Asain Cinema and comic's

[Dale]

I viewed quite a few awesome asain action and drama films recently and I must say I quite dig them. And I was wondering if anyone had any recomendations, I currently own.

Oldboy(One of the greatest if not the greatest movie I've ever seen overall)
Versus(My favirit action movie of all time)
Sympathy for Mr vengence(Great grim movie)
Outlaw Rekka(Hoping for an action flick but it was a great Yukuza Drama)
Returner(Good movie but ripped off way to many western films)

I also own some old Kung Fu and samurai films that I also enjoy

The hidden Master(Had it's moments but nothing that special)
Master with cracked fingers(So so but the blindfolded fight was awesome)
Samurai G.I.(Neat concept and allot of people get taken out)
Odd Couple(Anyone who enjoy's martial art's should see this movie greatest weapen work ever)
Druken Master Bruce(Pretty funny and above average)

I'm just looking for suggestions anything action drama or comedy I'm not a fan of Phycological horror and I only like Anime with martial arts(No robots or excesive showing of skirts)But other than that anything good and I already ordered BR 1and2 so I got that covered.


I'm also into Manga way more then anime so if anyone has any good manga suggestions that would be welcome I currently own or enjoy

Blade of the Immortal(My favirit, awesome everything)
Battle Royale(great suspense awesome visuals)
Prince of Tennis(good mathches, good stlye)
Naruto(Pretty good, decent fights)
One Piece(very imaginative Quality fights)
Death Note(My secound Favirit, great detective manga)
Vagabond(Best artwork I've ever seen in an american or Japenese comic)
Project Arms(Good destruction good fights good story)
Samurai Deeper(So so overall, crappy fight seens, decent story good stlye)
Rouroni Kenshin(Awesome fights Soso plot good stlye)
Getbackers(Great artwork decent fights very funny)
Fist of the North star(Great Artwork Great style very classic)
Warriors of Tao(very brutal and kinda sad, great last volume)
YuYu Hakusho(Great stlye fantastic story but I enjoy the anime more)
Flame of Recca(Decent overall nothing special)
Trigun(Great story stlye and fights, but artwork can be confusing, very funny)
Blue Spring(Very bizare and enertaining)

I'm looking into Bleach and Tough are those any good?

[rolins]

For manga, I suggest reading BERSERK. You can buy in the U.S but they only have a few volumes translated, I think only up to volume 8. Where as in japan they're at volume 31. So it's better to search online for some scanlations of them.

Berserk is set in medevil era where theyre are kings, knights, and peasants blah blah. The story is focused around Gatts who is known as the Black swordsman. He wears black armor and carries a giant sword called the Dragon Slayer. He's also an amputee with his left arm being mechanical with a hidden cannon.

Anyway, Gatts is branded, meaning he's cursed. So he has to contend with a constant barrage of evil spirits that want to devour him every night. His sole purpose of living is to kill the Godhand and their minions the apostles. The Godhand is group that include 4 beings + 1 more, Griffon, the one who branded him.

I wont give away to much of the story, there plenty of summaries online. But if you like gore, action, swords, and few hentai scenes this one won't dissappoint.

[ahnslaught]

I'll second Berserk - it's completely awesome, and not just because the action scenes are completely brutal. The storyline is really good - the US release is almost up to the point where the anime ends, though the manga trumps the anime so much it's not even funny.

As for cinema, I had a chance to see Battle Royale a while back when a friend of mine bought a bootleg in Thailand. Don't know how it compares to the manga or novel, but the film version is pretty sweet. There's no US distribution (don't know about Europe), but it's easy enough to find. It's about schoolkids who get taken to an island, where they have to fight until there's one survivor. The best part? It stars Takeshi Kitano, the star of MXC/Takeshi's castle!

Ong Bak is also a great martial arts movie, if you like Jackie Chan/Jet Li type crazy martial arts. It came out a while back in the US as well, so it should be easy to get. It's got the sickest stunts you've ever seen, I guarantee.

[bpe]

Japan :
I've previously pimped Casshern, it's flawed but it's good for a viewing imho, great visuals.

Very indy and thus hard to find but very worth it :　
'2LDK' : http://imdb.com/title/tt0362387/

Excellent, but like many Japanese movies cut a tad bit too long : Crying out love in the center of the world.
'Sekai no chûshin de, ai o sakebu' : http://imdb.com/title/tt0424430/

Power Rangers in a pretty wierd interpretation :
'Zebraman' : http://imdb.com/title/tt0388556/

Korea :
For Korea, can't ignore Kim Ki-Duk. Especially these :
Spring, Summer etc : http://imdb.com/title/tt0374546/
Bin-Jip : http://imdb.com/title/tt0423866/
They're very slow, like most of his stuff, but some of his other works add a certain "sterile" quality, so I'd wait with eg Samaritan Girl.

China :
If you want something from China that's different from the Kung Fu stuff, try
'Farewell to my Concubine' : http://imdb.com/title/tt0106332/
or
'Shanghai Triad' : http://imdb.com/title/tt0115012/
Both require some tolerance of Chinese singing though

[RoninBuddha]

Some of my all time fave japanese movies

Koroshiya Ichi (Ichi the Killer) - the infamous gorefest. classic

PING PONG (one of the best Sountracks ever!) - one of the best friendship movies i've seen.

Shimotsuma Monogatari (Kamikaze Girls) - Anna tsuchiya is hot

Eureka - heartwarming

Moon Child - haha, GacktxHyde Jrock fanfest

Samurai Fiction - a work of art

Stereo Future - ok.

Minna Yatteruka?! - Takeshi's comedy is not to be missed

Nobody Knows - drama, very sad,

Happiness of the Katakuris - Fun!

Audition - a Miike Classic

Bizita Q - uhm.... this movie is very.. enlightening (warning: very disturbing content)

Shark Skin Man & Peach Hip Girl - "Japanese Snatch", only weaker

hehe.. there are a lot more... i'll mention them later.

@Zebraman - i realize that Miike was trying "different things" here, but it's one of his weaker comedies imho... great concept, esp. if you're a Japan Hero fan..

[bpe]

Yeah, the best thing about it was that you can start with a premise like that and yet not have the whole movie fall apart after 10 minutes. Also, good call on Nobody Knows !

Shimotsu Monogatari made me think of this one as well : Tokyo Story. Very slow and old fashioned, but worth it.
'Tokyo monogatari' : http://imdb.com/title/tt0046438/

[Icarus]

Regarding manga, I'm in the middle of Yotsubato! - commonly seen as Yotsuba&! - at the moment. Absolutely hilarious, very typical of Kiyohiko Azuma's comedy style, definitely recommended. Just finished reading Lament of the Lamb, a very dark and more modern take on vampirism, and worth a look.

[CMoon]

Y'alls need to start reading Osamu Tezuka before I get funky on your ass... or something...

I really dig classic Japanese cinema from the 50's and 60's. Kobayashi is one badass director!

[Axon]

If you like comedy in your manga then check out Sgt.Frog:Keroro Gunso, one of the best in comedy. Taken from ANN:

Age rating: Teenagers (May contain bloody violence, bad language, nudity)
Genres: Comedy, Science Fiction, Shounen
Plot Summary: The Hinata household is your typical, everyday Japanese household, it consists of: Aki, the mother who is a manga editor, Natsumi, the older sister that is perfect at school, but bossy at home, Fuyuki, the little brother that is in the occult club at school, and Sgt. Keroro, the frog-like alien that was sent here as part of an invasion force to take over Pokopen (Earth). As the Sgt.'s comrades appear, the only defense against the invasion of Earth are the Hinata household and other friends.

If you don't mind short but absolutely hilarious comedy then check out Demon's Diary. The volumes go by quickly but you'll have a blast.

[Fost]

since you saw Oldboy and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, you should definitely get Sympath for Lady Vengeance - my favourite of the 3.


Also:
Attack the Gas Station (simply brilliant Korean comedy)
Hana-Bi. My favourite Kitano film, one of the most depressing films I own.
Shaolin Soccer: Drags in places, but the actuall matches and end are great.
Tiger On the Beat: Save some time and skip to the end for a cool chainsaw fight!

If you like particularly arty films (which I do, but not everyone else does. ), then anything by Wong Kar Wai- start off with Chungking Express and Fallen Angels.

As for Mang suggestionsa - get Nausicaa - it's simply the best manga I've ever read and you can pick up all 6 books for next to nothing from most online retailers.

[Andi]

As far as manga goes, there is nothing better than Hideshi Hino. Nothing.

I recommend Panorama of Hell and The Red Snake. Both are in English and relatively cheap.

[Dale]

thanks for the suggestions guy's lot's a good looking stuff here.I've heard
of most of this before but never new if any of it was good now with your reccomendations i'm going to start looking into buying some of this stuff.

[RoninBuddha]

not that im a gore freak..
but, if you really want to shit yourself to twisted (ridicuouly, yet terrifyingly) stuff, try out the infamous. Guinea Pig / Za Ginipiggu(series: http://www.imdb.com/find?s=all&q=Guinea+Pig) a series of shock filmsm i really warn you, even though i only saw the 1st part of the series (Devil's Experiment), i can say that seeing the rest would probably traumatize me for life.

interesting trivia as well, Charlie Sheen (the actor) saw those movies, and he was convinced it was all real, he then tried to push charges and force them to ban the videos entirely from being distributed,... that was back in the 90's though, cuz i see some box sets at some videostores, BestBuy's DVD sections namely. also, i think it's on netflix.

im only reccomending this if you really want to see how bizzarre and extreme some filmmakers get...

[bpe]

Another suggestion that occurred to me :
'Shall we dansu' : http://imdb.com/title/tt0117615/

Probably a good thing if you haven't seen the Richard Gere remake.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

There is this 3-part manga series from Tokyo Pop called "Deus Vitale" that tells about a guy and female cyborg who get into some heavy sci-fi cyberpunk adventures. There's a bit of hentai content but it's not over the top.

I dig this crazy and experimental anime DVD called "Blame! Ver.0.11: Salvaged disc by Cibo" -- crazy little episodes of a futuristic world that never stops construction of metal, cybernetics, & infrastructure. Two mysterious people are determined to bring that to an end. WTF?

The "Dead Leaves" anime DVD with character designs from Artoon is just fucking crazy shit...it would seem like something from the mind of a deranged asylum prisoner. ^_~

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Soulo]

I'd recommend Sonatine & Hana-bi, I think they're Takeshi Kitano's finest.
If you enjoy a movie like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, I'd suggest seeing House of Flying Daggers, it's a true beautiful kung fu masterpiece.
As for old samurai movies, just see everything Akira Kurosawa made, namely Seven Samurai, Yojimbo & Senjuro. He also did some good social (drama) movies one dealing with cancer and the purpose of life (Ikiru) and corporate corruption & greed (The Bad Sleep Well).

[Andi]

not that im a gore freak..
but, if you really want to shit yourself to twisted (ridicuouly, yet terrifyingly) stuff, try out the infamous. Guinea Pig / Za Ginipiggu(series: http://www.imdb.com/find?s=all&q=Guinea+Pig) a series of shock filmsm i really warn you, even though i only saw the 1st part of the series (Devil's Experiment), i can say that seeing the rest would probably traumatize me for life.

The Guinea Pig horror films were actually co-directed by Hideshi Hino (whom I recommended earlier in the thread). They vary in quality, but some of the effects are pretty cool. Flower of Flesh and Blood was probably the most disturbing one I've seen.

[RoninBuddha]

The Guinea Pig horror films were actually co-directed by Hideshi Hino (whom I recommended earlier in the thread). They vary in quality, but some of the effects are pretty cool. Flower of Flesh and Blood was probably the most disturbing one I've seen.

yeah, hehe, i've yet to see the other parts, namely Mermaid and Flower and Devil Doctor.... those seem to be popular ones... i dunno, maybe i get the guts to watch it someday...

somebody suggested that to be "convinced" by the movies, you "should" watch it in as poorer quailty video format as much as possible, watching it on clear DVD/Digital copy ruins the "mood" of it, he said to record it on a VHS, and watch it, that way, it would "feel" much more "real"... it would feel like snuff... twisted shit

EDIT - i looked up Hideshi Hino's manga works, man, i can really see how fitting he was for a guinea pig movie..

neat stuff.

~~~~~~~~


ok, here's another excellent Japanese movie, Tetsuo the Iron Man, a great metaphor on technology and the computer age, directed by some famous dude (who also appeared in Ichi the killer), i think it also has a sequeal but it was just b-quailty many say...

of Chambara movies, i suggest (of course) probably most of the Kurosawa stuff, Ran, Rashomon, Seven Samurai, etc.

also, try out Warm Water Under a Red Bridge, which is about a, err, excessive liquid excretions by a woman everytime she haves sex.

[Andi]

somebody suggested that to be "convinced" by the movies, you "should" watch it in as poorer quailty video format as much as possible, watching it on clear DVD/Digital copy ruins the "mood" of it, he said to record it on a VHS, and watch it, that way, it would "feel" much more "real"... it would feel like snuff... twisted shit

Yeah, that might be true. Although I don't like it because I think it's realistic. In fact...I'm not quite sure why I like it.

ok, here's another excellent Japanese movie, Tetsuo the Iron Man, a great metaphor on technology and the computer age, directed by some famous dude (who also appeared in Ichi the killer), i think it also has a sequeal but it was just b-quailty many say...

Yeah, Tetsuo: The Iron Man is pretty cool. The intentionally loose structure and all those spinning, out of focus shots at extreme angles kind of scream "I just got out of film school and this is my first big movie!". But at least he's consistent with his style and some of the stop animation and effects work is really, really nice.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Tetsuo: The Iron Man...I remember renting that on VHS when my local Blockbuster had it in stock back in the mid 1990's...I thought that the female character that "rapes" the main male character of the film with her penis (and gets off on it) was a little over the top...interesting role reversal of that situation though. It's presented entirely in "black & white" format.

(This particular indie 'Tetsuo' Japanese sci-fi film reminds me of that French indie "black & white" film of "Man Bites Dog" -- that was some fucking crazy shit where this Frenchman is a hit man killing people & kids left & right and doesn't give damn about it -- eventually, he meets his own demise during an intense gun battle...I recall that the rape scene was too much for some when it was shown to test movie audiences in the USA and thus was edited without that particular scene when shown later at American art movie houses courtesy of Miramax -- I've seen the unaltered version of "Man Bites Dog" {with NC-17 rating} on IFC one time and it's just some fucked-up demented shit.)

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[neorichieb1971]

Kung fu hustle (mega special effects, very funny)
Beat (Drama about teenager gangster, its a great movie)
Running out of time (Andy Lau, really cool story, music is great)
Joint security area (political, but awesome)
Bullet in the head (John woo's best movie ever imho)
The killer (John Woo's 2nd best movie ever)
Hero (my favourite asian movie of all time)
Fists of legend (Jet li again, at his best)


Just some more to add to your list.

I'd also recommend Tony Jaa's movies.. like Ong Bak, Tonng goon soon or whatever its called hehe.