It's only been well towards the back end of this year that I've gotten back into some serious watching (after a few years off in all), so my list is extremely threadbare, I only just managed to find 10 I liked. But here it is anyway:
1. Rosemary's Baby
2. 1917
3. Lady Bird
4. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
5. La Grande Illusion
6. Strangers on a Train
7. Free Solo
8. In the Heat of the Night
9. Ikiru
10. The Dam Busters
1. Deadpool 2
2. Three BillboardsOutside Ebbing Missouri
3. The Theory Of Everything
4. The Imitation Game
5. Martyrs
6. Venom
7. Brawl in Cell Block 99
8. Spotlight
9. Watchmen
10. Bad Grandpa
1) Kagemusha (1980)
2) Saint Jack (1979)
3) Uncut Gems (2019)
4) The Night of the Hunter (1955)
5) 1917 (2019)
6) Age of Consent (1969)
7) The Gentlemen (2019)
8) The Wicker Man (1973)
9) A Boy and His Dog (1975)
10) A Man for All Seasons (1966)
1) Kagemusha (1980)
2) Saint Jack (1979)
3) Uncut Gems (2019)
4) The Night of the Hunter (1955)
5) 1917 (2019)
6) Age of Consent (1969)
7) The Gentlemen (2019)
8) The Wicker Man (1973)
9) A Boy and His Dog (1975)
10) A Man for All Seasons (1966)
Great that you have 1917 here. I'll have to post mine.
1. Deadpool 2
2. Three BillboardsOutside Ebbing Missouri
3. The Theory Of Everything
4. The Imitation Game
5. Martyrs
6. Venom
7. Brawl in Cell Block 99
8. Spotlight
9. Watchmen
10. Bad Grandpa
First time for watchmen, what a treat for you this year well last year.
Beyond The Hills (2012)
Sons of the Desert (1933)
Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party (2015)
Thank You and Good Night (1992)
Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005)
The Cameraman (1928)
The House That Jack Built (2018)
The Wise Kids (2011)
Dolores Claiborne (1995)
Fruitvale Station (2013)
I usually wait for a film to be at least one year old before giving it a 9/10 and at least 5 years old before giving it a 10/10.
These days I usually cap my first-time viewings at 8/10 as a matter of course regardless of release date (occasionally going up to 9/10 if a film really impresses me the first time around - Yi Yi was the only one to manage that this year), otherwise yeah I like to see how it resonates over time before increasing the rating.
These days I usually cap my first-time viewings at 8/10 as a matter of course regardless of release date (occasionally going up to 9/10 if a film really impresses me the first time around - Yi Yi was the only one to manage that this year), otherwise yeah I like to see how it resonates over time before increasing the rating.
Yeah, that's how I operate. [I[Parasite[/i] is one of the only recent films I gave a 9/10 after I first saw it. I rarely do that, but I was so impressed by it and I was really convinced I would keep it at that rating. I've only seen it once though, so I don't know how it will fare when I rewatch it (I bought the criterion disc for Christmas; still waiting for it to arrive).
Mr Minio's TOP 10 First Viewings of 2020 And Way Way Beyond!!!
1. 海辺の映画館―キネマの玉手箱 [Labyrinth of Cinema] (2019) dir. Nobuhiko Obayashi
Is this the best scene ever?
2. あした [Goodbye for Tomorrow] (1995) dir. Nobuhiko Obayashi
3. 姉妹坂 [Four Sisters] (1985) dir. Nobuhiko Obayashi
4. Vitalina Varela (2019) dir. Pedro Costa
5. 野のなななのか [Seven Weeks] (2014) dir. Nobuhiko Obayashi
6. ぼくは明日、昨日のきみとデートする [Tomorrow I Will Date With Yesterday's You] (2016) dir. Takahiro Miki
7. Совiсть [Conscience] (1968) dir. Volodymyr Denysenko
8. REX 恐竜物語 [Rex: A Dinosaur’s Story] (1993) dir. Haruki Kadokawa
9. Selva: Un portrait de Parvaneh Navaď (1983) dir. Maria Klonaris
You don't cry = you have no heart
10. おとうと [About Her Brother] (2010) dir. Yoji Yamada ________________________________________________________ 11. ラストレター [Last Letter] (2020) dir. Shunji Iwai 12. 忍ぶ川 [Shinobugawa] (2000) dir. Nobuhiko Obayashi 13. 母と暮せば [Living With My Mother] (2015) dir. Yoji Yamada 14. さびしんぼう [Lonely Heart] (1985) dir. Nobuhiko Obayashi 15. はるか、ノスタルジィ [Haruka, Nostalgy] (1993) dir. Nobuhiko Obayashi 16. 学校III [The New Voyage] (1998) dir. Yoji Yamada 17. 天国にいちばん近い島 [The Island Closest to Heaven] (1984) dir. Nobuhiko Obayashi 18. L' Ange amazonien. Un portrait de Lena Vandrey [The Amazonian Angel] (1992) dir. Maria Klonaris / Katerina Thomadaki 19. 小さいおうち [The Little House] (2014) dir. Yoji Yamada 20. 飢餓海峡 [A Fugitive From the Past] (1965) dir. Tomu Uchida 21. ダウンタウン・ヒーローズ [Downtown Heroes] (1988) dir. Yoji Yamada 22. エッシャー通りの赤いポスト [Red Post on Escher Street] (2020) dir. Sion Sono 23. 天若有情 [A Moment of Romance] (1990) dir. Benny Chan 24. Студент [Student] (2012) dir. Darezhan Omirbayev 25. また逢う日まで [Until We Meet Again] (1950) dir. Tadashi Imai ________________________________________________________ 26. At the Horizon (2017) dir. Takashi Makino / Manuel Knapp 27. バンパイアハンターD [Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust] (2000) dir. Yoshiaki Kawajiri 28. 没有航标的河流 [River Without Buoys] (1984) dir. Wu Tianming 29. সুবর্ণরেখা [The Golden Thread] (1965) dir. Ritwik Ghatak 30. Home From the Hill (1960) dir. Vincente Minnelli 31. 藍風箏 [The Blue Kite] (1993) dir. Tian Zhuangzhuang 32. A Hidden Life (2019) dir. Terrence Malick 33. Faust Sonnengesang II (2015) dir. Werner Fritsch 34. Le quattro volte [The Four Times] (2010) dir. Michelangelo Frammartino 35. 銀河鉄道の夜 [Night on the Galactic Railroad] (1985) dir. Gisaburo Sugii 36. ディア・ピョンヤン [Dear Pyongyang] (2006) dir. Yang Yong-hi 37. 夏の庭 The Friends [The Friends] (1994) dir. Shinji Somai 38. Тюльпан [Tulpan] (2008) dir. Sergey Dvortsevoy 39. 結婚 [Marriage] (1947) dir. Keisuke Kino****a 40. Last and First Men (2020) dir. Jóhann Jóhannsson 41. La lettre [The Letter] (1999) dir. Manoel de Oliveira 42. 青春祭 [Sacrificed Youth] (1985) dir. Nuanxin Zhang 43. 梁祝 [The Lovers] (1994) dir. Tsui Hark 44. Bao giờ cho đến tháng mười [When the Tenth Month Comes] (1984) dir. Đặng Nhật Minh 45. Dying at Grace (2003) dir. Allan King 46. Aru tantei no yűutsu [Watching the Detective] (1998) dir. Haruko Mabuchi 47. 畫中仙 [Picture of a Nymph] (1988) dir. Wu Ma 48. 漂亮妈妈 [Breaking the Silence] (2000) dir. Sun Zhou 49. 잠 못 드는 밤 [Sleepless Night] (2012) dir. Jang Kun-jae 50. さいはてにて やさしい香りと待ちながら [The Furthest End Awaits] (2014) dir. Chiang Hsiu-chiung ________________________________________________________ 51. La belle noiseuse [The Beautiful Troublemaker] (1991) dir. Jacques Rivette 52. 真心英雄 [A Hero Never Dies] (1998) dir. Johnnie To 53. 香港製造 [Made in Hong Kong] (1997) dir. Fruit Chan 54. 群龍戲鳳 [Pedicab Driver] (1989) dir. Sammo Hung 55. Die letzte Brücke [The Last Bridge] (1954) dir. Helmut Käutner 56. 長江圖 [Crosscurrent] (2016) dir. Yang Chao 57. 人妻集団暴行致死事件 [Assault and Death of a Housewife] (1978) dir. Noboru Tanaka 58. Guest (2010) dir. José Luis Guerín 59. En construcción [Work in Progress] (2001) dir. José Luis Guerín 60. Dieu sait quoi (1994) dir. Jean-Daniel Pollet 61. Memory for Max, Claire, Ida and Company (2005) dir. Allan King 62. グータリプトラ [GOOTARIPUTRA] (1999) dir. Mikio Yamazaki 63. 風月 [Temptress Moon] (1996) dir. Chen Kaige 64. Cristaux (1978) dir. Teo Hernández 65. Los motivos de Berta [Berta's Motives] (1984) dir. José Luis Guerín 66. Risttuules [In the Crosswind] (2014) dir. Martti Helde 67. Chiri (2012) dir. Naomi Kawase 68. 水晶人 [Portrait in Crystal] (1983) dir. Hua Shan 69. Ford v Ferrari [Le Mans '66] (2019) dir. James Mangold 70. Sleep Has Her House (2017) dir. Scott Barley 71. Trains of Winnipeg (2004) dir. Clive Holden 72. Verhängnis [Fate] (1994) dir. Fred Kelemen 73. 牝猫たちの夜 [Night of the Felines] (1972) dir. Noboru Tanaka 74. Bliss (2019) dir. Joe Begos 75. Ani Mulalu? The Crazy World [Crazy World] (2014) dir. I.G.G. Nabwana 76. Drawing Restraint 9 (2005) dir. Matthew Barney 77. Freak Orlando (1981) dir. Ulrike Ottinger 78. Bakit Dilaw ang Gitna Ng Bahaghari? [Why Is Yellow Middle of the Rainbow?] (1994) dir. Kidlat Tahimik 79. 驚魂記 [Deception] (1989) dir. David Chung Chi-Man 80. 裸のラリーズ [Les Rallizes Dénudés] (1992) dir. Ethan Mousike 81. ツィゴイネルワイゼン [Zigeunerweisen] (1980) dir. Seijun Suzuki 82. Five Year Diary (1981) dir. Anne Charlotte Robertson 83. 本当はエログロいイソップ寓話 シザーチンP [Scissor Dick] (2018) dir. Naoyuki Tomomatsu ________________________________________________________
Other notable films (movies I rated below but consider especially wortwhile/important/memorable): 1. 下妻物語 [Kamikaze Girls] (2004) dir. Tetsuya Nakashima 2. 윤희에게 [Moonlit Winter] (2019) dir. Lim Dae-Hyung 3. 青春デンデケデケデケ [The Rocking Horseman] (1992) dir. Nobuhiko Obayashi 4. 八兩金 [Eight Taels of Gold] (1989) dir. Mabel Cheung Yuen-Ting 5. 珠光寶氣 [Whatever You Want] (1994) dir. Wong Jing ________________________________________________________
Two special mentions (movies I rated previously but rewatched in 2020 and bumped to a higher rating which if they were first time watches would have placed them in TOP 10): 1. 忍ぶ川 [The Long Darkness] (1972) dir. Kei Kumai 2. 息子 [My Sons] (1990) dir. Yoji Yamada ________________________________________________________
I'm 26. This means last year was 1/26th of my life. I've considered myself a cinephile since 2011. This means last year was 1/9th of my cinephilia. These fractions don't mean much from mathematical standpoint. These fractions mean a lot considering my journey in life and in cinema. I've religiously watched films for 9 years and 2020 was one of those years filled with amazement, beauty, splendor, emotions. I daresay 2020 was a year I cried most in my life. Thankfully, those were all tears connected to films. Tears of sadness, happiness or joy but all tears shed while watching a film. In 2020 I rewatched Edward Yang's Yi Yi (it was a rewatch so I did not mention it in the preceding list). Yi Yi is a film full of memorable quotes but one of the most memorable lines goes like this: "My uncle says we live three times as long since man invented movies. [...] It means movies give us twice what we get from daily life.". I wish you all to live thrice as much thanks to cinema. Let's hope 2021 brings just as many if not more amazing discoveries, moments of delight and awe. Cheers and see you on your movie journeys!
PS: It doesn't take a genius to see I'm quite biased towards Obayashi and Yamada. PSS: I wanted to challenge @mark f to watch all films from my list in 2021 but what's the point, he'd probably complete it within a month and then rewatch them twice before 2021 ends. PSSS: I wanted to write a note about every film in the list but that would probably take me 3 days to complete. Feel free to ask me about any title and I will elaborate on why I loved it! PSSSS: Ordering this was hell.
__________________
Look, I'm not judging you - after all, I'm posting here myself, but maybe, just maybe, if you spent less time here and more time watching films, maybe, and I stress, maybe your taste would be of some value. Just a thought, ya know.
01. Seven Weeks (Obayashi, 2014)
02. Labyrinth of Cinema (Obayashi, 2019)
03. Wax, or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees (Blair, 1991)
04. The Man Who Stole the Sun (Hasegawa, 1979)
05. Hana and Alice (Iwai, 2004)
06. I-Be Area (Trecartin, 2007)
07. River of Fundament (Barney, 2014)
08. Righting Wrongs (Yuen, 1986)
09. The Blair Witch Project (Sanchez/Myrick, 1999)
10. Adele Hasn't Had Her Supper Yet (Lipsky, 1978)
So I guess y'all don't play the "no new releases" rule, then.
Didn't know about that rule. Is it because personal ratings change over time and if you're too enthusiastic after watching it you might give it a way too generous rating? Kind of like a cool-off period?