House of Bamboo

Just got back from seeing House of Bamboo at the Northwest Film Forum with mimerki. It's a slightly surreal movie in that it takes place in post WWII Japan, was actually filmed in post-WWII Japan, and involves actual post-WWII Japanese culture. It's like a film noir plot and characters suddenly stumbled into a moving National Geographic article. It was a soothing balm after all the racist WWII-era stuff I've been watching.
Even if the hero is the square-jawed variety who doesn't bother learning Japanese, but just shouts English more loudly at people, he has some charmingly vulnerable moments when his Western cultural mores clash with those of the Japanese love interest. (She's trying to get him to come out of the bathtub to breakfast, completely not giving a crap about his nakedness. He's freaked out and chooses to look like an idiot who likes eating his breakfast in the tub rather than get up and be naked.)

Plus! Bonus Gangster Doctor McCoy!