I would highly recommend all Tsa Ming Liang movies. Specially: "What time is it there"

wong kar wai's films are stupendous.

I think the film that ben is meaning is gozu, weird kind of scifi thing with a guy in a white suit that looks something like a s&m tron/startrooper thing.

Try audtion... "tiki tiki tiki".... put me off acupuncture for years... ring the first one is shit scary, dark water is good as well.

I have just watched the the promise which i bought when i was in shanghai and that was excellent, the hero too, try ame agaru the last kurosawa film and also gohatto which is a gay samurai flick (its all the rage these days...) by Beat Takeshi. Hanabe is pretty good as well but quite a depressing ending.

Hi everyone again, and happy new year.

Whatever the film is that Ben's talking about, it can't be 'Gozu'. Paranoid Yakuza, small dog murder, Japanese trannies, breast feeding maniac, slobbery Minotaur, premature ejaculation - just about everything you can think of apart from sci-fi stuff.

The movie i lent Ben was "Natural City"by Amin Byling Cheon. not "Gozu".more supersci-fi i recomend from Asia-
"Casshern" Amazing and "Avalon" is great. A rare cool film is "The reserection of the little match girl" years ahead of its time and very origonal dispite being based on famous H.C. Anderson story.
"Iku" is a wierd sci-fi soft porn film which is like a big music video. If youre into art direction this will give you lots of inspiration.
Wierd Korean director Kim Ki Duk gives us "Real fiction" and "3 Iron'. Shot on camcorder with bystanders often in the film as its all shot in one take. considered genius or pretentious?
Now for some undesputed genius- Kiyoshi Kurowasa. Director of "Seance" "Cure" and "carisma" Really special.
"Zebraman" really rocks too- a kind of spoof of superhero movies like Ultra man. When the girl from "Ring" starts fighting Zebraman hand to hand combat style it goes really wierd.
And i cant remember the tatoo movie but its easy to find.
Tomorow (if i finish shooting early) your guide to the scariest Asian horor movies ever made.

yeah f:lux, i'm sorry, it was peter greenaway :)
i agree with bandart, tsai ming liang made great movies, unlike wong kar wai's beautiful cinematic movies, tsai ming liang's is so real, it's really visually like what it is in most part of china. his last movie "wayward cloud" is also very recommended, it's like the sequel of "what time is it there", also in the middle of watching those 2 movies u should see "dragon inn" the interesting thing about all his movies is he always use the same actor. my personal favourite is "the hole"
u should also see stephen chow's movies like "kungfu hustle", "shaolin soccer" and "god of cookery" for laughing, his films are really really funny.
"ichii the killer" is also a must see movie. and if u seen audition, i think ichii the killer is not as nasty as audition, well ichi shows more blood, but audition is scarier because people die slowly there.
and there's a young japanese director, shunji iwai, my recommended film is "it's all about lily chou-chou"
japanese version of "ring" is far far nicer than the hollywood one.
"suicide club" a japanese movie, i forgot the director. it's a about a suicide club in japan that involve and persuades so many people to commit suicide. some scenes are weird, but overall it's woth seeing. one of many movie about society dysfuntional in japan.
akira kurosawa's "dreams"
also some japanese movie like "kamikaze girls", "ping pong" and "water boys" (funny movies"
takeshi kitano's "kikujiro", "getting any", and "dolls"
shohei imamura's "warm water under the red bridge", "unagi (the eel)"
ozu's "ohayo (good morning)"
another fruit chan's movie call "public toilet"

Didi- im impressed!

Theres a bunch you mention that ive never heard of so thats great as people are always recomending films i saw years ago when they first got released in their own country.
(Like Ringu and Oldboy)
"Suicide club" rocks-and i dont know many people who have seen it or even heard of it.
Tsui Hark is probably still my favourite. "Swordsman 2","Zu warriors" "Chinese ghost story" "Wicked city"and "monster city" are my favourites. Theres are real magic about his films i think.
Theres a bunch of films which are not really available in the west but part of an extreme genre like Ebola syndrome and Bunman (featuring creepy Anthony Wong) Guinie Pig,Evil dead trap,Men behind the sun and my favourite Run and Kill. Have you seen any of these or are they too depraved for you?

hi turbo... i've never seen those movies u mention, but i'll look up :) can u tell me the directors' name?
yeah, i lived in asia, so i kinda watched a lot of asian movie. i've watched tsui hark since i was a kid when he was making some crap kungfu movies.
actually i kinda disappointed to see those remake of asian movies in hollywood, and there's some points that just doesn't work. because the culture is different which make the whole story and directing losing the real meaning.

Turbo, you're a big tease. Fancy saying you could tell me the name of the film I asked about at the start, then saying you can't remember but it's easy to find! I can't remember either and I can't find it so can it be that easy? Still, I'm hoping Jonathan Ross might tell me instead, when he does his Asian Cinema special soon. Don't ask me how I knew this subject would be big - further evidence of the existance of 'memes'?

And thanks for all the suggestions everyone. Is that it now or are there more?

Can I sence pre mature dementure setting in Friends?
And thanks Turbo for the message I will be in touch over the next two weeks, check your mail Buddy.

Some great recomendations in here, and someone else who has seen resurrection of the little match girl!. I particularly like Chanwook Park, and Kiyoshi Kurosawa.

Id reccomend checking out Seijun Suzuki, Hiroshi Teshigahara as well as staples like Ozu and Akira Kurosawa. The studio ghibli back catalogue is also worth going through if you enjoyed later stuff like Howl's moving castle and Spirited away, My neighbour totoro is my favourite.

Twilight Samurai and The Hidden Blade by Yoji Yamada are worth a look too. Oh and for an action break check out The Killer or Infernal affairs or, more recently, Sha Po Lang.

Gah, too many films to mention. I'll stop.

Any Miike fans who have seen Izo and enjoyed it?