The Best of 2002 – Poll Results
- published
- 17 February 2003
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 (and Worst) of 2002 feature.
| Ranking | Title | Original title | Director |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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. (6.31%) | Agitator | Araburu Tamashii Tachi | Takashi Miike |
| 5. (4.65%) | Dark Water | Honogurai Mizu no Soko Kara | Hideo Nakata |
| Happiness of the Katakuris | Katakurike no Kofuku | Takashi Miike | |
| 6. (3.65%) | A Snake of June | Rokugatsu no Hebi | Shinya Tsukamoto |
| 7. (3.32%) | Go | Isao Yukisada | |
| Suicide Club | Jisatsu Circle | Sion Sono | |
| 8. (2.99%) | Dolls | Takeshi Kitano | |
| 9. (2.33%) | Blue Spring | Toshiaki Toyoda | |
| Harmful Insect | Gaichu | Akihiko Shiota | |
| 10. (1.99%) | Metropolis | Rintaro | |
| 11. (1.66%) | Juon | Takashi Shimizu | |
| 12. (1.33%) | Dead or Alive - Final | Takashi Miike | |
| Millennium Actress | Sennen Joyu | Satoshi Kon | |
| 13. (1.00%) | Ping Pong | Fumihiko 'Sori' Masuri | |
| Waterboys | Shinobu Yaguchi | ||
| 14. (0.66%) | Deadly Outlaw: Rekka | Jitsuroku Ando Noboru Kyodo Den - Rekka | Takashi Miike |
| KT | Junji Sakamoto | ||
| The Princess Blade | Shurayuki Hime | Shinsuke Sato | |
| Tokyo X Erotica | Takahisa Zeze | ||
| Woman of Water | Mizu no Onna | Hidenori Sugimori | |
| 15. (0.33%) | The Cat Returns | Neko no Ongaeshi | Hiroyuki Morita |
| Getting Wild With Our Monkey | Kemonogare Orera No Saru To | Hideaki Sunaga | |
| Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla | Gojira Tai Mechagojira | Masaaki Tezuka | |
| Hush! | Ryosuke Hashiguchi | ||
| Kya Kara Ba A | Naomi Kawase | ||
| Patlabor 3 | Takuji Endo | ||
| Rustling in Bed | OL No Love Juice | Yuji Tajiri | |
| Sabu | Takashi Miike | ||
| Trick | Yukihiko Tsutsumi | ||
| The Yin-Yang Master | Onmyoji | Yojiro Takita | |
| 16. (0.00%) | 2LDK | Yukihiko Tsutsumi | |
| Aiki | Daisuke Tengan | ||
| Alive | Ryuhei Kitamura | ||
| All About Our House | Koki Mitani | ||
| The Bleep Brothers | Yoshiyasu Fujita | ||
| Chicken Heart | Hiroshi Shimizu | ||
| The Choice of Hercules | Totsunyu Seyo! Asama-Sanso Jiken | Masato Harada | |
| Concent | Shun Nakahara | ||
| Dog Star | Takahisa Zeze | ||
| Drive | Sabu | ||
| Egg | Yukihiko Tsutsumi | ||
| A Forest With No Name | Shiritsu Tantei Hama Mike - Namae No Nai Mori | Shinji Aoyama | |
| The Giblies, Episode 2 | |||
| Hotel Hibiscus | Yuji Nakae | ||
| Jigoku | Teruo Ishii | ||
| Laundry | Junichi Mori | ||
| The Mars Canon | Kasei No Kanon | Shiori Kazama | |
| Mask De 41 | Taishi Muramoto | ||
| Mister Rookie | Satoshi Isaka | ||
| Muscle Heat | Ten Shimoyama | ||
| No One's Ark | Baka no Hakobune | Nobuhiro Yamashita | |
| Parco Fiction | Shinobu Yaguchi | ||
| Perfect Blue - Yume Nara Samete | Toshiki Sato | ||
| Platonic Sex | Masako Matsuura | ||
| Quartet | Joe Hisaishi | ||
| Returner | Takashi Yamazaki | ||
| Seoul | Masahiko Nagasawa | ||
| Shangri-La | Kinyu Hametsu Nippon - Togenkyo no Hitobito | Takashi Miike | |
| Tokyo Shameless Paradise | Ryuichi Honda | ||
| Transparent | Satorare - Tribute to a Sad Genius | Katsuyuki Motohiro | |
| Wave | Nami | Hiroshi Okuhara | |
| A Woman's Work | Torabaiyu | Kentaro Otani |
22-01-2003
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
"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
Suicide club had a masterful way of mixing violence poetry and striking imagery. Arigato Sono San.
22-01-2003
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
Is 2002 the year pinku broke ?
At least...
22-01-2003
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
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
Worst - transparent
22-01-2003
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
METROPOLIS was definately one of the best animes I have ever seen.
23-01-2003
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
Outstanding, even for the brillant Miike.
24-01-2003
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
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
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
Tsukamoto rocks!
27-01-2003
[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
Agitator is takashi miikes greatest film yet.
27-01-2003
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
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
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
Miike ....Miike...Miike...Miike....AHYEAH!!!!!
29-01-2003
A Snake of June manages to be erotic, funny and moving all at the same time.
30-01-2003
I voted for Metropolis, but wasn't it released the year before?
30-01-2003
The man is a genious.
30-01-2003
(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
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
Tsukamoto's A Snake of June is a movie of outstandind stylistic ripeness. Tsukamoto: exploring the essence of "becoming" since 1989.
31-01-2003
brilliant, marvellous, outstanding
sand castle
01-02-2003
almost a year later, the images are still firmly etched in my consciousness.
04-02-2003
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
I think it like a lines of tanka... nothin' more!!!
06-02-2003
Graveyard of honour
06-02-2003
brilliant
09-02-2003
So scary and so sad...
dark water
11-02-2003
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
K4t4kur1s 0wnz j00!
14-02-2003
Why any of the last Sabu's movies was put on this list???
17-02-2003
ether! runners-up: harmful insect, dark water, dolls, and suicide club