Originally Posted by
Pickles
I don't know what prompted me to see that this summer, maybe the concept of a shinkansen as a film set. It was spectacularly bad, not even funny bad. Mrs. Pickles refused to see it with me, calling it, pre-emptively, "dreck." She was correct.
I had seen the movie trailers beforehand and had a strong feeling that I wouldn’t like it, but since I’m interested in seeing how Western movies portray Japan, I’m willing to sit through a “dreck” movie once in a while. In the 50s through the 80s, foreign movies about Japan often focused on crime and the Yakuza, now it’s mostly pop culture, which quickly gets tiring. TBH, I can’t think of any good foreign (Western) movies filmed in Japan that aren’t filled with cliches. Still, I like to watch them, especially the older ones to see how life was portrayed in an earlier time. Of course, there are quite a few excellent Japanese movies, mostly but not exclusively from the 50s and 60s, IMO.