Hi everyone,

I am opening this topic to hear recommendations on movies about Japan and its culture. For example, "Lost in Translation" or "Fast and Furious 3: Tokyo Drift"

Those two movies, show you around Japan and even if just a little they work because they are set in Japan. Actually, if you allow me, I hated "Fast and Furious 3" and have little respect for the whole franchise but that's another story.

So if you are recommending Japanese films, dramas, anime, or Western / European / Whatever, documentaries, etc., please consider the following sole request:

Realistic: Shows you a real view of Japan.

Like, I watched this movie, "Shinigami no seido", and is pretty cool but really no helpful to my goal which is get a "feeling" of what Japan is really about, unless there are actually shinigami's everywhere lol

Thanks.

pubbie Wrote:Adrift in Tokyo, I have never been to Japan but I really liked that movie and it is a walkabout in Tokyo, so it is real in the most literal sense...
Heres the trailer (with english subs, eeewwwww)

Wow looks like if you read my mind. Well everyone keep 'em coming.

I think that "Nobody Knows" hits the nail on the head, a perefect tale of where the Japanese attitude of leaving others to their own buisness goes terribly wrong.

Also, "Afterlife" is very good, a film about the space between life and the afterlife. Shows the evryday life and experience of normal folk in Japan.

If you ask me, don't bother with that Tokyo Drift rubbish, looked to me like a deluded American teenager's fantasy of what they dream Japan to be like. The "actors" in it didn't even look Japanese or act like Japanese at all.

Agreed, Tokyo Drift isn't a very good representation of Japan at all.

I'd say that Lost in Translation is pretty good though, though it doesn't really concern Japanese peope all that much.

電車男　Densha Otoko

Shows the otaku, internet cafe, salaryman, small apartments, how people act on the subway/train, nurses uniforms, pikkura, etc.

Documentaries:

1. BBC Japanorama. 6 episodes.
2. John Pilger's Japan Behind the Mask. It's old but good.

European movies about Japan:

Tokyo! 2008. It contains three segments written by three non-Japanese directors, all of which were filmed in Tokyo. Must see.

Japanese movies:

1. Island of Light 2006 (Goya Champuru.)
2. Hana-bi, Takeshi Kitano.
3. Eureka 2000.
4. Love & Pop 1998 (Rabbu & Poppu.)

http://www.midnighteye.com/reviews/index.shtml



Japanese drama series:

1. Tsubasa no Oreta Tenshitachi (Fallen Angels.) 2 seasons, 4 episodes each.
2. Joou no Kyoushitsu (The Queen's Classroom.) 11 eps, 2 specials.
3. Yamada Taro Monogatari. 10 eps.
4. Shikaotoko Aoniyoshi (The Fantastic Deer-Man.) 10 eps.

Haha... Adrift in Tokyo is not the same as Tokyo Drift...

Yeah Tokyo Drift is awful but Adrift in Tokyo looks good though. Thanks everyone for all your recommendations, awesome stuff.