Just watched it, thought it was absolutely fabulous, dahling.
Anybody else a fan of it and its eastern cinematic counterparts?
Oldboy. Is. Awesome. What counterparts?
I have shamefully never seen Oldboy but I’ve seen a considerable number of other Asian films?
oldboy is one of my top 5 films i think, its excellent
http://360digest.com/uploads/BollywoodAlbum.jpg
Technically this is still asian…
… ;p
I have only every really watched Chinese movies however, I generally find the acting in them to be a bit over-acted (this is of course a generalization based on all the ones I have seen).
Anyone seen Dragon Tiger Gate?
Kurosawa. Anything, really, but especially Ran and Seven Samurai (this one is loooong, but so worth it). Some of the best classic movies I’ve seen.
For more modern fair, if you’re looking for noir-ish Chinese cinema, there’s always the standard John Wu stuff: Killer, Hard Boiled, A Better Tomorrow, etc. If you’re looking for something more artistic and filled with fatalistic romance, anything by Wong Kar Wai (Chungking Express, In the Mood for Love, and the much more recent but not quite as good, 2046).
For Wu Xia films, the standard Once Upon a Time in China, Drunken Master, Iron Monkey, Hero, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, etc.
For Japanese films (other than Kurosawa… and really, Miyazaki, since his films don’t really fit in with the majority of animation that people think of as “anime”), Battle Royale, Densha Otoko (Train Man), Swallowtail, Gege… All great films. The thing to remember about Japanese films, though, is that they’re much slower pace and are much more focused on internal struggles and use of silent imagery than American movies.
edit: Forgot one more!
The best Korean movie I’ve seen so far (have yet to see Old Boy… it’s on my list!) is Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring Again. It’s a beautiful movie, but be prepared to be depressed. VERY depressed. It’s one of the darker movies I’ve ever seen.
I watched Ran by accident on TV last year (or longer). I didn’t know it’s by Kurosawa. It is awesome, very Greek tragedy esque. 7 Samurai is also awesome.
Actually, not Greek - Shakespeare (well, if you want to go back a few generations of influence, then yeah, the Greeks). Ran is a retelling of King Lear 
I had no idea what it was based on, it was just the vibe I got while watching, knowing nothing about it at the time. All the seemingly overacted reactions by the characters, their emotional inner turmoils and all that seemed all Greek to me. Things you don’t see in movies anymore (or in real life) where emotions and morals and family or other bonds don’t really matter because we’ve been overexposed to bad examples, money and instant gratification making the world go round and all that. Can’t really express what I mean all that well.
Ran is my favorite of Kurosawa’s films that I have seen.
I think my favorite Japanese movie is Tetsuo (The Iron Man). It is very experimental in feel and has been accurately described as “hyper-kinetic”. It is about a salary-man who finds himself turning into metal. First with thick metal “hairs” in his face, later mechanical parts sprouting out of him. Things happen it is awesome. Also the soundtrack is great industrial stuff.
There was a sequel but I have not seen it and is out of print. 
I recently picked up a Chinese movie called “The Hole” but have yet to see it. It looks potentially really interesting though.
A branch of Asian cinema I want to learn more about is the “Taiwanese New Wave”. I saw one movie by Hou Hsiao-Hsien (A Time to live, A Time to Die) and thought it was dull. But afterwards I read an article that made me really want to give it another chance. Unfortunately those are films without wide mainstream appeal and are tough to find!
(There was also a second Taiwanese new wave but the only thing I know about it really are Ang Lee’s most mainstream films and I don’t like them very much)
I’ll try and pick this up, i love darker films >=)
By asian counterparts I meant Sympathy for Mr Vengance and Lady Vengance, those with Oldboy form the “Vengance Trilogy”, a series of films all done by Park Chan-wook.
I remember seeing Tetsuo the Iron Man when I was 14, at that age I found it quite disturbing (women chasing you with metal arms?). I bought it on DVD for ?3 but have yet to gain the courage to watch it again. Interesting to note that the director of Tetsuo appaears in the film adaptation of Ichi The Killer (which is little more than an over glorified gorefest, IMHO).
Nemoide, have you ever seen Tetsuo: Body Hammer? It is apparently similar to Iron Man only with the protagonist’s son kidnapped by a gang.
Take care you all…
[quote=“waoko”]By asian counterparts I meant Sympathy for Mr Vengance and Lady Vengance, those with Oldboy form the “Vengance Trilogy”, a series of films all done by Park Chan-wook.
.[/quote]
Loved all three movies.
I’m not an asian movie fan. But I’m not an western movie fan either. I’ll watch anything I might think is good.
I first saw Oldboy a few years ago, and I’ve seen it once or twice since as well. It’s completely worthy of the hype IMO. I caught the Mr. vengeance movie maybe a year ago, and it’s great though not as immaculate a package. I don’t think I’ve watched Lady Vengeance yet, though remember it on either IFC or Sundance program guide a couple times, just never at a right time I guess.
And while nearly any Kurosawa film is more engrossing than 99.9% of cinema regardless of where it’s from… if forced to pick a fave it’d be Rashamon. But for re-watchability you just can’t beat Yojimbo and Sanjuro. I’ve never really gone out of my way to be educated on Japanese cinema or anything else, but for more contemporary fare Tampopo and A Taxing Woman were both amazing to me.