Foreign Language Hall of Fame

@edarsenal I'm so happy that someone loved The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. I thought you might enjoy it. I always feel if one person connect to one of my noms, then I'm a happy camper...Time to go roast some marshmallows.

@edarsenal It was just a random choice, not a "favorite" of mine or anything. If people would like me to name something else, I will (as I do have a different title I would share). If not, that's fine.
I'm still working my way through all the nominations. 10 to go.

I'm happy to watch your film. It just won't be right away as there's a lot of movies to watch and like Cricket said, I'm saving the movies from the newest members until last. All is good

Thursday Next has already watched and reviewed Samsara, and others have spend time looking for copies, so unfortunately it's too late to be changing nominations now.

Don't worry, other people will get around to your nomination in time. With 16 members in this HoF, there are a lot of films to watch, and we each have different ways of choosing what order we go through them.

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Spoilers ahead:


I've been meaning to see this film for years but haven't quite plucked up the courage to do so. This HoF gave me the perfect excuse to stick it on. It's as shocking as I expected, with Haneke giving us teasers and snips of brutality and psychological impairments. He does it very cleverly with shots of grainy footage and VCR tape and things happening on the corner of the screen. This leaves alot to suggestion which can sometimes be more powerful than a full on shot of the deed.

Benny is the bored, detatched teenager seduced by modern media and although his actions are brutal, the rest of the film is also quite dark in the way his parents act. The film seems to give us this impending doom tone towards youth culture and the media, and although the Egypt segment was quite drawn out it didn't affect it negatively


To me, 'Benny's video' is the footage shot of his parents' conversation - when they discuss what to do with their dilemma.That leaves us with an ending of Benny saying "sorry"; which surely means he's dropped them right in it. Whether he was successful or not in doing so, we'll never know but it was a good ending to a good film. I expect this will be near the top of my list.

I'm glad you liked my pick Scarlet

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"A film has to be a dialogue, not a monologue — a dialogue to provoke in the viewer his own thoughts, his own feelings. And if a film is a dialogue, then it’s a good film; if it’s not a dialogue, it’s a bad film."

- Michael "Gloomy Old Fart" Haneke

I immensely liked it as well! I'll be writing my thoughts on it, later today.

Totally. I didn't dislike the Egypt segment, and i agree with you assessment of that scene. I just thought there were a few scenes in it that were oddly placed, like when they were roaming the streets looking for tat to buy. I didn't know what that added to the film.

I actually love that scene along with the background music that was accompanying it. Personally, I think it furthered the point of how the Bourgeois (or at least this family), sweep every issue under the rug, and pretend unbothered, no matter the size of the issue.

I've been trying to make time to watch Benny's Video these last few days, but I keep getting sidetracked until it's too late to turn the movie on haha. I'll have to watch it soon so I can see what this spoiler discussion is all about.

Yes, I can sort of see your point. Either way it didn't detract from the film. I can't wait to see more Haneke. I think I've only seen 3 of his.

What else have you seen from him?

Cache and I think one other but maybe it's just the 2!

Another visually stunning movie! We're being spoilt in this HoF. I enjoyed this, it's epic in every sense of the word - the score, the cinematography, the sprawling fight scenes, the scope of the story and how it relates to the history of South Korea and it's neighbouring countries. All epic.

This is the 6th Kim Jee Woon film I've watched and it's up there with his best. I'd say A Tale of Two Sisters and I saw the Devil are perhaps stronger films but there's not much in it. He's an incredible director. (and also seems to have an obsession with nasty foot injuries) There was alot going on in this movie, loads of dialogue, loads of action, loads of characters. So it was challenging in parts but not overly so.

The set design perfectly captured the 1920s as I would imagine it, and there was barely a step in the wrong direction from any of the cast, especially the 2 male leads on the side of the resistance. That train scene was wonderfully done and hugely tense.


If there was a drawback, I'd say that as an English language speaker, it was difficult to tell at times, what was supposed to be Japanese and what was Korean - but that's hardly the film's fault, and if you're paying attention is easy to work out anyway as the plot develops. This is one I'd like to revisit if I ever get the chance, as I'm sure the unravelling of the plot in the first half of the film would be enjoyable to scrutinise further. Great nomination.

I'll be reading both your Benny review and the spoilers conversation once I see this.
Really need to finish Age of Shadows.

It was pretty much a given I'd like it. Glad to see others did as well

Didn't you start watching that sometime last week?

I always try to watch films in one sitting, because I'm afraid I won't be able to get back into it, or I'll have forgotten what already happened haha.

I watched this last night and it was OK, though I wasn't overly impressed. It felt like a Korean version of a Hollywood block buster flick, with all the over the top gun fights and the silly 'pull off your toe that's just been shot' scene,...Didn't I just see a rotting finger being pulled off in The Shape of Water? That's why I say this feels like a Korean version of a popcorn flick, fun at times, but never deep.

I mean we really get no sense of the Japanese occupation and what it meant for Korea. Outside of a couple Japanese characters, it was like the film maker didn't even bother with the bigger picture of the occupation and the social consequences that it would bring.

Instead it plays out like a James Bond spy thriller, with the plot to turn a Korean police captain working for the Japanese, into a double agent, to smuggle explosives for the resistance fighters....That could have been fun, as there's nothing wrong with a movie made for entertainment, but at 2 hours 20 minutes this was too long, or at least it felt really long to me. Edit out 45 minutes and you'd have a fast paced, fun movie.

The last scene where the resistances sets off bombs at the Japanese/Korean officials party event, really made me hate the 'heroes' of the film. Because at the party there were many innocent people, young people singing, young women serving drinks...and they were all killed by the bomb blast. So at the end of the film, I feel like the resistance fighters are no better than the Japanese army who occupied their country, and I doubt that's the message the Korean film maker wanted to give.

yep, watching it with my room mate on Netflix, so trying to make the time when we BOTH can sit and watch it. LOL. May have to start from the beginning on that one.
She's interested in Phoenix and Sword of Doom too, which I rented from my library, so. . . same scenario.
Snuck a peek at the first 15 min of Sword of Doom and really looking forward to seeing that one (more than before)

I finally watched Benny's Video but won't be able to write anything until after work tomorrow. Hopefully by then I'll have figured out what to make of it, since right now I just have no idea.