Techno brothers, it was kind of funny, and honestly my favorite of the film club we watched. I actually liked the way it was filmed and the background audio being included, the Japanese sounded like real Japanese. In some sense, I can’t help but think it was meant to be filmed that way, with the weird mostly left audio and sometimes quiet audio.
So the moral of the story was: Abuse and exploit your musicians, the weak will die, but whoever remains will become legends.
Also the girl was cute, I need her to deny me my basic human rights.
(seeing as the last reply was in August and we lose access at the end of this month, just popping in here to remind people about jff+ in case they forgot)
I’ve watched 4 films so far, I’m hoping to watch as many as I can but realistically I might only have time to watch a couple more Here’s my ranking so far (I recommend all of them!)
So I got around to watching Hey! Our dear Don-Chan finally (and hoping to get to several more this month).
I thought it was a super cute, chill, enjoyable film, definitely recommend it. It’s about three young men who end up with a baby on their doorstep they have to look after, but in a very slice of life kind of way, no high drama or over the top comedy that comes with that kind of premise a lot. Just how having a kid in their life change’s everyone’s outlook on their futures.
I’m not up to watching without subtitles but for those of you who are I think it would be a really easy watch for someone at a lower level. It’s pretty slow paced dialogue and since there’s a decent amount of time where folks are chatting with a young child you get some some really simple language there.
I think it’s very cool if you’re into that kind of dreamy almost experimental film but no one should watch it for listening practice So little dialogue in it.
Oh yeah it’s definitely not great for listening practice but I really enjoyed it as an experimental documentary and from a language preservation standpoint
I’ve been watching all these with English subs but I’ll try watching Hey! Our dear Don-Chan without subs!
Here’s my current ranking
A Muse Never Drowns
Lonely Glory
Bachiranun
Tenzo
A Girl in my Room
An Artisan’s Legacy: Tsunekazu Nishioka
Man I was really disappointed by An Artisan’s Legacy. I was really interested in learning about temple architecture and the process of building/restoring temples, but even so it was so dry
Just watched 盆唄 (Bon-Uta) without subs, it made for good listening practice, although it did not need to be that long… I wrote a review on Natively.
There’s only a couple days left, so if you want to fit in one more movie here are my recommendations:
DEFINITELY RECOMMEND
A Muse Never Drowns - from a technical standpoint I guess it’s not quite as good as the other two in this list, but out of all the films this one hit me the hardest emotionally
Lonely Glory - excellent family drama, I really liked all the characters here
Hanagatami - a gorgeous theatrical fever dream. this is truly on another level compared to the other films. However, content warning for incest and animal cruelty/death
SOMEWHAT RECOMMEND
Bon-Uta - way too long for what it is, I would have liked it a lot more if they cut it down a bit. But if you’re okay with the length then I recommend it
Bachiranun - personally liked it as someone who’s passionate about language preservation, but it doesn’t make good listening practice, and it’s very experimental for a documentary which might not be for everyone
Techno Brothers - I will be thinking about this movie forever. but it was also kind of disappointing because they could have pushed the absurdity much further and a lot of it was just so-so.
Tenzo - don’t have many feelings about this one. it was alright
A Girl In My Room - cool premise but kind of bland. still okay overall though
DON’T RECOMMEND
An Artisan’s Legacy - a very dry doc, struggled to get through it even as someone interested in the topic
Follow the Light - didn’t even finish, got an hour through it but was so bored I just stopped
(I haven’t watched Don-chan or And Your Bird Can Sing yet)
Yeah, this is the one that I didn’t finish. I stopped at the point where we were suddenly in Toyama Prefecture for no particular reason that I could discern.
(Been spending this weekend at the main Japanese Film Festival. In cinemas.)
Pretty good. Quite moving. I just cannot understand the sort of mindset that can look at a blank piece of paper and go “ok, that’s gonna be a dragon!”, though.
JFF hosting another online film festival in June. Looks like it’s two weeks of films, and two weeks of drama series. Can’t seem to find any information about it on their website yet - I only got this from their mailing list e-mails - but apparently you can follow their social media accounts for more info.
This year I’ve actually already seen three of the films they’re doing and they’re all definitely worth a watch!
I’m really excited to get to rewatch I Am What I Am which is kind of romcom-ish (with the twist of not being a romcom cause it’s about an asexual character). Father of the Milky Way Road is very emotional and Single8 is a lot of fun (though I think it drags a bit in the end).
I’m curious about those, too. aaaaah this will be so tough!
of the films, I’m definitely going to watch The Lines that Define Me. With only two weeks, and I’m traveling for work for most of one of them, not sure how to narrow the rest down. I’ll probably choose from Single8, BL metamorphosis, and I Am What I Am. I would watch I Go GaGa but I’m not sure if I’m ready for the waterworks there.
I watched the Jungle Emperor Leo trailer and I thought - cool Lion King in Japanese! It turns out the other way around - Lion King came way later and has a lot of similarity [insert controversy]. after some googling, oooh Jungle Emperor is by 手塚 治虫 Osamu Tezuka that’s on the list now, too
both TV dramas look interesting, but there’s no way I’ll manage both in the subsequent 2 weeks. I’ll start with Downtown Rocket because my friend tells me her and her dad loved it.
I’ve already watched The Zen Diary at the cinema - my neighbour, a lady in her 70’s, invited me to watch it together with her (ofc I chose original soundtrack with subtitles), and it was beautiful and Very Japanese™. Afterwards I laughed so much when she commented on a scene where a group of elderly women chatted together, you know with these over-the-top voices, and my neighbour was like “are they all a bit stupid or what”
not gonna lie, it can give off this impression to me as well
Unfortunately that movie is not available in Germany, but I’m sure there is ways around this strange limitation
Here’s my ranking so far (I recommend all of them!)
So little dialogue in it.
DEFINITELY RECOMMEND
SOMEWHAT RECOMMEND
DON’T RECOMMEND
that’s on the list now, too
