[SappyAppy]

I was thinking it would be funny to recommend the Guinea Pig movies, but I decided that I could maximize the utility of a single post to LOTM by opting for a serious recommendations instead of sarcastic ones.

[ballerturfali]

We have a J-J (Jewish-Japanese) alliance coming.

[ovenco]

Originally posted by LordShiva


Oxymoron You're a snob, admit it

[MzTT]

Originally posted by nostromo
Kurosawa is a bit heavy for a 15 year old, IMO. Its like having her read Shakespeare... We've already been over that and she's already had to for school anyway (or at least will next year).

[HitAttetlyTek]

Originally posted by nostromo
Kurosawa is a bit heavy for a 15 year old, IMO. Its like having her read Shakespeare... Reading Shakespeare is quite normal for a 15 year-old.

[GenrieAB]

GitS makes sense, it's just lame. Not deep.

[EmpokemyMok]

If a movie is going to shoot monologues at me I want them to be interesting.

[Nurba]

nm

[esconsise]

Are they anything like the Solid State Society movie?

PS They're gorgeous works, even though I have some professional reservations about the philosophical content.

Care to expand on that? It was the professional part that raised my interest.

[clubcughSheet]

I'm not a trained philosopher and they managed to irritate me

[farmarrl]

Originally posted by LordShiva


Reading Shakespeare is quite normal for a 15 year-old. qft. we read and studied him freshman year when i was 14.

[bawayTeen]

Originally posted by Colon™
We have a J-J (Jewish-Japanese) alliance coming.
The two friends who got her into Japanese (and anime BTW) tend to IM and talk to her in this odd mix of English, Hebrew, and Japanese.

[cxddfrxc]

I'd suggest Kikujiro no natsu (The Summer of Kikujiro) and Dolls. They're both excellent movies by Takeshi Kitano. Kikujiro is a heart-warming comedy about a boy searching for his mother, and Dolls a bit of a drama about tragic love stories.

Oh, and my girlfriend can probably give more advice on Japanese TV series and stuff... There's Densha Otoko, which I haven't actually seen myself, but it's a movie and TV series based on a true story of a geek who saves a girl on the metro from being harassed and finds help on an online forum and ends up with the girl... I don't know how geeky or sappy your daughter is, but that might go down well. Don't know if that's the "richer" you're looking for though.

[ElcinBoris]

I really liked perfect Blue.

I have watched other japanese nonanime movies besides seven samurai

just the ones I have seen I wouldn't recommend

JM

[picinaRefadia]

Is Kansai-ben the bar slang they speak over there?

[Vomekayafboke]

--"Daremo Shiranai (Nobody knows) -- A story about child abuse and neglect in Tokyo. This is a pretty famous movie."

This would be my suggestion, if you can find it. I'd be pretty surprised to see it at a rental place. Kore'eda's stuff is usually quite good, and this one is pretty much exactly what you're looking for. It's got good drama that might appeal to a teenage girl, and most of the major characters are children, so the language is on the simple side. Plus it's just a damn good movie.

It also allows for a lead in to Yasujiro Ozu movies later on. I wouldn't start her on those, but they're both good and very Japanese, so if she's going to stick with the language they'd be nice. They are not, however, for a typical US teen raised on Hollywood short-attention-span theater. You'll probably have to ease her into these.

Seven Samurai, and pretty much any Kurosawa film, is going to be a bad choice. Unless you know she's a big fan of either spaghetti westerns or samurai films, and that's pretty rare in women, much less teenage girls.

For further movie reviews, check out Midnight Eye.

I'm less familiar with j-drama, but if that's the route you're going you might want to try something with name recognition. You'll never find it in the States for rental, but the Sailor Moon Live Action series would probably fit perfectly.

Oh, and rather than anime, you might try her on manga. If she knows kana, get her a couple volumes of the Sailor Moon manga in Japanese (it has furigana) or something like Glass Mask.

Wraith
"Squirrel butts don't glow."
-- Jeliza-Rose ("Tideland")