Favourite Japanese TV/Movies

[merkypie]

Music: I really like Perfume and Shinichi Osawa, but overall I'm not very knowledgeable about Japanese music. I'm more interested in indie music in general, and it seems a little bit hard to find Japanese indie music. I've definitely loved The Pillows for quite some time.

Its easy to find indies music, you just need to find the right "circle of people" who have "that connection".

Turntable.fm can help build those connections

[Cliodhna]

My favorite show that I stop everything to watch tends to be Quiz Hexagon II, haha. It's a fun show- they answer academic questions, questions about kanji radicals/origins/old forms, then make the contestants play against school kids who usually kick their butts. It's pretty entertaining, plus the questions are fairly easy to follow along and you can learn something.

Recently watched the movie 'Snow Country' 雪国 and really enjoyed that as well although it's from 1957. Komako has hilarious mood-swings. "Sakuran" is also a great movie but rather graphic.

[nicklar]

I think Japan pumps out an incredible amount of great films. I'm not so much into their drama series, although my wife is an avid viewer. Some of my favourites and you'd have to dip into Ebay or the like to find them include Kamikaze Taxi, Poppoya, Postman Blues, Love Letter and Grave of the Fireflies. I watched Kura on the plane home from the JET Program and I shed a tear at one point. Also so many great books - 69, Totto-chan and Snow Country are some of my favs amongst many others. I put a brief list here but it could be MUCH longer. As regards music I really like Boom (from Okinawa). They are a really eclectic mix of influences. Also Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra. Saw them live once and they were awesome!

[Chez1986]

I have to say I am a huge fan of Japanese films and dramas

Some of my favourites include Memories of Matsuko, Battle Royale and Tetsuo the Ironman.

My animated favourites consist of Mamoru Oshii's Angels Egg and Serial Experiments Lain. I also adore Miyazaki's Totoro and Whisper of the Heart.

Some of my all time favourite dramas are Binbo Danshi, Majo no jouken, O-Hitori Sama and Gokusen.

[Kewne]

I've not seen much in the way of Japanese TV, outside of anime since it's widely available.

For films, 'Battle Royale' was probably the best I've seen. I did like 'My Darling Is a Foreigner' also though. I actually came to this thread to find recommendations on more stuff to watch.

Favourite animated film would be... I don't know actually. I've seen a few, but all (apart from Tales of Earthsea) were good.

For dramas, I've never seen a good one.

For anime, I'm not sure if 'Kanon' or 'CLANNAD' would be my favourite. I like the story of Kanon a lot more, but CLANNAD is a lot funnier.

[Chez1986]

[quote="Kewne"]I've not seen much in the way of Japanese TV, outside of anime since it's widely available.

For dramas, I've never seen a good one.

Have you tried mysoju.com? you can access a lot of Japanese Dramas there, the only downside is that they are broken down into parts and can take ages to load. I suppose it depends on what you like to watch in dramas but I would recommen majo no jouken jdrama

[Kewne]

Have you tried mysoju.com? you can access a lot of Japanese Dramas there, the only downside is that they are broken down into parts and can take ages to load. I suppose it depends on what you like to watch in dramas but I would recommen majo no jouken jdrama

I vaguely recall going to mysoju.com before, but I think it was to watch K-Drama at the time. I tend to like comedy or serious stories more than romance, so it cuts a lot out. I've plenty of time until I hear about the interview, so I'll have another look. Most the comedy I've heard about has been drama adaptations of anime, which I've not seen a good one of (I did start with Negima, which might've biased me).

Majo no Jouken sounds like it could be interesting from the synopsis, but I'll make sure to not mention it if they ask me what I watch in the interview. Particularly the part where it says 'forbidden love', 'teacher' and 'student'.

[Chez1986]

lol yeah that may be a good idea - I liked it because it was a serious drama and different to the previous ones I watched which had a lot of slapstick kinda humour which I also like. Nurse Aoi is also very good

[sdsurf]

Not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet but myac.asia is a good website to check out Japanese dramas and movies.

I just finished watching Kasefu no Mita which was good. My all time favorite though has got to be Yuusha Yoshihiko to Maou no Shiro. It's a 30min midnight drama parodying Dragon Quest. Hilarious

[Musashi]

I just watched a weird Japanese movie. It's called Caterpillar, and it was very good. It's basically about a soldier who lost his limbs "fighting" in China during WWII, only to get returned home to his wife/village. It really covers a bunch of good topics.

It's probably one of the better Japanese movies I've seen in a long time.

Definitely worth a watch.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caterpillar_%28film%29
http://myac.asia/j-movie-caterpillar-2010/

2 other favorites are Survive Style 5+

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survive_Style_5%2B
http://myac.asia/j-movie-survive-style-5-2004/

And Yaji and Kita: The Midnight Pilgrims (Japanese title = Mayonaka no Yaji-san Kita-san)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaji_and_ ... t_Pilgrims

Both are funny and pretty good.

[erinmarie]

Music: I really like Perfume and Shinichi Osawa, but overall I'm not very knowledgeable about Japanese music. I'm more interested in indie music in general, and it seems a little bit hard to find Japanese indie music. I've definitely loved The Pillows for quite some time.

you should check out Shugo Tokumaru. He is pretty incredible the Sufjan Stevens of Japan. He plays guitar in a band called The Gellers. I also tend to like older music from Japan. Happy End is a great japanese band from the 70's.

[merkypie]

And Yaji and Kita: The Midnight Pilgrims (Japanese title = Mayonaka no Yaji-san Kita-san)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaji_and_ ... t_Pilgrims

Both are funny and pretty good.

Highly recommend this movie.

[ume no hana]

I recommend the heartwarming movie, Always三丁目の夕日

[Teishou]

Oh man, I didn't really like that movie much myself. Good movie, just not to my tastes.

[ジョシュア]

Music: I really like Perfume and Shinichi Osawa, but overall I'm not very knowledgeable about Japanese music. I'm more interested in indie music in general, and it seems a little bit hard to find Japanese indie music. I've definitely loved The Pillows for quite some time.

Its easy to find indies music, you just need to find the right "circle of people" who have "that connection".

Turntable.fm can help build those connections

Most Indie music you'll find by watching anime!

Music: PHANTASM (Fes cv. Yui Sakakibara), Utada Hikaru (Please come back from Hiatus!)

Movie: Love Letter (its the only Japanese movie i can recall seeing)

Anime: Sekirei, Chaos;Head/Steins;Gate, Evangelion, and many more

Animated Movie: Evangelion 1.11, 2.22 (can't wait for 3.33!)