Options
The best Asian films.
Sam_Williams1
Posts: 338 Forum Member
✭
Just seen a great Korean film tonight "mother" really enjoyed it.
Seen some other quality Asian films in the past such as Oldboy, Memories of murder, Sympathy for Mr and lady vengeance, the host, chaser and I saw the devil just to name a few. Any other gems out there? What are your favourites?
Seen some other quality Asian films in the past such as Oldboy, Memories of murder, Sympathy for Mr and lady vengeance, the host, chaser and I saw the devil just to name a few. Any other gems out there? What are your favourites?
0
Comments
Oldboy, the Sympathy films and The Host are great. I actually have I Saw The Devil but have never watched it.
Have heard good things about Memories of Murder, must try and watch it. Don't know The Chase.
A Tale of Two Sisters
Bedevilled
Hansel and Gretel
Confessions
Audition
One of those feted movies I just could not get into. It's success seemed predicated on the concept rather than the actual execution, plus the at-the-time 'cool concept' of cute Japanese kids killing each other.
My all-time favourites:
3-Iron
New World
A Bittersweet Life
Gangster High (for cinematography and editing alone)
Take Care of My Cat
I enjoyed those:
Attack the Gas Station (comedy crime; a breakthrough for many actors)
Castaway on the Moon (sweet-natured quirky romance)
Il Mare (remade as The Lake House)
Ditto (similar to Frequency)
A Dirty Carnival (slick gangster film)
Cruel Winter Blues
Masquerade (royal court intrigue)
Shadows in the Palace (royal court intrigue / murder mystery)
Blood Rain (dark historical murder mystery; some murders are quite graphic)
The Grand Heist (historical humorous heist/caper of stealing ice from a palace)
Confession of Murder (psychological thriller; a detective rages at the prime suspect getting away with a 15-years-old murder)
Peppermint Candy (rolls back over the life of a political activist who's just committed suicide)
Snowpiercer (it features English-speaking cast, but the story is very SK)
Moss (murder mystery on an island)
The Terror Live (high concept drama unfolds in 'real time')
The Attorney (based on a true story)
Poetry (similar to Mother but no violence)
Bungee Jumping of Their Own (similar to Birth)
A Tale of Two Sisters (dark psychological drama)
The Thieves (a fun star-packed heist/caper)
Sunny (similar to Now and Then)
Save the Green Planet! (a wacky comedy about a kidnapping and alien invasion)
Failan (a man reads letters from his late wife whom he never met)
The President's Last Bang (similar to The President's Analyst)
Tazza: The High Rollers (underworld gambling)
Deranged (similar to Outbreak)
Thirst (high-brow vampire with a touch of slasher)
Flower Island (can't describe this one)
Battle Ground 625 (a.k.a. Welcome to Dongmakgol)
The Client (courtroom drama; predictable, but enjoyable)
The Quiet Family (remade into The Happiness of the Katakuris)
The Anarchists (flawed, but unusual for a SK film; incidentally, it's the first script Chan-wook Park sold - he's the one who went on to direct the Vengeance trilogy, JSA, Thirst and Oldboy)
I'm stopping here as it's getting too long
Flawed, but I have a very soft spot for those:
2009: Lost Memories (SF crime / time travel thriller)
Natural City (similar to Blade Runner)
Quite a few people recommended those below (almost all are well made), but for various reasons, I wasn't that keen on them:
Pieta
Yellow Sea
Bedevilled
No Mercy for the Rude
Oasis
Marathon (autistic man relishes in marathon running)
Sunflower
Nameless Gangster
A Bloody Aria (such an uncomfortable film)
Joint Security Area (flashbacks are excellent and the rest? Meh. Still a decent military-themed murder mystery, though)
Green Fish
Time (2006)
Nowhere to Hide
Address Unknown (another uncomfortable film)
Rough Cut
Samaritan Girl
The Isle
Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter... and Spring
The Berlin File
Drunk on Women and Poetry
Cold Eyes
Breathless (Ddongpari)
The Rules of the Game
The Crucible (a.k.a. Silenced)
The Man From Nowhere (I don't understand why so many loved this)
I'm stopping here as it's getting too long as well.
If you're interested in checking out films from other EA countries, I can try recommend some.
Maybe. I'm quite concept driven so I do tend to go for movies or stories where I like the initial idea rather than the execution of the idea (although obviously that plays a part too). I'm usually more forgiving of a badly executed movie with a strong idea than vice versa, I guess. Although, at the time I saw BR I hadn't seen that idea done in any other movie bar Total Recall so it was fairly new to me and I thought it was quite well executed anyway.
The first film that comes to mind where I thought the idea was good but the actual execution was lousy was The Purge. Which is a on a similar tack perhaps and that's probably why it comes to mind.
Interestingly, most adults in Japan hate the book (and this film). The controversy and debates raged for years over those. Mostly over the idea of punishing kids for not being respectful to authority and adults, and that the program creates monsters out of those kids, even though most do recognise that the book (and the film) are essentially a black comedy. The book basically opened up a cultural war between the old way (conservative) and the new way (liberal).
I didn't like the film that much myself, mostly due to my acute dislike towards Tatsuya Fujiwara and Aki Maeda, who unfortunately are the leads.
Used to be dominated by HK but nowadays there's more coming from around the other countries.
What I like, apart from the quality of the action, is the brutality. It's not made for 12yr olds.
Soup scene in that movie was 10/10 for me I gave the whole 15 out of 10 lol
Thanks. You're right, I generally don't like martial arts / wuxia films. I do like some action films. I prefer those that rely on shoot-outs than on martial arts for action sequences.
Probably.
A Tale of Two Sisters
Audition
Confessions
I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK
Thirst
J.S.A. Joint Security Area
I understand they are fairly bleak, downbeat thrillers, but they seem intriguing.
Will watch over the next few days and let you know.
John Woo movies like A Better Tomorrow, Hard Boiled and The Killer.
Also action comedy movies like Close Encounters of the Spooky Kind, Mr Vampire, Police Story, Project A, The Prodigal Son, Wheels on Meals.
Seen quite a few Takashi Miike movies, quite disturbing, Audition, Dead or Alive, Ichi the Killer. Not sure I'd want to watch them again.
Studio Ghibli classics, Castle in the Sky, Princess Mononoke, Arrietty.
Also check out Ichi The Killer for a completely deranged, sadistic viewing experience (the UK version is cut to pieces by the BBFC but the uncut version is available from the Netherlands version I believe) . Also check out Visitor Q and Audition.
Cheers Takae for that list above - I shall try my best to watch them all eventually!
Can't go wrong with John Woo or Chow Yun-Fat films, Same with Studio Ghibli.
I like and respect Woo, but I must admit there are better HK action/crime/wuxia film directors out there now that Woo doesn't have it any more, not since the 1990s. I think he reached his peak during the late 1980s. Well, OK, Red Cliffs is decent, but you can see he's trying to create the Perfect Epic Film, which got in the way of Red Cliffs. He's trying again with The Crossing and its forthcoming sequel.
For what it's worth, the ones I like:
Johnny To - specialises in gangster and crime films. Probably the best. I'd go as far to say he's superior to Woo in many respects.
Best known for Exiled, The Mission, Election & Election 2, Breaking News, etc. I also think his works are most accessible for western viewers. Sparrow, for instance, is very French. The Mission is contemporary, but very much a spaghetti western.
Andrew Lau, Alan Mak and Felix Chong - gangster, thriller and crime films.
Infernal Affairs, Confession of Pain, Initial D, Young and Dangerous film series (it essentially changed the face of HK film industry; incidentally, it influenced SK director Park's Oldboy), Overheard (a cross between The Conversation, The Outfit and Eagle Eye), A Beautiful Life (rather sweet), etc.
Tsui Hark - a mixture of wuxia, detective, historical, crime and thriller films. Best known for Peking Opera Blues, Once Upon a Time in China, The Blade, The Warrior, Triangle, Detective Dee series. I prefer his 1990s films to his current crop.
For historical purpose, Johnny Mak. His only directorial effort - Long Arm of the Law - was a massive influence on the like of John Woo, Ringo Lam, Johnny To, etc.
For HK non-action/thriller film directors:
Kar-wai Wong
Ann Hui
Zhang Yimou
Maggie Cheung
Yim Ho
Stanley Kwan
Cecile Tang
Chun Kim (I'm struggling to track down his 1950s/1960s-era films, but I'm determined to find as many as I can before I die.
I have a love-hate relationship with Fruit Chan. Half the time, he's an exciting director. The other half? I want to kill him for being such a crappy director. So frustratingly inconsistent.
Thank you. Considering those films you mentioned, have you tried Versus, Wild Life (Shinji Aoyama), Funky Forest, Survive Style +5, Paprika (animated), Wild Zero, Strange Circus and Tokyo Zombie?
I've seen much weirder films in my job, but not in a good way. Most are badly made (which is why I frequently hate my job), but those above are a little better than average in a so-odd/bizarre-that-it-has-to-be-seen way. And available in this country, too.
Good luck with watching all those off the list.
Hang your collective heads in shame.......
Eh, I mentioned Kar-wai Wong. Hang yours in shame for not recognising his name. ^_^