Spoilers Favourite Asian Films

[elanor]

This is just a first try to add a new thread.
I would like to know what are your favourite Asian films since 2000.

Mine (searched through my ratings at IMDb):
2000 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0251433 Time and Tide - Hark Tsui
My favourite action film world wide.
2001 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0245429 Spirited Away - Hayao Miyazaki
Just one of Miyazaki's greatest films.
2004 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0347149 Howl's Moving Castle - Hayao Miyazaki
This Miyazaki film is one of my two favourite animation films worldwide. The other is
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
2006 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0497876 Big Bang Love, Juvenile A - Takashi Miike
I really like Miike, and this is my favourite film by him. My kind of art film.
2006 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0473444 Curse of the Golden Flower - Yimou Zhang
For me Zhang's most intense film, with the strongest message.
2008 Beast Stalker - Dante Lam
IMO Lam's best film (of those I've seen). Moreover, I'm a Nicholas Tse fan.
2009 Castaway on the Moon - Hae-jun Lee
Comedy that get's better with every viewing.
2009 Bodyguards and Assassins - Teddy Chan
Seen only once, but I was deeply impressed by story and action choregraphies.
2010 Villain - Sang-il Lee
I really liked the handling of the tragic story and the acting.
2011 Always - Il-gon Song
My favourite romance worldwide. A lot of viewings, and it works for me always the same, extremely well.

So what I noticed is, that we cannot preview our post, though we may edit it afterwards.
The edit time doesn't appear. The site uses the "creation" time stamp IMO. In this sense, each edit is a preview. [edit 3]OK, I found the Edited marker righthandside bottom. And the Preview! Thanks :)[/edit3]

I will have to change the structure of my EXCEL-table, from which I copy my data, to adjust it to this site.

Further, we have mark-up like bold colours.

[edit 1]The site adds automatically [ URL ] in front and [ /URL ] after the URL, so that one can click on the URL. That's very nice!
The colour of the URL cannot be changed, but it can be bold, italicised, underlined, changed in Font Size and in Font Family.

We also have the possibility to use bold via [ b ] in front and [ b ] after the word.
And we can use italics via [ i ] in front and [ /i ] after the word. Great!

We can use colours via [ color=#118800] for a certain green hue in front and [ /color ] after the word. Wow! I'm grateful. I just have to find the right numbers for the colours (warm green =#118800). Red=#FF0000, Green = #00FF00, Blue=#0000FF [/edit 1]

[edit 2]OK, I forgot to allow scripting. Now I'm seeing the tool bar, which allows me to select colours and all the other nice things :).[/edit 2]

 

[Ex nihilo]

Just watched the two Parasyte films from two or three years back. Taken from a manga, and with a central conceit (a cute alien at the end of the hero's hand, talking glove-puppet style, helping to defend earth against an evil conspiracy with martial moves) which seemed doomed to fail, the films are in fact quite watchable, with a handful of stand-out action sequences - although ultimately, no doubt reflecting the source, things do go on a little too long. Star Shôta Sometani, who I have seen recently in a new favourite of mine, Sion Sono's Himizu (aka: The Mole) impresses again with his range, seen at the other extreme in Sono's dud Eiga: minna! Esupâ da yo! (aka: The Virgin Psychics).

 

[Elessar]

I'll make it my all time favorite Asian movies.

2000 Battle Royal ( Kinji Fukasaku)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0266308/
Fun to watch, intriguing story and gory action at the same time.

2001 Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0245429
The best of Miyazaki. Full of philosophy yet entertaining.

2000 In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-wai)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118694/
Poetic, melancholy, masterful.

1954 Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047478/
Old, epic, Japanese characteristic. Enough said.

1993 The Wedding Banquet (Ang Lee)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107156/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_15
Better than Life of Pi (movie), in my opinion. Not very popular among Ang Lee's productions, but I like it the most, together with Sense and sensibility, since they don't have the over-seriousness of his later movies.

1998 Ringu (Hideo Nakata)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0178868/
Much better than Hollywood remake version (The Ring). One of the most terrifying horror movies I have ever watched.

2000 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0190332/
A more westerner feel of kungfu movies. Not that I like that feel, but it's fresh nonetheless.

Bruce Lee movies
Jackie Chan movies
Jet Li movies

I like Zhang Yimou but Curse of the Golden Flower is not my favorite. I feel like it somehow caters to Western cinema goers and are heavy on the audience-pleasing side. If you have watched earlier Zhang's oeuvres you'll see the difference.

 

[DeJoHnNiE]

So what I noticed is, that we cannot preview our post, though we may edit it afterwards.
The edit time doesn't appear. The site uses the "creation" time stamp IMO. In this sense, each edit is a preview.

When you go into Edit Mode and then click "More Options", you will go to a new page wich resembles the Start a New Thread page and allows you to Preview it too + other extra options.

The time of creation is in the top left corner, the edited time in the right bottom corner of the post.

Just watched the two Parasyte films from two or three years back. Taken from a manga, and with a central conceit (a cute alien at the end of the hero's hand, talking glove-puppet style, helping to defend earth against an evil conspiracy with martial moves) which seemed doomed to fail, the films are in fact quite watchable, with a handful of stand-out action sequences - although ultimately, no doubt reflecting the source, things do go on a little too long. Star Shôta Sometani, who I have seen recently in a new favourite of mine, Sion Sono's Himizu (aka: The Mole) impresses again with his range, seen at the other extreme in Sono's dud Eiga: minna! Esupâ da yo! (aka: The Virgin Psychics).

I'm a huge Anime fan, also seen these 2 movies and was fairly dissapointed tbh.

The anime of Parasyte is, imo, way better than the 2 movies. The manga is waaay better than either one but that's obvious in most, if not all, cases.

ONTopic: I like all the movies listed above. I've seen so many that creating a list would need a whole page, but I will go through them and see if I can decide on a top 5 or something.

Really good suggestions for anyone who haven't seen them yet. Keep em coming!

 

[Elessar]

I like all the movies listed above. I've seen so many that creating a list would need a whole page, but I will go through them and see if I can decide on a top 5 or something.

The most interesting list is a list where you explain why -even a few words will do. Why are they on your list? What make them better than other movies? For what reason should your imdf mates watch it?

I find it much more helpful than just a long list without specification :)

 

[elanor]

When you go into Edit Mode and then click "More Options", you will go to a new page wich resembles the Start a New Thread page and allows you to Preview it too + other extra options.

The time of creation is in the top left corner, the edited time in the right bottom corner of the post.

Thanks for the help. I found both features, preview and edit time.

 

[sitenoise]

When you go into Edit Mode and then click "More Options", you will go to a new page

I didn't find that Preview bit right away, elanor didn't see it right away. I think that's telling. Same with "Quote" being hidden in the "..." icon on the formatting toolbar.

 

[Elessar]

I had found that Preview bit, without DeJoHnNie telling. Honestly it has been like that with all forums since 10 years. You can't put all buttons on the surface.

 

[DeJoHnNiE]

The most interesting list is a list where you explain why -even a few words will do. Why are they on your list? What make them better than other movies? For what reason should your imdf mates watch it?

I find it much more helpful than just a long list without specification :)

Here's my list and I deffo like these the most so far I can remember :D

Kung Fu Hustle

I really like Kung Fu and comedy mixed together, this made me laugh and cringe so much I needed several fresh pants :rolleyes:

Shaolin Soccer

I don't like soccer yet this is probably my alltime fav soccer movie, most think it's stupid, I find it brilliant.

Ju-On: The Grudge 1, 2 and 3

First one is best horror I've seen in that genre up to date, second was a bit meh but still worth it and the third was better than the second one, but I wasn't impressed. Heard about a fourth and hoping the best!

Kung Fu Jungle

Top notch action/fight movie, the story is good enough and all the fight scenes make up for the shit parts in it, Well worth the watch imo.

IP Man 1, 2 and 3

IP man, go watch it

But tbh, yes, Very well done feelgood movies, great fighting and a pinch of drama.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 1

Such a wonderful movie, just the cinematics and all that are really good and I enjoyed it very much. Haven't seen the second one, but I hope it's as good or better.

(BtW: All movie titles [or the numbers] are linked up, so you can click them)

 

[sitenoise]

[edit 1]The site adds automatically [ URL ] in front and [ /URL ] after the URL, so that one can click on the URL

Depending on your aesthetics, another nice thing you can do is leave out the visible urls:

So, for example, if you copy paste your list from excel, as it is in your OP, you can then select a url, "cut" it, highlight your title, click the "link" button on the toolbar, and paste your cut (the url), and you get this:

2001 Spirited Away - Hayao Miyazaki

instead of

2001 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0245429 Spirited Away - Hayao Miyazaki

Depends on what you like, though. And because, yeah, as you've pointed out links don't really stand out at this point

 

[elanor]

I like Zhang Yimou but Curse of the Golden Flower is not my favorite. I feel like it somehow caters to Western cinema goers and are heavy on the audience-pleasing side. If you have watched earlier Zhang's oeuvres you'll see the difference.

I have seen earlier Zhang's oeuvres, and I see the difference. I also know, that most people don't admire Curse of the Golden Flower. But for me it's just my Zhang favourite.

Why?

Zhang Yimou is my favourite mainland China director. And this is for me his most intense film (of those I have seen).

On the other hand, Curse of the Golden Flower has been called dumb wuxia.
I have seen a lot of wuxia films, most of them from Hong Kong. I have also seen wuxia films by Zhang Yimou, though I would never call them stupid, both (Hero, House of Flying Daggers) had a philosophical background aside of the beautiful visualisations.


However, I got a completely other feeling watching the film Curse of the Golden Flower, namely that of a Shakespearean tragedy with some echoes of classic Greek tragedy.


I had the impression of a extremely intense claustrophobic play with some "Chinese opera acrobatics" (wuxia, which for me felt more like folklore background than Hong Kong action), that transported the harshest critique of the Politburo I have seen in movies.


Attention, from here on spoiler warning:

For me the emperor was the politburo and his family was the populace living under a intensely controlling dictatorship. The servants and soldiers felt like a staffage. The physician and his family felt like some go-betweens - part of the ruled populace but somewhat less feared, one an instrument of control (reminds me of Stasi or National Security), one of no importance in the emperor's view (subordinate member of the control instrument's family), one a complete dissident, but that one far far away and not on the radar of the dictator.

 

[Elessar]

DeJoHnNie:

Yeah, IP Man,
maybe it's not (yet) in my Top 10 List but I definitely like that one, and Donnie Yen is great in it, both in fighting scenes and emotional scene. Among all Chinese kungfu actors I think he's the best actingwise.

Kung Fu Hustle and Shaolin Soccer,
not in my top but Kungfu hustle is good, and I adore Stephen Chow's movies in general.

 

[sitenoise]

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 1

Such a wonderful movie, just the cinematics and all that are really good and I enjoyed it very much. Haven't seen the second one, but I hope it's as good or better.

I enjoyed #2, probably more than most. "There's crisp writing in the first act, and it seems like a perfectly crafted film to win over westerners to Chinese cinema, but then it almost mocks itself. Action is okay, Michelle Yeoh is good, but after the script fail, it's a let down. The film is in English, lol, and it's a big time Harvey Weinstein production. Scary. :eek:

 

[DeJoHnNiE]

not in my top but Kungfu hustle is good, and I adore Stephen Chow's movies in general.

Kung Fu Hustle is just so cheesy and with that said well done for a cheesy movie hence I like it so much. I didn't make a Top x list as I like them all and can't really make a numberred list of them. Like I said, seen so much good and bad ones I can't really do that. It will be a neverending list lol.

 

[elanor]

Depending on your aesthetics, another nice thing you can do is leave out the visible urls:

So, for example, if you copy paste your list from excel, as it is in your OP, you can then select a url, "cut" it, highlight your title, click the "link" button on the toolbar, and paste your cut (the url), and you get this:

2001 Spirited Away - Hayao Miyazaki

instead of

2001 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0245429 Spirited Away - Hayao Miyazaki

Depends on what you like, though. And because, yeah, as you've pointed out links don't really stand out at this point

Thanks, I used it. But I will use it more often with single titles. When displaying a list, copied from a table, this feature feels a bit awkward, though it looks much nicer, I agree.

 

[sitenoise]

most people don't admire Curse of the Golden Flower. But for me it's just my Zhang favourite.

i
You changed my mind about the film. I may have called it dumb in the midst of battle, but I don't think that now. I slowed myself down on the rewatch and just let it pour over me.

I'm curious if you liked The Banquet (2006). That' s the one that got my Shakespeare pancakes to flip.

 

[Elessar]

DeJoHnNie:
You said it man, it was so cheesy it's good :cool:
But maybe for me it's just not cheesy enough. Stephen Chow's movies often push the cheesiness to max level, which put me off the 1st time I saw them, but then boom explode in some serious Chinese philosophy and touching moments of love & family & karma. It makes for the unique feature of his movies. Kungfu hustle doesn't have enough of that. But nonetheless, well done movie, and a joy to watch.

Elanor:
You had some points there, and I agree with you that it's an intense play. However, for the Shakespearean tragedy aspect, I feel that it hasn't "reached" there yet, namely: the dialogues, the scenery, the characters,... do not stand out enough. They are not THE King, or THE Dialogue. Just some wicked king and wicked dialogue that people can find in several movies/dramas. My two cents ;)

 

[elanor]

I'm curious if you liked The Banquet (2006). That' s the one that got my Shakespeare pancakes to flip.

I like The Banquet (2006). But concerning the story telling, the visualisation, and the acting for me it is not on par with Curse of the Golden Flower. For me Xiaogang Feng is simply not as good a director as Yimou Zhang. I gave The Banquet (2006) 7/10. To me it feels like a lesser Shakespearean tragedy though it cites Hamlet, one of the greatest.

 

[Ex nihilo]

Stephen Chow's movies often push the cheesiness to max level

Kung Fu Hustle is a favourite of mine; nothing else I have seen has matched it. I recently saw Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons and, despite some individually amusing sequences and funny business between characters, thought it a bit of a mess.

One I did see lately which impressed me more than I was expecting was Sonnim aka: The Piper, the single film by Kim Kwang-tae, which managed to ring some interest out of a well-told tale and managed some real frissons towards its close.

 

[sitenoise]

I had found that Preview bit, without DeJoHnNie telling. Honestly it has been like that with all forums since 10 years. You can't put all buttons on the surface.

My feeling is that if you've spent a few minutes (or more) composing a reply and want to Preview it, a "More Options" button is a 50/50 gamble on whether or not you'll lose your writing if you hit it. True, once you've done it once you know, but hiding the most desirable options in submenus, I dunno.

"Upload a File"? I'd bury that sucker--even though it might be the most desirable for some. The jerkball in me would discourage all but the most professional forum software users from 'uploading files'.