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Celebrating Good Asian Films

Jingthing
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Damacles Senior Member

Damacles

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I'm shockingly undereducated about Asian films, so hoping I'll get some good recommendations here. Usually bump into decent ones simply because they have 'crossed over' (Red Cliff, Mongol, Warlords), been remade (Rec) or have had a decent internet buzz (Host...which has one of the funniest sight gags I ever saw).

Takeshi Kitano films are the one constant in all this, starting off with Boiling Point which became more international, and I just back-tracked into the rest of his stuff. The man has quite a story to his life, and love his films.

Generally I find a lot of Asian films I see I do so by accident rather than design, and Im rarely disappointed. Even Jet Li when he's not in Hollywood mode comes up with decent fare. The plane journeys over to BKK and back are also a great source!

Some I've enjoyed (I doubt they're the best out there, and havent even seen Seven Samurai or Raise the Red Lantern, for example):

Oldboy

The Host

My Sassy Girl

Kung <deleted> Hustle

Hero

Memoirs of A Geisha

Ai No Corrida

Brotherhood

Ran

Infernal Affairs

Battle Royale

Boiling Point

Hard Boiled

Mongol

Warlords

edit: to add list

Edited by Damacles
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Jingthing Legendary Member

Jingthing

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Japanese film called Departures is one the best films about death ever made. Not as depressing as it sounds.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brad-balfour...s_b_210961.html

Some Thai films I like --

Citizen Dog (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0444778/)

13 Beloved (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0883995/)

Edited by Jingthing
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Takeo Senior Member

Takeo

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Korean comedy's can be suprisinly good. I say suprised as comedy isnt always an international lanuage. But one called sex is zero was really good, though u have to be immature i think to like it, its simular to american pie style humor.

Old Boy was a brilliant film. I also like 2046, i think that was the name.

Asia is very good for its horrors, not really my cup of tea although i seem to still see my fair share. Most modern western horrors are taken from japanese and even thai horrors.

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EvilDrSomkid Gold Member

EvilDrSomkid

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I love most of Kurosawa's fims, especially the historic (samurai) ones with Toshiro Mifune.

Another Japanese movie I recently found is "Ame Agaru" (After the Rain).

It is a wonderful movie. Set in feudal Japan, it is very different from the usual samurai movies.

Really recommend it.

The old Zatoichi movies are good, too.

Now, if only I could find a "hel_l in the Pacific" DVD with English sub titles of Toshiro's lines. edit: Does not exist, on purpose

I had this movie on VHS in my teens. The tension is fantastic.

Edited by EvilDrSomkid
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StreetCowboy Star Member

StreetCowboy

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I generally watch films on the aeroplane, and quite often don't bother checking the title.

Two that I did enjoy enough to find out what they were called:

The Good the Bad and the Weird, a Korean Treasure-Chase Western set in 1930s Manchuria

Lust, Caution was a particularly depressing film

Golden Chicken, if only for Andy Lau, as himself, climbing out of the TV set.

The 1970s or early '80s Japanese TV series of Journey to the West, shown in the UK as Monkey!, was better than the more recent HK TV serial presentation.

SC

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mmushr00m Gold Member

mmushr00m

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I used to love the HK gangster movies or the dirty cop movies. Maybe because a lot fo the movie business was controlled by the Triads, the good/bad guys were not always black and white.

PTU.

The Young and Dangerous movies, not good movies stand alone but as a series, not bad.

The Election.

Ashes of Time Redux.

For a surprisingly good comedy - Swing Kids from Japan (comedy)

The Beat Kitano movies.

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StreetCowboy Star Member

StreetCowboy

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The Last Emperor

Farewell my Concubine

I put it to you that:-

The Last Emperor was a Bertolucci film released by Columbia, according to Wikipedia, and not much more Asian than the King and I.

SC

PS

I notice most of the films mentioned have been East Asian, with not much from the former Soviet Republics, the Indian Sub-Continent or the Middle East.

Apparently Slumdog Millionaire was very good albeit allegedly a British film.

Would Bend It Like Beckham count as an Asian film?

There's a thread on the sports forum on a similar topic...

SC

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Millard Senior Member

Millard

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I've seen from that Top 9 list Infernal Affairs and In The Mood For Love. Both were excellent.

Last night, I watched Bangkok Traffic Love Story, which was the top grossing Thai film of 2009. I highly recommend it. Cris Horwang, the female lead, had very good comedic timing and was very cute.

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