Asian Movie Challenge

I guess I will join in as I plan to watch a few anyway soon. I don't see this so much as a challenge, but hopefully it will generate some good discussion

I'll join especially since rewatches count and I was planning on revisiting Bong Joon-ho anyway. Speaking of him, will Tokyo! count since he is one of three directors and the only Asian?

This will be fun. I'm going to try to really get into some previously unexplored territory after I'm done with Joon-ho.

Tokyo! counts, yes.

A couple good Indian movies from the 70s,
Pakeezah by Kamal Amrohi
The Chess Players by Satyajit Ray

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Mubi

I would love to join. I love Asian films. I have a question about the Feature Film requirement. Do they have to be at least 40 minutes or at least 80 minutes long?

Some personal favorites of mine I have already recommended to jiraffejustin:

Shinobi no Mono (1962) was the first film to popularise realistic ninja films.
Blind Woman's Curse (1970) is a cult classic about Yakuzas, but it has more of a samurai film flavor than a crime one.
Suicide Club (2001) also has a substantial cult following.

Other noteworthy films:

Audition (1999) is one of the creepiest and most frightening films I've ever seen.
Lady Vengeance (2005) is the final chapter of the South Korean Vengeance trilogy following Oldboy.
The Street Fighter (1974) starring Sonny Chiba, was apparently the first film to receive an X rating in America solely for violence.

I'm going to have fun with this topic.

sure, i'll join

Forty minutes is the required length.

I'm going to be checking out the superhero knock-offs, like Japanese Spider-man, and Turkish Batman. :P

Angel's Egg (1985) is a very unique anime film by Mamoru Oshii. There is very little dialogue. It's mostly just strange alien-like landscapes as two people travel together.

I wrote about the Asian Challenge on the Danish forum im frequenting and i got a lot of recommendations about movies from countries like Turkey, Iran, Kazakhstan, Thailand and what not. They are pretty well versed in foreign movies and have among other things written in a Danish film critic magazine about stuff like Apichatpong Weerasethakul.

From South Korea the only interesting newer stuff besides Hong Sang-Soo should be Lee Chang-dong. His filmography only consists of 5 films, but they should all be interesting. They described him as a kind of mixture of Sokurov and Kiarostami, with his own original film language. He isnt considered heavy arthouse but more middlebrow. Of the more old stuff The Housemaid from 1960 should be interesting:



Besides the obvious choice of Apichatpong Weerasethakul from Thailand. Pen-Ek Ratanaruang was also recommended with Last Life in the Universe from 2003:



Revenge from 1989 should be one of the masterpieces of the Kazakh New Wave and probably the best from Yermek Shinarbayev. Harmony Lessons from 2013 by Emir Baigazin was also recommended:



From Iran i can personally not recommend Abbas Kiarostami enough, especially Close-Up from 1990. Jafar Panahis filmography was recommended with The Mirror, The Circle, Crimson Gold, This is Not a Film and Closed Curtain. A last recommendation was A Moment of Innocence from 1996 by Mohsen Makhmalbaf:



Considering Turkey, you have the great director Nuri Bilge Ceylan, who's entire filmography should be interesting. Besides that you have the Kurdish director Reha Erdem. An older movie from Turkey that was mentioned was The Road by Yilmaz Güney and Serif Gören which won the Palme d'Or in 1982:



In regards to the Philippines, Lav Diaz, is the obvious choice. Though his films last somewhere between 4 to 11 hours. I can personally recommend his newest effort, Norte, the End of History:



Early 80's cinema in China with Chen Kaige og Tian Zhuangzhuang was recommended. Of newer directors Wang Bing and especially Jia Zhang-Ke was mentioned. His newest effort should be at least passable for most people:



There was a lot recommended in terms of getting into Japanese cinema, i will try to go into detail about that later. Hope you can use some of the recommendations

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A Moment of Innocence is clearly inspired by Kiarostami's Close-Up, which Makhmalbaf appeared in, crucially, at the end. It's not of the same level, and I think generally that Makhmalbaf is weaker than Panahi and Kiarostami, but it's a very good film nonetheless, the best I've seen from him.

Tears of the Black Tiger is a must-see!!!

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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.

Anyone who hasn't seen Spring in a Small Town should get on that immediately, it's a pure classic of mainland Chinese cinema with some pretty astounding camerawork. I think there are better versions out there, but youtube has a workable version:


In addition to that, I found a poll of Chinese critics that voted on the greatest films in the greater Chinese area. The list is in Mandarin and the computer translation is rough, but it's easy to figure out with some intuition:
http://www.hkfaa.com/news/100films.html

I have it ready to see for some time, bluedeed.

Some more recommendations:

Afghanistan

Osama (2003) - Siddiq Barmak
Earth & Ashes (2004) - Atiq Rahimi

Both films are very much done in the Iranian style.

China

Anything by Zhang Yimou is good and his movies are quite "mainstream" I guess. Apart from his more famous ones (like Hero), I enjoyed:

The Road Home (1999) with Zhang Ziyi
The Story of Qiu Ju (1992) with Gong Li
Happy Times (2000)
Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles (2005)

I haven't seen much by some of the lesser known Chinese directors but liked what I saw from Tian Zhuang Zhuang (The Horse Thief) and Jia Zhang Ke (Platform).

Kekexili: Mountain Patrol (2004) - Lu Chuan is also a good movie about Tibetan antelope poaching.

Hong Kong

Watch any Wong Kar Wai film (except perhaps My Blueberry Nights). Seriously.

India

I've really only seen Satyajit Ray films aside from the more popular Bollywood movies. If anyone is unsure about watching his movies, check out Sadgati (1981). Shows his style pretty well and is nice and short - only 45 minutes.

Iran

A Separation (2011) - Asghar Farhadi is one of the best films I've ever seen.
Kandahar (2001) - Mohsen Makhmalbaf. I agree with Bluedeed that Makhmalbaf is weaker than some other Iranian directors but this is worth seeing.
Blackboards (2000) - Samira Makhmalbaf (Mohsen's daughter)

Anything by Kiarostami or Majid Majidi is worth watching.

Japan

So many to choose from but apart from the many famous directors, I'd recommend anything by Tetsuya Nakashima (particularly Confessions and Memories of Matsuko), Takeshi Kitano (Dolls & Fireworks), Hirokazu Koreeda (Still Walking, Maborosi & I Wish) and Takashi Miike (for something a bit more violent )

Philippines

Yam Laranas has made three horror movies worth seeing (although two are the same movie):

The Road (2012)
Sigaw (2004) Philippines Version
The Echo (2008) US Version

South Korea

Kim Ki Duk - 3-Iron and Spring, Summer ... are masterpieces
Park Chan Wook - Oldboy, Lady Vengeance & Thirst as well as Stoker if it counts
Lee Chang Dong - Oasis, Poetry & Peppermint Candy
Bong Joon Ho - Memories of Murder and Mother
Kim Ji Woon - I Saw the Devil, A Tale of Two Sisters & The Good, The Bad & The Weird

So many great movies out of Korea. Some others:

Breathless (2009) - Yang Ik Joon
Castaway on the Moon (2009) - Lee Hae Jun
Bedevilled (2010) - Jang Cheol So

Taiwan

Watch every movie Hou, Yang & Tsai have made

Thailand

I've liked everything I've seen by Ratanaruang and Weerasethakul. I'd also recommend this - one of my favourite horror movies:

Shutter (2004) - Banjong Pisanthanakun/Parkpoom Wongpoom

Returner (2002) is an interesting Japanese Sci-fi. Critics didn't really like it, but everyone I know who's seen it did. It's an interesting and fun movie about time-travel. It's a bit rough around the edges in terms of production quality, but the acting is good and the subject matter and plot are quite interesting.




Turtles Can Fly (2004) This is a beautiful and touching story revolving around the war-torn lives of children as the Iraq-American war draws to a close. Wikipedia meantions 12 awards that it won at various film festivals across the globe.

It's interesting to note that it's a Hong Kong film critics poll, which can also be viewed here:

https://mubi.com/lists/hong-kong-fil...otion-pictures

I prefer this list - conducted by the Golden Horse (Taiwan). Not surprisingly, the results are quite different.

https://mubi.com/lists/golden-horse-...language-films

I'm not here to win this, but discussion is great, and I'm weak on Asian cinema, so I'm in

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Thanks Tyler, the Golden Horse does fit my tastes better as well, it seems that Days of Being Wild, A City of Sadness and Spring in a Small Town are all definitive canon in the region. It's interesting to note that Dust in the Wind is so high as well. Although many of his other films of the period won at the Golden Horse awards, Dust in the Wind received no recognition from them because it was in Taiwanese and not Mandarin and therefore not eligible. I guess they did really like it and just were constrained by the current rules.

everyone knows the asians are terrible at making movies