I watched that at the last JFF and liked it quite a bit.
Looks like our interests go a bit in different directions The movies I am currently planning to watch are:
The Floating Castle (because, history)
Until the Break of Dawn (I just love Kiki Kirin )
Under the Open Sky
The documentaries of Ramen and Sumo
Mio’s cookbook (because, history)
Maaaaybe Ito
Bread of Happiness (once I got that book done)
I should also mention Rashomon (because of Akutagawa and Kurosawa and Mifune of course ) but I know that one already. It’s a very interesting take on “what does reality mean even?” and is worth reflecting on.
I just watched Masked Ward. I wouldn’t worry about it being too scary. If you’ve seen the trailer, that’s as creepy as it gets. It quickly settles into a regular mystery/high tension movie, and a rather simplistic and two-dimensional one at that. I found the direction rather cheesy too. Twists abound, but I wasn’t very impressed. What surprised me the most was how much I could understand - I really wasn’t expecting that. I’ve gone from catching a word here and there to understanding whole sentences just by reading (hurray!). So I’d say it’s good for listening practice.
potential (very mild) triggers (spoilered just in case, but there’s nothing surprising or especially revealing really): creepy clown mask, extreme closeup to wound stitching, dementia patients, some blood and death (not gory)
Edit: Cultural question. There’s a 4th floor in the hospital where most of the movie takes place. The specific floor has no particular significance in the movie, but I thought hospitals in Japan skipped the fourth floor?
I googled and it looks like hotels and hospitals only sometimes skip the 4th and 9th floor.
Previously I was only aware of room numbers 4 (shi = death) and 9 (ku = pain) being skipped, which also seems like a much easier and less confusing adaptation. Imagine the elevators and building plans having to skip these numbers, etc.
Ah, thanks, this makes more sense actually. I always was rather confused by the floor skipping, because if I really had a fear of the number 4, renaming the fourth floor to 5 wouldn’t really work for me. I’d still think of it as the fourth floor in disguise.
On the other hand, I just watched Happy Flight, and my listening comprehension level went back to normal
It was really good though. Judging from its poster I thought it would be silly, but far from it. I got plenty of chuckles, but they were all based on very real situations, nothing slapstick. Good fun, and still very human and heartwarming. (It managed to make me care about each and every one of the side characters, which is no mean feat). I now have increased respect for everyone working at airports and on planes - it’s easy to forget how hard their jobs are, and just how much is at stake sometimes. I would gladly watch it again.
I think it’s mostly patients having to read a number that can be pronounced like “death” or “pain” every time they go to their floor / room, which might make you think about these things. And you often read room numbers, and are what visitors see right before they see you. But yeah, it’s mostly psychology, also for those who think about “unlucky numbers”, superstitions, etc.
This is exciting, glad I caught it just a day into it. Looks like a lot of these are films that aren’t available streaming anywhere else in the US. 16 are available in the US before switching on the VPN so going to see how many I can catch.
Aiming to at least catch Ito, Aristocrats, and Bread of Happiness before it’s done.
Tried watching God of Ramen last night with friends, but halfway through we were so depressed that we couldn’t take it anymore. We skipped ahead a little, watched a few more minutes, then called it. Not a great start, but looking forward to Happy Flight, Bread of Happiness, maybe Mio’s Cookbook, and the sci fi anime movies.
Just watched Ito and it was really good. I liked the characters and especially Ito. It was nor sad nor super happy. I liked the mood and the story as well. I think it’s a good movie if you don’t really know what to watch and you don’t want something too serious, simple to watch but not stupid at the same time.
I keep God of ramen for later, when I have enough energy for it. But I will definitely give it a try
We read Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in Japanese in the book club here, and one thing I noticed was that they changed the forbidden corridor from being on the third floor to being on the fourth. I spent ages trying to work out if that was a four-is-death pun, until I suddenly realised the difference was much more straightforward: floor numbering in the UK starts with the Ground floor, while in Japan it does not. So the original English was numbering the floors Ground-1-2-3, whereas in Japanese they were going 1-2-3-4, so it was the same floor either way.
Isn’t it, though? I definitely plan to watch it if I can find the time for it, but I’ve seen it before, and there’s many films in this lineup that I haven’t, sooo…
Because you wanted to eat ramen but couldn’t, right?
Man, soo many thanks for this recommendation. After you praised it I took the plunge today and it was a solid 9/10 for me. If you like flying or anything to do with planes this film is a MUST WATCH in my opinion. The dramatic tension builds slowly but after 30 minutes the time just flew by for the rest of the film.
Characters are a little clichè but everyone is memorable and played their roles perfectly. The dialog is intelligent and witty (so far as I could understand it XD) and the jokes landed for me too.
Regarding the listening: because of the flight talk it is on the little harder side but you should have no problem following the plot since most of it is just so perfectly shown. (Plus point for some Keigo in the Cabin)
If all of your recommended picks are this good, keep the recommendations coming!!
Just finished Masked Ward. I know it got a lackluster review earlier, but I enjoyed it FWIW @NicoleIsEnough it’s probably 30% thriller, 50% mystery, and 20% normal drama if I were to grade it. It’s not really in the mindless violence camp which is nice, I don’t really care for those films.
I listened plain / no subs of any kind and really only had trouble with the medical words from time to time. Some of them I could figure out through context, though. I could see some people stumbling on the crime related vocab (ex: 人質) but that sort of language was lightly used overall so if you’re worried about it, don’t be (not talking to Nicole on that one, I’ve seen how many crime books are in your queue ). Some of the lines by the clown in the mask I had trouble with just because of the voice distortion, but even those were largely ok.
I was excited to see several actors I recognized aside from 坂口健太郎! Most notably 永野芽郁 who a lead character in ３年A組 which I’m one episode away from finishing Also 内田理央 who I last saw in 言霊荘.
I just watched The Chef of South Polar. I’m not sure how to describe it. It was slow, and nothing much happened at all, but I somehow enjoyed it. Every scene dragged out for a little too long, which was fitting for the environment these men were living in, and it almost felt like a documentary, which isn’t surprising, since it was apparently based on real experiences. Nine men of various professions and personalities living in the most complete isolation one can imagine (a white flat expanse as far as the eye can see), who somehow manage to cope for a full year. Food is the central theme and what binds them together and to the world they temporarily left behind. They have moments of fun, moments of camaraderie, moments of going a little crazy, moments of understandable despair. It is listed as a comedy, and there is certainly a lot of humour in there, but it’s all very low-key.
Guess you found me out But it’s still one thing to read a word and another thing to understand it in a conversation (for me at least) I’ll see what I can do!
Yeah, for a while I was going “… this movie has neither plot nor character development”. Then there was some character development. Very subtly, though. It was pretty amusing, either way.
I was probably counting the penguin. (spoiler: there are no penguins, or other cute animals)
Seriously though, I never counted them, but I was somehow absolutely convinced there were nine. To the point that when the chef first prepares some dishes I counted eight plates and wondered why he was leaving himself out…
So far I have watched “AWAKE” and “Happy Flight”. I think “AWAKE” was a very interesting take on the shogi game (which I did not know before). Anyone who have watched it, thoughts on it?
I’m planning to watch Awake, haven’t gotten to it yet.
I really like Shogi as a game/chess variant. As a chess tournament player, I love how draws in Shogi are very rare (~1%), while chess games are often unfortunately quick boring draws, especially at a high level, when many pieces get traded early on. In Shogi, you can use pieces you’ve captured from your opponent, which is brilliant, so pieces never leave the game, it never gets less complex (roughly speaking). In chess, your opponent has to make significant mistakes to lose, which often doesn’t happen at a high level.
Started watching Her Love Boils Bathwater, liking it quite a bit so far, very emotional.
Finished Aristocrats. I liked it. As i said, lots of exploring problems in (Japanese) society and women’s life paths, and the characters are interesting and realistic.
My take on it (only spoilery as far as evaluating it, in my humble opinion, no plot points):
The social issues were explored very well and the story and characters well put together, but it felt quite on the nose, that is overly literal/preachy, the opposite of “show, don’t tell”. Basically the dialogue tells you exactly what the problem is in most scenes, there’s not much room for interpretation or interesting character interactions. It feels a bit like a documentary.
On that note, I’m surprised they didn’t cover the problem of child day care being very hard to get in Japan compared to the west, to my knowledge, so most women quit working once they have children, because it’s hard to arrange (besides social expectations). But you can’t cover everything.
On the other hand, the visuals are nice and the character stories good examples, could be a conversation starter. I definitely don’t regret watching it at all. I just feel like in the end, the film itself will not be very memorable, except for the social issues it addresses. → 6.5/10. Only the social aspects: 8/10
Would love to know what you all think, loving the reports here so far!
Watched It’s a Summer Film. It’s basically a love song to filmmaking and films of all genres through some clever narrative devices. Feelgood and fun. A very fitting movie for a film festival.
It also made me want to go find my copies of old favourite samurai films and rewatch them (as if I wasn’t spending too much time watching movies already with this festival).
Yeah, the description reminds me of “One Cut of the Dead”, which is also a fun comedy about filmmaking with clever narrative devices, which I also watched at a (different) Japanese Film Festival. It’s basically a zombie comedy, but very light hearted and harmless. Highly recommended for group watches (it’s very funny), and if you like zombie movies or filmmaking.
The movies I am currently planning to watch are:
)
). Some of the lines by the clown in the mask I had trouble with just because of the voice distortion, but even those were largely ok.
But it’s still one thing to read a word and another thing to understand it in a conversation (for me at least) 