Bored with American films? Wanta try something Different??

Some very top notch films are coming out of Asia, and you can find some of them through Netflix or in the International Section of Video Rental stores. Oh sure, you have to read the sub titles but they make them far better now. You like Comedy? Romance? Action? Adventure? Horror? There is a huge list of films that meet those catagories, however let me introduce you to some of the ones that are top of the charts...

MY LITTLE BRIDE (Korea) Heart warming


My SASSY GIRL (Korea) Funny



ONG BAK (Tony Jaa, the best martial artist since Bruce Lee)(Thailand)


Tom-Yum-Goong (Ong Bak II) Starring Tony Jaa (Thailand)


KAMIKAZE GIRLS (JAPANESE)Delightful and Cute! (Kawaii ne!)


UZUMAKI (JAPANESE)Horror


DENSHA OTOKO (Train man) (Japanese) Heart warming and funny



HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS (Chinese) Fantastic!


HERO (Chinese) Also Fantastic


Warriors of Heaven and Earth (Chinese) Really good.


KUNG FU HUSTLE (Chinese) One of the top comedy's from Hong Kong


KUNG FU SOCCER (Chinese) Comedy from Hong Kong



ONE NIGHT IN MONGKOK (Chinese) Mystery


BREAKING NEWS (Chinese) ACTION And Heart Stopping THRILLS (Great Stunts)



SHARKSKIN MAN AND PEACH HIP GIRL (Japanese) Yakuza and Comedy? Works great..


SUMMER TIME MACHINE BLUES (Japanese) Comedy


ART OF SEDUCTION (Korean) Comedy Romance


Princes Blade (Japanese) (and PB II) Action Adventure


Azumi I and Azumi II (Japanese) Action Adventure


SHINOBI (JAPANESE) Romance and Adventure


CUTIE HONEY (Japanese) Bizzare Comedy


WINDSTRUCK (Korean) Romantic Comedy
(

These are just starters. Most of these titles are available for rent or purchase. Some are worth keeping, as they are rather good. Try one next time you are in the Rental..see if you like it?

after a while, I find I forget I'm reading them.

Ong Bak did really well over here and lesser Thai action films like The Bodyguard and Born to Fight came out on DVD. I'm trying to resist importing a non-subtitled copy, but dammit I want to see that infamous unbroken fight sequence!

South Korea keeps putting out classics at the moment. If you haven't seen them I highly recommend Park Chan-Wook's outstanding 'vengeance trilogy' - Sympathy for Mr Vengeance, OldBoy and Lady Vengeance. Also anything by Kim Ji-Woon (Foul King, The Quiet Family (remade by Miike Takashi into The Happiness of the Katakuris which is another must-see), A Tale of Two Sisters and A Bittersweet Life) and Kim Ki-duk (The Isle, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring and 3-Iron). And I can't not recommend the delightfully odd Save the Green Planet! and the great war epic Brotherhood.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0661791/
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0453518/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0304262/
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1104118/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0354668/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0386064/

That said, my favorite Asian director right now though has to be Shinya Tsukamoto,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsukamoto_Shinya


Thanks for your list of recommendations -- there's a few I didn't know, particularly the comedies, which I think I'll check out. YesAsia.com currently have a deal on where they're offering free postage to the UK, plus they'll pay the tax if customs charges you so I've been saving up for a big order.

That sequence you speak about is fantastic.

Not sure I can say this, there is a wonderful website where you can download Asian movies for
free. Now, You can't keep them, but you can watch them once. Then you would have to down load it again to see it a second time. They have a wonderful list of movies..including the ones I have.

With this website you have two options. One is to join and purchase a premium membership...which is really cheap, or you can just go there and use the services for free. Whats the drawback? Well, if a premium member is watching that film you want to watch, it may take longer for you to down load it.

Both Tony Jaa movies are up there now. If you are interested the website is

http://aznv.tv/

To see the films you must set up an account. It will be free to do so. However if you want the better quality then its best to become a paid member. The site caters to Asian movies, anime, doramas, and soon to be Asian music as well. There is also a message board where people talk about Asian films and culture. Its one of the best sites I know for seeing movies. Many of the movies I watch there first and then buy them later. Fortunately, I live in a city with a huge Asian Population.

I also own the Tony Jaa DVDs which I purchased from YESASIA.com

Enjoy!!!

I'll definately check that out, although it'll have to wait until tomorrow or I'll never get to bed!

Can't have a thread on contemporary Asian cinema without bigging up Takeshi Kitano (Blood and Bones being one of the films I'll be ordering from yesasia).

Though I am a huge fan of Shintaro Katsu..the
original.


Shintaro Katsu was the man who made Zatoichi work that cane sword.

Tons of Blood in the
SUICIDE CLUB


CURSED

The first five minutes will stop your heart!

RINGU (English: The Ring)


SHIKOKU (Some things are better off left dead)


UZUMAKI (Spirals)

Will drive you insane...with Spirals.

ICHI THE KILLER...

This guy can't stop killing...

I'll look into them!

IF you like Japanese Horror, this is must see..

And then I had a mishap with my hard drive and lost all of my movies and such.

"In The Mood For Love" too. All awesome.

But "Yi Yi" that is a film for the ages, one of the best I have ever watched.

Seriously?

Oh my sweet Shah Rukh!

Here your watching a Bollywood production...The hero is about to fight the villian to the death,
and suddenly everyone breaks out into song and dance... EEEEEEEEEEaaaaaaaaaccccccccckkkk!

Who says that people from India have no sense of humor??

The better made ones are no more silly/ridiculous than Chicago, Moulin Rouge, etc. etc. Actually a better comparison are the big Hollywood musicals of the thirties/forties/fifties.

They are ultradramatic and ultrasplashy... but who doesn't like that sometimes! There are some that are *really* bad and good for a laugh.... Shahrukh in daisy dukes, for example. :scared:

But men who dance. mmmmmhhhhmmm.

It's yet to be bettered IMO.

Its called "Ai no Uta" (Love song) and is very, very good.
I love this tiny clip from the show...
Everyone learns to duck when this one
has the ketchup in his hands...


A drama about a man and woman who come to know true love after unexpected circumstances cause them to live under the same roof. Singer and songwriter Tamaki Koji returns to acting after a 8 year hiatus, to star opposite Kanno Miho in this drama. Koji plays a very kind policeman; a champion of the weak and a pacifist. Having lost his wife 4 years earlier, he has been saddled with the arduous task of raising 3 children singlehandedly. Kanno stars as the unfortunate heroine with an ugly personality who grows through her encounters with this good natured middle aged man.

Why live vicariously when all that does is separate us from each other?

technically it's American...

http://imdb.com/title/tt0107156/

The story is about a chubby normal girl named Kim Sam-soon (Kim Sung Ah) who just loves to eat food whenever she gets stressed out. She gets dumped by her boyfriend, and suddenly meets a cold man named Hyun Jin-heon (Hyun Bin) who owns a restaurant and who asked Sam-soon to be his (paid and under contract) girlfriend. He was also in a car accident 3 years ago which left him a crippled leg. He also lost his older brother and his sister-in-law from the accident. His girlfriend Yoo Hee-jin (Jung Ryu Won) finds out that he falls in love with an ugly girl named Kim Sam-soon and has to compete against her to win Jin-heon's love back. His Mother, who runs a chain of Rich Korean Hotels hates that her son runs just a Restaurant and hates Yoo Hee-Jin but after meeting Sam Soon doesn't trust her or her own son!
This is also scheduled for release to DVD soon. The sparks fly in this film for sure!