Top 5 Lists!

[emphatic]

Korean Films...

A Bittersweet Life

Thanks, just saw this. Awesome!

[professor ganson]

SONGS
drive like jehu - here come the rome plows
scritti politti - skank bloc bologna
prince - dead on it
rem - so. central rain
slits - ping pong affair

BANDS
don caballero
unwound
death
tortoise
sonic youth

COMPOSERS
Bach
Strawinsky
Reich
Bartok
Riley

FOOTBALL TEAMS
browns
bills
lions
dolphins
seahawks

BOOKS
alan gilchrist - seeing black and white
brian o'shaughnessy - the will: a dual aspect theory
thomas reid - an inquiry into the human mind
plato - republic
tyler burge - origins of objectivity

TV SHOWS
top chef
iron chef america
bored to death
twin peaks
columbo

GAMES
Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken
Ibara
Disgaea 2
Fire Emblem: Shin Ankoku Ryu to Hikari no Ken
Kirby Pinball Land

FILMS
Double Indemnity
Citizen Kane
Mulholland Drive
The Sweet Hereafter
Lost in Translation
(no room for Coen Bros. )

ALBUMS
strawinsky - agon (dir. hans rosbaud)
don caballero - don caballero 2
terry riley - shri camel
sonic youth - daydream nation
ben monder - oceana

[xbl0x180]

A lot of varied tastes ranging from good to excellent. I knew I made the right choice to join this messageboard. I'm specially glad to see Mishima and Lynch being listed

[LSU]

FILMS
Alien
Se7en
John Carpenter's The Thing
Star Trek The Motion Picture
The Big Lebowski

ALBUMS
Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
Front Line Assembly - Hard Wired
Tenacious D - Tenacious D
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Isao Tomita - The Bermuda Triangle

NON-SHMUPS
I, Robot
Rez
Puyo Puyo Sun
Anubis / Z.O.E. 2
Doom II

BEERS
Stone 15th Anniversary Escondidian Imperial Black IPA
Stone Oaked Arrogant Bastard
Lagunitas Bourbon Barrel Aged Cappuccino Stout
Ommegang Three Philosophers
Affligem Tripel

[MX7]

Kind of disappointed to see so many people include Lost In Translation. I found it dull, derivative, lacking in charm and ostensibly racist. Great soundtrack, but it's no Virgin Suicides.

[eckart]

FILMS

a mixture four pack

La Strada
Bladerunner
Alien
Babel
Amadeus
+
Papillon
Star Wars
Two Lane Blacktop
Akira
Dead Man
+
Vier im roten Kreis- Jean-Pierre Melville
Gomorrha
Spiel mir das Lied vom Tod
Apocalypse Now
Tanz der Vampire
+
Paris Texas
Dune
the shining
Dawn of the Dead
Jungle Book


ALBUMS

Pentagram- Relentless
Hans Otte- book of sounds
Sisters- some girls wander by mistake
Talk Talk- Laughing Stock
The obsessed- incarnate


NON-SHMUPS

Montezumas Revange- C64
Super Shinobi- Mega Drive
Resident Evil- Gamecube
Killer Instinct-Arcade
Super Propotektor- SNES

BOOKS

Arthur Schopenhauer- Aphorismen zur Lebensweisheit.
Moby Dick- Herman Melville
Der Seewolf- Jack London
Franz Kafka- Das Urteil
Schachnovelle- Stefan Zweig

[professor ganson]

dull, derivative, lacking in charm and ostensibly racist

I think this-- or something similarly unflattering-- might be said for most every movie I've seen in recent years, with just a few exceptions. I've watched enough films now that I don't usually find much of interest. The upshot: I don't see many new films, but I do occasionally watch older ones (say, from the 1940s) because they sometimes surprise me. It really helps with these older films that the script writers at the time were often established writers for the stage and had strong literary backgrounds.

It would be crazy to think that Lost in Translation is one of the five best films ever made. The main characters' opposition to phoniness, the longing for something deeper-- that's all good and fine but not the stuff of a greatest-of-all-time masterpiece. I put it on my list simply because it was great fun to watch. Great mood, atmosphere, music, LOCATION, hot blond, Bill Murray... all pretty superficial stuff but truly enjoyable no less.

[Skykid]

Kind of disappointed to see so many people include Lost In Translation. I found it dull, derivative, lacking in charm and ostensibly racist.

It's a superb film and I feel the polar opposite about all of your statements bar the ostensibly racist, which I merely disagree with.

[Moniker]

It would be crazy to think that Lost in Translation is one of the five best films ever made. The main characters' opposition to phoniness, the longing for something deeper-- that's all good and fine but not the stuff of a greatest-of-all-time masterpiece. I put it on my list simply because it was great fun to watch. Great mood, atmosphere, music, LOCATION, hot blond, Bill Murray... all pretty superficial stuff but truly enjoyable no less.

Ditto this. It's one of my favorites too. I think what sets it apart is the excellent portrayal of non-verbal communication. Which is fitting, since the difficulties/failures of various forms of communication is the film's overarching theme.

I think Drive (2011) is a similar beast in this regard. It's a new favorite too.

[GaijinPunch]

Kind of disappointed to see so many people include Lost In Translation. I found it dull, derivative, lacking in charm and ostensibly racist.

It's a superb film and I feel the polar opposite about all of your statements bar the ostensibly racist, which I merely disagree with.

I read in Metropolis recently (or some other J-based Engrish rag) about the "insulting" moving Lost in Translation. It's a snapshot of Japanese culture from an outsider's perspective. And you know what, that's pretty much what it fucking looks like. Duh. From the teeth pulling of business, to the over the top TV, to being a fish out of water, to the solitude of living in a high tech megalopolis. It almost makes up for all the shit movies her father has made since the mid-80's.

I think what sets it apart is the excellent portrayal of non-verbal communication.

Not apparent from the film though, is that Japan basically gives zero permits to film in public. It is all guerrilla style. That being said, if you don't bother anyone, you're likely to go by unscathed, but certain shots, like in taxis, trains, and busy intersections can be tricky. The Park Hyatt as well took some serious open-mouth kissing to become the location. Sophia Coppola begged them and said that it made the movie.

EDIT
Checked IMDB trivia and found this. No source, but I don't doubt it in the least.

The crew faced threat of arrest while filming in the subway of Tokyo and at Shibuya Crossing.

EDIT EDIT:
I guess what irks me about the "racist" card in this is, that the main character is, in a way, the city... one of the most racist cities in the free world today. Wouldn't by default any story which truly featured it come off as a little racist?

[Moniker]

Not apparent from the film though, is that Japan basically gives zero permits to film in public. It is all guerrilla style. That being said, if you don't bother anyone, you're likely to go by unscathed, but certain shots, like in taxis, trains, and busy intersections can be tricky. The Park Hyatt as well took some serious open-mouth kissing to become the location. Sophia Coppola begged them and said that it made the movie.

Are there any officially stated reasons for this? Privacy, maybe? I know in the US you need a signed release from anyone whose face appears in focus in films. Just curious.

[Skykid]

It almost makes up for all the shit movies her father has made since the mid-80's.

Lol. Almost yeah.

I agree with GP completely, the relative bizareness of Tokyo life to the uninitiated westerner is what makes the film wonderful.
I think Sofia played it beautifully.

[GaijinPunch]

Are there any officially stated reasons for this? Privacy, maybe? I know in the US you need a signed release from anyone whose face appears in focus in films. Just curious.

Same old Japanese bullshit, really.
Here is some reading.

The weirdest filming I saw was some low budget thing which was clearly going to have CGI added later. It was in Shibuya's scramble intersection. A group of people would run out and make a circle. Some girl was in the middle. Should would do moves (punches, kicks and shit) and the entire groups would fall, scream, etc. Seemed video game-ish.

Best one a friend of mine was a producer for was for another low-budget production. They would get about 50 extras and take the first train on a Sunday morning out in the middle of nowhere. The 50 extras would make a big circle while I guy fucked the shit out of some girl in the middle of the train. Very realistic.

[moozooh]

Can we please go back to the top-5 lists? I want to read more of those. And no further critique, please.

[Moniker]

Poems
Wordsworth - Tintern Abbey
Arnold - Dover Beach
Keats - Ode to a Nightingale
Rossetti - Goblin Market
Eliot - The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

TV
Kids in the Hall
Twin Peaks
Aqua Teen Hunger Force
Dexter
Game of Thrones

Roguelikes
Shiren the Wanderer (SNES/DS)
Brogue
Nethack
DoomRL
Steamband (Steampunk Angband variant)

Film Villains
Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem - No Country for Old Men)
Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes - Schindler's List)
The Joker (Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight)
HAL (2001: A Space Odyssey)
Max Cady (Robert DeNiro - Cape Fear)

Short Stories
Melville - Bartleby, the Scrivener
Joyce - The Dead
Borges - The Babylonian Lottery
Perkins Gilman - The Yellow Wallpaper
Hemingway - The Snows of Kilimanjaro

[Hagane]

Non-Shmups

Super Street Fighter II Turbo
Guilty Gear Accent Core
The King of Fighters '98
Alien vs. Predator
Mass Effect 2

Films

L'illusionniste (2010, Sylvain Chomet)
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999, Jim Jarmusch)
A Tale of Two Sisters (2003, Jee-woon Kim)
Nueve Reinas (2000, Fabián Bielinsky)
El Día de la Bestia (1995, Álex de la Iglesia)

Books

El Aleph (Jorge Luis Borges)
Adán Buenosayres (Leopoldo Marechal)
The Gambler (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
Historias de Cronopios y Famas (Julio Cortázar)
Los siete locos (Roberto Arlt)

Comics

Blade of the Immortal (Hiroaki Samura)
Freesia (Jiro Matsumoto)
Goodnight Pun Pun (Inio Asano)
The Hunting Party (Enki Bilal)
Vinland Saga (Makoto Yukimura)

Albums

Songs for the Deaf (Queens of the Stone Age)
Powerslave (Iron Maiden)
Led Zeppelin II (Led Zeppelin)
Crack the Skye (Mastodon)
Acariciando lo áspero (Divididos)

Illustrators

James Jean
Katsuya Terada
Hiroaki Samura
Rebecca Guay
D. Alexander Gregory

[linko9]

Bands/Music groups
The Police
The Who
The Dubliners
Queen
Gentle Giant

Non-Shmups
Zelda: OoT
Super Metroid
Fire Emblem 4
Zelda: Majora's Mask
Super Mario 64

Can't really make top 5 lists for any other obvious categories; books because I haven't read enough, and movies because for whatever reason, my mind doesn't allow me to "rank" them; it's hard to explain. Also that games list would change a lot based on what mood I'm in

[ED-057]

non-shmup
Phantasy Star IV
Chrono Trigger
Mount&Blade
Langrisser V
Megaman X2

books. (those old paper thingies IIRC...)
Nemesis (Asimov)
War Nerd (Brecher)
Underground History of American Education (Gatto)
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (Hofstadter)
A Brief History of Time (Hawking)

TV
Remington Steele
Ii Hito
Densha Otoko
Psych
Gargoyles

albums (top 5 out of the... 9 that I have ever owned)
Reply - Mami Ayukawa 25th Anniversary
Digital Trip L-Gaim Synthesizer Fantasy (Nobuyoshi Koshibe/Takashi Kokubo)
The Best of Laserdance
She`s So Unusual (Cyndi Lauper)
A Song For You (Carpenters)

[Davey]

Seems like the perfect opportunity to post something that I'll find cringeworthy when it gets necro'd a few years from now.

Movies
The Big Lebowski
Snatch
Pi
A Christmas Story
Boogie Nights

Albums
Westbound Train - Transitions
Blue Meanies - Full Throttle
Operation Ivy - Energy
Catch 22 - Keasbey Nights
Deal's Gone Bad - The Ramblers

Overall, my favorite band is The Slackers, but to me they don't really have any standout albums...

Non-Shmup
Virtual On Oratorio Tangram
Crazy Taxi
Magical Drop III
Mr. Driller Drill Spirits (never played G)
Tetris The Grandmaster 2 (never played 3)

TV Series
The Simpsons (seasons 3-10, or thereabouts)
Dexter
Breaking Bad
It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia
Seinfeld (or Curb Your Enthusiasm? Hard to pick...)

Stand-Up Comedians
Louis CK
Bill Burr
Bill Hicks
Hannibal Buress
Dane Cook (pre-2005)

[chempop]

Not necessarily my top 5, just standouts that I can recall on any given day. More of the nostalgia factor here.

Movies
- The Miracle Mile
- Near Dark
- Raising Arizona
- Beetlejuice
- The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

TV
- In Living Color
- X-files
- Seinfeld
- Wonder Years
- Twin Peaks

Music
- Pink Floyd
- David Bowie
- Nine Inch Nails
- Aphex Twin
- Autechre

Action figures
- GI Joe
- Starcom
- Dino Riders
- Transformers
- TMNT

Non-shmups
- Street Fighter 2
- Gaurdian Heroes
- Snatcher
- Rez
- Legend of Zelda

Anime
- Texhnolyze
- Mushi Shi
- Gankutsuou
- Monster
- Wolf's Rain

[chum]

Jazz artists
-Barry Guy
-Charles Mingus
-Pharoah Sanders
-Ivo Perelman
-Peter Brötzmann

Japanese film directors
-Shuji Terayama
-Shinji Sômai
-Kenji Mizoguchi
-Isao Takahata
-Nobuhiko Obayashi

[Arcade Legends 3]

Movies
I stopped watching movies at the age of 12.
But I watch TV.
I do it rarely.
I use National Geographic, Discovery, etc.
I prefer films of the 20th century (thus from before the twenties).

Books
Goethe - The Sorrows of Young Werther
Grey - The Light of Western Stars
Hammet - The Maltese Falcon
Scott - The Bride of Lammermoor
Stevenson - Treasure Island

Albums
Bach - Harpsichord Concertos 1
Liszt - The Essential Masterpieces
Morricone - The Very Best of
Mozart - The Violin Sonatas
Strauss - The Best of Vienna

Non-Shmup
Crossed Swords
Dyna Gear
Gals Panic S2
Lode Runner: The Dig Fight
Sengoku 3

Lovely Women
..
....
......
....
..

[KindGrind]

Been a while. First on the lists are favorites, closely followed by the others.

Movies
-Aguirre, the Wrath of God
-Werckmeister Harmonies
-Chungking Express
-Before Sunset
-Requiem for a Dream


TV
-The Office (UK)
-Carnivale
-Firefly
-Friends
-Arrested Development

Non-shmups
- Super Metroid
- Tetris Attack
- Shadow of the Colossus
- Metroid Prime
- Gunstar Heroes

Books (fiction)
-100 Years of Solitude
-The Road
-Don Quixote
-The Handmaid's Tale
-Brave New World