Last movie watched...

[Professor Bear]

I love the Fist of the North Star series - the Manga Entertainment dub more than the Japanese original - but the early 90s movie edit that cobbled together episodes from the Shin saga is dreadful.

To be fair, Fist of the North Star is amazing.

I like cartoon FOTNS better than the live action film where they found this mostly unknown martial artist who looked nothing like NorthStar

Gary Daniels isn't the most charismatic of screen presences, but he was actually pretty well-known to fans of Eastern and Western martial arts films in the mid-90s because of his prolific career in low-to-no budget head-punchers where he usually plays villains - though fair play most people would know him in a kind of "that's that guy from that thing with whatsisname" way.  Also, he clearly should have played Shin in the FOTNS movie.

[I, Cosh]

Gary Daniels as Bryan Fury in Tekken is probably the best piece of casting ever. Even if the film is dogshite.

[Theblazeuk]

Never watched a bad Ghibli movie (haven't seen all of them mind so it's a selective sample). Akira is also, in my mind, an absolute classic. As important a Sci-Fi movie as Blade Runner.

[JamesC]

Akira certainly looks fantastic and I think the source material is probably pretty strong (from what I know of it). The film though, is so condensed that in its own right its a mess.

As for the Ghibli stuff - just not my cup of tea. Not suggesting the films are bad but I haven't enjoyed what I've seen.

[Hawkmumbler]

Never watched a bad Ghibli movie (haven't seen all of them mind so it's a selective sample). Akira is also, in my mind, an absolute classic. As important a Sci-Fi movie as Blade Runner.

Now, see, I like Akira. But when you condense a 2500 page magnum opus into one 90 minute feature, your undoubtably going to end up with an inferior story and i've been saying for years Akira is ripe for a 50 episode TV series addaptation. By Madhouse. That would be pretty bomb.

[I, Cosh]

I enjoyed the film of Akira but it's certainly one of those things where I'm baffled who anyone unfamiliar with the comic would have the faintest idea who was doing what to whom.

Never watched much manga but remember really enjoying the original Ghost in the Shell. However, as Bear observes, pretty much anyone my age who isn't into comics or whatever thinks manga is Legend of the Overfiend (and maybe Dragonball if they've got kids.)

[Keef Monkey]

There's definitely some great stuff out there, Ghost In The Shell Standalone Complex is easily one of my favorite sci-fi series of all time (animated or not). I still buy some Manga releases occasionally but been a while since I was blown away by something. I really wish they'd give Cyber City Oedo 808 a blu-ray release because I loved that. In fact, if they could re-release the titles they did under their Cyberpunk Collection banner I'd be very happy (Cyber City, Genocyber and A.D. Police).

[Professor Bear]

I can understand why James doesn't get on with anime, as I don't think a lot of fans realise that it takes time to get into.  Japanese storytelling is different from Western storytelling and some things - not just words, but also narrative concepts and character archetypes - just don't translate directly into any Western equivalence.
In the 1990s, media companies like Saban and Funimation knew this and tailored their localisations for their intended audiences, and much as we probably stick our noses in the air at stuff like Power Rangers, Sailor Moon, Dragonball, and Pokemon, these were yuge here in the West because of the work put into making them comprehensible to an entirely unintended audience.  You don't really see that kind of thing nowadays because it's considered a sacrilege of the creator's artistic intentions if you alter a single frame of Naruto transforming himself into 8 naked giggling schoolgirls to distract enemy ninjas.

[Theblazeuk]

I enjoyed the film of Akira but it's certainly one of those things where I'm baffled who anyone unfamiliar with the comic would have the faintest idea who was doing what to whom.

I've only read Simpsons Akira but it's pretty easy to get your head around, or at least it is if you're a geeky 12 year old who discovers your dad's Akira tape in the loft when looking for comics.

[The Adventurer]

I've never enjoyed an anime film and I've watched a few. I don't think the stories are very good.
I watched one of those Evangelion films and it was about a monster that attacked, which they fought, and then another monster attacked and they fought that, and then another and another. I was bored shitless by the end of it.

You sir, need to watch Paprika. It's the one anime movie I think every sci-fi fan should watch.

Or, Royal Space Force. Or, Ghost in the Shell. Or, Akira.


Evangelion 1.11 is the first part of a 4 part rebelling of a 26 episode tv series. Not the best place to get a sense of all anime.

[Tiplodocus]

SEVEN SAMURAI
the 190 minute BFI version.
It is probably twenty five or thirty years since I saw it all the way through and it is still a masterclass in adventure film making.
The subtitles are functional but I guess we miss out on a few things. And though I haven't got a clue about the cultural significancè of a lot of things, you can work it out from the visual story telling (the relationship between the peasant and samurai classes/castes is shown well visually before Kiku has his brilliant rant and the rwaction shots showbthat Kambei shaving his head is something frowned upon).

It's a shitty print with loads of artefacts but still looks gorgeous!

If any of you youngsters arecwatching anime but haven't seen this yet, correct that ommission.

[JamesC]

I've never enjoyed an anime film and I've watched a few. I don't think the stories are very good.
I watched one of those Evangelion films and it was about a monster that attacked, which they fought, and then another monster attacked and they fought that, and then another and another. I was bored shitless by the end of it.

You sir, need to watch Paprika. It's the one anime movie I think every sci-fi fan should watch.

Or, Royal Space Force. Or, Ghost in the Shell. Or, Akira.


Evangelion 1.11 is the first part of a 4 part rebelling of a 26 episode tv series. Not the best place to get a sense of all anime.

As I said, I've seen a few and those include Akira and Ghost in the Shell.
I think Ghost in the Shell was probably one of the better ones but it still didn't do much for me. Akira as I've said upthread is a bit of a mess in my opinion. It looks great but the plot is all over the place.
I've also seen Fist of the North star and Legend of the Overfiend which were both terrible.
There's one called Redline which I was assured would change my mind about anime but didn't.
I saw (most of) Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle but, again, found them nice to look at but boring.

I suspect it comes down to the difference in the storytelling conventions between East and West, as Bear said.

I also find quite a few asian live action films boring for the same reasons - The Host, Oldboy, The Grudge (this one seems to work in the same way that Evangelion worked - just a list of things happening, one after the other without any character arcs or consequence).
I didn't like Pacific Rim for similar reasons - obviously as it's a homage to kaiju films.

I'm always willing to give things a go though - I may have just been unlucky. On the plus side, I really liked Battle Royale and Ringu was quite entertaining (but obviously not as good as Pingu).

[Professor Bear]

I'd have a gander at Grave of the Fireflies if you can, James.  It has an unjust reputation as being a tear-jerker, but it's actually surprisingly upbeat and fun, especially the ending where the two kids are finally reunited.

Armageddon .  I'm on record as loving Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor for the brilliant comedy pastiche of post-90s Western action cinema that it clearly is (and I'm not saying this ironically, it is literally impossible to watch it and take it seriously), but Armageddon is oddly flat for a movie with so much going for it.  Great design work, solid actors, a robust boy's own plot that isn't hateful about its mostly-male cast in a way that similar films - even those by the same director - are, good fx - and yet all of it is less than the sum of its parts.  In retrospect, it gives some insight to the film-making of its screenwriter JJ Abrams, as Affleck's aimless and unconvincing character can be viewed as a paradigm of later JJA forays into the sci-fi genre, with the clumsy arc where a kidult attains manhood and worthiness in the eyes of his father figure by screaming he'll do things his own way and show everyone, and then he gets lucky and people give him the validation he craves but acts like he's above.  There's no sense that there's a struggle to achieve anything, so there's a nagging doubt for much of the film that nothing is really at stake, not helped by Willis sleepwalking through some key scenes.
Anyway, I hate to break it to you, the forum, but Armageddon is not very good.

[richerthanyou]

Hail, Caesar!

Brilliant film. Visually fantastic. The song and dance numbers were great. The acting was spot on.

As far as the plot goes, I don't have a bloody clue what that was all about.

8/10

[Jim_Campbell]

Anyway, I hate to break it to you, the forum, but Armageddon is not very good.

My wife thinks Armageddon is great, but when we went to the pictures to see it, she was caught a bit short and missed an entire hour in the middle of the movie. Which is pretty much the only way you could think it was a good film!

Cheers

Jim