The Personal Recommendation Hall of Fame III: Foreign Language Edition

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Nope I was right:
Damn! I'm curious now to what Clazor and Raul picked!

I bet it's The Bicycle Thief.
You don't know me well, I strongly disliked Bicycle Thieves.

I was pretty sure not many have seen what i nominated. Now I'm not sure....



Women will be your undoing, Pépé
Haven't heard of Fallen Angels and Bicycle Thieves is something I've been on the fence about. No real reason, just seem to be.
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Knife In The Water: Really good movie that I could see being even better after a rewatch. Love the slow roll tension leading to an ending that was great and not what I predicted. Lovely, tranquil cinematography. Kind of dig the sax score as well. Good watch
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Farewell My Concubine, 1993

In the 1920s a young boy named Douzi (played eventually as an adult by Leslie Cheung) is abandoned by his mother at an all male opera troupe. In the abusive school environment, Douzi is trained to lay female roles. Douzi's best friend at school is ****ou (played as an adult by Fengyi Zhang). The two become famous opera stars, best known for an opera in which ****ou plays a king and Douzi plays his concubine. The opera's story overlaps with a real-life crush that Douzi has on ****ou. ****ou, however, marries prostitute Juxian (a radiant and expressive Gong Li), and the core trio have a complicated and rocky relationship over the decades. All of the action takes place against the political events that shaped Chinese history.

This film is epic in scope, and probably the most amazing quality of it is the way that it weaves together the large-scale political and historical elements and the intimate drama between the main characters. The political elements intersect with the drama, often providing a catalyst for the evolving conflict. The characters are not overtly political, and yet the film shows the way that it becomes impossible to be apolitical at a certain point.

The central performances are really fantastic. Gong Li doesn't arrive until about an hour into the film, but she really holds her own as the woman who both comes between the established friends and supports them at various points. The complex dynamic between the three (and especially between Douzi and Juxian) is very interesting. Leslie Cheung beautifully embodies Douzi, whose love for ****ou is denied both by ****ou's lack of interest and cultural taboos. I get separating art from life, but there are some really powerful overlaps between this role and Cheung's actual life. Cheung was gay and suffered from depression. He dealt with social stigma for his sexuality. I have always appreciated Cheung's particular mix of strength and vulnerability (especially in Days of Being Wild), and it is a perfect characteristic for the character of Douzi. Zhang has maybe the more challenging role as ****ou, who is far less extreme of a character than Douzi or Juxian, but still must embody a character with his own emotional depths.

There are also some really fabulous moments of visual and sound design. In particular I loved a moment in which a character collapses, the sound of his body hitting the ground seamlessly transitioning to two men falling into prayer at a funeral ceremony. There are some neat uses of shadow, sets, and costuming, so that there are many nice instances of the real scenes having a heightened, stage-like aspect to them.

My only two real issues were the overall length and one particular scene. While I admired the ambitious welding of history and a smaller story, there were some moments in the middle that lagged a bit for me. Opera is not . . . . really my thing, and so I was not as entranced by those sequences as others might be.

Also, I was unpleasantly surprised that the film contained what I believe was a real scene of an animal being slowly beheaded, content that is a real dealbreaker for me and will probably keep me from rewatching the film.

This one has vaguely been on my radar for a while now, though I didn't know much about it. I'm glad I finally checked it out and I really enjoyed the three lead performances.

For me this one ends up being a
, mainly because of the animal killing which I am still thinking about and both depressed/angry that I watched. I would imagine that for most people this would be closer to a
or even slightly higher.



Battle Royale: Never watched this because I figured it wasn't for me. Unfortunately I was right. Lots of style, so I see why it has a cult following. I am just not interested in it thematically unless it is going to really develop the characters, and it chooses not to do that at all. Two positives and they last about ten seconds each. The Creamsicle scene and stretching and exercising at the end of the game.
For some reason, I forgot to acknowledge that this was on me. I had even forgotten I nominated it. Anyway, I'm sorry you didn't like it. Like I said on another post, it's not a favorite of mine, but I thought it was an entertaining and energetic film.
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For some reason, I forgot to acknowledge that this was on me. I had even forgotten I nominated it. Anyway, I'm sorry you didn't like it. Like I said on another post, it's not a favorite of mine, but I thought it was an entertaining and energetic film.
I'm glad I watched it. It's really popular so I wanted to see it eventually. The style just isn't for me. That's why there are so many styles and genres.



I will try to write something on Fantastic Planet today, and have Ran on the agenda for the weekend.



I watched Memories of Murder (2003). Directed by Bong Joon-ho, the film is set in 1986 in a small Korean province and focus on the detectives investigating a series of murders. The film has a smart screenplay and is stylishly directed. The cinematography is fantastic and the actors do a good job. Memories of Murder is an effective and memorable mystery thriller. Highly recommended. My rating is
.



I watched Memories of Murder (2003). Directed by Bong Joon-ho, the film is set in 1986 in a small Korean province and focus on the detectives investigating a series of murders. The film has a smart screenplay and is stylishly directed. The cinematography is fantastic and the actors do a good job. Memories of Murder is an effective and memorable mystery thriller. Highly recommended. My rating is
.
That director is putting together quite a nice career.



That director is putting together quite a nice career.
I have yet to dislike anything I have seen from him. And I downright love Memories of Murder, Parasite and Snowpiercer. Mother is great, but is too emotionally intense for revisiting. The Host might not be perfect, but it's a super fun ride. His use of visual storytelling is really something else.



I watched Memories of Murder (2003). Directed by Bong Joon-ho, the film is set in 1986 in a small Korean province and focus on the detectives investigating a series of murders. The film has a smart screenplay and is stylishly directed. The cinematography is fantastic and the actors do a good job. Memories of Murder is an effective and memorable mystery thriller. Highly recommended. My rating is
.

Yayy! That one's on me. Glad you liked it. I saw your favorites had a good variety of grand-scale crime thrillers so I thought this would be a good fit.

Re: Bong, the only one I haven't seen yet is Okja, but I have liked/loved everything else from him.





[ Me, trying to figure out how to approach the review for Fantastic Planet ]



Women will be your undoing, Pépé
Watching the trailer for Memories of Murder it looks a bit familiar. It may have been mixed in the deluge of South Korean films we watched when first discovering all the amazing films coming out of that country, over a decade ago. Or it may simply be the storyline of many others like it. Either way, it's going on the watchlist to either rediscover or simply to discover and enjoy.

Farewell My Concubine has been on my serious watchlist and, (with what is becoming a very pleasant re-occurrence) with Takoma's in-depth review, I will be making a serious attempt to rectify that.

***EDIT*** Checking my List, it shows I had FMC checked off so this may be, like the Underground scenario all over again. Where I saw something, was hyped to see it because I forgot I already saw it.
Either way, I unchecked it and will (re)watch it for the upcoming Countdown.