Japanese Must-See Films

Japan has suffered a devastating few weeks and let us hope they are now on the road to recovery. This hub is my nod to their well earned place amongst the greatest film making nations in the World, with over a hundred years worth of experience. They produce films with a full spectrum of weird and wonderful concepts that do sort of make me wonder what they are all on? They brought us old spikey-back himself Godzilla, numerous talking cats and the idea of sending bratty kids off to an island to fight to the death! (hmm… very tempting) I don’t by any means claim this as a top list, as I haven’t seen quarter enough to be an authority on this genre. This is more of a primer of Japanese films, a selection of artfully composed and fascinating films from the cute to the bizarre to the all out wrong!

Kaiju (Strange Beasts) – Godzilla (1954)
Kaiju, meaning Strange Beasts is one of the well loved Japanese film genres, and Godzilla is by far our favourite of these strange beasts. But the comical plastic-looking man in a monster suit on a crazed rampage in a scale-model city fun and nonsense does have a sinister edge to it, especially in light of recent events. A product of nuclear radiation this furious creature wreaks havoc in Tokyo. It was the direct intention of the Director Ishiro Honda to put across the message of the dangers of nuclear power, and to make an allegorical film recalling the still fresh events of World War II in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The original film has a sombre tone, but this is not so much repeated in the many future sequels and spin-offs, where the novelty of a big ugly half-dinosaur character running amok is exploited and comes to the fore, as he battles with some other big-boned individuals including the legendary King Kong. Godzilla remains to this day a beloved imaginative classic of Japanese cinema.

Onryo (Vengeful Ghosts) - Dark Water / Ju On / Ringu
Japanese Horror is for me the scariest horror I have ever seen, the only thing I can think of that comes close in the Western World is The Shining. After seeing Dark Water in the cinema, where a child ghost haunts the living, I came home to the flat I lived in alone at the time, and had to stay far away from the sink, turn all the lights on, turn the TV on good and loud, still keeping an eye on the sink, and then call my friend on the phone to give me the feeling that I had company. Okay I’m a scaredy cat! But believe me this is seriously spooky stuff. Dark Water’s sad story remains my favourite, but I also naturally ran out to get hold of Ringu (The Ring) and Ju On (The Grudge), to get another fill of being terrified out of my wits. Okay I’m a scaredy cat and a masochist! What’s so great about these films is how they cleverly take all the safety tactics we use to cope with fear and then tip-toe on disjointed limbs across those boundaries, because there’s no point hiding under the covers from these sallow-faced ghouls… they can get you anywhere. The remakes can’t compete with the Japanese chic, stylish, often slow-paced and memorably creepy originals.

Warning - you might want to flick very quickly over the next bit if creepy pictures freak you out.... like they do me.

Cult Horror - Battle Royale (2000)
The controversial Battle Royale is about a class of students who are kidnapped by a despairing Government unable to cope with the growing levels of anarchic youths in the country, they are placed on a secure Island and then girls and boys alike, are forced to engage in a battle to the death - only one can remain standing as the winner, otherwise they will all be blown to bits. I never knew before brushing up on my facts about it for this hub, that the late legendary Japanese Director Kinji Fukasaku had a horrific and tragic reason to be best qualified to deal with the subject matter of this film. During World War II Fukasaku was fifteen years old and his class, who were enlisted to work in a munitions factory, where caught in artillery fire. The only way for the children to avoid being shot was to dive under their friends and classmates for shelter. Once it was safe, they then had to deal with disposing of the corpses of those who were not quick enough. The film, which has garnered many awards, is for the most part a well structured violent free-for-all, but it includes some superb characterisations and an engrossing suspenseful narrative. American Director Quentin Tarantino cites Fukasaku as one of his influences, particularly in the Kill Bill films.

Takeshi Kitano plays the teacher in charge of precedings, I'll be mentioning more about him below.

Manga Anime – Akira (1988)
Akira was the first Manga film I ever saw and remains for me the best (aside from Studio Ghibli that is), probably in part because I got to witness it on the big screen. In this Science Fiction film adaptation of a Graphic Novel, Tokyo has been destroyed by a nuclear explosion and the events all occur far into the future in Neo-Tokyo. A young reckless boy, Katsushiro, inadvertantly finds himself involved in some serious business whilst trying to help his best-friend Tetsuo. Tetsuo has been involved in a bike accident with a very weird looking child, and boy and child are mysteriously hauled off by the army. It becomes apparent that Katsushiro must try to prevent the release of Akira, a force that will bring the destruction of Tokyo.

Takashi Miike - Visitor Q (2001)
I don’t know what category this one would fit into… what’s the Japanese for ‘Wrong Wrong Wrong…but Brilliant’? This film is definitely not everybody’s cup of tea, at least you might think twice about having milk in your tea after watching it. The issues in the film are ones that would normally make me want to throw a shoe at the screen, and did make me feel extremely uneasy at moments, yet it’s treated in such an alien manner that somehow it’s all okay. Unforgettable might be the right word for this one, rather than enjoyable. A strange man turns up in the life of an outlandishly dysfunctional family, and makes some changes. Father and daughter incest and prostitution, a post-menopausal lactating heroin addicted mother, violence and just pure oddness pervade in this Director Takashi Miike menagerie!

Takashi Miike has made about a billion films since 1990 (well… over seventy anyway) churning out a vast range, from light-hearted family films to period pieces to ultra-violent controversial ones. Personally the ones I’ve encountered on my film-viewing travels are pretty much the disturbing ones such as Audition, Gozu the banned Yakuza film Ichi the Killer and the not so horrible but very bizarre musical The Happiness of the Katakuris and of course Visitor Q. And as healthily disturbed as I am by the perverse and nauseating things he comes up with, I’ve always found myself highly entertained and filled up with some interesting food for thought.

Yakuza (Gangster) – ‘Beat’ Takeshi
The greatest director of the Japanese Yakuza (gangster) genre film of recent years is surely Takeshi Kitano – writer, director, actor, comedian, presenter, poet, artist, tap-dancer etcetera etcetera etcetera. Takeshi Kitano also known as ‘Beat’ Takeshi is to my mind like a Japanese Robert DeNiro, in so far as he plays the gangster role frequently and brilliantly, his involvement in anything makes me want to know more about it, he has a masterful presence, and I wouldn’t want to get on his wrong side – one of his intense long stares would be enough to make me weep. Kitano films I have seen in which he writes, directs and plays the lead are Violent Cop, Boiling Point, Sonatine and Hana-Bi. Each tell a different tale, but they all have the common elements of yakuza’s, violence, a dark and gritty atmosphere, with black humour and subtle building to dramatic revelations of stark humanity.

Takeshi Kitano is also responsible for a number of whacky Japanese TV shows including Takeshi’s Castle, where insane Japanese men and women attempt a zany assault course, with plenty of funny and often very painful looking mishaps. There’s no way they could do that sort of stuff in this cotton-wool health-and-safety obsessed part of the world… which in this particular case is a comfort.

Studio Ghibli - Anime
Japan is also the home of the magical minds of the Studio Ghibli team founded by animator and director Hayao Miyazaki. The team produce animated features which are not just for children, as grown-ups are just as carried away by these mystical worlds. These include Castles in the Sky, My Neighbour Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howls Moving Castle, Kiki's Delivery Service, The Cat Returns and more. Apart from the astonishing breathtaking landscapes and delightfully caught idiosynchrocies of the wide variety of characters animated, the accompanying music is also beautiful in its own right. The composer responsible is Joe Hisaishi, who works on many other projects including some Takeshi Kitano films such as Sonatine. Another striking aspects of the Ghibli films is they tend to have very strong female lead characters. I think my favourite of these is The little girl in My Neighbour Totoro who isn’t fazed by anything, not ghosts, not big giant furry creatures, not flying cat buses. She is one of my heroes!

My favourite of the films is Princess Mononoke where nature and civilisation battle it out against each other in a fantastical world, with a sad cautionary lesson for our own world. But in general dropping into any Studio Ghibli film is a guaranteed journey to somewhere unique and unpredictable.

For a one-man rendition of Godzilla take a look at these two videos below, this guy Shinya Takeshita plays all the parts... it's well funny!