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Late, Somewhat Ignorant and Hopelessly Opinionated Current Favorite Movies By Country:Jul 09 '06 (Updated Jul 15 '06) Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line Wow... so many foreign movies I like... and so many more I haven't seen!!! Brief note: I watched a LOT of movies while I was managing a movie theatre a couple years ago, but not a lot before that, so this list will have more “current” as opposed to older movies. America (hey, I’m from 2 countries, so I figure I can enter America as one of my foreign countries too and have it both ways) – 1. For older movies, I’m a big fan of “Letter to Three Wives” (by director Joseph Mankiewicz of “All About Eve” fame, a drama about a letter that is sent to three different wives, bragging that the writer has left with one of their husbands, and forcing all three women to reflect on their relationships, some really brilliant, brilliant dialog and one of the best supporting roles I’ve seen Kirk Douglas in). 2. For musicals, I’m a fan of “Thoroughly Modern Millie” which has Julie Andrews, Mary Tyler Moore and Carol Channing about the small town gal trying to everything she can to marry her rich boss and stop a Chinese prostitution ring in here spare time… 3. For newer movies, I won’t go into detail, but I loved “Shawshank Redemption” and “Memento” and have to say my guilty pleasures include “Fight Club”, the “Army of Darkness” series, a bunch of 80s “’Breakfast Club” types, and from my childhood, “Princess Bride” never mind, this would be a list in its own right, with my making up new categories as I go so instead I’ll stop now… Australia – I’m actually not a huge fan of Baz, so I guess I’d have to go with “Rabbit Proof Fence” which is based on the true story of two girls who escape from an official government camp. It’s a little slow at times, but worth checking out. Bosnia – “No Man’s Land” is an absurd, weird, sad/funny movie about soldiers trapped in a trench, on a mine… and start arguing “Who started this war? YOU did!” Botswana -- "The Gods Must be Crazy" is a very silly and highly entertaining movie about a man who finds a Coke bottle -- this rare and perplexing object causes all sorts of grief in a clan used to sharing everything equally... Canada – I promise to get more “serious” in a second, but sometimes you just have to say, to heck with critics and awards and go with the film that made you cry when you were just a little girl, “Anne of Green Gables” China/HK (Taiwan comes later)-- 1. Drama -- I have to go with “Farewell My Concubine” because it is the full package – music, cinematography, acting and dialog as well as back-story. Leslie Cheung plays the lead opera singer who is trained from youth to act as a female and then falls in love with his co-star (his co-star is straight and later marries an ex-prostitute portrayed by Gong Li (yes, Gong Li seems to always be cast as a prostitute, geisha, etc). For me, this movie is also bittersweet because of the back story involved -- there was a lot of speculation at the time because this was Leslie’s first gay role, and Leslie spent much of his life first denying he was gay and only later admitting he was bisexual. He was depressed for many years despite success in his acting and singing careers – many speculate partially because of so much controversy over his sexual orientation -- and eventually committed suicide in 2003. 2. Kung Fu etc has to be Once Upon A Time in China 2 , “Iron Monkey” (a sort of Chinese Robin Hood)and maybe the original “’Drunken Master” 3. Also worth seeing – “The Road Home” is a charming now and then story about a young son who returns home to help bury his father – the first teacher in town, during a time when the country was in unrest (you can tell I love movies dealing with that time period) and learns about how his parents first met and fell in love. “Emperor and the Assassin” which stars Gong Li and is an action/drama about one of the many theories behind the first man who unified China into a dynasty (“Hero” followed a similar idea only with a lot more fighting sequences). 4. Worth Watching Tony Leung Movies (I love him from his television series, Heaven Sword Dragon Saber and Duke of Mount Deer days, so I have to mention some of his movies that are worth watching based solely on his presence even if they’re not my favorite) include “In the Mood for Love” and “Hero”, and if you don’t mind being a little confused at times “Chungking Express” 5. Most Overrated: “The Bride with White Hair” the love-story-gone-wrong movie of a young man from a “just” clan to falls in love with, but betrays, his “bad” clan girlfriend. I’m sorry – I know every epinions review I’ve read just raves about this, but to me, it’s pretty but that’s it. Perhaps it’s because I’m spoiled -- there are MANY television series based on the same story that were well-acted pieces where the characters had motives and developments, this was just too bare bones, boiled down sell-out for me. Czech – “Kolya” is about a very grumpy, womanizing, adding cellist who marries as part of money scheme and thus accidentally saddles himself with a small Russian boy (it’s important that I mention it’s Czech, because, among other reasons, there’s a language barrier that exists between the two main characters because one speaks Czech and one Russian). Denmark – “Italian for Beginners” is just charming, about several people who take a beginning language class to find romance, identity, adventure… England – I really like “Millions” the Danny Boyle about a young boy who deals with the loss of his mother by talking to a series of Catholic saints while simultaneously trying to figure out what to do with the bag of money he’s just found. “Billy Elliot”, "Pride and Prejudice" and “Calendar Girls” are other fun (though not necessarily life-changing) movies I really liked. Oh, and if “Love Actually” counts, then it’s definitely a guilty pleasure addition to this category… France –I really like Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s films -- he's known for the box-office happy “Amelie” (Audrey Tautou is very cute as the justice seeking, romance finding lead)... and I love Delicatessen (it’s hard to go wrong with a post-apocalyptic dark comedy involving cannibalism, right?). However, I thought that ׆ Women” and “Widow of St. Pierre” where also very worth the time… and, well, “Brotherhood of the Wolf…” was probably one of the prettier movies I’ve seen. German – “Run Lola Run” is a nice science fiction/action/romance about a woman who gets numerous attempts to save her boyfriend by getting 100,000 deutschmarks. It’s fun, fast and entertaining. A close runner-up (good, but much less fun/easy to watch) is “Goodbye Lenin” which is a very well done film by Wolfgang Becker about a young man whose mother wakes from a coma – afraid to traumatize her, he tries to convince her that the old East Germany politics still exist (for music people, “Goodbye Lenin” probably has one of my favorite foreign movie soundtracks as well). I suppose I have to at least mention more notable movies (also good, just not my favorite) like “Das Boot” and “The Harmonists” India – I’m not sure I’ve seen enough to really comment, but I remember liking “Monsoon Wedding”… Italian – “Bread and Tulips” is such a fun/cute drama/comedy about a housewife who, while on tour with her husband and children, drops her wedding ring into a toilet, and by the time she recovers it, finds that the tour bus has left without her. Instead of being concerned, her husband yells at her for screwing up their schedule, and tells her to stay put – so she, of course, hitchhikes to Venice, where she’s never been. It’s slightly manipulative at times, but worth it overall I think. I’m putting “The Last Emperor” (wonderful cast, nicely done, almost fable-like retelling of the last Chinese emperor, who had lost his empire before he was really old enough to understand the changes taking place) in this category because the director is Italian and my Chinese categories are over-flowing. Japan – okay, I know there are more critically acclaimed films out there, but Miyazaki’s “Spirited Away” is a fun, pretty, even cute (but not too cute) animated story of a girl who finds herself working and trapped in a spirit world where her parents have engorged themselves so much they are now literally pigs she must somehow rescue.. I won’t go into my partially hidden, mostly buried anime roots except to say that “Battle Angel” though it never got the same type of attention as other vampire-titled movies and films, is worth checking out… Korea – not positive I’ve seen enough to really judge, but the best one I’ve seen is “Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring Again” the almost fable/fairy tale like movie about one monk’s education of love, desire and kindness. I didn’t think it was wonderful, but I thought it was probably worth the over 2 hours it took to watch… (which with my sometimes ADHD-like attention span, is saying something). Mexico – There are a lot of acclaimed movies out there (“Y Tu Mama Tambien”, “Amores Perros”), but in the right mood, and taking into account that they shot the film on a $7,000 budget, I think you have to give props to action flick “El Mariachi” by Robert Rodriguez about the mariachi player who just wanted to be left alone and play music... New Zealand Whale Rider -- a modern day drama that centers around the fable of how their people came to be in New Zealand as well as a young girl whose grandfather, as their chief, although loving, feels as though he needs to train and select a new, male chief. Okay, I admit it’s emotionally manipulative in a lot of ways, but it’s really worth it despite some of the more blatant coming-of-age-gender clichés it has, the acting and dialog in this story make it memorable. Russia – though the newer version was panned, I actually sort of enjoyed both versions of “Solaris” though that might be because I watched the shorter, newer version first, thought it was okay and then went backwards to discover the original “Solyaris” about a man in space who starts to realize that there is some alternate intelligence or force at work when he starts seeing very odd things around his base. Spain – I’m a big fan of Pedro Almodovar (“Bad Education”, “All About My Mother”) but my favorite is Talk To Her which follows the two very complicated love/ back stories of two different men in love with two women who are both in comas. Taiwan – 1. “Wedding Banquet” which is a great drama/comedy about a gay Chinese man trying to hide his homosexuality from his elderly, very interfering parents… (This goes against the norm, but I don’t care how much attention Ang Lee gets for “Brokeback Mountain” etc. for my money, Ang Lee has done two very good movies – “Wedding Banquet” and “Eat, Drink Man Woman” which is also “Tortilla Soup” – and also “Pushing Hands” comes in somewhere, I try to ignore the rest and tell myself he’s still a good director) 2. Worth watching, but not my favorite -- “Yi Yi” 3. Most Overrated: “Crouching Tiger..” -- which I hated if simply for the fact that he made fabulous actors like Chow Yun-Fat speak in a non-native dialect and thus sound stilted and more formal and forced than necessary. Wow, I’ve already written too much and still have left out many, many countries, this is a review I’m sure I’m come back to, to update, disagree with myself, etc. over, but thanks for reading if you’ve made it this far! Oh, this was meant as a write-off entry into Stephen_Murray's write-off, and an almost frighteningly thorough entry can be found here  |
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