The MoFo Top 100 Foreign Language Film Countdown

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I forgot the opening line.
I thought I'd wasted my 1 pointer by not choosing an obscure enough film. I'm the one person who had Audition on his list (albeit 25th) - and if @Paulielexx hadn't of missed the deadline it wouldn't gave graced the 1-pointer reveal. For that I'm kind of grateful.

It's been ages since I saw JCVD, but I remember really liking it a lot. It's one of those films I never want to watch again for fear it won't be good a second time around...



A significant historical figure, the warrior-king who united the disparate tribes of Mongolia and created one of the world's greatest empires in history. Wolves, thunder, lightning, monumental landscape shots, epic and glorious horse and sword battles. Assassins on horse with double blades. Of course Mongol: The Rise of Genghis Khan was on my ballot. @ # 25.


From the other one-pointers Port Of Shadows came closest to making my ballot, I have it at #35.

Port of Shadows 1938 ‘Le quai des brumes’ Marcel Carné

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The thing isolated becomes incomprehensible
Other than my one pointer, The Cannibals (1988), I've only seen The Platform (2019)

My list:

25. The Cannibals (1988)



The thing isolated becomes incomprehensible
That's a long post. Please don't quote the whole thing

There was no picture for Adrift on the Nile.

The Hunt had a few more votes, but it became apparent that most of those people meant the other The Hunt from 2012. Same title, same year, much confusion. It might be that the person who had this at #25 also meant the other one, but I didn't hear back from them so I have to take the one they put on their ballot.
Which The Hunt is this??



My one pointer is White Material (2009)







This is the story of a family of white farmers in an unnamed African country. As a civil war erupts the family tries to sell one last crop while the rebels take over the country. What I like about this film is that it doesn't just portray colonialist as a bad and the rebels as good. All the characters are given a sense of humanity and shown to be complex and flawed human beings. This is the sort of thing you don't see in Hollywood films.



This is all I have ever really seen of Riki-Oh...

...but I have seen it twelve thousand times, thanks to Craig Kilborn. And when has anybody ever thanked Craig Kilborn for anything?
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Thursday Next's Avatar
I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
Which The Hunt is this??
The one on the one-pointer list is this one, a French horror movie.

The other The Hunt is this one, a Thomas Vinterberg drama starring Mads Mikkelson. Some people who meant to vote for this one accidentally voted for the first one at first.



Have you watched both version? The television version and the theatrical version? I know the theatrical version has a much less run time, but I wonder how much it loses in its truncated form.
I've only seen the long version. It's also the only version that's easily available (in Finnish national TV's streaming site - sadly no foreign subs). I'd definitely suggest seeing the full 5+ hours thingy.
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Welcome to the human race...
This is all I have ever really seen of Riki-Oh...

...but I have seen it twelve thousand times, thanks to Craig Kilborn. And when has anybody ever thanked Craig Kilborn for anything?
You can thank me for making it my one-pointer.
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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0



This is all I have ever really seen of Riki-Oh...

...but I have seen it twelve thousand times, thanks to Craig Kilborn. And when has anybody ever thanked Craig Kilborn for anything?
[added to Watchlist]
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Welcome to the human race...
Oh, it's a trip alright. Imagine if a Bruce Lee movie had effects straight out of early Sam Raimi or Peter Jackson.



Dammit. I really did mean to get a list in for this.

Of the one pointers I've seen Audition, Wild Zero, Way of the Dragon, Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky and Mongol.
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Women will be your undoing, Pépé
For one-pointers, I've seen three, two of which, I fully agree with what has been said by the ones nominating them:
The Lunchbox (2013)



A beautiful and touching Indian film about two unsuspecting people meeting and maybe falling in love. Even though it might seem like a romantic film on the surface, it's really a more introspective look into relationships and age. Wonderful performances by the two leads (Irrfan Khan and Nimrat Kaur).
A significant historical figure, the warrior-king who united the disparate tribes of Mongolia and created one of the world's greatest empires in history. Wolves, thunder, lightning, monumental landscape shots, epic and glorious horse and sword battles. Assassins on horse with double blades. Of course Mongol: The Rise of Genghis Khan was on my ballot. @ # 25.

and my own, nomination:



In This Corner of the World (2016)
++ I had first caught an interest in this film when @Guaporense had it as a 1 pointer in the recent Top 100 of All-Time Refresh: Countdown. Putting it on my Watchlist in @Jabs' 2021 Film Challenge. So I must thank Guap for introducing me to this heartfelt, endearing slice of life, bit of cinema.

Set during World War II in in a rural area near Hiroshima, Japan, we get to know Suzu, a young girl who loves to draw, get married to a boy she barely knows and the everyday life of becoming a housewife. A rather warm and beautiful tale that drew me in by the simple storyline and the family she marries into that caused me to smile, chuckle and fall in love with them all. And at times, especially at the end, cry. And I must add they were joyful tears at those surviving and continuing forward in the ashes of the aftermath.

A truly beautiful, life-affirming film that I am thankful to have watched and will be, again, in the future.
Again, thank you gaup.
And initially, and I'm sure it'll get longer, I already have Port of Shadows on my Watchlist/ Jab's Film Challenge



Movies Seen: 0 of 0 (0.00%)
25) In This Corner of the World (2016) One Pointer
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JCVD was my one-pointer. Hopefully there's a parallel universe where Van Damme received an Oscar nomination, in addition to a slew of other awards, for his vulnerable performance in the film, catapulting him back into the mainstream and rescuing him from the doldrums of direct-to-video fare that rarely capitalize on his talent and charisma. To anyone who says the man can't act, I present this six-minute monologue in which Van Damme breaks the fourth wall to bare his soul to the viewer. Remove the impressively choreographed long take during the opening credits and you essentially remove all action from the film. JCVD is more akin to an extremely meta Dog Day Afternoon than Bloodsport or Kickboxer. Van Damme, playing a fictionalized version of himself, is taken hostage at a Belgium post office by petty criminals whom the action hero would typically dispose of with a single roundhouse kick, but this isn't a movie set with pulled punches and guns equipped with blanks. This is the "real world," with real violence and life-or-death consequences. How does an action hero save the day when there's no script or second takes? I grew up idolizing the Muscles from Brussels and still consider him one of my favorite actors, so the blurring of reality and fiction in JCVD likely hits harder for me than it would non-fans, especially with Van Damme exposing the naked vulnerabilities and real-life shortcomings beneath his on-screen persona; but this is a movie I would also highly recommend to people who wouldn't typically watch anything Van Damme related. Here he aims to roundhouse kick you in the soul, not the face.

As for the other one-pointers, I've seen seven in total. My favorite of those is Riki-Oh, which is one of the most cartoonishly violent films I've ever watched. It's like a live-action Fist of the North Star set within a prison.
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JCVD was my one-pointer. Hopefully there's a parallel universe where Van Damme received an Oscar nomination, in addition to a slew of other awards, for his vulnerable performance in the film, catapulting him back into the mainstream and rescuing him from the doldrums of direct-to-video fare that rarely capitalize on his talent and charisma. To anyone who says the man can't act, I present this six-minute monologue in which Van Damme breaks the fourth wall to bare his soul to the viewer. Remove the impressively choreographed long take during the opening credits and you essentially remove all action from the film. JCVD is more akin to an extremely meta Dog Day Afternoon than Bloodsport or Kickboxer. Van Damme, playing a fictionalized version of himself, is taken hostage at a Belgium post office by petty criminals whom the action hero would typically dispose of with a single roundhouse kick, but this isn't a movie set with pulled punches and guns equipped with blanks. This is the "real world," with real violence and life-or-death consequences. How does an action hero save the day when there's no script or second takes? I grew up idolizing the Muscles from Brussels and still consider him one of my favorite actors, so the blurring of reality and fiction in JCVD likely hits harder for me than it would non-fans, especially with Van Damme exposing the naked vulnerabilities and real-life shortcomings beneath his on-screen persona; but this is a movie I would also highly recommend to people who wouldn't typically watch anything Van Damme related. Here he aims to roundhouse kick you in the soul, not the face.
I totally agree with this. It was a very pleasant and surprising watch.