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Fairly simple this time. Themes of yearning for and questioning purity are hard to accomplish in film. It's a relevant time, socially and seasonally, to spotlight a few, mostly multi-faceted genre wise, that did exceptionally well.
Lady Vengeance (2005)
To be ever-overshadowed by Oldboy (though Choi Min-Sik stars in this as well), the other two films in the Vengeance trilogy fit more along the arthouse side of the table, but Lady Vengeance is the poetic one, the least and most violent, and bleakly funny; its journey towards a woman's redemption includes shenanigans with prison mates, finding her orphaned child in Australia, and, of course, yearning revenge on a pedo, all captured in lovely snow and symmetry. Park Chan-Wook outdoes himself, to say the least.
Diary of a Country Priest (1951)
A sick priest is relocated to a village that scorns him, forcing him to retreat into his faith for comfort as he re-examines his views on human nature. Robert Bresson's direction is oblique and spiritually inclined, especially for him being an agnostic. He also makes the viewer imagine what's so bad about this village rather than showing it, but it works, and because it's a film based in first-person experience, it's all the more clever for it.
Winter Light (1963)
On the other spectrum, however, a priest becomes disillusioned after realizing he became a priest out of weakness and neurosis. The trials succeeding this realization become less about losing religious faith and more about him losing faith in living. Ingmar Bergman said himself this is the only film he made that he really liked.
Aguirre, The Wrath of God (1973)
Really old Werner Herzog flick, deals with a Spanish expedition in search of the gold in El Dorado. The film explores obsession in the context of sacrificing others for wants and the co-existence of animalistic behavior in the Amazonian jungle. Ambiguity, religion, and madness are deeply rooted in culture, as we are shown.
Tokyo Godfathers (2003)
Animation director and writer Satoshi Kon recently passed away, and it just so happens this underrated film in his repertoire fits the theme perfectly. Three vagabonds, a middle-aged man, a transvestite, and an orphan find a baby in a dumpster, and the rest of the film is essentially them running into absurd circumstances as they try to figure out how to do the right thing. A technical masterpiece in terms of animation as well as a wholly unique Christmas fairytale, Tokyo Godfathers is one of the most hilariously emotional films of the past decade.
Lady Vengeance (2005)
To be ever-overshadowed by Oldboy (though Choi Min-Sik stars in this as well), the other two films in the Vengeance trilogy fit more along the arthouse side of the table, but Lady Vengeance is the poetic one, the least and most violent, and bleakly funny; its journey towards a woman's redemption includes shenanigans with prison mates, finding her orphaned child in Australia, and, of course, yearning revenge on a pedo, all captured in lovely snow and symmetry. Park Chan-Wook outdoes himself, to say the least.
Diary of a Country Priest (1951)
A sick priest is relocated to a village that scorns him, forcing him to retreat into his faith for comfort as he re-examines his views on human nature. Robert Bresson's direction is oblique and spiritually inclined, especially for him being an agnostic. He also makes the viewer imagine what's so bad about this village rather than showing it, but it works, and because it's a film based in first-person experience, it's all the more clever for it.
Winter Light (1963)
On the other spectrum, however, a priest becomes disillusioned after realizing he became a priest out of weakness and neurosis. The trials succeeding this realization become less about losing religious faith and more about him losing faith in living. Ingmar Bergman said himself this is the only film he made that he really liked.
Aguirre, The Wrath of God (1973)
Really old Werner Herzog flick, deals with a Spanish expedition in search of the gold in El Dorado. The film explores obsession in the context of sacrificing others for wants and the co-existence of animalistic behavior in the Amazonian jungle. Ambiguity, religion, and madness are deeply rooted in culture, as we are shown.
Tokyo Godfathers (2003)
Animation director and writer Satoshi Kon recently passed away, and it just so happens this underrated film in his repertoire fits the theme perfectly. Three vagabonds, a middle-aged man, a transvestite, and an orphan find a baby in a dumpster, and the rest of the film is essentially them running into absurd circumstances as they try to figure out how to do the right thing. A technical masterpiece in terms of animation as well as a wholly unique Christmas fairytale, Tokyo Godfathers is one of the most hilariously emotional films of the past decade.
