Weird Asia News has just put up a list of the 20 Weirdest Japanese Films. I am going to comment on the ones I’ve seen (and ut the ones I haven’t seen on my Netflix queue!).
1. Godzilla
I don’t get this. OK, giant dinosar thing stomps Tokyo is kind of weird, but there have been dozens of movies about giant animals and monsters. Tarantula. Them. Night of the Lepus. That one about the giant grasshoppers that stars the pervy captain from Airplane!. And taken in context, Godzilla is a powerful look at Japan’s nuclear fears after, you know, getting the shit bombed out of them. Twice. Not to mention it’s hella entertaining to watch.
2. Tampopo
I watched this one for a film class in college. It’s pretty freaking weird. But it’s nice too, and the food in the movie looks delicious.
I’m not sure how I missed films #3 and #4. I like movies where schoolgirls get whipped and stuff. And women with undies on their faces.
…wait, what?
7. Ringu
The first time I watched Ringu, I was all alone and I was like, “What? This isn’t scary…” but then I stayed awake all night with my head under the covers. It’s actually better than the book.
9. Battle Royale
Oh, come on. Ever since “The Most Dangerous Game”, this sort of ‘hunting humans’ story has become almost cliche. It’s pulpy and silly and gratuitous (and the book is even more so) but it’s fun to watch and not really all that weird.
10. Ichi the Killer
Ichi is pretty weird. But, like most of Miike’s movies, underneath the weirdness there is a serious message. I’m not going to tell you what it is.
11. Visitor Q
Oh, fuck. Visitor Q is probably the weirdest movie I’ve ever seen, but in a good way. It has incest, heroin shooting, mom beating, sodomy with a microphone, necrophilia, breast milk and assorted nuttiness. But in the end, it’s about putting a shattered family back together, and that’s nice. Visitor Q is actually my favorite movie on this list.
12. Suicide Club
This one is definitely weird and shocking and gross, but it’s weird just for the sake of being weird. There is an interesting theme underneath it all, but the companion film Noriko’s Dinner Table is a much better movie that conveys the message in a much more comprehensible and compelling manner.
13. Dark Water
Dark Water is really good. I wouldn’t say it’s weird, necessarily, because it’s very similar in theme and tone to many other j-horror movies, particularly Ringu, which is unsurprising since both are based on works by the same author. It’s very creepy.
I haven’t seen Moon Child, #14, yet. I should, though. Me Shapiro Keats are secretly big Gackt fans.
20. Death Note
This one’s pretty weird. But it;s not bad, if you don’t see it in a theater full of screeching teenage L fangirls.
Here’s one I think they missed: Miike’s Gozu. Unlike Visitor Q or Ichi the Killer, it actually has no deeper meaning that I could discern. Chihuahua murder, transvestite restaurant owners, disappearing dead Yakuza, breast milk (that seems to be a thing with Miike), skinned gangsters, a cow-headed demon and ultimately, a young woman somehow giving birth to a grown old dead dude. I didn’t say it was good, but it sure is weird as fuck.
Battle Royale is definitely.. hm.. strange. A film one remembers after seeing it as it sticks out completely. Totally bizarre. Not what I would consider a good movie though, even if one of my favourites Tarantino lists it on his "top 20 movies since 1992" list:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz4K-Rxx2Bk
Dark Water took a while to get going, but once it did, it scared the ever-living crap out of me. Otherwise, the weirdness is in "Where do you find an almost abandoned apartment complex?" Were they squatters?
THESE are the 20 wierdest Japanese films? Where is Tokyo Gore Police? Or Machine Girl? Or Tetsuo the Iron Man? I can think of far stranger films from the Land of the Rising Sun than half the ones on that list.
One of the only films I have watched in Japanese with English subtitles is Train Man (which is odd since I've been living in Japan for 4 years now). It's about an otaku (nerd) who meets a girl on a train by handing her a ticket that she had dropped. They kick it off almost immediately throughout the movie and fall in love. I won't spoil it for you, but it's one I recommend and is weird (because I've never seen an American movie with this plot before).
What about Dumplings? Or Audition? There are loads more. I dont think you know Asian cinema at all. As for Battle Royale being weird what the hell?! Its amazing.
As I mentioned, this is not my personal list, but one I found on another site. I know quite a bit about Asian cinema, thank you kindly.
As for Battle Royale…'amazing' is not really the word. 'Entertaining' covers it, really,