Samaritan Girl (South Korea, 2004)

Jae-Young is an amateur prostitute who sleeps with men while her best friend Yeo-Jin "manages" her, fixing dates, taking care of the money, etc. One Day Yeo-Jin fails in doing her job overlooking police officers looking for under-aged prostitutes. In order to not get caught Jae-Young jumps out of a window almost killing herself. On her deathbed, she wishes to see the man again whom she fell in love with. But the man only agrees if Yeo-Jin sleeps with him. She does, but as they arrive in the hospital Jae-Young is already dead. Trying to understand her best friend, Yeo-Jin tracks down every man she slept with and does the same. 

Consisting of three chapters with their own distinctive tones, Samaritan Girl (a.k.a. Samaria) explores themes such as sin and atonement. Directed by the magnificent Kim Ki-duk (3-Iron) it has that certain feel to it that only he can create. An unbelievably dark story of youth gone wrong.

Genre: Drama

The Front Line (South Korea, 2011)

Towards the end of the Korean War an uneasy ceasefire is ordered, but out on the Eastern front line of the Aerok Hills fierce fighting continues. A race to capture a strategic point to determine a new border between the two Koreas is the ultimate prize. A bullet is then found in the body of dead company commander of the South Korean army. The bullet that killed the company commander belongs to the South Korean army. Lieutenant of the Defense Security Command Kang Eun-Pyo is ordered to go out into the Eastern front line and investigate the murder.

Emotionally powerful and lots of well-directed, great-looking battle scenes. The Front Line has everything that makes for a good war movie. It features great actors like Shin Ha-kyun (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance) and Kim Ok-bin (Thirst), deals with the struggles of a single platoon and manages to pull you in to its hellish warzone. 

Genre: Drama/History/War

Female Convict Scorpion: Jailhouse 41

Matsu, known to the prisoners as Scorpion, is locked away in the bowels of the prison as revenge for disrupting the smooth operation of the prison and for her disfiguring attack on the warden. Granted a one day reprieve due to the visit of a dignitary, she takes advantage and attacks the warden again. This leads to more brutal punishment and humiliation. But the punishment gives her an opportunity to escape along with six other female prisoners. 

The stunningly beautiful Meiko Kaji (Lady Snowblood 1 & 2) plays the lead role in this deadly series of prison escape films, Jailhouse 41 being the second one (out of 4). It's a grim and bloody road to freedom and everyone who gets in Scorpion's way is about to feel the pain. 

A superb series and a Japanese cult classic, Female Convict (a.k.a. Female Prisoner) should be on everyone's 'to-watch list'. 

Genre: Drama/Thriller/Crime

Ace Attorney (Japan, 2012)

Phoenix Wright, a novice lawyer, is up against expert prosecutor Miles Edgeworth, who had a perfect win record. The court system of the time dictates that the trial can only convene for a total of three days before a verdict must be reached. Not before long, Miles is charged with murder, and it is up to Phoenix to defend him against the best prosecutor of all time, as well as Miles' mentor, Manfred Von Karma, who has not lost a case in forty years.

Court rooms aren't exactly the most exciting places you could think of. Unless Phoenix Wright serves as the defense attorney. Ace Attorney (a.k.a. Gyakuten Saiban) is a court room drama/detective story on steroids and follows you through a number of different cases. The scene with the parrot was fantastic and just hilariously unbelievable. 

Based on a massively popular video game and directed by acclaimed director Takashi Miike (Audition), Ace Attorney is a crazy fantasy version of the Japanese legal system. It's as if superheroes got stuck in court because these lawyers aren't exactly your typical defenders and prosecutors. A superb adaption where everything looks just like it should.

Genre: Comedy/Crime/Drama

Caterpillar (Japan, 2010)

During the Second Sino-Japanese War, in 1940, Lieutenant Kurokawa returns home as a honored and decorated soldier... but deprived of his arms and legs lost in battle in mainland China. All hopes, from the village men and women to close family members, turn to Shigeko, the Lieutenant's wife: she must honor the Emperor and the country in setting an example for all by fulfilling her duty and taking care of the 'God soldier'.

A solid drama dealing with difficult themes such as war crimes and handicapped veterans. Recommended for those who's interested in gaining insight in how Japanese women were treated with unfair demands during wartimes. 

A tough film about the damages of war.

Genre: Drama

Gozu (Japan, 2003)

Minami, a member of the Azamawari crew, highly respects his brother Ozaki who has saved his life in the past. However, lately Ozaki's eccentricities (like claiming that a Chihuahua hs sees is a 'Yakuza attack dog') have been making everyone wonder about his sanity. Chairman Azamawari is unsympathetic to Ozaki's little outbursts and secretly orders Minami to take Ozaki to a disposal facility in the city of Nagoya. There, the fate of these two follows a twisted path filled with violence, mother's milk, strange locals, and ultimately the disappearance of Ozaki's corpse which Minami now desperately tries to recover.

A deeply surreal story about the Yakuza, men with cow heads and bizarre sexual activities. All from the strange mind of Takashi Miike (Ichi the Killer, 13 Assassins), Gozu is one of his most Lynch-ian film due to the perplexing nature of the plot. And then of course, there's that certain birth-scene, which is one of the most bizarre and nastiest things I've ever seen.

Genre: Crime/Drama

Shall We Dance? (Japan, 1996)

Sugiyama is a successful salaryman, with a house in the suburbs, a devoted wife, Masako, and a teenage daughter. He works as an accountant for a firm in Tokyo. Despite these external signs of success, however, Sugiyama begins to feel as if his life has lost direction and meaning and falls into depression. One night, while coming home on the Tokyo Subway, he spots a beautiful woman with a melancholy expression looking out from a window in a dance studio. This is Mai, a well-known figure on the Western ballroom dance circuit. Sugiyama becomes infatuated with her and decides to take lessons in order to get to know her better.

Shall We Dance? is a charming and splendid drama that puts you in a happy mood. The movie became actor Koji Yakusho's (13 Assassins, Cure) major breakthrough, and that's great because he's one of my favorite Japanese actors. It gives an interesting insight to the conservative view the Japanese people have of relationships. It became such a big deal that it inspired a huge dance craze all over Japan, A delightful movie that will without a doubt lift you off your feet.

Genre: Drama/Comedy

Vive L'Amour (Taiwan, 1994)

The film focuses on three city folks who unknowingly share the same apartment: Mei, a real estate agent who uses it for her sexual affairs; Ah-jung, her current lover; and Hsiao-ang, who's stolen the key and uses the apartment as a retreat. 

Vive L'Amour is as its title implies, a film about love, but not in any convential way. It's about three people who's lives become entangled through an apartment. It's minimalistic in its execution with extremely little dialogue, and takes place mainly around the same rooms the whole movie. Quiet and subtle, yet very emotional. An unforgettable, powerful experience and features a scene which actually made me unconsciously hold my breath. Powerful.

Genre: Drama. 1h 58min.

Kagemusha (Japan, 1980)

When a powerful warlord in medieval Japan dies, a poor thief recruited to impersonate him finds difficulty living up to his role and clashes with the spirit of the warlord during turbulent times in the kingdom.

For almost a decade before Kagemusha, Kurosawa had trouble getting funding for his films due to having the reputation of being difficult to work with and going way over budgets. The years were tough and he even attempted suicide at one point, but one thing kept him going at that was the love of painting. He painted the visions that played out in his head and the result was beautiful, while also being a window into his dreams and how he saw a particular scene. He became once again very interested in jidaigeki, using his colorful imagination to blend with real life history on the paper. While on a trip overseas he met Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas, both huge fans of his, and with their help got all the money he needed to make a film based on his paintings. 

With Kagemusha, Akira Kurosawa created yet another historical epic which is a real beast of a jidaigeki film. The battle scenes utilized hundreds of horses and thousands of extras, the picture had five thousand extras in the film's battle sequence finale which depicted the Battle of Nagashino of the year 1575. Real 16th Century costumes and armor were loaned from Japanese museums for actors to wear in the film and these were reportedly important national treasures of Japan. Two hundred specially trained horses were flown in from the US.

The film studio wanted a big star in the lead, but because Kurosawa hadn't been on speaking terms with his former favorite actor Toshiro Mifune he cast Tatsuya Nakadai instead, who's of course been in a ton of his films. Feudal Japan, nightmarish visions and samurai warfare all blend together in this three hour long masterpiece.

One of the paintings Kurosawa created in preparation for Kagemusha.

Genre: Drama/History/War

Woman in the Dunes (Japan, 1964)

Jumpei Niki, a Tokyo based entomologist and educator, is in a poor seaside village collecting specimens of sand insects. As it is late in the day and as he has missed the last bus back to the city, some of the local villagers suggest that he spend the night there, they offering to find him a place to stay. That place is the home of a young woman, whose house is located at the bottom of a sand pit accessible only by ladder. The next morning as he tries to leave, he finds that the ladder is gone...

Unnerving and unsettling. Woman in the Dunes is a nightmarish portrayal of a secluded life from the bottom of a sand dune. The spooky music makes for a truly eerie experience and director Hiroshi Teshigahara has done an incredible job with the filming and use of close-ups. The film is shot really beautifully. 

I love how the sand pretty much has taken over everything, it rains down on them through holes in the roof, it's all over the sweaty skin in close-ups which makes your skin crawl. Also contains one of the more unusual sex scenes I've ever seen. Hiroshi has done a splendid job of making the woman seem like a sand-dwelling insect who catches her prey and feeds on it by making it go insane down there with her, in the loneliness and the always moving waves of sand.   

Genre: Drama

Sansho the Bailiff (Japan, 1954)

When an idealistic governor disobeys the reigning feudal lord, he is cast into exile, his wife and children left to fend for themselves and eventually wrenched apart by vicious slave traders.

Under Kenji Mizoguchi’s dazzling direction, this classic Japanese story became one of cinema’s greatest masterpieces, a monumental, empathetic expression of human resilience in the face of evil. One of Mizoguchi's darkest films, this period piece is named after its villain instead of the oppressed slaves we get to follow. It has its heroes but Mizoguchi does not shy away from portraying the all too power-hungry and sadistic lords of the feudal age. 

Genre: Drama

Steamboy (Japan, 2004)

Ray is a young inventor living in the U.K. in the middle of the 19th century. Shortly before the first ever World Expo, a marvelous invention called the "Steam Ball", behind which a menacing power is hidden, arrives at his door from his grandfather Roid in the U.S. Meanwhile the nefarious Ohara Foundation has sent men to acquire the Steam Ball so that they can use its power towards their own illicit ends.

Steamboy comes from the mind of the great Katsuhiro Otomo, best known as the creator of the insanely popular Akira. Here, we are thrown into an alternate nineteenth century where the power of steam has made it possible for revolutionizing advances in the fields of science and technology. It's steampunk galore every step of the way.

The film took ten years to complete due to all the complicated shots and frames, so give it a chance and you might discover one of the best animated films out there. Also, and this is merely a suggestion, but try to see it with English voices, because I can honestly say that they're really good and fits more with the setting.

Genre: Animation/Action. 2h 6min.

Chungking Express (Hong Kong, 1994)

The first half deals with Cop 223, who has broken up with his girlfriend of five years. He purchases a tin of pineapples with an expiration date of May 1 each day for a month. By the end of that time, he feels that he will either be rejoined with his love or that it too will have expired forever. The second half shows Cop 663 dealing with his breakup with his flight attendant girlfriend. He talks to his apartment furnishings until he meets a new girl at a local lunch counter.

This film was shot, edited and released while Kar-Wai Wong was on hiatus from the shooting of his epic Ashes of Time (1994). Wong Kar-wai's movie about two love-struck cops is filmed in impressionistic splashes of motion and color. It circles around the theme of loneliness in a big city and even though theres so many people around you, you feel utterly alone. Chungking Express is a interesting portrayal of everyday relationships in urban life with superb cinematography, as expected from Wong Kar-wai. A fantastic drama by one of the best directors of all time.

Genre: Crime/Drama

When the Last Sword is Drawn (Japan, 2003)

Kanichiro Yoshimura is a samurai and family man who can no longer support his wife and children on the the low pay he receives from his small town clan. He is forced by the love for his family to leave for the city in search of higher pay to support them. In his search he joins a notorious clan, known as the Shinsengumi where he does as much as possible to get money. Looked at as a money grubber, Yoshimura proves his strength physically and mentally by being loyal to his honor.

A gripping, sad story that focuses on two samurai who are in the middle of Japans transition into a modern state, where there's no room for swords. A beautiful drama combined with fantastic swordplay and great music. A 10/10 samurai film.  

Genre: Drama