4v291o
Watched on Sunday October 16, 2016.
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Watched on Saturday October 8, 2016.
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Watched on Thursday September 8, 2016.
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Watched on Friday September 2, 2016.
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Watched on Sunday August 21, 2016.
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Watched on Saturday August 20, 2016.
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Watched on Tuesday August 16, 2016.
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Watched on Wednesday August 17, 2016.
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Watched on Tuesday August 16, 2016.
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Watched on Sunday April 10, 2016.
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Watched on Wednesday March 30, 2016.
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Watched on Tuesday March 15, 2016.
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Dragon Inn without the sand but with the snow...
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Watched on Thursday February 4, 2016.
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Watched on Thursday January 28, 2016.
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Watched on Thursday July 30, 2015.
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Watched on Wednesday July 29, 2015.
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Watched on Monday July 27, 2015.
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Watched on Friday July 24, 2015.
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A romcom with Li Bingbing and Sun Honglei. The story has been done over and over, and the film has nothing special, nothing particular, nothing new, everything is predictible, mainly watched because of Sun Honglei's presence.
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Based on one of the most known classic with a very young Brigitte Lin as a young prince starring in this huangmei diao film directed by the master of this genre, Li Han Hsiang. As usual, splendid set and costumes, nice framing, quite light at first, the film goes towards a more and more tragic tone.
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Watched on Wednesday April 22, 2015.
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Watched on Saturday March 7, 2015.
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Watched on Friday March 6, 2015.
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Watched on Sunday March 1, 2015.
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Watched on Saturday February 28, 2015.
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Watched on Wednesday February 25, 2015.
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Watched on Monday February 23, 2015.
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Watched on Sunday February 8, 2015.
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Watched on Friday September 19, 2014.
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Watched on Thursday September 18, 2014.
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Watched on Wednesday September 17, 2014.
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Watched on Wednesday September 17, 2014.
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Watched on Saturday September 13, 2014.
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30 countries - Film #15 : Hong Kong
This is a 60s hong kong black and white, jazzy, crime/thriller film with a social backround that inspired John Woo's A Better Tomorrow.
Actually, the story itself has been recurrently dealt in crime films : an ex-convict who after 15 years in jail refuses to go back to the crime world but he's inevitably caught back to his past.
However, I must say that there are several interesting things in the film :
- the social backround : the film seems to agree with a rehabilitation system such as the Probation Club, a place where ex-convicts and former delinquents can have shelter, food and work in order to live again in society. To add a bit more realism, some scenes were actually shot in a real rehabilitation centre where the extras play their own role.
- the mutation of Hong Kong : while Hong Kong took advantages of the economic development in the 60s, the film shows also the other side of it and especially places such as the squatter area in Kowloon Bay which give a contrast with the high rise blocks. It depicts actually a singular urban look on Hong Kong in the 60s.
- this a cantonese film production in the time when mandarin speaking films were dominant (particularly thanks to the Shaw Brothers), the leading actor, Patrick Tse Yin was a famous actor and also actually the father of Nicholas Tse!
- the action scenes were well done and were choregraphed by Chan Lun-suen and Lau Kar-Wing (Lau Kar-leung's brother)
Even if the film can be a little bit too melodramatic at times and surely a bit too long, it's surely an interesting film to see.
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30 countries - Film #14- Singapore
Solos is a result of a collaboration of two directors, shot in digital, showing the relationships of the 3 main characters : a young man (played by one of the directors), an older man and the young man's mother.
The story is simple (a bit too simple) and is about a homosexual love affair between the two men and the love of the mother to her son. The love here seems more individual, even quite selfish, and is broken when the young boy decides to leave the man and the mother...
The film has no dialogue at all, the characters' movement are quite slow, I found the film quite austere and stiff, however it's greatly framed, the shots are very well composed with frame within a frame and straight, clear and sharp lines, the lightning is also very well done.The photography of the nude are particularly well craft. Most of the time in black and white, there are also a few parts such as the dreamlike or fantasy scenes where the colours slightly appear, but they are soft and not garish.
Unfortunately, I found the story too slim (even if the film only lasts just over an hour) and the characters not deeply well developped to maintain enough my attention, and in the end this makes the film quite flat.
30 countries - Film #13- Indonesia
May write some quick thoughts later...
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30 countries - Film #12 - Egypt
Quite disappointed by it, but still a curiosity.
The Haunted House is a black and white 50s film that takes place in a mansion where various characters are constantly shouting, screaming, moving around everywhere and nowhere.
They are gathered together in this reclused old mansion in order to hear the will and collect the inheritence.
The film is supposed to be a comedy (although it didn't make me laugh), but I must say that the gorilla - a person with a gorilla costume - is rather funny because the whole thing is ridiculous.
The supposing ghosts only appear at the middle of the film, until then, there are this silly gorilla frightening the guests, the mother shouting and being angry at her cousin most of the time, a sudden love between the two young cousins, a chaser, called lionheart who is actually scared of anything... I personally think that the acting is rather bad and annoying, too exaggerating and repetitive.
There are a couple of exotic dances, including a belly dancing scene, actually it seems that there were the most interesting part of the film, the entertaining scenes plus the dream sequence.
Still, the film is a curiosity but a bit messy and dated.
Watched on Friday May 16, 2014.
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Watched on Monday May 12, 2014.
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30 countries - Film #9 : USSR/Uzbekistan
This was a pleasant surprise.
Man Follows Birds is a coming-of-age tale set in a Medieval Uzbekistan filled with folklore myths and mystical visions.
We follow two friends (then three, all three orphans and/or outcast), idealist (and even utopist) and enthousiastic youngsters who after getting away from the human oppressive and cruel world try to live in harmony with nature and themselves and in self-sufficiency.
Costumes, set designs and coloured landscapes, soundtracks are wonderful, a very pleasant poetic, melancholy tale to watch.
30 countries - Film #8 : Morocco
Nordine is a son of a miner who has grown up in the North of ; he has to go back to his native village high in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco in order to bury his father according to his last will.
This is a kind of a road movie in which Nordine meets a few various people (including a young woman who doesn't seem confortable with her life in the country) and situations (although there isn't much events and actions in the films), and in the end (re)discovers his origins. This is not because his father is from Morocco that Nordine is Moroccan, but surely Nordine has changed after this road trip.
The film, a first long feature film by this director, is quite simple, austere or sober, maintains a certain modesty (there is no dramatization with the father's death for instance) but also brings out a warm, peaceful feeling at the same time.
The wide landscape is greatly shot and the music, traditional Berber music, fits perfectly.
Watched on Friday May 9, 2014.
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30 countries - Film #6 : Romania
Two young men got drunk and had a fight. The court decided to let them free on the condition that they re-enact their fight in order to make an educational film. So, the comrade prosecutor arrives with the 2 young men, the filmmakers & professor and a couple of soldiers at the location where the incident took place (somewhere lost near the mountain and a river).
This is a great film, so many things I like and find interesting.
First of all, the tone of the film, a kind of tragi-comedy, funny sometimes even burlesque, using repetitions in the dialogues and in the action, absurdity of the chaotic situation with a touch of madness (trying to shoot while the geese are escaping - I felt almost like watching a Kusturica film - , the young girl on bikini watching and mocking at this...). Reconstruction is a dark social satire.
The combination of sound and images is well accentuated and creates sometimes an asynchronisation effect.
The film itself is really noisy which underlines even more the agitation of the group. The sound is often from off screen and doesn't seem to fit with the environment. For instance, we are in the countryside near the mountain and surrounded with nature, yet, there are so many urban sound (the football match from the tv, the rock music from the radio, the horrible horn of the car and so on).
The montage is quick, the cuts are often abrupt. The last shot, a freeze on one of the character's face implies helplessness and dramatically produces a strong feeling.
Recommended.
30 countries - Film #5 : Czechoslovakia
I was quite looking forward watching this movie, as I wanted to see for quite awile. However, when the opening credits started with some sort of classical choir music with a naive tone, I started to fear whether I willl like it or not.
Indeed, Valerie is astonishing and wonderful for its set design, costumes & props, makes-up, colours which could make the film related to theatre. But the film is also surprising for its fairy, fantasy and strange atmosphere, in between nightmare and dream.
It's a surrealist and oniric tale, an initiatic quest of a young girl who enters the world of adults and discovers another world, buccolic and profane at times (such as the nymphs in the river - sometimes it reminded me some pre-raphaelite paintings), dark, almost gothic at other times, or even quite menacing, a world where she can loose her innocence and her purity (I must say that the use of colours is a bit too flagrant, especially the contrast white/black)
So overall, the film does give a poetic, symbolic effect.
To me, I can't not see this film made but in the 70s, the music, the naive young beautiful girl from an idyllic view with a touch of sensual erotism.
30 countries - Film #4 : Poland
Innocent sorcerers is a light and intimate yet quite cynical portrait of nonchalant, drifting youth in Warsaw, in the 60s.
We follow during a night a young arrogant sportif doctor, also nightclub musician, quite sure of himself and seducing girls quite easily, he meets a witty, attractive and charming young woman.
The film is mostly shot in the dark (I like the scenes when they wander in the streets in the night), until they arrive to the rather grim and small flat where a memorable game with a box of matches takes place. The dialogues between them two are quick and short, we can feel that they are on the same level.
I found that there is something close to the Nouvelle Vague, not because it deals with contemporary youth, but also because of its tone, light and detached and its carefree, and in somehow, innocent, characters.
Roman Polanski appears in one of the Bazyli's mates.
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30 countries - Film #3 : Yugoslavia
I've never seen any films by Vojislav 'Kokan' Rakonjac. So this is the first one I've seen, but he directed several films and short films in the late 50s and during the 60s.
The Walled In is actually his last film.
The film focuses on the relationships between an inmate and a prison guard who has to keep an eye on him after 2 escaping attempts. Even though they become closer, we can feel there is still something awkward, unsure in their behaviour which makes their complicity fragile and ambiguous and their so-called friendship really uncertain. The 2 actors play by the way very well.
Every now and then memories and thoughts of the inmate are shown, but the film is mostly set in the prison.
Shot in black and white, the film is perfectly framed using the lines of the architecture and alternating upper and lower angles, close-ups and wider shots, which give a defined, very well craft visual style.
Perhaps, my only complaint would be the choice of the music, which I thought didn't fit well enough with the film.
Watched on Saturday May 3, 2014.
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30 countries - Film #2 : Greece
I'm no so sure about this one, I wasn't convinced enough to like it, its not about its oddness but perhaps its will to be odd, and surely the fact that by willing to be so cold, arid, dry, emotionless, detached and impersonate that in the end it just left me very indifferent towards this film. The idea of the story is original for sure, and there are some "funny" moments though.
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30 countries - Film #1 : Portugal
This is one of the early works by Joao Cesar Monteiro.
I've actually only seen God's Comedy by him.
The film is composed by several sequences dealing with the relationships in a family (between father/daughter - husband/wife - parents of the wife/their daughter & husband...), it was shot in 3 days & 3 nights and was impovised and uses some texts by different writers such as James Joyce, André Breton, Esquilo and Fernando Ponce.
If you're into avant-garde films and avant-garde theatre, I guess it should be seen. The film is also very well framed with rectangular lines and uses a lot of the black & white photography with the constrasts but also the shadows. In most of the sequences, almost all shot inside, there is a bed (even with the sequence when the parents were visiting their daughter in the living room, there is a kind of matress under the table! This is when the grand father reads a note writen by the child : "the school is the cultural toilet of the oppressor" - we should keep in mind that the film was made in 1972, 2 years before the fall of the dictatorship).
The gestures and the use of the body are also very important, which make it close to theatre/dance, there are some scenes I pretty like, such as the one with the husband and wife gently caressing each other. Sometimes it reminded me also of some sort of Greek tragedy (the scene when the wife, dressed in long white dress is solemny recited a soliloquy outside while slowly descending the stairs outside).
Since I've now seen a few of this opera films I thought of making a list to track down the ones I've seen.
Huangmei diao is a typical Chinese genre of films, which were very popular in China and HK, especially in the 50s and 60s. These films take inspiration from ancient and famous traditional stories, legends that were adapted into opera. The stories are often impossible love stories that are mixed with magical, fantasy world - one of the typical and recurrent stories is an immortal goddess who falls in love with a human (A Fairy Couple, Madam White Snake).
But they also can be stories based on historical/legendary characters from ancient China, in which the strength, the courage and the uprightness of the leading character are shown (such as General Hua Mulan).
Another important element is the fact that not only the main role is also a female figure but several male role are played by female actress. One of these actresses who often plays a male role is Ivy Ling Po. I've noticed that it isn't just any male role, but only young man. For instance, in The Magic Lamp the young Liu Yanchang is indeed played by a woman (Lucilla Yu Ming), but as soon as he gets older it's a man.
I've also added costume/historical drama because they are quite close genre - apart that there isn't the singing. I will complete my post and the list bit by bit.
I'm aware that these kind of films aren't everyone's taste (and I may seem like an old granny - but I'm not! - because nowadays it's the old generation who are watching those!), I can't even explain why I love them, but they do make me feel I'm somewhere else and I'm always filled with wonder by the quality of the production, the set designs, the costumes, landscapes close to paintings sometimes, the colours and of course the beautiful women who are truly like goddess.
I specified in note the ones that are huangmei and the ones that are costume drama. Perhaps listed in order of preference, but so far I liked most of them. I reviewed some and most of the time I had to add them in the database...
Famous actresses : Ivy Ling Po, Linda Lin Dai, Li Li Hua, Yan Fengying, Grace Chang
Famous directors : Li Han Hsiang, Griffin Yueh Feng
Most are Shaw Brothers Production, but the Cathay/MP&GI has also produced some.
Film seen but not in the database yet :
The Grand Substitution
Films planned to watch :
The Lotus Lamp
Beyond the Great Wall (1959)
The Kingdom and the Beauty (1958)
Three smiles (1969)
The Dream of Red Chamber (but 1977)
Other lists about films from HK
50s, 60s HK comedy, musical, thriller films.
60s 70s swordsplay films from Hong Kong
- Fairy Couple
huangmei/ Mainland China
- The Magnificent Concubine
historical drama/SB
- Empress Wu
Historical drama/SB
- The Grand Substitution
Huangmei/SB
- Lady General Hua Mulan
Huangmei/SB
- Diau Charn
Huangmei/SB
- The Last Woman of Shang
Historical drama/SB
- Madam White Snake
huangmei/SB
- The Love Eterne
Huangmei/SB
The most known film - The Enchanting Shadow
Costume, fantasy film/SB
...plus 3 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>Chinese animation films mainly from Shanghai Animation Film Studio.
A work in progress list...
to add :
The Buffalo boy's flute part 1
The Buffalo boy's flute part 2
The dispute of snipe and shell (1983)
]]>30 days, 30 countries, 30 films
( Lise's proposal )
This is the beginning of the list that will surely change.
If I'm too busy in May, I probably stick to 20 films, otherwise will see 30 (will add the rest later).
See in notes for the film's country
+ to add in database :
- Tenja by Hassan Legzouli 2004 Morocco
- Alps
Greece
- Dead Mountaineer's Hotel
Estonia
- Fragments of an Alms-Film
Portugal
- Valerie and Her Week of Wonders
Czechoslovakia
- Innocent Sorcerers
Poland
- Reconstruction
Romania
- The Walled In
Yugoslavia
- Moscow Elegy
Russia
- Touki Bouki
Senegal
- Tenja
...plus 15 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>I saw a couple of his films years ago, but it's this year that I really discover his work.
So far this is what have seen by him. The first four are the ones I liked very much.
- Days of Eclipse
- Empire
- A Humble Life
- Mother and Son
- Russian Ark
- Faust
- The Sun
- Father and Son
- Moloch
- Taurus
...plus 2 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>Films I will go & see in March at the cinema and it's going to be a good month...
Towards the end of March, there is a special program called "New York Underground - films screened at the Bleecker Street Cinema" at the arthouse theatre, some I've already seen and won't watch again. But I will try my best to see the ones in this list, considering it's often to see them at the cinema, on big screen!
Not in the database :
Mingus in Greenwich Village (Thomas Reichman, 1968, 58min)
Amphetamine (Warren Sombert, 1966, 10 min)
The Perfect Team: The Making of 'On the Bowery' (Michael Rogosin, 2009, 47 min)
Also 2 Chinese films (cancel) & some new releases.
- The Brig
- The Connection
- The Cool World
- On the Bowery
- The Savage Eye
- Amphetamine
- Mingus: Charlie Mingus 1968
- Diaries, Notes, and Sketches
- The 17th Parallel
- Interviews with My Lai Veterans
...plus 2 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>Doing this 30 movies, 30 countries challenge, I realise how important rivers, in general water, were predominent (as a symbol, a metaphor, or just as a natural, essential landscape, or a subject of a socio-economic matter) in some Asian films, so I've started this list that should be completed... These 10 films (documentary & fiction) were the ones that first came up.
Suggestions are welcome.
- Dong
- Still Life
- Suzhou River
- The River Without Buoys
- Warm Water Under a Red Bridge
- The Eel
- The River
- Nymph
- Rice People
- Buffalo Boy
...plus 10 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>I've always liked and enjoyed watching HK swordsplay films, I watch them less than I used to - I must say that there were a time I was watching SB films just one after one ! - but every now and then I do again and it always feels the same.
This is a list of films I saw, some I need and will revisit during the following months. For now they are ranked by chronological order but will surely be ranked by order of preference (after re-watching some).
wu xia pian (swordsplay films) is a typical genre in Chinese cinema taken its source in literature and adapted into screen in the 20s by the Shanghai studios, such as the Water Margin in 1923. The films showed the exploits of fencers living under ancient dynasties mixing legends, magic and martial arts. (later it will be the novels by Gu Long - especially in late 70s, 80s - and Jin Yong - also known as Louis Cha - and Liang Yusheng).
The genre really appears in Hong Kong in the late 50s through stories inspired by Cantonese folklore.
The 60s and 70s are the golden age of the genre thanks to the Shaw Brothers (but also the Cathay/MP&GI studios) and directors such as Chang Cheh and King Hu who become specialists of the genre in their own style.
important directors : Chang Cheh, King Hu, Ho Meng Hua, Wu Ma, Griffin Yueh Feng (prolic director who also directed huangmei and romance films), Chor Yuen (more late 70s, 80s)
screenwriter : Ni Kuang
famous actors : Wang Yu, Ti Lung, David Chiang, Lo Lieh, Fu Cheng...
famous actresses : Cheng Pei Pei, Hsu Feng, Ching Li, Lily Ho, Lily Li, Chin Ping...
Red Heroine made in 1928 was one of the first films showing a female heroine and a swordswoman.
Other lists related to films from HK :
50s, 60s HK comedy, musical, thriller films
Huangmei diao – opera films – & other historical costume films from HK/China in the 50s, 60s
- The Twin Swords
- Come Drink with Me
- The Silent Swordsman
- Dragon Inn
- The Assassin
- The One-Armed Swordsman
- The Trail of the Broken Blade
- The Fastest Sword
- The Jade Raksha
- The Silver Fox
...plus 39 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>Because I love watching those films, because those films are less known, I've started this list that will be completed bit by bit as I watch them (also once they'll be added on the movie database). I did not include martial arts films in purpose, perhaps I'll make a list of them some day. True that when we hear about 60s HK films we first think of martial arts, swordsplay films, but HK produced many other kind, drama, musical, crime, romance... and not just the Shaw Brothers, but also the Cathay. It's not added by preference, although the first few ones are my favourites.
Some very known personalities :
Actresses : Linda Lin Dai, Grace Chang, Lily Ho, Jenny Hu, Tina Chin-Fei, Fanny Fan...
Actors : Peter Chen Ho, Yang Fang, Ling Yun...
Directors : Wang Tian-lin, Tao Qin, Chun Kim, Inoue Umetsugu...
Other lists about HK films :
60s 70s swordsplay films from Hong Kong
Huangmei diao – opera films – & other historical costume films from HK/China in the 50s, 60s
- The Wild, Wild Rose
Cathay Production. Musical directed by Wang Tian-lin. With Grace Chang.
- Angel with the Iron Fists
Shaw Brothers. Crime - a James Bond-like, but female. Directed by Lo Wei With Lily Ho (as Agent 009), Fanny Fan, Tina Chin-Fe.
- Temptress of a Thousand Faces
Shaw Brothers. Crime. Directed by Jeong Chang-Hwa. With Tina Chin-Fei, Liang Chen, Pat Ting Hung, Carrie Ku Mei.
- Mambo Girl
Cathay Production. Musical. Directed by Yi Wen. With Grace Chang, Mona Fong, Peter Chen Ho
- When the Clouds Roll by
Shaw Brothers. Drama/Romance directed by Tao Qin. With Ching Li, Yang Fang
- King Drummer
Shaw Brothers. Musical directed by Inoue Umetsugu, with Ling Yun, Lily Ho, Yang Fang, Angela Yu Chien
- Hong Kong Nocturne
Shaw Brothers. Musical. Directed by Inoue Umetsugu. With Peter Chen Ho, Cheng Pei-Pei, Lily Ho, Chin Ping, Ling Yun, Cheung Kwong-Chiu, Tina Chin Fei.
- Les Belles
Shaw Brothers. Musical directed by Tao Qin. With Linda Lin Dai, Peter Chen Ho, Fanny Fan Lai
- Asia-Pol
Shaw Brothers. crime/spy. Directed by Matsuo Akinori, with Wang Yu, Jo Shishido.
- Cinderella and her little Angels
Cathay Production.
Literal: After the Cloud Clothes Are Colorful
Musical Directed by Tong Wong With Linda Lin Dai, Peter Chen Ho
...plus 13 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>I will focus on Mainland Chinese films, and not the big production films, blockbusters and such but instead more on minor films, independent or not, or underseen films. Again, I'll add only films I've seen.
Because documentaries are so dominant, I've mixed fictions & documentaries.
Films seens and to be added in the database :
Seafood (Zhu Wen, 2001) - Recommended
Conjugaison (Emily Tang, 2001) - Liked, but seen at festival long ago
Railroad of Hope (Ning Ying, 2001) - Recommended
Shanghai Women ( Peng Xiao Lian, 2002) - Liked
When Ruo Ma was Seventeen (Zhang Jia Rui; 2002) - Liked
Carla my Dog (Lu Xuechang; 2003) - Quite good comedy, recommended
To Live is Better than to Die (Chen Weijun, 2003) - documentary. Highly recommended
Welcome to destination (well it wasn't great, Andrew Cheng)
Barbecue (Jun Geng, 2004), seen at festival, doubt it can be seen otherwise
Strangers' Street (Fu Xinhua; 2004) seen at festival, doubt it can be seen otherwise
ages (Yang Chao, 2004), liked
Sunflowers (Wang Baomin, 2005), recommended
Dream Walking (Huang Wenhai, 2005), documentary, seen at festival, liked very much, recommended, original
Floating Dust (Huang Wenhai, 2004) documentary, recommended
Walking on the Wild Side (Han Jie, 2006), liked
The Last Lumberjack (Yu Guangyi, 2006), documentary, liked
Winter Story (Zhu Chuan Ming, 2007), liked very much (and director is a nice person!)
Part 1 : silent era to 1949
Part 2 : 1950 - towards end of 70s
Part 3 : the 80s up to end of 90s
Part 4 : 2000s - 2010s
- Shower
- Platform
- Men and Women
- Beijing Bicycle
- Paper Airplanes
Great documentary.
- Chicken Poets
Recommended. Different from other Chinese films, innovative. Fist long feature film by this theatre director.
- Spring Subway
- Springtime in a Small Town
Remake of Fei Mu's 40s version. Different from it, great cinematography & solid acting.
- Unknown Pleasures
- Postmen in the Mountains
...plus 49 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>I only focus on Mainland Chinese films, and only add on the list the ones I've seen.
From 1950 to 1966 it's a period of revolutionary and realistic cinema with propaganda films or traditional songs/dances films and opera films. After 10 years of almost unactivity in the film industry due to the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), the next period marks the renewal of chinese films, it can be seens as a re-adaptation era which made it easier for the 4th generation to emerge.
Films from this era aren't very seen, I've only seen a few, but plan to watch more.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of films of that period that need to be added in the database...
Films seen but not in the database yet :
Locust Tree Village (WANG Ping, 1962)
Films to be seen :
Song of Youth (CUI Wei)
The Shop of Lin's family (SHUI Hua)
A Revolutionary Family (SHUI Hua)
A crise (XIE Jin)
Basketball Player n°5 (XIE Jin)
Big Li, Little Li and Old Li (XIE Jin)
Stage Sisters (XIE Jin)
The Mother (LING Zifeng)
Slaves (LI Jun)
The Eternal Wave (WANG Ping)
Breaking with Old Ideas (LI Wenhua)
Part 1 : silent era to 1949
Part 2 : 1950 - towards end of 70s
Part 3 : the 80s up to end of 90s
Part 4 : 2000s - 2010s
I'm participating to the December Challenge even though I know I won't be able to watch 100 films this month, but will try to watch as much as I can.
I chose to watch :
- 50 (but surely less) obscure/underseen films (250 viewers or less - any kind of films - and not just Asian, but I still plan to see quite a few old Chinese films) but may watch also more well known films
- films released at the cinema this month
- and no rewatch.
Will add the films as I watch them.
Short comments on each film (don't have time to write long comments)
- The French Detective
- Party Girl
- Come Back, Africa
- The Hitch-Hiker
- Gumshoe
- Silence Has No Wings
- News from Home
- Glitterbug
- Hotel Monterey
- This Life of Mine
...plus 12 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>From Cinebro proposal's Obscure October ....
A few ideas/subjects concerning the list:
- no rewatched films
- only films from the 60s or 70s (well there is already 1 exception!)
- films dealing with women as heroic figures and/or films based on classic Chinese legends/stories/novels from the Shaw Brothers films - several are Huangmei Diao films
- some underseen 60s, 70s Japanese & Korean films that I meant to see for ages
- films from other letterboxders' lists doing this challenge.
Added a few that weren't in the movie database...
I don't know if I'll watch them all in October, but will do my best! May add or change some...
- The Enchanting Shadow
- The Magnificent Concubine
- Madam White Snake
- The Last Woman of Shang
- The Story of Sue San
- Lady General Hua Mulan
- The Lotus Lamp
aka The lotus lamp
- The Love Eterne
- Empress Wu
- The Dream of the Red Chamber
...plus 15 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>These are the film I plan to see during the film festival which happens towards the end of the month (it lasts 7 days).
3 continents festival
There are several line-ups.
One I looked forward was about Chinese films (30s to 50s), but I've seen most of them already, only 3 out of 13 I haven't seen!
Again, I'll have to add some at the database.....
(I edit it as soon as I add them)
- Chinese films (30s to 50s) : to add
Chun dao ren jian (Sun Yu, 1937)
- South African cinema to add :
African Jim (1950) seen
Civilisation on Trial (1948) seen
The Guest (Ross Devenish, 1977) seen - will review it
I will uptade the list (also depending on the schedule...)
- Chun dao ren jian
Chinese film program
- 'Til Madness Do Us Part
Competition - China
- Our Sunhi
Competition - South Korea
- Bending the Rules
Competition - Iran
- 36
Competition - Thailand
- Poor Folk
Competition - Birmania/Thailand
- El mudo
Competition - Peru
- Big Boy
Out Of Competition - Philippines
- Au revoir l'été
Competition - Japan
- The Guest: An Episode in the Life of Eugène Marais
South African cinema
...plus 3 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>For the [POLL] The LETTERBOXD Community’s Top 100 Movies of the 1980s
I must say I've never been to fond of the 80s.
I fear for the next decade's lists, the 70s and 60s (it will be so difficult to choose).
May change later...
- Wings of Desire
- Days of Eclipse
- Blue Velvet
- Nostalgia
- Time of the Gypsies
- A Chinese Ghost Story
- Yellow Earth
- The Big Parade
- Down by Law
- Caravaggio
...plus 15 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>Ann Hui
A very interesting director, it's a shame that her films are still underseen. I like her humanity in her film, especially the way she depicts the human relationships and the just simple, ordinary things in a sober manner full of sensitivity.
These films I saw aren't necessary ranked as I like the first 7 very much, and are really worth checking out but the last two are the ones I liked the least.
- A Simple Life
- Night and Fog
- The Way We Are
- Song of the Exile
- Boat People
- July Rhapsody
- The Postmodern Life of My Aunt
- Summer Snow
- The Romance of Book and Sword
- All About Love
...plus 3 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>The LETTERBOXD Community’s Top 100 Movies of the 1990s
Hey I tried not to add just Asian films....
May change a little though.
- Chungking Express
- Ashes of Time
- Days of Being Wild
- Farewell My Concubine
- Chronicle of a Disappearance
- The Crazy Stranger
- Mother and Son
- Made in Hong Kong
- Naked
- Pickpocket
...plus 15 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>I only focus on Mainland Chinese films, and only add on the list the ones I've seen.
With the renewal of the 4th generation at the end of 70s, beginning of the 80s, this period put into light the 5th generation, also called as the graduates of 1982. They had in common the experience of the Chinese Revolution, were sent to the countryside and were the first graduates of the Beijing Film Academy : Chen Kaige, Zhang Yimou, Tian Zhuangzhuang, Li Shaohong, Ning Ying, Peng Xiaolian, Zhang Junzhao....
Also, in the 90s, young & new directors freshly arrived such as Jia Zhangke, Wang Xiaoshuai, Zhang Yuan...
Films seen but not in the database :
Qiu Jin, A Revolutionary (XIE Jin, 1984)
In the Wild Mountains (YAN Xueshu, 1985)
Films to be seen :
Little Flower (Zhang Zheng, 1980)
Xu Mao and His Daughters (Li Jun, 1981)
Rickshaw Boy (Ling Zifeng, 1982)
Hibiscus Town (Xie Jin, 1986)
Part 1 : silent era to 1949
Part 2 : 1950 - towards end of 70s
Part 3 : the 80s up to end of 90s
Part 4 : 2000s - 2010s
- The River Without Buoys
- Yellow Earth
- Old Well
- The Horse Thief
- The Big Parade
- Red Sorghum
- Ju Dou
- Life on a String
- Raise the Red Lantern
- The Story of Qiu Ju
...plus 23 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>It was hard to choose.... Still not sure of the order...
For Letterboxd Poll: Top 50 Sci-Fi
Top 10 of westerns from The Letterboxd Community’s 50 Favourite Westerns
]]>Top 50 Horror Films of the Letterboxd Community
I'm not mad of the genre, but still watch some.
Not so sure of the ranking though as usual...
- A Chinese Ghost Story
- The Thing
- Suspiria
- Dead Ringers
- Gozu
- The Shining
- Nosferatu
- Tetsuo: The Iron Man
- Alien
- Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
...plus 5 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>This was something I did a few years ago. I thought it'd be good to continue & keep tracking films I've seen (so I'll add only films I've seen).
I will focus only on Mainland Chinese films.
Part 1 : silent era to 1949
The first period (1913 - 1932) is characterized by wu xia, thriller, or fantasy films, highly inspired by the western cinema.
Romance of a Fruit Peddler is the first chinese comedy (1922) directed by ZHANG Shichuan and written by ZHENG Zhengqiu from the Mingxing studios.
China's first talking was The Songstress, Red Peony (1931) played by the then "film queen" Butterfly Hu (HU Die in Chinese) and produced by Mingxing Film Company, "Star Studio" (Shanghai's largest film production studio founded in 1922 by ZHANG Shichuan and ZHENG Zhengqiu).
The second period (1932 - 1949) was the golden era with a prolific cinema; realist, progressist and patriotic films.
Films seen but I have to add into the database :
Eight Thousand Lis of Clouds and Moon (SHI Dongshan)
The Tenderness Market (ZHANG Shichuan)
Loving Blood of the Volcano (SUN Yu, 1934)
Films to watch :
The Songstress, Red Peony (ZHANG Shichuan)
Twin Sisters (ZHENG Zhengqiu)
Wild Flower (SUN Yu)
The Big Road (SUN Yu, actually I've seen it but hardly anything too long ago)
The Tears of a mother (ZHU Shilin)
Crows and Sparrows (ZHENG Junli)
Tears of the Yangzi (ZHENG Junli, CAI Chusheng)
Part 1 : silent era to 1949
Part 2 : 1950 - towards end of 70s
Part 3 : Part 3 : the 80s up to end of 90s
Part 4 : 2000s - 2010s
- Romance of a Fruit Peddler
- Way Down West
- Two Stars in the Milky Way
- The Peach Girl
- Little Toys
- Daybreak
- The Goddess
- Queen of Sports
- Song of the Fishermen
- New Women
...plus 5 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>My contribution to The LETTERBOXD Community’s Top Movies of the 2000s
I've tried not to add just Asian films...
The most difficult is to rank. I may change the order & films. I keep editing it...
- Divine Intervention
- Mulholland Drive
- Café Lumière
- Transylvania
- Election
- Burn After Reading
- In the Mood for Love
- Goodbye, Dragon Inn
- Save the Green Planet!
- Platform
...plus 15 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>Films I may watch in May for Berken's 30 Days, 30 Countries Challenge. Some aren't in movie database yet, so I have to add them (also will try to find their posters....)
Ok, I've chosen mostly films from Asia, so far 15 of them, and 9 of them are from Europe. I wish I could find more African films...
Kingdom and Beauty (HK, 1962) is out, instead : Summer Heat (reason: it's an update of Crazed Fruit, also directed by Ko Nakahira but produced by the Shaw Brothers).
Turin's Horse is out and Knife in the Water by Polanski (Poland) has been added.
A short Film about Indio Nacional (Philippines) is out (already Kubrador, Philippines), instead To Get to Heaven, You Have to Die (Tajikistan, Jamshed Usmonov, 2006) has been added.
Mee Pok Man (Singapore) is out (already seen it, even though barely reember it), instead Here by Ho Tzu Nyen (Singapore)
- Crossroads
China. Other possibilities (only 1930s films) : Song of China, Spring in the South
- Crazed Fruit
Japan
- Summer Heat
HK
- 20 30 40
Taiwan
- Aimless Bullet
Korea. Other possibilities : Hurrah For Freedom (Choi In-Gyu, 1946) or The Surrogate Woman (Im Kwon-taek, 1987)
- Shutter
Thailand.
- Here
Singapore
- The Big Durian
Malaysia.
- One Evening After the War
Cambodia
- Buffalo Boy
Vietnam
...plus 20 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>I the first time I went to see a Wong Kar Wai film at the cinema was in the late 90s. It was after Happy Together came out, a cinema screened his previous films and I started with Chungking Express, then Fallen Angels. To me, it felt how I imagined Hong Kong. Then I went to see Ashes of Time, I must it that at first I didn't get all the subtilities. Since then, I have watched several times all those films, including Days of Being Wild. Apart As Tear Goes By and My Blueberry Nights, I've seen his films on big screen, and it's definetely where they should be watched.
Days of Being Wild marks a radical turning point in WKW's work and shows the main elements of his films : episodic narrative structure, loneliness, people who are bumping each other, sketching emotional relationships that can be as much elusive than temporary, dilatation of time, the voice-over, highlighting a nostalgic, disillusioned feeling of disappointment and loss, a fortuitous yet dense impression...
It's also the beginning of the long collaboration with Christopher Doyle and William Chang.
However after In The Mood for love, something has changed. Yes, his films are very beautiful, extremely well-crafted, sophisticated, almost visually perfect but they have lost something, something fresh, new, impulsive, spontaneous...
]]>Drifting, wandering, roving life...
A subject very recurrent in films by many directors, such as Jim Jarmusch, David Lynch, Wim Wenders, Wong Kar-wai, Aki Kaurismaki, Tony Gatlif, Emir Kusturica....
Those films are the ones I like very much.
- Days of Being Wild
- Wings of Desire
- Eureka
- Stranger Than Paradise
- Time of the Gypsies
- Transylvania
- Café Lumière
- Blissfully Yours
- In the Heat of the Sun
- Chronicle of a Disappearance
...plus 20 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
]]>Johnnie To is one of the best HK directors. These films are my 10 prefered ones from all the ones I've seen. Not to mention some of romantic comedies, My left eye sees ghost is my favourite.
]]>