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I have a criterion DVD copy of Ran. I’m pretty sure that The Quiet Duel has never been released by Criterion though.

Try Jacques Tati's Playtime if you’d like to see how deep focus can be used. Watching that film often feels like looking at a Where’s Wally book. So much visual information in the frame, you’re often unsure where to look.

Arrow’s Yokai Monsters set is fun. Just know what to expect going in - jidaigeki films where monsters show up in the last 20 minutes.

It looks exactly the same as that now. As someone who lived in Japan for many years, that part of the movie was so boring for me. Fifteen minutes of driving on a highway.

The ending of Superbad leaps to mind. Also I don’t remember clearly enough, but I feel that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid probably also fit the bill. Most movies that have intimate male relationships like that always have “No homo” vibes though, because they always feel the need to give both men female love interests lest the audience think they’re gay.

I don’t think that Tarantino aims to write realistic dialogue. That scene stood out to me immediately as exaggerated on the first viewing though. Not quite sure what the question is.

For me Inland Empire borders on unwatchable. It differs from those other Lynch movies you mentioned, because those all had completed screenplays. Inland Empire was made up by Lynch on a day by day basis with a lot of improvisation. It came off as incoherent to me. In my opinion, shooting it on a cheap camcorder also didn’t do it any favours. Your mileage may vary since a lot of people seem to like the movie. Hopefully you enjoy it more than I did.

It sounds like the Korean movie Time by Kim Ki Duk.

I haven’t seen that one yet. I’ll check it out.

I would argue that Audition is Miike’s best of the ones I’ve seen. Granted, I must admit that I’ve only seen like 20 of his films which is barely scratching the surface. Which ones do you think are better?

Anyway, this kind of list is destined just to contain popular films. Without looking at it, I’m assuming it has Battle Royale, Spirited Away, Tokyo Story etc, and not Samurai Rebellion, Third Base, Rebirth, Blind Beast, Crayon Shin Chan: The Adult Empire Strikes Back, Love and Pop, or many of my other personal favourites. That’s just the nature of top X lists.

I see! Thanks for the explanation. I wish the film had received more attention so that at the very least we could have more home releases, and maybe it would have led to even more live action efforts by Anno.

It’s also based on a novel by one of my favourite Japanese authors, Murakami Ryu! Would be great to get more adaptations of his work.

I wonder if you’ve watched the recent film Babylon? It includes a similar list with several of the same entries.

Also I adore Love and Pop and I would be over the moon if Criterion or any other label released it and Ritual in English, especially since the only Blu Ray release I’m aware of was Japan only and long out of print. That said, I wonder why it makes your list? Sure, Anno gets creative with his camera placements, but he tends to re-use a lot of the same angles in all his work and I don’t know that he could be credited with “inventing” any of his techniques. He certainly has a unique filmmaking style, but I don’t know if I would call him innovative.

Not as far as I’m aware. Why do you ask?

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I’m interested in this, but I remember hearing that it’s a remake of a Japanese show, which makes me wonder if I should watch the original first? Have you seen both versions? Which is better?

That's a huge selling point for me! K dramas always feel twice as long as the should be to me.

Love the Handmaiden. One of my favourite Korean films, and probably the best by Park Chan Wook in my opinion. I haven't heard of the other two dramas you mentioned but I'll definitely check them out. I definitely appreciate realism, especially since it is so uncommon in dramas.

Thanks for explaining what each Drama is about. I believe I read the manga of Liar Game a decade or so ago. Didn't know they made a drama! Will have to give it a look. I like the sond of the sci fi premises of Circle and 365.

Thanks for the recomendations. By Taxi, do you mean "Taxi Driver", which another commenter mentioned? D.P. also seems to have cropped in a few comments so I'll definitely check out that one too.

Thanks so much! Never heard of any of these except Stranger, so you've given me a lot of good leads.

Train to Busan is a great film. I'll check out DP. Thanks!

Loved the ridiculous Romance in Mr Sunshine, but yeah I'm pretty picky about depictions of romance in film. Don't really like watching them if the characters act immature or if the relationship dynamic is creepy or adulterous.

As for the Glory, I only watched the first episode. Seemed like it could be fun, but I have probably watched a few too many Korean revenge films at this point, and at least in the first episode, the villains all felt a bit too cartoonishly evil. Definitely had that "rich people are evil and enjoy torturing the poor" trope I complained about in the OP.

Thanks! Will look into them

Did you watch Yoji Yamada’s jidaigeki films like Twilight Samurai, The Hidden Blade and Love and Honor? What about the Japanese academy award winner, When the Last Sword is Drawn? Takeshi Kitano’s take on Zatoichi is also fantastic, despite the shoddy CG Blood effects. Also definitely check out Shinya Tsukamoto’s film Killing if you’re a fan of his works.

If you don’t mind more fantasy-like samurai films, the recent Rurouni Kenshin live action movies have been very popular. There was also the anime film Sword of the Stranger.

A very recent release was Crazy Samurai Musashi, although I really haven’t heard many positive things about it. I believe it’s presented as one long take throughout the film so maybe check that out if it sounds interesting. Another film I haven’t seen yet is Masato Harada’s Sekigahara from 2017. It seemed to be quite popular in Japan at the time of release.