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Graveyard of Honour
It was neck-and-neck, but finally the readers of Midnight Eye chose Takashi Miike's GRAVEYARD OF HONOUR as the best Japanese film of the year 2002.

Below are the final results, plus your personal comments and reactions. Many thanks to everyone who voted.
Find out what Midnight Eye's own favourites of the year were in our Best of 2002 feature.
 
 Ranking TitleOriginal titleDirector
1. 19.98% GRAVEYARD OF HONOUR[ Shin Jingi No Hakaba ]Takashi Miike
2. 16.61% All About Lily Chou-Chou[ Lily Chou-Chou No Subete ]Shunji Iwai
3. 14.95% Spirited Away[ Sen To Chihiro No Kamikakushi ]Hayao Miyazaki
4. 06.31% Agitator[ Araburu Tamashii Tachi ]Takashi Miike
5. 04.65% Dark Water[ Honogurai Mizu No Soko Kara ]Hideo Nakata
04.65% Happiness of the Katakuris[ Katakurike No Kofuku ]Takashi Miike
6. 03.65% A Snake of June[ Rokugatsu No Hebi ]Shinya Tsukamoto
7. 03.32% Go Isao Yukisada
03.32% Suicide Club[ Jisatsu Circle ]Sion Sono
8. 02.99% Dolls Takeshi Kitano
9. 02.33% Blue Spring Toshiaki Toyoda
02.33% Harmful Insect[ Gaichu ]Akihiko Shiota
10. 01.99% Metropolis Rintaro
11. 01.66% Juon Takashi Shimizu
12. 01.33% Dead or Alive - Final Takashi Miike
01.33% Millennium Actress[ Sennen Joyu ]Satoshi Kon
13. 01.00% Ping Pong Fumihiko 'Sori' Masuri
01.00% Waterboys Shinobu Yaguchi
14. 00.66% Deadly Outlaw: Rekka[ Jitsuroku Ando Noboru Kyodo Den - Rekka ]Takashi Miike
00.66% KT Junji Sakamoto
00.66% The Princess Blade[ Shurayuki Hime ]Shinsuke Sato
00.66% Tokyo X Erotica Takahisa Zeze
00.66% Woman of Water[ Mizu No Onna ]Hidenori Sugimori
15. 00.33% The Cat Returns[ Neko No Ongaeshi ]Hiroyuki Morita
00.33% Getting Wild With Our Monkey[ Kemonogare Orera No Saru To ]Hideaki Sunaga
00.33% Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla[ Gojira Tai Mechagojira ]Masaaki Tezuka
00.33% Hush! Ryosuke Hashiguchi
00.33% Kya Kara Ba A Naomi Kawase
00.33% Patlabor 3 Takuji Endo
00.33% Rustling in Bed[ OL No Love Juice ]Yuji Tajiri
00.33% Sabu Takashi Miike
00.33% Trick Yukihiko Tsutsumi
00.33% The Yin-Yang Master[ Onmyoji ]Yojiro Takita
16. 00.00% 2LDK Yukihiko Tsutsumi
00.00% Aiki Daisuke Tengan
00.00% Alive Ryuhei Kitamura
00.00% All About Our House Koki Mitani
00.00% The Bleep Brothers Yoshiyasu Fujita
00.00% Chicken Heart Hiroshi Shimizu
00.00% The Choice of Hercules[ Totsunyu Seyo! Asama-Sanso Jiken ]Masato Harada
00.00% Concent Shun Nakahara
00.00% Dog Star Takahisa Zeze
00.00% Drive Sabu
00.00% Egg Yukihiko Tsutsumi
00.00% A Forest With No Name[ Shiritsu Tantei Hama Mike - Namae No Nai Mori ]Shinji Aoyama
00.00% The Giblies, Episode 2  
00.00% Hotel Hibiscus Yuji Nakae
00.00% Jigoku Teruo Ishii
00.00% Laundry Junichi Mori
00.00% The Mars Canon[ Kasei No Kanon ]Shiori Kazama
00.00% Mask De 41 Taishi Muramoto
00.00% Mister Rookie Satoshi Isaka
00.00% Muscle Heat Ten Shimoyama
00.00% No One's Ark[ Baka No Hakobune ]Nobuhiro Yamashita
00.00% Parco Fiction Shinobu Yaguchi
00.00% Perfect Blue - Yume Nara Samete Toshiki Sato
00.00% Platonic Sex Masako Matsuura
00.00% Quartet Joe Hisaishi
00.00% Returner Takashi Yamazaki
00.00% Seoul Masahiko Nagasawa
00.00% Shangri-La[ Kinyu Hametsu Nippon - Togenkyo No Hitobito ]Takashi Miike
00.00% Tokyo Shameless Paradise Ryuichi Honda
00.00% Transparent[ Satorare - Tribute to a Sad Genius ]Katsuyuki Motohiro
00.00% Wave[ Nami ]Hiroshi Okuhara
00.00% A Woman's Work[ Travail ]Kentaro Otani
 
Comments & reactions:

22-01-2003     216.102.64.34
It was MIIKES year (again)but id also like to mention VENGANCE IS SUCH A GREAT BUSINESS with HENRY SANADA showing there is still life in chambara films


22-01-2003     193.153.208.3
"Spirited Away" give us the opportunity to think about things sometimes we forget but they are there, like life, natural environment, family..., and it´s interesting that cinema can still make us think and of course have fun. It´s important to pay attention how anime can emotion us even more then real action films. Thank you Miyazaki Sensei.


22-01-2003     62.234.7.73
Suicide club had a masterful way of mixing violence poetry and striking imagery. Arigato Sono San.


22-01-2003     152.163.189.65
What do TWILIGHT SAMURAI, LAUGHING FROG, and DOING TIME not appear on the ballot? All three are wonderful films, and all three were chosen by the JUNPO critics as being among the 10 Best of 2002.


22-01-2003     133.11.191.92
Is 2002 the year pinku broke ?
At least...


22-01-2003     172.182.76.6
My vote went to All About Lily Chou-Chou. It mystifies me why Iwai gets so much bashing on this site. I find that he is one of the most gifted and talented directors working in Japan today and with Lily Chou-Chou he has brought to us yet another masterpiece.


22-01-2003     65.238.58.133
Well, most (if not almost "all") of these films share one thing in common - crappy U.S. distribution (even by underground trading standards). Miike's films were probably the easiest and only ones available to track down, but other than 4th generation "Ring" ripoffs not much else here could be seen.

I named Happiness of the Katakuris as my favorite, although I haven't seen Graveyard of Honour, which I bet would truly be the one. The Agitator duplicate I obtained was not a great copy, which greatly detracted from the quality of the film, so I couldn't concentrate enough to give it an honest appraisal.

Spirited Away was perhaps the only one of these films to even hit a theatrical-release in the U.S. in 2002. I hated the trailer for it, and made up my mind immediately to not see it; but aren't all trailers for foreign films generally in poor quality?

As usual, I'll look forward to some of these on VCD and VHS, in 2003. Just like seeing Electric Dragon 80,000 Volts earlier in 2002, there's a certain (heavy pedal-)delay in getting the meat off the bone.

Here's to a perfect Region 0,

abductee224@aol.com
(from O-Hi-O...)


22-01-2003     139.134.64.153
Worst - transparent


22-01-2003     80.146.214.82
In the last three months i have bought 250 new DVD`s of
asian movies since 1990 until
today. Most of these Movies i
had no possibilities to watch
because german cinemas prefer
other movies. No asian movie
perhaps jackie chan. thats all. Good films like Battle Royal;Ring;The Isle; Audition
and many more. They were not
attractive for german cinemas.
That makes me very sad. Because i must buy all the films and that is not even cheap.The Japanese films were
very expensive but very good.


22-01-2003     24.64.223.203
METROPOLIS was definately one of the best animes I have ever seen.


23-01-2003     81.5.252.216
As I live in Vienna, where very few japanese films are released (alas !), I haven't seen many of the list. Anyway, "Spirited away" is an astonishing movie and is one of my favourites of the year.
Valérie-Anne Christen
Vienna


23-01-2003     149.225.240.92
Outstanding, even for the brillant Miike.


23-01-2003     80.104.145.101
K.T.
Çѱ¹ ¿µÈ­....ÆÄÀÌÆÃ!


24-01-2003     62.234.7.89
Graveyard of Honour (Miike version)
I wish, hope, pray that this movie comes out on dvd in Holland, can't wait to see it.


24-01-2003     209.204.112.196
Saw this waaay back in March at Philly World Film Festival and when I think of it I still beam! "I hate the paparazzi!"


25-01-2003     172.186.11.160
Well, it's Dead or Alive Final, only because it's one of the only kick ass movies that I've seen from this list - WHEN ARE WE GOING TO SEE MORE OF THIS CRAZY SHIT IN THE UK?


26-01-2003     62.155.145.72
Tsukamoto rocks!


27-01-2003     212.42.174.197
[Shin Jingi No Hakaba] Simply a masterpiece. Kishitani delivers the standout performance of any Miike film to date. Total self destruction set to a backdrop of glorious jazz and social decline. Possibly, just maybe, the directors most realised work yet. Which in turns probably makes it one of the great films of the last 10 years.


27-01-2003     193.44.38.86
Agitator is takashi miikes greatest film yet.


27-01-2003     152.2.115.169
Happiness of the Katakuris: I'm not entirely sure it's the best Japanese movie of 2002, but it's quite possibly the most memorable. Deeply, deeply weird.


27-01-2003     68.21.131.54
I voted for Spirited Away - but the one I truly wanted was "City of Lost Souls." It has more style in a single scene than most movies seem to in an hour! Miike is amazing!


28-01-2003     208.149.144.109
Takashi Miike's "Agitator" is incredible! He tones down his usual over-the-top violence and stunning visual style and still churns out one of the best gangster flicks since Scorsese was behind the camera!


29-01-2003     151.25.213.91
Miike ....Miike...Miike...Miike....AHYEAH!!!!!


29-01-2003     202.33.12.57
A Snake of June manages to be erotic, funny and moving all at the same time.


30-01-2003     24.25.227.132
I voted for Metropolis, but wasn't it released the year before?


30-01-2003     212.112.179.131
The man is a genious.


30-01-2003     24.83.109.14
(Spirited Away)Easily the best film of 2002, despite the fact it wasn't as strong as some of Miyazaki's earlier films. Highly recommend it.


30-01-2003     12.81.86.194
I didn't see enough of these, really (like Graveyard of Honor or the Tsukamoto film), and though just a bit unoriginal, Dark Water still had enough bubbling under the surface to creep me out good. . .


31-01-2003     151.30.33.12
Tsukamoto's A Snake of June is a movie of outstandind stylistic ripeness. Tsukamoto: exploring the essence of "becoming" since 1989.


31-01-2003     62.253.64.7
brilliant, marvellous, outstanding

sand castle


01-02-2003     152.226.7.201
almost a year later, the images are still firmly etched in my consciousness.


04-02-2003     213.10.217.59
Beautifull, I was hypnotized and not bored for a second the whole movie long. Good cinematography in both the rain/landscape scenes as well as in the more erotic moments. It takes a very powerfull film to make me vote on it instead of one of Miike's films.


06-02-2003     212.152.38.34
I think it like a lines of tanka... nothin' more!!!


06-02-2003     151.25.144.91
Graveyard of honour


06-02-2003     129.120.88.75
brilliant


09-02-2003     151.25.200.226
So scary and so sad...
dark water


11-02-2003     147.126.46.142
I'm not an anime addict, but this is one of the best movies I've seen this year from _any_ country. It will be a travesty if the US doesn't give it an animation Oscar this year.


11-02-2003     209.112.213.212
K4t4kur1s 0wnz j00!


14-02-2003     151.25.203.241
Why any of the last Sabu's movies was put on this list???



17-02-2003     24.130.82.141
ether! runners-up: harmful insect, dark water, dolls, and suicide club

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