Now that I have something to start it with, I can start a general thread about Asian films. I guess this is intended for general news and discussion about lesser-known Asian films that may be without U.S. theatrical releases and thus probably would not warrant a thread of their own.

Starting off the discussion: The Hong Kong Film Association recently released a list of the 100 best Chinese movies of all time. I don't have a link to the full list, but here are the top ten:

1. Spring in a Small Town (1948)
2. A Better Tomorrow (1986)
3. Days of Being Wild (1990)
4. Yellow Earth (1984)
5. A City of Sadness (?)
6. Long Arm of the Law (1984)
7. Dragon Inn (1967)
8 Boat People (1982)
9. Hsia Nu (1971)
10. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

I've only seen two of the above.

I'm a bit surprised that Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon beat out all Zhang Yimou's films for the top ten. Some of my favorite's in Asian cinema are Lifetimes, The Road Home, and Hero. When I was in Beijing I read that Raise the Red Lantern is considered by many Chinese to be one of the greatest films the country has produced.

Any idea why Zhang was left out of the top ten?

Thanks for starting this, oddone, after I didn't get off my butt to do so.

Part of me is thrilled to see a John Woo film in the top 10 (and at #2, no less), but I find it somewhat odd that it's A Better Tomorrow. I mean, I can understand as it's your prototypical John Woo film, and the one that really established all of his trademarks (intense manly loyalty and melodrama, cool anti-heroes, slow-mo gunfights with unlimited bullets, etc.), but I've always considered The Killer to be his best film. But that's just me.

And yeah, I also find it odd that Crouching Tiger is on there. IIRC, it received quite a drubbing when it was originally released overseas. But perhaps it's on the list because that's probably the film that opened a lot of Westerner's eyes to Chinese film.

You can find the complete list here, and I find it rather interesting.

The first Zhang Yimou is Red Sorghum at #25. Chungking Express is at #22. I'm kind of disheartened to see Johnnie To ranked so highly, but I'm glad to see that it's The Mission, which is probably the least disappointing of his films. Infernal Affairs is #32, followed by Drunken Master (the only other Jackie Chan film is Police Story, at #60).

I've only seen 17 films on the list. Time to get crackin' on Netflix, I suppose.

During the summer of 2002, I saw a lot of commercials for Shaolin Soccer. It looked cool but I don't think it played anywhere around here, sadly. Was it any good?

It's a very, very fun film... very silly and very cheesy, but a great thing to watch when you just want an hour and a half or so of popcorn entertainment.

I'm also surprised "The Road Home"
isn't on the list at all. While I'm also
a fan of "Not One Less," I would have
placed Road Home above it. . . and I
would have placed both before CTHD.

I would have thought Farewell My
Concubine would have been a bit
higher up too. . . but I guess it is
all rather subjective.

It's a fairly surprising list, I guess, seeing the whole thing. I've only seen fourteen of the films, but right off I'm surprised that Rouge was so high. Comrades: Almost a Love Story is a gem smiling at me from 28th place. See that film, everyone.

I just had a thought... the makers of this list may have been striving for political correctness, since it is a patriotic endeavor in the first place. This would probably explain the exclusion of films such as To Live/Lifetimes and Chen Kaige's The Emperor and the Assassin, which were noted for their controversy when they were released.

General news:

Thanks to Twitch for telling me about what everybody else seems to know... the upcoming movie Sha Po Lang.

This movie looks incredible. Given that it stars Donnie Yen (Hero, Iron Monkey), Wu Jing (Tai-Chi 2), Sammo Hung (Magnificent Butcher) and Simon Yam (every 3rd HK movie for the last 10 years), it's fair to say that it will be a long wait until this one comes out. Latest reports indicate that it will be out sometime this year, possibly the end of spring.

More awards news here. This article is sadly a tad sparse.



Rene Liu presumably wins for her role in A World Without Thieves, while Alex Fong undoubtedly won for his role in One Nite in Mongkok. The best picture award and best director awards went to the same film, something I've never heard of apparently titled Delamu.

The more time passes since I've seen it, the more I like A World Without Thieves. If you can Netflix it sometime in the next few months, it's worth a watch. Opus and I have both mentioned how incredible One Nite in Mongkok is in other threads. That should be a high priority for everyone if a U.S. DVD release becomes available. (Even if it doesn't, I'd say.)

While I was on Xinhua, I also noticed that Ang Lee will be making a prequel to CTHD. This is probably already common knowledge.

And one more just for fun: a list of the 50 most beautiful Chinese people has been released. This list is clearly just for fun, since any serious list would put Cecilia Cheung much higher than number 25.

MonkeyPeaches recently posted the winners of the 24th Hong Kong Film Awards. Kung Fu Hustle and 2046 both cleaned up, with One Nite In Mongkok winning two awards. OldBoy won Best Asian Film.

Since I'm sure you all know far
more about Asian film than I,
what would be some good films
for a Zhang Yimou fan wanting
to branch out?
I've seen (and enjoy) films like
Farewell my Concubine, Green Tea
and Shaolin Soccer.

I'd follow this top 100 list, but
as it seems to be contested, etc,
so I thought I'd just ask the
"experts" =0)

Anything by Kurosawa.
The Burmese Harp.

Ugetsu Monogatari by Mizoguchi, also The Life Of Oharu and Sansho Dayu by the same director.
Yi Yi by Edward Yang.
City of Sadness by Hou.
I agree with anything by Kurosawa, particularly Ikiru, High and Low, Seven Samurai, Throne Of Blood.
Tokyo Story by Ozu.
Chihwauson by Im Kwon Taek.
Happy Together by Wong Kar Wei.
Hana Bi by Takeshi Kitano.
Gohatto by Nagisa Oshima.

I would say that a good progression would be...

Zhang Yimou -> Chen Kaige -> Wong Kar Wai -> Andrew Lau -> Derrick Yee -> Korea

Some movies to watch (in order?) could be...

The Emperor and the Assassin
Ashes of Time
Chungking Express/Fallen Angels
Comrades: Almost a Love Story
As Tears Go By
Young and Dangerous 1 - 6
Infernal Affairs 1 - 3
Lost in Time
One Nite in Mongkok

At this point you'll have seen most of the best of what HK has to offer in the last few years. And any time is a good time to branch out into Korea's latest offerings, which have this odd tendency to be excellent.

Finally taking an opportunity to comment on this a little. There are some big misses. Firstly Ziyi Zhang has never out-acted Cecilia Cheung in her life. It is nothing short of a tragedy that she should get the Best Actress award rather than Ms. Cheung. (Although it was refreshing seeing Ziyi play a character out of her range and do a decent job.) Secondly, I have seen Kung Fu Hustle and do not think it should have won the Best Film award. Thirdly, I can't help but think there were probably better choices in the Best Supporting Actor category.

The rest of the awards seem to have gone the right way. Jiang Hu wasn't great, but for a directorial debut it was worth recognition. Oldboy certainly deserved its award for Best [Pan-]Asian film. I'm happy to give Kung-Fu Hustle a choreography award, because there wasn't much else this year that deserved it to the best of my recollection. Christopher Doyle's cinematography on 2046 was simply incredible and definitely deserves its award.

So all in all, a mixed bag.

For more fun, here is a link to the 3rd annual Golden Durian Awards. (Think Razzies)

I saw this a few weeks ago, and I have to agree. It's a lot of fun, and even sillier than Shaolin Soccer, but nowhere near as cohesive and well-made. In many ways, it felt like a throwback to Chow's earlier, more nonsensical films. That being said, I still wish I would've caught this in Toronto. I have a very strong feeling that, with the right group of people, the film would be 10 times more enjoyable.

Ah.. but I like Chow's earlier, more nonsensical films. The thing that bugged me most about Kung Fu Hustle was that it couldn't decide what audience it was for. At many points throughout the movie there were extremely violent, gruesome, and heartless things going on... yet the whole movie had a cartoonish feel. It was a juxtaposition that only worked for me half the time, and provided some moments that were more corny than clever.

Other parts of the film seemed unbalanced. The romance aspect seemed like it was added as an afterthought, and there really weren't that many outright laughs. Chow's humor has always been kind of subtle, but I didn't think this was anywhere near as funny as some of his other works. I'm not really sure why it caught on in Asia, much like I'm not sure why the LOTR series caught on in the U.S.

There wasn't much to 2046, but I definitely think it was a better film than KFH. ONiM was also much much better.

I, too, thought film felt very unbalanced. It never quite hit its stride with any of the characters. Quite unlike Shaolin Soccer, which, for all of its silliness, did a decent job of providing some actual depth for its characters. And that's doubly true for the "romance". Sorry, but one lollipop does not a romance make.


You know that. I know what. But when will the masses see the light?

Speaking of silliness, I caught Bangkok Loco a few nights ago (here's my review). Absolutely crazy Thai musical/sex comedy/parody/black comedy that posesses a sense of humor very similar to what you see in Zucker Brothers films (i.e. Airplane). Parts of it were brilliant - the opening homage/parody to Ong-Bak was nice, as was the acid trip-esque musical numbers - but other parts were just way too nonsensical. That, and I suspect you had to be Thai to get a lot of the references. Many of them seemed to be about politics or just general Thai pop culture, which I know absolutely nothing about. Plus, there were quite a few jokes involving in-scene text (street signs, etc.).

Tonight I watched Kekexili: Mountain Patrol, which won Best Picture and Best Cinematography at this year's Golden Horse awards (Taiwanese Oscars). It was about a group of volunteers who protect the endangered Tibetan antelope from poachers in the Kekexili mountains. After one of their number is murdered by poachers, a reporter from Beijing is assigned to cover the story and accompanies the patrol on a dangerous journey through some of Tibet's most beautiful and yet unforgiving terrain.

My initial impressions of this movie are favorable. There are a lot of good cinematic moments in Kekexili, but much like the Tibetan wilderness the film is quite unforgiving. One thing the film does very well is highlight the great personal sacrifices the patrol members make to protect the antelope. There's not a great deal of dialogue, but a few short conversations almost make the film worthwhile alone.

Sitting here thinking about it, the cinematography award was probably well deserved. It's been said that cinematography is what tells the story of a movie when no one is talking, and this movie's story came across quite well. It's a hard movie to view, but worth checking out given the chance. As far as "dramatization of historical events" movies go, I think 2004's Korean blockbuster Sil Mi Do struck me harder on an emotional level, but Kekexili will be with me much longer.

(IMDB says Kekexili is nominated for a Grand Jury prize at 2005's Sundance festival.)'

Here is a good (but spoiler-filled) article I found about the movie.

I know theoddone will love this... Sony Pictures Classics' website for 3-Iron, including a trailer (which does a nice job of summing up the film's tone, IMHO.

I picked it up on DVD a few months ago, watched it, and... well... was somewhat underwhelmed at the time. But since then, it's been growing in my mind and I'll probably rewatch it again soon. I think I was expecting something much more, um, fantastical and fairy tale-ish, based on the various comments I read, whereas the film is much more slight and subtler than that.

Update: I just looked finished perusing the site, and I really like the director's statement. Short and to the point, but really quite nice. Plus, I learned a little something about golf.

Indeed.

3-Iron was my favorite film of 2004, and Ki-Duk's best work thus far (of the ones I've seen). IMDB says it goes into limited release in US theaters on April 29. It's well-worth seeing.

The best thing is that I suspect that this isn't the pinnacle of Kim Ki-Duk's career, but that he has many other superb films in him.

Regarding the trailer... I'm not sure it's even possible to have spoilers in a film like this, but I'm very glad I saw the movie before I saw the trailer.

Something else I found over on Twitch's site... the trailer for Save The Green Planet. Simply put, I love this movie (here's my review), and it's one my fave Asian movies in recent years.

It's a total mish-mash of genres - black comedy, horror, psychological thriller, romance, suspense, sci-fi parody, tragedy - and yet it does a wonderful job of balancing all of them with a very intriguing plot and a surprisingly sympathetic main character. It's because of this movie that I became a fan of Shin Ha-Kyun (who is one of my fave Korean actors, even when he's in such mediocre fare as A Man Who Went To Mars or Guns And Talks).

Not having Nicheflix, I've been somewhat unable to come up with a decent DVD copy of Save the Green Planet. Where's a good place to get it?

I bought mine at HKFlix for $27. AZNFilms also has it for $25. Either one of those are good places to order from. I'm sure other retailers, like YesAsia and Poker Industries, will have it as well. Unfortunately, the Korean release is the only current version I know of, and it's going to be more expensive (it's a 2-disc set with lots of special features that are, unfortunately, not subtitled).

I feel kinda bad for bumping this thread so much, but here's a couple of news items that are too great to ignore:

Jet Li is making another sequel to The Shaolin Temple. (!!) Hopefully martial arts fans will understand the enormity of this.

Chen Kaige's long-awaited epic The Promise will apparently be out this December. I for one am very excited about this film. Given that it started shooting in early to mid 2004 that seems like a long post-production, but it reportedly uses CG quite heavily.

The Promise features a very talented pan-Asian cast, including Nicholas Tse, Cecilia Cheung, Jang Dong-Kun (Taegukgi), Henry Sonada (The Twilight Samurai) and popular mainland star Liu Ye (The Floating Landscape, The Foliage).

Isn't there a thread about Last Life in the Universe already? I guess not.

I just watched it and was underwhelmed for a few reasons... not the least of which being that English dialogue was not subtitled on the Netflix DVD. Doyle's cinematography was good, but not his best work. The story had some nice moments but the movie was so trippy it was hard to tell what was going on, especially without the English dialogue. The ending... trippy as well. I didn't understand it, but at that point I didn't really care. Afterwards I looked on IMDB and realized that the whole movie was full of inside jokes that I hadn't understood because I don't like Miike's films. (I've seen Ichi the Killer, but I didn't realize the two movies shared a lead actor, and I didn't catch the Miike cameo.)

I'll need to give it a second chance sometime, when someone puts out a DVD with good subtitles. Until then it's going in my 3 star category. I feel like I should apologize for not liking it... I guess that's what hype does to you.

The short discussion between Opus and myself can be found here. The thread will probably get a little longer soon, in that Opus asked me about a brief statement I made on the film here.

I think you should watch it again, Odd One. Wait six months or so, get the R2 and think about Mulholland Drive in the process.

Oh, and by the way, if we are discussing the same Last Life in the Universe, the director is actually Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, and I will advise you to give up on anything Mîke. Stay far, far away (although I must admit that the more debauched side of my nature actually did enjoy the hammering pulse rate of Audition).

-s.

Actually, I started one a few months ago...

Not to derail this thread too much - we can move any extended discussion to the above thread - but I liked the film a lot more than you seemed to. I agree, it's very trippy and surreal, but maybe that's why I like it so much - it's trippy and surreal, but not at the cost of the characters and their ensuing relationship. What gets me most about the film is how quiet it is - from music (I love the soundtrack) and sound design to the understated acting. It drives home the alienation and loneliness, and makes the few moments when the characters connect so much more meaningful.

And I liked the ending quite a bit, as it shows how much Kenji has come in a very simple way. At the beginning of the film, he's attempting to commit suicide, arguably one of the most selfish acts one can commit. By the film's end, he's moved outside of himself, and is [spoilers]dreaming of his life with another person, and how he can impact another's life in a positive manner[/spoilers].

BTW, I'm assuming that you saw the Palm Pictures release. I agree that the english dialog can get hard to follow at times, but for some reason, the awkwardness didn't bother me. It only served to accentuate the differences and alienation between the two characters that they're attempting to overcome.

(Doh... in re-reading this thread, it looks like Stef and I replied at the basically same time. Ah the wonders of decentralized communication. )

Firecracker, an Asian film magazine, just put all of their issues on-line. I haven't had a chance to go through everything, but at just a brief glimpse, it looks pretty impressive. Lots of reviews, interviews, and other articles about cinema from all over Asia. Thankfully, it looks like they focus on the "cult" stuff (like Shaolin Vs. Evil Dead) just as much the "serious" stuff (like Hero).

I've posted some comments in the other thread. I was aware that Miike didn't direct Last Life in the Universe... and yes, I generally stay far away from his films. (With the exception of the one with Michelle Reis in it, which was pretty good.)

To be fair, not all of Miike's films are as, um, questionable as his more, um, renowned titles. The Bird People In China is quite a change from his normal fare, and has some very wonderful and subtle moments. And Zebraman is relatively harmless and goofy (though it does feature the rather shapely Zebranurse).

Just saw this on AICN and Twitch... a new trailer for Tom Yum Goong, the follow up to Ong-Bak, is up and running on the film's official website. The entire trailer is in slow-mo, which gets a bit gratuitous, but there are also some real sweet shots. I think my favorite, speaking as someone whose internal 12 year old still wants to be a ninja more than anything else in the world, is the reverse spin kick in mid-air where he uses his elbow to deflect the guy's sword. Sweet...

Some general news:

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-04/...ent_2857320.htm

Hmm... how will it compare to Bad Guy, I wonder.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-04/...ent_2847630.htm
(Rob Cohen... isn't that the guy that makes terrible films?)

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-04/...ent_2849835.htm

This is likely to be the highest-profile film to come out of China all year. I'm pretty excited about it, even though I certainly won't be at Cannes to see it. Don't be surprised if it makes huge waves... bigger than CTHD or Hero? Maybe.

Top HK director Derrick Yee's latest project started showing in HK theaters on April 28. The film is entitled 2 Young, and stars Jaycee Fong (son of Jackie Chan) as a young man who is forced to grow up quickly when it is discovered that his girlfriend is pregnant. I haven't seen much info or excitement about this film, but given the strength of Yee's 2003 family-issues drama, Lost and Found, it could be worth keeping an eye out for this one on Netflix.

'Shaolin Temple' stars reunite for wushu competition


I wouldn't mind seeing these guys strut their stuff, especially considering how old some of them must be.

I know The Odd One is going to love this... the screenwriter of Gladiator is looking to remake Park Chan-Wook's JSA, using the U.S./Mexico border as a backdrop. Click here for the full article.

How utterly ridiculous - I can't see how such a transmogrification could retain even a fraction of the power of the original 'JSA'

From HK Entertainment Review:

And more on The Promise here:

I'm hoping that eleven-minute trailer makes its way onto the Internet sometime soon. This will be the [Asian] film of the year.

Also word has it that five Asian films are competing for the top prize at Cannes, including Johnnie To's latest, Election, a film by Hsiao-hsien Hou, and apparently... though it's not on IMDB... a new film by Hong Sang-soo, whose film Woman is the Future of Man competed last year and won my personal award for worst Korean film ever.

Wow... sounds like Derek Yee is becoming the Hong Kong director to watch. The IMDb page for 2 Young can be found here, but there's very little info as of yet. The cast looks pretty solid... both Eric Tsang and Anthony Wong star.

To be honest, I haven't been paying much attention to the promise. What I've seen of Kaige in the past hasn't impressed me too much. The cast appears pretty solid, though - Liu Ye (the best part about Purple Butterfly), Hiroyuki Sanada (I loved him in The Twilight Samurai), and some lady named Cecilia Cheung or something.

I've been impressed with Kaige's technical and storytelling skills. The man knows how to put together an epic, that is for sure. I've been bored by both of the two films of his that I've seen, but they always seem to be rewarding in the end.

And yeah, the cast is a big draw. The best Liu Ye performance I've seen was in The Floating Landscape which was a good movie but not spectacular. Dang Jong-Kun and Nicholas Tse should also make this quite an affair. I'm hoping that it manages to be a better and more commercial version of The Emporer and the Assassin, while not stooping to the lows of terrible CG usage ie The Storm Riders. (Also a Cecilia Cheung flick.)

For whatever it's worth, the bc magazine review of 2 Young was a little less flattering. (Scroll down)

LoveHKFilms just posted their review of 2 Young.

Misc. links, hopefully of interest:

Wong Kar Wai blames audiences for HK slump.

More 'Promise-ing' hype. Here's an interesting excerpt:


Jet Li almost gave up movies for Buddhism.

No big surprise here, but apparently the US distribution rights for The Promise have been sold, probably meaning a U.S. theatrical release in 2006. Story here:

The Weinsteins got it?!? Crap... why do Asian filmmakers continue to sell their films' rights to those guys? They don't exactly have the most impressive track record when it comes to releasing films in a timely manner, or even intact for that matter. Need I remind anyone of how Hero or Shaolin Soccer were (mis)handled?

A short interview with Kim Ki-Duk

Great interview. His new film frankly doesn't sound very interesting. I'm used to Ki-Duk films being about death or multilation or prostitution or all three, but I believe he can make anything interesting.

Some of the most interesting quotes in the interview were his statement about endless longing being beautiful and the final paragraph where he talks about his filming methods.

IGN is reporting that The Promise will be released in the U.S. on December 16, 2005. Here is some throwaway press about Cecilia Cheung's role in the movie.

Also, Chen Kaige's Farewell My Concubine was chosen as Hong Kong's favorite Chinese film, according to a recent poll. The rest of the top five films were, respectively, Days of Being Wild, A Better Tomorrow, Infernal Affairs and Happy Together. If you know anything about those films it might not surprise you that Leslie Cheung was the most popular actor, according to the poll. Another unsurprising result was Maggie Cheung taking the most popular actress category. I'm surprised and pleased with Fancis Ng's 3rd place finish for the "favorite actor" question.

Chicago's Gene Siskel Film Center is at it again. In June they will be showing twelve new Korean films, from Kim Ki-duk's Samaritan Girl to Silmido, South Korea's all-time box-office champ. I hope to make it to at least a few of these great offerings.

Opus, I know that you just saw A Tale of Two Sisters, which is one I rented from Blockbuster, but the English subtitles did not work. I saw about three total minutes of the film. How did you see it? Is it worth tracking down again? I was so bummed out, because I am always on the hunt for a great ghost story... I feel like I've seen many ghost stories, but never a great one.

-s.

Just read your review, Opus... Seems it is worth tracking down. Now I only need to find a DVD in which the subtitles in English actually work.

-s.