Any fans of extreme Asian cinema?

[scottcsmith]

Movies like Battle Royale, Versus and Ichi the Killer are currently circulating through my DVD collection, and I've got my eye on some Hong Kong flicks. Any other fans out there, and do you have any movie suggestions?

[darkstar]

1. Casual fan of Asian cinema

but not too familiar w/ "extreme" stuff. Does Ricky-O count? I haven't seen any of the movies you list, but know of all of them. How do they rate compared to Ricky?

Battle Royale is the one I think I'm most interested in. Care to give a mini-opinion piece on it? Plus, did see Audition. Same director as Ichi, right? I take it Ichi has far more arterial fountains and such?

[scottcsmith]

2. Yup, Takashi Miike is the man

He directed Audition as well as Ichi . And yes, Ricky-O is a classic of the genre. I've never seen it, though.

Battle Royale is a very interesting movie. It's a little difficult to describe, so I'll direct you to a review at one of my favorite movie sites, Monsters At Play:
http://www.monstersatplay.com/review/dvd/b/battle_royale.php

Ichi is great, and yes, the blood flows. But it's so over the top that you can't really take it too seriously.