Re: what are some of your favorite movies
Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 2:17 pm
I’ll have to agree with Paolo on Village of Dreams as one of the best films ever. It’s based on an award-winning children’s book by Seizo Tajima (who has published over 100 children’s books to date). It is the story of him and his twin brother, Yukihiko (award-winning author of nearly 50 books), during their 9th year. The twin brothers play themselves in the opening and closing scenes.
Everyone who’s grown up in the country will recognize part of himself in the film. Those who didn’t grow up in the countryside will wish that they had. It’s one of the few films that I’ve watched multiple times with increasing enjoyment. My children gave me a DVD of it for Christmas after my VHS version had become shredded from being loaned out to so many people.
I like to watch Japanese films to keep up my language skills. I also prefer comedies as an escape from everything else in my life.
The two best Japanese comedies I’ve found are
1) Tampopo – several intersecting plotlines, all involving FOOD! The central one is that the hero rides into town driving a milk truck (with steer horns on the hood) and saves the poor widow by helping her to open the best noodle shop in all of Japan before riding off into the sunset. A perfect parody of every “B” western you’ve ever seen.
2) Waterboys – an all-boys’ high school starts a synchronized swimming team with more complications than you can possibly imagine before seeing the film. The final scene, before the closing credits, will have you falling off your chair in laughter. The girlfriend of the swim team captain is the captain of the karate team at the near by all-girls’ high school. The gender play is fascinating (and fun).
Everyone who’s grown up in the country will recognize part of himself in the film. Those who didn’t grow up in the countryside will wish that they had. It’s one of the few films that I’ve watched multiple times with increasing enjoyment. My children gave me a DVD of it for Christmas after my VHS version had become shredded from being loaned out to so many people.
I like to watch Japanese films to keep up my language skills. I also prefer comedies as an escape from everything else in my life.
The two best Japanese comedies I’ve found are
1) Tampopo – several intersecting plotlines, all involving FOOD! The central one is that the hero rides into town driving a milk truck (with steer horns on the hood) and saves the poor widow by helping her to open the best noodle shop in all of Japan before riding off into the sunset. A perfect parody of every “B” western you’ve ever seen.
2) Waterboys – an all-boys’ high school starts a synchronized swimming team with more complications than you can possibly imagine before seeing the film. The final scene, before the closing credits, will have you falling off your chair in laughter. The girlfriend of the swim team captain is the captain of the karate team at the near by all-girls’ high school. The gender play is fascinating (and fun).
)
