<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><DIV><SPAN class="Apple-style-span"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><BLOCKQUOTE class="replbq" style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid">but I'm not <BR>aware of any films produced in Japan in the past 30 some years that <BR>are of comparable stature to the best of Mizoguchi, Ozu, Kurosawa, <BR>Kobayashi, et al.</BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE>One has, of course, to shift sensibilites for films of the 90s. Two suggestions: First, Kitano's <SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;">Hana-bi</SPAN> ("Fireworks"-1997) and <SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;">Sonatine</SPAN> (1993); and second (another target on the back?), two films of Miike: <SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;">Odishon</SPAN> ("Audition"-1999), a horror/ghost film that matches anything from the 50s or 60s (and as beautiful as Kobayashi's <SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;">Kwaidan</SPAN>), and <SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;">Visitor Q</SPAN> (2001), which matches the best of Oshima and, perhaps even more comparable, Imamura.<BR></SPAN></DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Jesse Kalin</DIV></BODY></HTML>