In the far east, who do you think makes the best movies: Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, mainland China, or Taiwan? And what is your reason (s)?
I'd go with Japan, because they had a good string of horror for a while I was really into as well as some kickass anime. Korea also had some cool horror films here and there. China obviously has tons of martial arts films but I've never been big on those save for a few by Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, and Stephen Chow.
I just watched The Raid which I ordered from Amazon.com last week. Wow, one of the best action films I ever saw. It's from Indonesia, so I guess it's asian....
Korea Oldboy, The Host, Lady Vengeance, Shiri, I Saw the Devil, Man From Nowhere, as far as recent ones go at least.
Yeah Miyazaki is unbelievable!! When I saw Princess Mononoke for the first time, it was like WTF and Holy Crap! at the same time..... Just amazing animation!! I still have to see Graveyard of the Fireflies yet, Roger Ebert said that movie will make you rethink what animation is.....
Wow!! I just saw Ong Bak with Jony Jaa.... I've read that he is a cross between Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan, and I don't think that is an exaggeration, the guy looks like he has a 42" vertical jump or around there. There's one scene where he runs and hurdles over a moving car and keeps running, jumps not over the hood, but over the damn roof of the car!! Freakin amazing!! Well, I've read that he was a former gymnast so it kinda makes sense. Roger Ebert said in his review that before he saw the movie, he wished someone would have told him that there were no wires or CGI effects in the movie, it was all Tony Jaa, because he would be totally awestruck if he knew that. He thought it was CGI or wires, but it's just that Tony Jaa is an amazing athlete and martial artist. So anyway, I guess I should add Thailand to the list, because Ong Bak is from Thailand.
I just saw a couple of recent/new movies. One was "Back to 1942"--a Chinese movie with Tim Robbins and....Adrien Brody. No, that's not a typo. They both had rather small parts, but it still was cool to see Hollywood actors in a Chinese film. I also saw "Flowers of War", another Chinese film with a Western actor, this time Christian Bale. That movie was brutal, and disturbing.
Ong Bak was a good film, that guy is a tank lol. Really impressive. Apparently the other sequel is good too, I just haven't seen it yet lol
seriously china no contest man i saw one called like eat pray love or something where like theres 3 sisters one gets pregnant then one gets a job then their dad like fucks this young girl and crouching tiger was fuckin hilarious!