Mark Schilling of the Japan Times has posted his list of the top ten Japanese films of 2004 and it's an interesting one ... a few that were dead obvious and more than a few surprises.
1. Blood and Bones
2. Nobody Knows
3. Howl's Moving Castle
4. Mind Game
5. Survive Style 5+
6. Swing Girls
7. A Blue Automobile
8. Casshern
9. Vital
10. Kamikaze Girls
Nice to see Survive Style 5 on a 'serious' list, Swing Girls caught me by surprise as I'd written it off as a fluff piece, and A Blue Automobile and Mind Game both came pretty well out of nowhere for me. Good to see Casshern make the grade, while A Taste of Tea is a surprising omission and I've really got to find me a subbed edition of Kamikaze Girls because that just looks like way too much fun ... the full article, with film summaries, is available here.
Links are to the DVDs, where available, to web sites where there's no DVD.
The Casshern inclusion surprises me, in a good way.
Vital should be at the top of that list...But I'm a bit biased...It was my favorite film of the year (3-Iron being edged out by only the thinnest hair for my top spot).
KuRt.