Movies I have used and ideas for movies I'd like to use

Depending on what you are teaching, I would recommend scenes from "The Last Emperor." It's such a lush film with beautiful costumes.

A good movie to teach about Korean culture is "The Way Home" . It is a heart warming story that takes place in South Korea. It does a good job of contrasting the traditional culture of Korea and the modern cultures that are slowing transforming the country. It has little dialogue but does have subtitles that are easy to follow for young audience.

There is movie "The White Countess" that I have enjoyed watching. I highly recommend it to teachers interested to learn more about the dynamics of the 1920-1930 Asian history. Unfortunately parts of the movie can be only used if you teach 10 grade World History to discuss the building of the Japanese empire during the years before World War II.

That's a great film; I had forgotten about. I'll have to place it on my netflix queue.

I've used the Japanese anime film "Spiritied Away" to teach the Hero's Journey and the kids LOVE it. They beg me to keep watching it and these are high schoolers, mind you. Now that I'm more familiar with Classical Japan, I've actually noticed how much the era has influenced the style of the film, too. Plus, Hiyao Miyazaki is just plain amazing. Any animated film by him is worth a watch or two or three.

I went to see the art work and pictures of George J Dozaki. His work was displays in the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center. What a treat! The work displays a beautiful picture and story of Japan and its beauty. Well worth it and free. The exhibition is open from Nov 6 to December 5. The name of the exhibition is World Heritage in Japan. It focuses it on the legacy from the past that we live today and we give to the future generations.

After enjoying the beautiful art work I had dinner at little Tokyo right next door. There is parking all over the center for only 4 dollars. Beautiful day!

I just saw a great Korean movie that would be excellent to show to students in a history or civics class-- "JSA: Joint Security Area." The basic plot is about an incident along the DMZ between North and South Korea involving two soldiers from each side that results in two deaths and an injury. The shooting threatens to explode into war between the two sides until both side agree to allow a neutral Swiss officer to investigate and report on what exactly happened. It has elements of a blockbuster Hollywood movie-- murder mystery, suspense, love triangle, action, etc.-- but it also distinctly Korean and offers a great insight into the ongoing relationship between North and South Korea. It's particularly relevant right now in view of the recent incident involving the sinking of a South Korean ship allegedly by the North and the ongoing investigation.
Aside from the plot, I was fascinated by the underlying human interest story of the characters. After being separated and technically at war for decades, the people still consider themselves Koreans and more alike than different. Neither side is portrayed as good or evil, which I found refreshing. In one scene the opposing soldiers are together playing children's games and genuinely enjoying their time together. It's such a start contrast to the cold stares of the soldiers when they're on duty facing off against each other. it really portrays a sense of longing to be back to a simpler, peaceful time.
I loved the movie! It would probably be best for high school students rather than elementary. There is a small amount of violence (no worse than TV), but otherwise nothing at all objectionable for students.

Sorry, keep thinking of new movies/manga/anime that would make good lessons. There was a movie recently-ish released called "Metropolis" (the html is at the bottom of this post for the wiki). I love it when there's a visual and literary possibility on the table, as there is with "Metropolis." Osamu Tezuka is a pretty famous Japanese author, and his manga are still in wide release all over the place, so it shouldn't be too hard to track down some of his works for comparison. There's also the possibility of comparing the new film with the older German film. That would tie-in issues of cinematography, silent vs. talkie film, and tons of other potential topics that would help with Response to Literature and Narrative.

The topics of robots living with humans (as in the film) has also been widely treated in Hollywood as of late, so you could tie-in a bit of social inertia along with this study.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolis_(anime)%5BEdit by="mdiaz on Nov 16, 12:38:37 PM"][/Edit]