Hitman said:
I only want recommendations for movies.
Tedman hit most of the big features and Solidsnake beat me to the Satoshi Kon love-in. I'll throw in a few of my own comments:
Perfect Blue - Kon's first flick, a Hitchcockian thriller about an actress whose sense of reality begins to break down as she's being stalked. Quite creepy, very effective, and one hell of a first film.
Millennium Actress - Kon's second feature is about an actress and shifting reality in an entirely different way. It's a love letter to Japanese cinema from the mid-30s through the mid-60s, replacing the psychological horror of Perfect Blue with the warmth of a Ghibli film and a generous dose of humor. I adore this film, not least for Susumu Hirasawa's soundtrack.
Tokyo Godfathers - Kon's latest is a riff on
3 Godfathers; the Western outlaws are replaced by the Eastern homeless, but they still find a baby and do their best to take care of it. This is a tremendously entertaining Christmas movie, with terrific characters, plenty of heart, and a few moments of pure fantasy.
Roujin Z - Katsuhiro Otomo will forever be known best for Akira (which, flawed as it may be, is a bona fide cyberpunk classic and required viewing for anyone interested in anime), but don't let it overshadow his other films. Roujin Z is a personal favorite, a quirky bit of social satire about the aging population of Japan and cybernetic beds gone sentient gone amok. It's a bizzare treat that escalates over the course of the film from the quiet plight of the elderly to complete insanity.
Memories - Otomo returns with this anthology title based on three of his short stories. The first, "Magnetic Rose", is a haunting, lovely bit of science fiction involving a salvage crew in outer space and a particularly dangerous find. The next short, "Stink Bomb", is a blackly comedic, madcap adventure about pharmaceuticals gone awry. "Cannon Fodder" (the only sequence directed by Otomo) wraps it all up with a parable about warfare, presented in a style almost like a European comic book. You'll like some of these segments more than others (exactly which you'll prefer is strictly a matter of taste), but will definately enjoy the film overall.
They Were 11 - Hard science fiction meets mystery, all infused with the
shoujo manga (women's comics) sensibilites of creator Moto Hagio; the end result has the 70s, gender SF vibe of, say, Ursula K. LeGuin. As part of the rigorous entrance exams to the prestigious Cosmo Academy, applicants have to undergo a practical, hands-on test: a group of ten students must work together to survive for a month on a derilict spaceship. However, confusion and paranoia break out the moment they arrive and realize there are eleven students on board. This is a tad dated, but has a lot going for it and is an excellent change of pace.
And, those are enough recommendations for the time being.
FnordChan
