Japanese movies / TV shows: what have you watched recently?

Japanese Language Listening
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Am I wrong or we don’t really have a Japanese movies thread? I found some results but they were all in the Campfire category and very old.
I have started watching Japanese movies recently, just watching whatever my online library has to offer at the moment, and sometimes coming across movies I really like, so thought I’d like to have a place to talk about them!

Feel free to post about movies you’ve seen and liked too!

Favorites so far:

  • The Pillow Book. What I liked about it: Quite an adult movie but was funny to see a young Edward MacGregor in it. Culturally interesting as it references the famous Pillow Book
  • Rent a Family Inc. What I liked about it: Short documentary, was really funny to see what this guy’s job is, almost hard to believe it’s true but I guess tha’ts Japan
  • The Boy and the Beast. What I liked about it: Really liked this one, both the animation and the stories. Note that it’s a kid’s movie but didn’t really notice as I was watching.

-Our Little Sister. What I liked about it: Enjoyed this one, at the beginning not so much because of the plot, but got to see a lot of how life can be in Japan, and they talked a lot. Then by the end of the movie I was really enjoying it, it ended up being deeper than I gave it credit for.
Also I didn’t know before watching but it’s based on a manga series 海街diary.

  • The Handmaiden. What I liked about it: This movie was funny to watch from a language learning perspective, it was in Japanese but also in Korean :smiley: didn’t know at the beginning and was seriously doubting my Japanese skills :x
    The theme (handmaid) and the clothing reminded me a bit of Shadow’s House. (well, only during the first 10 minutes, after that it turns out to be a very adult movie)
    It was also more of a Korean movie than a Japanese movie but I’ll take it. I liked it a lot, just like I had liked another Korean movie (Parasite), should probably watch more of those!
  • Harakiri. What I liked about it: I’m not super interested in Samurai or in old movies so didn’t really want to watch this one. But according to wikipedia, “The film continues to receive critical acclaim, often considered one of the best samurai pictures ever made as well as one of the greatest films ever made.”, so I stuck with it.
    Can totally see why people love it. Not so much my type of movie personally but still, giving it 4/5.
  • TV series The House on the Slope. What I liked about it: Really liked this series. Highlights a lot the difficulty of parenthood in general and even more in the current Japanese society. (if you are a French speaker, can be seen for free on Arte https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/103427-001-A/la-maison-de-la-rue-en-pente-1-6/, don’t remember if they had English subtitles as well but they definitely had French)
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Right now i’m watching 海のはじまり and that is really good. And “silent” has been one of the big dramas of the last few years for a reason.

As for movies i’m waiting for september for my dvd of “matching”

Some older movies i like are

  • Platina data
  • 恋空
  • 青の炎 though i guess trigger warning for that one :thinking:

But i’m much more of a tv series person because i like to spend as much time with characters i like as i can :sweat_smile:

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The last Japanese TV show I watched was

It was quite a while ago and in English (my Japanese is still not good enough for moview), but I found it quite fun, albeit quite weird trunky_rolling

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For a class, I recently watched Shoplifters (2018) about a large found-family that supports themselves through various unrespectable methods, including shoplifting. It sparked a really amazing discussion on what “family” is, since Japanese legal family status is a significant theme, as is the difficulty of gaining public resources when you’re unable to get a job. I think it’s on Hulu and Amazon Prime!

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I LOVE this movie for the crazy turns in every act :star_struck: I always find it funny that this movie is one of my all-time favorites despite it being based on a book that I did not enjoy at all ahaha

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The last Japanese movie I watched was Seven Samurai, which is very famous:

Thoughts

This is one of those super influential films that invented a bunch of stuff (like the ‘getting the team together’ trope) and had a bunch of innovations in camerawork and style. Sometimes these classic movies feel like just ‘checking off a box’ to watch, but I was surprised at how entertaining and modern the movie still felt. Now I just need to choose which Toshiro Mifune movie to watch next. :slightly_smiling_face:

Language learning-wise, I watched a screening at my indie theater so it had English subtitles. I wouldn’t have been able to understand it without them. There is a lot of yelling, mumbling, and garbled speech in this movie haha.

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One similar thread you may be interested in is the extensive listening thread (modeled off of the extensive reading thread) which I’ve maintained for a few years, although it’s always been quiet and is all the more so lately, so it may be getting time to let it peter out.

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:palms_up_together: [offers you Yojimbo]

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Another vote for please watch Shoplifters! I also had to watch it for a class. The ending twist is really good and it’s a perfect movie to just hop right into it without looking up anything.

The most recent movie I watched was in theaters and it’s called Look Back. It’s the same writer as chainsaw man but it isn’t gory at all. It is a movie about two girls who dream of becoming mangaka and their friendship.

Here’s the trailer for it, I have no idea about subtitles or anything, I watched it raw in theaters when it came out but I could understand it well enough. It’s also based on a book by the same name so if there’s anything confusing the manga can be used as a way to confirm what happened in a less fast paced way. It’s also only about an hour long, but it’s super great and I loved it.

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Oooh… okay… :smiley:

@Akashelia funny timing with this thread as just the other day I received a parcel, my first ever import from Japan :blush:

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I had already watched all but two from this batch, but the remaining are Kore-eda films so… safe buys as I know I’ll enjoy them :grin:

@taiyousea & @superelf94 - Yeah, Shoplifters is one of the two remaining along with Nobody Knows - only heard good things about both. But I’m spacing them out as I’m running of Kore-eda films to watch, so it’s now only one-per-month :slight_smile:

@Akashelia:
Hmmm… I see The Handmaiden as a Korean film with Japanese elements :man_shrugging:

Thanks for your recommendation on Harakiri from a while ago, it was very, very nice.

And yeah, *Our Little Sister* was great, here are my thoughts on it, posted first somewhere else

It may not be Kore-eda’s best, it may not have the most compelling plot, it may not have the best dialogue, it may not raise the deepest of issues… but for me, I think it’s now the one I enjoyed the most out of his “catalogue”.

Can’t put my finger as to why exactly that is.
Maybe because it has not one, not two but four ladies in the lead (well, three ladies and a teenage girl).
Maybe it’s becase it brought together a whole seven people I’ve now seen in several Japanese films - don’t think I’ve seen that many familiar faces together even in Romanian films where you don’t have a particularly large pool of actors (compare a ~19mil population with the ~123mil of Japan).
Maybe it’s because of the setting - the idyllic town and the old house. Maybe it’s because of the magic Kore-eda managed to “extract” from some apparently mundane scenes - the girls lighting the fireworks brought the tears of simple joy, only to be followed a few minutes later by another tearjerker moment when Sachi and Suzu have a short exchange atop the mountain, and yet one more time at the next scene when they talk about a minor side-character…

And then as the credits started rolling, just for a split second… it felt like the best film I ever watched :innocent:

Of course it is not, in fact there’s no such thing as ‘the best one’ in my book… but it sure felt like that for a moment :man_shrugging:

Um is 海のはじまり a film or a TV show? I found this series on IMDb, not sure if it’s the one you mean? Also, I didn’t get the the “silent” reference?
Links are always nice :blush:

Anyways… yeah, so… since the beginning of this year (well, late 2023) I got back into watching Japanese films after a 20-or-so year break. It’s actually the main reason for me deciding to start learning (or trying to, anyway) the language in late Feb :blush:

I’ve watched around 100 so far, and the watchlist keeps growing every day because pretty much for any new one I see and like, I check the associated recommendations on IMDb and it always throws another 2-3-4 at me that I didn’t know of :rofl:

I am watching with English subs (for the time being) and, to be honest, it’s not all that conducive to learning the language. It helps a bit with solidifying known vocab, but not with aquisition of new ones… that’s a bit of a bummer, yet not all that surprising :frowning:
I’ll eventually have to switch to Japanese subs, but that feels so far away right now as I can’t really follow them and pausing at every line to read… yeah, no! I want to actually enjoy the films :rofl:

I do comment on what I watch on another forum, and now that we have this thread I can duplicate here… at least until people will grow tired - just say when to stop :smiley:

Okay rant over.
The highlight of the week for me has been:

Thoughts on *A Distant Cry from Spring*

Tamiko is a widow with a young son, running a farm in Hokkaido on her own. One cold, rainy evening in spring a stranger knocks on their door asking for overnight shelter. He leaves the next day but returns a few months later and helps with farm chores in exchange for bed and board.

Slowly Takeshi (the son) befriends Kosaku (the stranger) and Tamiko’s relationship with him goes the way you’d expect it. But Kosaku keeps his past hidden and by autumn it catches up with him.

Yamada took an idea from The Yellow Handkerchief, modified it and turned it into a full feature here. It’s a simple story without fluff, but (for me) very effective: kindness, hardship and resilience, loneliness and bonds between people.

Part of a larger cast in the previous film, here Chieko Baisho and Ken Takakura take centre-stage… and what a great pair they make.

Baisho is great as the strong yet delicate, determined, independent woman. (and she drives a tractor very casually, matter-of-fact… looks like you can do feminism very well without going all gung-ho with your “preaching”, go figure! ) while Takakura’s stoicism and suitable stand-in father figure works well here too.

There’s even a cameo return from Tetsuya Takeda, for a bit of relaxation - his previous character was on the verge of being annoying before, but here it’s a small role and fits in well enough.

And we also get another yellow handkerchief in the last few minutes, albeit with a slightly different meaning this time around. But oooh, how nice that final scene is, despite its apparent silliness!

Yeah… wonderful stuff!

8.5-9/10

(but it likely works better tied with The Yellow Handkerchief)

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Thanks! Let’s see how this one fares :slight_smile:

Hehe seeing several people vouch for it is definitely something that makes me want to watch it!!

Wow nice batch indeed!

True… that’s one of the downside of where I watch movies at the moment (here, the list is probably visible to all but needs a Danish library login to actually watch), if someone says one sentence in Japanese the movies is labelled with Japanese language :sweat_smile: and as I like to go blind into movies, I don’t even check if it’s a Japanese movie. Still, for this one, definitely worth a watch!

I was so happy that you liked the recommendation, I’m not writing much more in my study log but thought I would then miss a place to discuss the movies, hence the thread! So thank YOU!

Watching with English subs too so far but can definitely feel some benefits already :slight_smile: I don’t feel like I learn new words but it cements well those I know from reading. And I know that they are a lot more benefits behind the scenes that I’m not even feeling yet, as that’s definitely how I absorbed English, so I’m sure it will help with Japanese too!

Oh I’m curious, where is that?

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I’m glad you mentioned this! I just sorted filmfriend (that I get through my library Iin Germany) for Japanese and there are 18 films! Some of them look really good and a couple that were mentioned here like Shoplifters so I’ll join you all!

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I see you’ve got Godzilla Minus 1 in there?

That’s the film I came here to gush about. I believe it’s still on Netflix in most countries. The soundtrack is really good too.

It’s a beautiful story about post-war survivors guilt, regret, and getting over trauma. Also Godzilla is there!

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Me when I’m explaining my normal plan in a normal way

:tokyo_tower::t_rex:

In terms of shows, my midwife recommended this to me at my last check up and I’ve been quite enjoying it:

It’s on BBC iPlayer for those of you in the UK.
The show is about 70/30 split between English and Japanese. It’s set in 1999, apparently based on a real memoir, and follows the first gaijin hired by a Tokyo newspaper.

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Oh great, just what I needed - even more titles to add to the pile! :rofl:
Like the French link earlier, I think it may be geofenced for actual streaming… but what’s worse here is that they seem to only have Danish subs. Frech I could get by with, but the few Danish words I picked up from watching those crime series… definitely not enough!
It’s good that they include links to IMDb so we can find the international titles.
Some I’ve seen already, a few are already in the watchlist and others looks interesting at first glance, must check them out. Thank you!

What I’ve found is that I get stuck on recognizing vocab but can’t focus on grammar and sentence structures, and that’s probably because of the English subs. :confused:

Hope it’s okay to post links to other forums? It’s not “competition” as such to Wanikani anyway :slight_smile:
Here is a thread where, as it says on the tin, we post about what we watched the previous evening (more or less, some do weekly summaries or just post iregullarly). It’s quite long, 1629 pages of 25 posts and going strong.
I just added my latest Japanese flick: The Inugami Family :slight_smile:
Decent-not-great whoddunit with a little horror sprinkled in.

Nice!
I’m pretty sure anything by Kore-eda will be enjoyable, the man can do no wrong it seems :blush:
But if you’re not sure what to pick from the 18 available, let us know the options and we’ll comment if they’re familiar to us…

Yeah… it was surprisingly good. I find the US Godzilla films quite poor but this Japanese take was completely different. I mean, it has proper characters an’ all, Godzilla is more of a metaphor rather than the main attraction :slight_smile:

Funny concidence: just earlier this morning on the (local) radio a host was praising Tokyo Vice :grin:
(haven’t watched it myself)

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Indeed! There is a good video about it:

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We’ve only watched 3 episodes, but so far it’s very entertaining. There’s enough funny bits in there to balance out the drama. We do have to have English subtitles on for the English bits though :sweat_smile: the actors mumble a bit from time to time.

The only thing I don’t like about it is that the main character has pretty subpar Japanese pronunciation. Come on Adelstein-san; do some shadowing and get your 発音 down right! Although it was probably a bit harder in 1999…

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Thanks for sharing!
Oh this reminds me of a good film (but potentially a difficult watch), not about the 1954 incident but about what happened in 1945:

Black Rain / 黒い雨

From IMDb:
Mr and Mrs Shizuma, and their niece Yasuko, make their way through the ruins of Hiroshima, just after the atomic bomb has dropped. Five years later, Yasuko is living with her aunt and uncle, and her senile grandmother, in a village containing many of the bomb survivors.

The film begins as the bomb drops on Hiroshima and spends a few (difficult) minutes in the immediate aftermath, which is then revisited in a couple of short (yet even more difficult) flashbacks.
The bulk of it is takes place in 1950, in what could be an idyllic village setting however it is anything but as we witness the characters living with the imminent thread of radioactive sickness, and the fallout both physical and emotional from Hiroshima and the war as a whole.

People trying to rebuild their lives but unable to due to the looming threat of symtomps appearing seemingly out of nowhere and killing them quickly, lost opportunities and closed doors due to having been in the vicinity of the nuclear attack, severe PTSD from the horrors of war.

There are still moments of joy and hope to be found, but for me it was a harrowing watch.
It’s akin to When the Wind Blows but somehow slower and, with its ‘live action’ format, perhaps more powerful.
The ending was heartbreaking, although not in the least unexpected.
It is worth noting that Imamura does not at any point try to put blame for what happened on anyone in particular.

It’s an adaptation of a book by Masuji Ibuse, which maybe someday I’ll try to read in Japanese.

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:sob: I didn’t know about that, at first I thought he had the date 1954 wrong
Thanks for posting

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It is a series. And “silent” is also a series.

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If you enjoy Kore-eda’s films you might also like The Makanai, his series on Netflix about two girls going to Kyoto to work at a geisha house. It is very sweet, along the lines of Our Little Sister and I Wish.

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That one’s based on a manga, and apparently Yoko Kanno is the composer. :exploding_head:

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