Michelle Grondine Instagram – aloha pals 🥰 happy #filmfriday 🎥 🎞 !!!
this first set of recommendations includes 10 of my favorite Japanese Live Action Films in a variety of genres, organized in descending order of release from most to least recent 😌:
1. Kamikaze Girls (2004) — an iconic film about unlikely female friends on an epic journey. the fashion, the music, anna tsuchiya—i could not recommend this enough. you will fall in love with these girls.
2. Tokyo Marigold (2001)—a girl asks a boy to let her be his gf for a year while he waits for his ex to return from overseas. a beautiful portrait of loneliness on film.
3. Battle Royale (2000) — If you enjoyed The Hunger Games, watch this. It is def considered J-Horror (aka is v violent) so be aware of that going in. truly iconic tho.
4. Kikujiro (1999) — possibly my favorite Takeshi Kitano film, the relationship between Kikujiro & Masao is my everything.
5. After Life (1998) — in this film, people who pass away are given one week to choose one memory that they may keep forever in the afterlife. poignant & ephemeral. i love stories that explore other realities & what might happen in the afterlife. if that’s something that also interests you, this will be right up your alley.
6. Shall We Dance (1996) — the superior original to the 🇺🇸 adaptation of the same name starring Richard Gere & JLo. funny & full of heart, it launched a huge ballroom craze in japan (it even had my parents taking weekly salsa classes with their friends for 2 years! the power!!!)
7. Dreams (1990) — My favorite Kurosawa film. positively ethereal & visually stunning. truly a masterpiece of art.
8. Lady Snowblood (1973) — Famously the source material for Tarantino’s Kill Bill. also inspired a certain sequence in The Last Jedi. an iconic piece of film history. you can’t help but root for her to cut it all down. tw: r*p*, sexual assault.
9. Woman In The Dunes (1964) — a modern ver of the myth of Sisyphus adapted from the novel by Kōbō Abe.
10. The Hidden Fortress (1958) — famously the source material for Star Wars: A New Hope. one of my fav youtube videos is a shot for shot comparison of the two films to show just how similar they are, down to film composition. | Posted on 08/May/2021 07:48:10
