MOVIES

It's been a little while since I've mentioned some good Japanese movies. That is probably because good current Japanese movies are few and far between (but you can't go wrong with anything by Kurosawa, Beat Takeshi and Studio Ghibli). Here are some goodies from 3 major Japanese movie categories, Action, Drama, and Weird.

Action: Azumi 2 or Ichi. You really only need to watch one of these, cause they are essentially the same movie. Both movies consist of Japanese women killing lots of people with swords. The only difference is that Ichi is blind (fun fact: the japanese word for blind, mekura, is considered kind of rude to say, so you don't hear it often. You typically hear 'me ga mienai'. Translation: eyes can't see)

Drama: Casshern. If you feel like being super depressed and hating all of humanity, watch this movie. Its filmed in the style of 300 but takes place in the future. There is a lot of martial arts and war action, but the story is mainly about how human beings are terrible. I love this movie and the soundtrack is awesome but you just have to be in the mood to watch this sort of thing.

Weird: Revenge of the Zebra Miniskirt Police. Dead or Alive, Visitor Q. If the names alone aren't weird enough, give these movies a try. Dead or alive actually starts like a normal crime/gang movie yet in the end everything falls apart. Visitor Q is something a retired porn star taking LSD might come up with so don't watch this with family.

Now that I've written this I've thought of a few more goodies - so stay tuned for more recommendations.