Japan Navigator

The 2007 autumn edition of Kateigaho International Edition has a report on contemporary Japanese film that also includes an article about Tom Mes and Jasper Sharp, the two minds behind the website Midnight Eye (and the book of the same title, a must-have guide to contemporary Japanese films and directors). We also get their “Top 21″ of 21st century Japanese films. This list contained a number of interesting choices which I am viewing now.

It also set me thinking about what my own choice of top recent Japanese films would be. I have selected the ten I like best without making a specific ranking among them. The first four were also selected by Mes/Sharp.

• Audition by Miike Takashi (2000)
  • Miike Takashi should obviously be in the top of a list of this sort. His best work was made between 1995 and the early 2000s - his later films as Zebraman and Great Yokai War are aimed at a larger public and although still quirky, not as good as Fudoh, Dead or Alive, Ley Lines, Visitor Q, Ichi the Killer and Audition. I have selected Audition for the combination of ordinariness with monstruosity - you’ll never trust Japanese women anymore when you see how serene the introverted Asami (Shiina Eihi) looks when she saws off the legs of Aoyama (Ishibashi Ryo) with a piano wire.
• A Snake of June by Tsukamoto Shinya (2003)
  • About Tsukamoto Shinya the same can be said as about Miike. Although I also enjoyed Bullet Ballet and Tokyo Fist, my favorite is A Snake of June, because this is the best rendition of the”blueness” of the rainy season in Japan. Moreover, the tormented Rinko, who is followed by a stalker, is beautifully played by Kurosawa Asuka.
• Vibrator by Hiroki Ryuichi (2003).
  • Hiroki Ryuichi is one of several modern film makers to come out of the pink film circuit. I also like his It’s Only Talk, but give first spot to Vibrator, a great road movie about the loneliness of two young people who come briefly together (based on the novel by Akasaka Mari) - not to speak of the great acting by Terajima Shinobu as Rei.
• The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai by Meike Mitsuru (2005)
  • This is a pink movie - in the great tradition of the late sixties-early seventies when such movies were also used for irreverent political or social comment. Callgirl Sachiko gets involved in a North-Korean plot and is shot in the forehead - which instead of killing her, makes her supersmart. She also finds a metal canister containing the cloned finger of Bush, which can also be used to push a dangerous button… (see full background review on Midnight Eye).
• Nobody Knows by Koreeda Hirokazu (2004)
  • The almost documentary story of an egoistic young mother who abandons her four children (by different fathers) in a small apartment, because she wants to enjoy life with a new boyfriend. Led by the eldest son, Akira, the children fight for survival, but as money runs out gradually things turn bad… Great natural acting by Yagira Yuya.
• Bright Future by Kurosawa Kiyoshi (2003)
  • The title is of course ironic: nothing is bright in this film about two alienated, nihilistic young men (Yuji, played by Odagiri Jo, and Mamoru, played by Asano Tadanobu) who are stuck in a boring manual job. Yuji dreams of a bright future, but Mamoru sees reality as it is. He also keeps a poisonous jellyfish, which is in the end the only one who can escape his fate…
• Shara by Kawase Naomi (2003)
  • Film set in Nara’s old, inner city. Ten years ago, the brother of the then seven year old Shun (Fukunaga Kohei) disappeared without a trace. Today the whole family still lives with that loss. Redemption comes when Shun gradually develops a feeling of love for Yu (Hyodo Yuka), after he sees her dancing at the Basura festival of Nara, and when the mother (played by Kawase Naomi herself) gives birth to another child. The swaying camera, in the end moving away into the sky, suggests the soul of the dead brother watching over his family…
• Takeshi’s by Kitano Takeshi (2005)
  • Whether you call him Kitano Takeshi or Beat Takeshi, our director says he is not a director, and that dilemma is the focal point of this film. Takeshi the succesful actor dreams he is a nit-wit who works as taxi driver but who dreams that he is a great yakuza actor… Superficially a collection of skits, in fact this is a carefully composed movie, of a life within a dream, and great fun. Not as good as Sonatine or Hanabi, but certainly the best Takeshi film of the new century.
• Tony Takitani by Ishikawa Jun (2004)
  • Based on a story by Murakami Haruki (one of the rare one’s he allowed to be filmed - included in Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman), there could almost be no film that more faithfully follows a novel. It is minimalistic, understated, a beautiful combination of sadness and humor, with great acting by Ogata Issei and Miyazawa Rie. Music is by Sakamoto Ryuichi.
• The Twilight Samurai by Yamada Yoji (2002)
  • The realities of life for an impoverished samurai, Seibei (Sanada Hiroyuki), one of the real last samurai, showing how hollow and untrue that other film Last Samurai was. Seibei is blackmailed into a last stand for the “honor” of the clan, although he has no desire to fight - he would rather tend his garden to earn some extra cash. Best of the three samurai movies veteran helmer Yamada Yoji made so far.

Do you have other suggestions?