# Most UNIQUE Movie You've Seen? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [March 5, 2021, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211 "2021-03-05T00:38:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2021, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/121 "2021-03-12T01:24:42Z")
Not really. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2021, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/122 "2021-03-13T17:57:31Z")
The most unique movie I’ve NEVER seen—because I’ve yet to be able to find a copy in the US, let alone even a subtitled one: 1998’s _[Giant Monsters Appear in Tokyo](https://wikizilla.org/wiki/Giant_Monsters_Appear_in_Tokyo)_. > A devastating earthquake rocks the Kanto region as a fire-breathing dinosaur attacks Tokyo and a flying turtle devastates Fukuoka. As their rampages continue, it becomes clear that they will meet in Fukui Prefecture. With the JSDF helpless and U.S. aircraft carriers capsized by a tsunami triggered by the earthquake, the residents of Mikuni Town must decide where to evacuate. Neither monster appears onscreen in the film; instead, their activities are conveyed through a series of news reports. 'Still trying to chase that one down. Unique ones I _have_ seen? [_Guinea Pig 2: Flower of Flesh and Blood_ (1985)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinea_Pig_2:_Flower_of_Flesh_and_Blood) I wouldn’t say “torture porn”…“vivisection porn,” sure. With a [cheery soundtrack](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biE-201Kqf0), too! Most of [Catherine Breillat’s](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Breillat) work…which, technically, makes it non-unique if there’s a lot of it. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/123 "2021-03-14T00:51:25Z")
But, y’know, some less explicitly gruesome examples… [_The Final Countdown_ (1980)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Final_Countdown_(film)) A nuclear supercarrier is mysteriously transported back in time to December 6, 1941. A premise you see more in literary sci-fi, not in a movie…especially in a movie from 40 years ago. Filmed with the full cooperation of the US Navy, which results in a dogfight scene between a pair of F-14s and Japanese Zeros. Filmed with real aircraft. [_Cross of Iron_ (1977)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_of_Iron) Sam Peckinpah’s film of the WWII combat tale…of German soldiers on the Eastern Front. [Momotaro’s Divine Sea Warriors](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdzrgJA_iWA) The first full-length anime movie, about lovable jungle animals having fun, helping each other, learning how to read…and then join the Imperial Japanese Army, become paratroopers, and invade a Dutch island. In action movie detail, including disabling an armored car, pulling open the hatches, and attacking the crew with swords and bayonets. Several of the goonish Allied soldiers—including one clearly based on [General Percival](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Percival)—seem to be voiced by native, or at least fluent, English speakers, leading to some speculation that they were voiced by POWs. Released in 1945, two weeks before Hitler’s death. On a much lighter note… [DAICON IV Opening Animation](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDN68LxWW-8) -A short animated film, produced by a bunch of amateur animators, for a 1983 scifi convention. It also features some of the most fantastic traditional animation I’ve seen, to this day—the animators would later go on to found studio Gainax—more lovingly, artistically appropriate, completely copyright-violating character cameos than I can readily count or identify, and is about a girl in a Playboy Bunny outfit riding a flying rocket sword like a surfboard. With an ELO soundtrack. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/124 "2021-03-14T01:15:34Z")
Here’s one I had the misfortune to see in 1969: _[Futz](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064354/)_ It’s about a young farmer who falls in love with his pig, Amanda, who he wants to marry, much to the horror of his neighbors. Most memorable line: “How many tits does yore wife have, Mr. Sherriff? Mine has eight!” ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/125 "2021-03-14T02:13:53Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > Sad, but it happens. No, not sad. It’s the way language works. There is nothing wrong with listing 10 unique movies and polling people for which one they believe is most unique. Words meanings and usage changes. English didn’t spring fully formed to the way it is right here, right now (or 20 years ago or whenever “unique” meant what you think it’s supposed to mean). This a fun, harmless little Cafe Society thread not a Supreme Court brief. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/126 "2021-03-14T03:14:25Z")
There are at least two standard classic films which show World War I and World War II from the German perspective - _Das Boot_ and _All Quiet on the Western Front_ - so I don’t think that being from the German perspective makes any movie like that unique. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/127 "2021-03-14T12:02:45Z")
Uh, I’m on YOUR side. I was the one defending descriptivism, against the tirades of several prescriptivists in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2021, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/128 "2021-03-14T15:20:54Z")
Sorry, I was addressing the “sad” part and it got conflated with my rant against Northern\_Piper. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2021, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/129 "2021-03-15T10:47:36Z")
I’ll add [Ruben Brandt, Collector](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruben_Brandt,_Collector) to the list of, if not unique, then certainly very odd films. An animated Hungarian film about a therapist who has nightmares about being attacked by figures from various famous artworks and gets his patients to steal those artworks for him. Or does he? I DON’T KNOW. There’s also a super-sleuth police detective with a secret on his trail. Or is there? I DON’T KNOW. Also his late father may have been a mad-scientist-spy type who experimented on him when he was a child. Or did he? I DON’T KNOW. Fantastic animation, intriguing story, terrible and confusing ending. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2021, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/130 "2021-03-15T16:02:14Z")
Mainstream film by a prominent director intended for mass audience, but unlike anything I’ve ever seen: **Isle of Dogs.** ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2021, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/131 "2021-03-15T16:04:29Z")
Have you seen **The Fantastic Mr Fox**? ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2021, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/132 "2021-03-15T16:55:38Z")
No, but I’m guessing there are similarities? ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2021, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/133 "2021-03-15T17:02:29Z")
Same animation and oddly-disjointed story-telling style, because it’s also directed and co-written by Wes Anderson. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2021, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/134 "2021-03-15T17:10:44Z")
I watched Liam Neeson in “Cold Pursuit” last night. While not wildly weird like many of the mentioned films I found it very captivating. Especially how they chronicled the death of each character by cutting to just a blank screen with the character’s name and a religious symbol over the name. Or a dozen of them together after a big shooting scene. I couldn’t figure out what some of the symbols meant. And the sudden ending is priceless. Here is a movie where the review (Leonard Maltin?) is unique: “Razorback” - Possibly the best movie ever made about a giant man eating pig. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2021, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/135 "2021-03-15T17:11:55Z")
I just saw _Jonathan,_ which is pretty unique. Two brothers share the same body by swapping consciousness in shifts. One guy gets 7am to 7pm and the other guy gets 7pm to 7am. A compelling drama with some light science fiction elements. Great performance(s) by Ansel Elgort of _Baby Driver._ ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2021, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/136 "2021-03-15T17:12:11Z")
> [@mixdenny](#): > > “Razorback” - Probably the best movie ever made about a giant man eating pig. Thanks for the memory; my dad and I watched that movie a few times back in the 80s. ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2021, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/137 "2021-03-15T17:13:13Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > I just saw _Jonathan,_ which is pretty unique. Two brothers share the same body by swapping consciousness in shifts. One guy gets 7am to 7pm and the other guy gets 7pm to 7am. A compelling drama with some light science fiction elements. Great performance(s) by Ansel Elgort of _Baby Driver_ fame. Presumably the body doesn’t need sleep, or the night shift guy really got the short end of the stick… ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2021, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/138 "2021-03-15T18:11:19Z")
Simply for set design, Lars von Trier’s **Dogville**. It’s filmed like black box theater, with walls represented by lines on the ground. [This is the prologue.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQKZlps9W0k) ---
**Author:** ![MortSahlFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MortSahlFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MortSahlFan)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2021, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/139 "2021-03-15T18:25:28Z")
Good example. I just thought of one, which still might be on YouTube “Anatahan” ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2021, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211/140 "2021-03-15T18:50:06Z")
Every time I think of _Quest For Fire_, I think of the comedy _Caveman_ starring Ringo Starr. The only English word in the entire movie is “fire”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-unique-movie-youve-seen/937211.md?page=8)