Best Japanese language films for a HS kid taking Japanese

[Nostromo]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
Are they anything like the Solid State Society movie?

I haven't seen 'Solid State Society' yet, but from what I've heard, its based on the TV show. Which isn't a bad thing.

The first movie follows more closely the manga. The artwork (animation, etc.) in both movies were really top notch for their times. 'Ghost in the Shell 2 ' is still pretty impressive by today's standards.

Care to expand on that? It was the professional part that raised my interest.

Well, I'm a trained philosopher and I was never fully satisfied with the philosophical monologues/dialogues in the movies and in the manga (sometimes, they even irritated me).

[Kuciwalker]

I'm not a trained philosopher and they managed to irritate me

[Jon Miller]

Originally posted by LordShiva


Reading Shakespeare is quite normal for a 15 year-old.

I think that 14-15 is when I read most of my Shakespeare (both for classes, and on my own).

JM

[b etor]

Originally posted by LordShiva


Reading Shakespeare is quite normal for a 15 year-old.

qft. we read and studied him freshman year when i was 14.

[bipolarbear]

Was it the dumbed down "Shakespeare Light" version though? Most ninth graders are lucky to get full Shakespeare taught to them, much less understand it.

[Meticulous Man]

Considering her age, I recommend getting her hooked on anime... A friend of mine learned a lot of Japanese by watching anime alone...

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Colonâ„¢
We have a J-J (Jewish-Japanese) alliance coming.

The two friends who got her into Japanese (and anime BTW) tend to IM and talk to her in this odd mix of English, Hebrew, and Japanese.

[CygnusZ]

There are more Japanese movies than just cartoons though. I'm not sure if there are English versions, but here are some films I enjoyed:

Daremo Shiranai (Nobody knows) -- A story about child abuse and neglect in Tokyo. This is a pretty famous movie.

Warai no Daigaku (College of Laughter) -- A comedian attempts to get his controversial act approved by an uptight government bureaucrat in wartime Japan. The comedian is played by one of the singers in SMAP.

Hakushi no ai****a suushiki (The professor's beloved formula) -- The story of the relationship between a professor with short term memory loss problems and his housekeeper.

Ima, Ai ni yukimasu (Dying to Meet You)-- A ghost story (not scary at all) about a the wife of a single father who returns from beyond the grave.

Aside from movies, she might enjoy dramas or variety shows. The Spring of Trivia is a particularly amusing. Anything with the group "Downtown" in it is very funny as well. And, of course, there's also the news.

[Mercator]

I'd suggest Kikujiro no natsu (The Summer of Kikujiro) and Dolls. They're both excellent movies by Takeshi Kitano. Kikujiro is a heart-warming comedy about a boy searching for his mother, and Dolls a bit of a drama about tragic love stories.

Oh, and my girlfriend can probably give more advice on Japanese TV series and stuff... There's Densha Otoko, which I haven't actually seen myself, but it's a movie and TV series based on a true story of a geek who saves a girl on the metro from being harassed and finds help on an online forum and ends up with the girl... I don't know how geeky or sappy your daughter is, but that might go down well. Don't know if that's the "richer" you're looking for though.

[Nanimo]

I quite liked Densha Otoko :P

Anyway, if your daughter is also studying french, she might like enjoy the film "Stupeur et tremblements" (fear and trembling). It was a little dull at times, but it offers an interesting, sometimes humourous, often painful insight into the experience of a young Belgian woman working in the Japanese corporate environment. Although it's based on the real-life experiences of the novelist, Amélie Northomb, it's probably wise to take the film with a pinch of salt.

Grave of the Fireflies was a pretty good animated movie if a bit of a tear-jerker. The film tells the story of a young boy and his little sister struggling to survive in Japan during World War II. I believe there is also a new live-action of this film, I haven't seen that yet.

I'd also recommend Audition, although I'm not sure if it's appropriate for a young girl. I saw it at the cinema and a few couples walked out at a certain scene.

Another animated movie I enjoyed was Perfect Blue, from the same director that did Millenium Actress. This film is a psychological thriller with themes of identity, reality, fear and paranoia.

I guess a lot of this also depends on what kind of films your daughter generally enjoys...

[Jon Miller]

I really liked perfect Blue.

I have watched other japanese nonanime movies besides seven samurai

just the ones I have seen I wouldn't recommend

JM

[Drake Tungsten]

Anything with the group "Downtown" in it is very funny as well.

The guys in Downtown speak Kansai-ben, which is the last thing a student studying standard Japanese should be exposing themselves to.

[bipolarbear]

Is Kansai-ben the bar slang they speak over there?

[Drake Tungsten]

No. It's the regional dialect in Kansai.

[Wraith]

--"Daremo Shiranai (Nobody knows) -- A story about child abuse and neglect in Tokyo. This is a pretty famous movie."

This would be my suggestion, if you can find it. I'd be pretty surprised to see it at a rental place. Kore'eda's stuff is usually quite good, and this one is pretty much exactly what you're looking for. It's got good drama that might appeal to a teenage girl, and most of the major characters are children, so the language is on the simple side. Plus it's just a damn good movie.

It also allows for a lead in to Yasujiro Ozu movies later on. I wouldn't start her on those, but they're both good and very Japanese, so if she's going to stick with the language they'd be nice. They are not, however, for a typical US teen raised on Hollywood short-attention-span theater. You'll probably have to ease her into these.

Seven Samurai, and pretty much any Kurosawa film, is going to be a bad choice. Unless you know she's a big fan of either spaghetti westerns or samurai films, and that's pretty rare in women, much less teenage girls.

For further movie reviews, check out Midnight Eye.

I'm less familiar with j-drama, but if that's the route you're going you might want to try something with name recognition. You'll never find it in the States for rental, but the Sailor Moon Live Action series would probably fit perfectly.

Oh, and rather than anime, you might try her on manga. If she knows kana, get her a couple volumes of the Sailor Moon manga in Japanese (it has furigana) or something like Glass Mask.

Wraith
"Squirrel butts don't glow."
-- Jeliza-Rose ("Tideland")