Japan Navigator

For convenience sake, here is once more the list of my selection of the ten best Japanese films of 2007:

1. Sakuran
2. Exte
3. Nightmare Detective
4. Maiko Haaaan!!!
5. Retribution
6. Strawberry Shortcakes
7. Like a Dragon
8. Dai-Nipponjin
9. The Pavillion “Salamandre”
10. Uncle’s Paradise

Looking back at the list, I would move up Strawberry Shortcakes to second position, after having seen it once more on DVD last week. For the rest the list stands as it is - I strongly stay with my choice of Sakuran as No. 1 - and feel supported by the praise for this film on Midnight Eye and by Mark Schilling.

Films I saw but did not put on the list, are for example:
- I Just Didn’t Do It by Suo Masayuki - realistic, light-hearted and well-acted by Kase Ryo, but also a one issue court drama film to which I probably will not want to come back;
- Memories of Matsuko by Nakashima Tetsuya - this film received much accolades and certainly looks sleek (even too much so, the CGI gets tiring), with eminent acting by Nakatani Miki in the title role… but this story of a women going down the drain because she picks the wrong men in her life, was too “19th century” for me - and I disliked it all the more as this was presented in a funny light (while remaining extremely sentimental). These are ultimately false memories;
- Kantoku Banzai by Kitano Takeshi is my selection of most disappointing film of 2007. Although the idea of Kitano carrying the blue doll of himself around is funny, there is nothing else in this empty and boring film that rises above the level of a simple TV show.

There are also some potentially interesting films from 2007 I have not been able to view yet - I am waiting for the DVDs to come out in Japan in the next few months. Foremost of these is The Mourning Forest by Kawase Naomi - I was impressed by the orginality of her previous films and would probably have included this one in my best ten. I will write reviews about this film and others I missed after the DVDs come out!

Next, I would like to make a comparison with two Japanese lists.

Box office hits in Japan
See the sad list of best earning Japanese films on Jason Gray’s blog. What it shows is that the Japanese film-going public is not mature, in the literal sense of the word. The list of box office hits is full of kids’ films as Doreamon and Pokemon - oldtimers on top of that. Next, there are the films featuring hot idols and usually based on popular TV series. HERO and Unfair are examples - HERO stands No. 1, which is ridiculous for a work that has no filmic or artistic qualities. Conclusion: in Japan box office figures are even less relevant than elsewhere!

The list of Kinema Jumpo
Kinema Jumpo is Japan’s prime, serious film magazine, so this list is something to pay attention to, you would think. Strangely, here we have two kiddy films as well, A gentle Breeze in the Village and Summer Days with Coo. No 1 on the list is I Just Didn’t Do It - a politically correct choice that will make nobody angry. More serious is that the two great films by women directors, the already mentioned The Mourning Forest and Sakuran are conspiciously absent. The list itself demonstrates how far apart the worlds of Japanese critics and foreign viewers/crirics of Japanese films are (there is not one film I have in common with Kinema Junpo; and when you compare this list with the ones on Midnight Eye it is more or less the same picture). For us, it is the weird, the wonderful, the innovative, the eccentric that wins; Japanese critics go for sentimental feel-good films as A gentle Breeze in the Village or Tokyo Tower… If that were all there is, I would not be watching Japanese films…

Best foreign films
Finally, just very briefly my choice of best foreign films - as these appear with a considerable time lag in Japan, most are actually from 2006:

Asian films:
- The Banquet by Chinese director Feng Xiaogang, if only because my favorite actress Zhang Ziyi plays a glamorous role in it; the historical drama has been criticized as too slow, but to me the speed is just right - this is after all no kungfu film. The costumes and sets are superb;
- Time by Kim Ki-Duk (No. One South-Korean helmer), in a softer mood this time, taking an interesting cynical look at our obsession with appearances;

European films:
- Black Book, a great comeback by Dutch helmer Paul Verhoeven, with a heroine played superbly by Carice van Houten - see my review here.
- Perfume, Tom Tykwer’s take on a murderer with a hyper-sensitive nose, who kills young women to concoct the most delicious perfume in the world from their bodies. Dramatic, fast-paced and with great acting by lead Ben Whishaw.

American films:
- Babel by Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu. Three stories set in Morocco, Mexico/U.S. and Japan are in wonderful ways intertwined (is that globalisation?). Kikuchi Rinko is great as a juvenile delinquent in the story part set in Japan.
- Marie Antoinette by Sofia Coppola, with Kirsten Dunst in the title role. Resembles Sakuran, another woman’s contemporary “pop” take on history and is just as enormously entertaining.