite the same number of movies of that style that come to Australia. In addition, unique to Japanese cinema productions is the number of ninja/samurai movies. Though I suppose it is their equivelant to our mostly gun based fighting movies, not to mention that war movies (i.e. based on world wars) would probably never be able to achieve the popularity that such movies see in the West (and for obvious reasons too).Either way, a lot of these style of movies end up being similar in quite a few ways, so you’ll have to excuse my lack of mention to these type of movies in the list below. One of these common occurences in these movies is the shift to starring a main character who is meant to be some hot shot female ninja/samurai who usually wears something that will draw the crowds pretty much, its rather pathetic and usually makes for a poor film.
None the less, let the listing begin!! (oh and note: all the images are linked to their source, so go there if you want a bigger version of it etc)…
1. Howl’s Moving Castle – an animated movie directed by the famous Hayao Miyazaki (宮崎 駿) (who also brought other great movies like Princess Monoke, Spirited Away and 崖の上のポニョ (Ponyo On A Cliff)). He actually came out of retirement for this movie as the original director would no longer do it, and probably sparked Miyazaki to continue his career. Its a story of witches and wizards, and a young girl who I suppose you would say gets caught up in it all. The mysterious wizard Howl is voiced by Takuya Kimura (a very famous actor in many drama’s such as Pride and Hero, and is also a member of SMAP (a musical group)). Though I don’t believe it has been as well liked as Miyazaki’s more recent works, still a very good movie as expected from Miyazaki.
Howl's Moving Castle
2. Crows Zero – a movie adaptation of the manga “Crows” written by Hiroshi Takahashi (高橋ヒロシ). The plot begins when freshman Genji (son of a Yakuza boss) enters Suzuran High School. Genji’s father once went to the same school, a school of fighting where the aim seems to be be strong and rule. None the less through many thrilling fight scenes with some comedic bits mashed into the plot along the way I say it makes for a pretty epic movie as Genji tries to ‘gather the troops’ so to speak, and take over the school completely, firstly by taking out his largest rival Serizawa. Constant fist fights, Yakuza and someone getting stabbed in the face with a fork…All in all I’d say its definetly worth watching if you like a good fight minus any soppy crap.
Crows Zero (comparison to manga characters)
3. Sword of the Stranger – another animated movie, but definetly different from the other anime movies I’ve seen. It’s more of an action type where they don’t constantly stand around talking waiting for something to happen. The plot is quite direct and easily understood without large side-plots to drag things out. The fight scenes also follow this sort of pattern, with only one real side-plot developing, and that is the samurai’s past which has caused him to have a fear of drawing his sword (this isn’t a spoiler though I assure you, they make this quite obvious quickly). All in all, a good movie of evil vs. good.
Sword of the Stranger
4. 転校生：さよなら、あなた (English name: Switching: Goodbye me). Firstly, if you can read it you maybe as confused as I am as to why the English name is that, but oh well it’s just what I’ve been told! Well anyway, if you put both English and Japanese names together you may be able to see how they got the names…The movie (is drama by the way), is about a student transferring back to a town he used to live in, where he meets a friend from many years ago and to cut it a little short the transfer student, and his female childhood friend switch bodies. You might hear this and expect comedy,which there is a little bit I suppose which mostly draws from the differences in speech and manner between males and females. However, its different because it goes into characteristics of friendship and love, as burdens have to be carried which are not their own and so forth. I won’t really say much because its a movie I recommend almost anybody to see. Oh, and its probably not as soppy a I make it sound (or I probably wouldn’t have ended up watching it myself).
転校生：さよなら、あなた (Switching: Goodbye Me)
5. The Hidden Blade (隠し剣 鬼の爪, Kakushi Ken: Oni no Tsume) – a 2004 film, based in the 1860′s in Japan. A period where the West was beginning to have its influence in Japan with the end of the Samurai era drawing near. This is the second movie after The Twilight Samurai, another of my favourite movies based on an era where the Samurai were still prominent. Both the Twilight Samurai and The Hidden Blade have been one of the very few Japanese movies that you ever get to see shown on SBS (in Australia at least), so I presume they must have some popularity. There isn’t much I can really say about a movie like this though because its a style of movie you can either enjoy or not, so anything I say will likely just be spoilers in the end.
The Hidden Blade
Well, I don’t think I should lengthen this any further, I haven’t obviously watched every Japanese movie there is to watch, but I’ve watched a fair amount in the last year or so. If there is one you highly recommend then please leave me a comment and I’ll get onto it!!
じゃ、ピース！Peace
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