Mr eel
Asian Cinema
At the moment, there is alot more interest in Asian cinema than there was in the past. Although many countries in Asia are markets for Hollywood — which often dominates the industry — there are still many healthy film industries. Hong Kong is an obvious and oft cited example.
For some time I’ve been keen films coming out of Aisa, but recently I’ve begun to take a more active interest — now I actually read about and hunt down films I find interesting. I’m not gonna turn this into a mock-scholarly post about Asian Film, instead I thought I would just highlight some of my favourite flicks. This might not be off much interest to a film buff, but perhaps others might be inspired to chase these films down.
But firstly. These are genre films. If you prefer your movies with some film award dusting, you ain’t gonna find it here.
Lone Wolf With Cub
This isn’t actually a single film, rather it’s a series of 6 films (I think). I remember as a kid my older brother and I were obsessed with martial arts films of any sort. I especially liked a film called Shogun Assassin, which featured a wandering Samurai and his young son (pushed about in a baby cart), roaming the country and getting into all sorts of bloody fights.
Shogun Assassin is actually a compilation of serveral films, edited together and dubbed for the western market. The original series is much better.
Anyone interested in Samurai flicks needs to see these movies. Fantastic camera work, cool music, total bad-arse protagonist and lots and lots of violence.
Dark Water
This film is being remade in Hollywood at present. I don’t see the point actually. The original is an excellent film, a remake can’t improve on it, only fuck things up.
Anyhow, this is a horror movie written and directed by Hideo Nakata, who is also responsible for the Ring series of films (and the second of the remakes). A divorced mother short on money is forced to move into a cheap dingy appartment with her daughter. As she continues to fight a custody battle, she comes against all sorts of strange goings on. Ghosts, damp patches and a handbag (seriously).
Hideo takes a naturalistic approach to the subject matter and it really pays off. The banal setting throws the supernatural goings on into stark relief. You can empathise with this woman and her fear — despite the seeming harmlessness of the events — because you see things from her perspective. From this point of view, even damp patches and red handbags can seem ominous and scary.
Its something I really love to see explored in film. I think even the most rational people are succeptible to thinking the most crazy things in the right conditions and that their reactions might be extreme. Anyone up for a good scare should check this out.
That’ll do for now. I might expand on it a bit in the future with some more films.
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