This is a place to make goals related to listening comprehension. If we practice listening more now, we’ll be able to understand more later, right? You decide what the medium is (anime, dramas, podcasts, etc) and what your subtitle method is (native language, Japanese, none at all).
Feel free to use this thread to introduce yourself and your goals, to discuss what you’re watching and listening to, and to describe any particular difficulties or triumphs when it comes to Japanese listening comprehension. Giving or requesting recommendations for material is also encouraged. There are also other threads about listening material on the forums, with a recent one being here.
@valkow made the previous thread but asked me to make it for 2022 instead, which I’ve done via flagrant copying.
I found the thread quite useful last year as a way to motivate weaning off of subtitles while watching stuff, and I found it fun in the same way to the reading thread to post updates on movies and shows and stuff and see what other people were listening to and/or watching!
It can be as goal-oriented or as relaxed as you make it - I’m personally avoiding specific numbers this year and condensed the different strands of things into a few categories with a general “JP subtitles if possible, then no subtitles, then English subtitles but vaguely try to avoid looking at them” prioritization I had trouble fitting into one line in the chart.
I guess, I from the beginning thought of it as 1 year goals for me! XD My bad. Glad to be back and I can add my stuff once you’ve got a Wiki post open for us! ^^
At the moment I’m still moving through my targets at the pace I originally had (1 year from my making my goal ^^', but I probably will drop some goals that I’m less interested in and just add some new ones! )
I’m keen to join this as well. My broad goal for the year is 400 hours of listening. I mostly get practice via audiobooks, movies, dramas, and youtube. I technically also get listening practice through conversation but I count those hours separately.
Currently I’m trying to finish these shows: ソロモンの偽証 (a good level for me, I only pause occasionally to make sense of something) 桜の塔 (quite difficult for me. lots of look-ups and pauses to make sense of longer sentences) うちの娘は彼氏が出来ない (most dialogue is easy but some characters I barely understand)
I need to finish these movies: マスカレードホテル (I missed so much! I probably need to rewatch what I’ve already seen) 世界から猫が消えたなら (I read the book and liked it well enough. It’s pretty slow and honestly not a ton of dialogue)
Also listening to the audiobook for 君の膵臓を食べたい and finally I watch a lot of random youtube but I recently was introduced to ゆる言語学ラジオ and I love it although it’s quite challenging.
I’ll add myself for the table once it’s wiki-ified.
Oh, what a great idea! I’ve been meaning to watch the second season of Hanzawa. Maybe I’ll use this as an excuse!
I also thought about trying to watch the finale of 進撃の巨人 but I wish I could’ve watched it live with Japanese subtitles! I did record it so maybe I’ll watch it once without support and a second time with English subtitles for clarification.
I’ll join here too, to keep me doing at least a little listening each day. While my reading has made pretty good progress, I’m still struggling through the transition beyond learner stuff for listening (Nihongo con Teppei and the like). Too many of the words I “know” are only known if I can look at the kanji and spend a moment, and I can’t always process stuff at real conversational speed. I’m working on it a bit, but I find it more tiring and frustrating than working through written words, since I can take those at my own speed. So I’m just going to aim for at least making sure I watch an episode of something each day, probably usually with subtitles. What I really want to watch, and hope I do more of later in the year, are (often non-animated) Japanese films. Big movie fan. But I’d mostly get those from the Criterion Channel, and not only do they not provide the Japanese subs I probably need at the moment, they usually hardcode in English that I have to block while watching. I recently tried Ozu’s お早よう and it was a mixed bag, and at least I saw progress, but there was plenty I couldn’t keep up with that made sticking it out to the end a bit of a pain.
Recently I’ve been working though 深夜食堂 to mixed levels of comprehension depending on the episode (early in season 3), and I just started からかい上手の高木さん, which still has its moments, but is one of the most easily comprehensible shows I’ve found. I started reading with それでも歩は寄せてくる, so I guess I owe the creator of both of these a lot of thanks for helping me learn Japanese, haha.
I’m not going to be setting up any goals for myself. Most of the time it just leads to me giving up, but I love watching live action films for immersion. I especially love campy horror. Dramas are also of interest. Here are some of my favorites (not in any particular order):
There were previews for each film when I didn’t hide them in the spoiler - now you sadly have to click the links to see what they are. I am sorry about that - but it was taking up so much S P A A A C E
Click here for a LOOOOONG List
The stars are on a scale of 1-5. Since sexual assault is something that shows up in Japanese films a lot I will be putting a on top of the movies that might have them. The “Japaneseness” rating is a measure of how experimental/objectively weird a movie is. Japanese films often tend to be quite difficult to get into for people who are used to western cinema already.
Language difficulty (lower = easier; higher = more difficult):
Japaneseness (lower = less; higher = more): 1/2
The level of Japanese tends to vary depending on several factors. One is age - they speak quite differently in 60’s-70’s movies compared to contemporary films. Also the more a film is focused on one subject, the more jargon there will be. For example, military movies can be really tough if you’ve only studied the most common Japanese words. Yakuza movies are the same. My language ratings are not scientifically proven - they are merely baseless estimates put down by a layman.
I know you weren’t done, but just want to say, there are some absolutely phenomenal picks in there! Love love love the Obayashi representation. Plus Kore-Eda, Suzuki, Kitano, Shindo, and stuff like Noroi (which honestly might just be my favorite horror movie now, or very close). You’ve been watching a ton of good stuff! A lot of those are on my list to see some day, too (All About Lily Chou-Chou, Linda Linda Linda, etc)
I’ve seen Air Doll and Love Exposure! Love Exposure is actually my all time favorite movie - it’s such a wild ride. You’ll want a on it though, if I remember correctly. I don’t recall if there is sexual assault shown but IIRC that’s why the cult leader cut off her dad’s penis
I also watched some of Suicide Club but out of all the Sono films I watched I liked it the least and didn’t finish it. Have you seen Cold Fish (冷たい熱帯魚) - same director. I really think you’d like it based on this list (also though). 地獄でなぜ悪い (Why Don’t You Play in Hell) is also a really great one. I’m something of a Sono fangirl.
EDIT: I haven’t seen these but they’re on my list and I think you’d also like them. Trailers - to other readers if you don’t like horror do not click. キャラクター 殺人鬼を飼う女
Air Doll is one of my absolute favorites. Love Exposure is also really high up on that list, it’s just too god damn long! Sono tends to be quite the hit or miss with me most of the time.
Have you seen Cold Fish (冷たい熱帯魚) - same director. I really think you’d like it based on this list (also though).
Ah yes, I’ve seen Cold Fish. It made me feel iffy inside, but it was a good movie. I actually watched キャラクター other day as well. It was pretty interesting, wasn’t super duper mega into it. That other film I’ve actually not heard of.
I can second that one being great too! Tag is the only one I watched and didn’t really love, but it was still alright. Sono really is an incredible filmmaker. If anyone has nothing better to do (go study Japanese!), while the topic is on Love Exposure, I also adore that film and have a Letterboxd review I wrote talking a bit about its themes that I’m sorta proud of. Or if anyone uses Letterboxd, I haven’t watched movies much recently so I haven’t been using it, but feel free to add me.
Now that that list is complete with rankings, since you seem to consider Gozu, Noroi, and Audition all relatively simple, I love all three of those so maybe I should seek them out for a rewatch…
Obayashi is such a gem. I feel like he gets talked about way way way too little in Japanese movie circles. His movies are so beautiful.
I started watching Japanese films extensively about last year and I’ve watched nearly 200 now. It has been a fun ride that I wish to keep on riding. Still haven’t really gotten to the classics that much because I just keep watching whatever looks interesting the moment. It tends to end up being really shitty low budget horrors almost every time and it’s difficult to recommend most of them because they’re bad
4 hours is quite a commitment, I agree. I usually watch normal length movies in 2-3 sittings though and Love Exposure I was glued to the screen the whole time And yeah, while I love his films overall some of his stuff (Suicide Club, Himizu) I just wasn’t that into.
I described it to friends as “It ruined my day, I loved it.”
Good to know - it looked intriguing but sometimes the trailers can be better than the movie I’ll probably watch it eventually regardless.
I somehow missed this comment earlier! Yes, Tag is more of an art piece than anything. Kind of in the same vein as Antiporno I’d say. There is actually a really great video essay on YouTube about the women of Sono movies that I’ll look up and link when I get home. It touches on those films in particular (also Guilty of Romance/恋の罪 which I similarly enjoyed but which is pretty outside the horror genre and well into art film territory imo).
EDIT: @Daisoujou read your Letterboxd review and it was dead on. I can never get people to understand why I love it by explaining the plot. The plot isn’t even the part that draws you in!
Also this is the video essay, it’s in English but it mostly nails what I find so appealing about his films. Subversion and messy, complex female characters.
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on top of the movies that might have them. The “Japaneseness” rating is a measure of how experimental/objectively weird a movie is. Japanese films often tend to be quite difficult to get into for people who are used to western cinema already.
I’ll probably watch it eventually regardless.