movies What's the last film you watched? And rate it!

The Man From Nowhere directed by Lee Jeong-beom - 9.5/10
A brilliant thriller! What I love most about this film is its pacing. The first 30 minutes is almost like a drama film in itself with lots of character development and emotional scenes, then the film kicks its thriller into high gear and never lets go. My only complaint is that as the film progresses I feel that the protagonist goes from a really awesome deep character into just another brutal killing machine. Still, I think the ending makes up for it for the most part. I'll write more about the film in the Movie Club thread. But I do have to mention that the cinematography in this film is gorgeous, so many wonderful compositions!
 
sfoster said:
He is a writer/director and that was his second film.
I bought his first one, Cruel Winter Blues, and it was agonizingly slow the entire time. He definitely improved with The Man from Nowhere!
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Thanks for mentioning that film to me, I'll add it to my watchlist. I think I may like it more than you since I love slow films. In fact, I thought the slower parts in The Man From Nowhere were very strong.

What do you think of directors like Yasujiro Ozu or Andrei Tarkovsky? I think with slower or faster paced films its more about personal aesthetic since I find that people usually either LOVE slow films or HATE them, I almost never see in between opinions.
 
LOL that's a good price since I saw it on Amazon for $20, but idk if you could ship it to the Dominican Republic!

Ah, I can't wait to see The Mirror!

Have you seen any other Korean films? I'm not too familiar with Korean cinema aside from Hong Sang-soo, Lee Chang-dong, Kim Ki-duk, and now Lee Jeong-beom.
 
Yes I have seen some other korean cinema. Personally I didn't like Oldboy. The Tower wasn't to my taste either. I saw the devil was really violent w/ gore but had no depth of character. (all 2/5 stars)

The only other two korean films I would really recommend are Mother (featuring Bin Won lead actor of Man from Nowhere - he plays a mentally handicapped dude) and The Yellow Sea, a crime thriller. Both 4/5

The Chaser and The Good, the bad, the weird were both alright with 3/5

in terms of great foreign films.. The only other one that is really fantastic is a chinese film called Ip Man 5/5
 
sfoster said:
Yes I have seen some other korean cinema. Personally I didn't like Oldboy. The Tower wasn't to my taste either. I saw the devil was really violent w/ gore but had no depth of character. (all 2/5 stars)

The only other two korean films I would really recommend are Mother (featuring Bin Won lead actor of Man from Nowhere - he plays a mentally handicapped dude) and The Yellow Sea, a crime thriller. Both 4/5

The Chaser and The Good, the bad, the weird were both alright with 3/5
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Thanks for the recommendations!

in terms of great foreign films.. The only other one that is really fantastic is a chinese film called Ip Man 5/5
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Ah yes, this film is on Netflix so I'll give it a watch. Have you heard of Wong Kar-Wai's The Grandmaster? It also tells the story of Yip Man, but it is a more ambitious film with a lot more research done and authentic martial arts. I haven't seen it yet though.

You haven't seen many great foreign films? Against my own ideology (that cinema from ALL countries should be explored including neglected ones in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia) I'll recommend that if you want to dive into foreign cinema start with French, Japanese, and Italian films since they are the most canonized ones. Throw in Hong Kong to that list too, IMO the commercial Hong Kong cinema of the 80's-2000's is what Hollywood cinema should've been during those years. Chinese cinema is also great, but it's less accessible than Hong Kong cinema IMO.
 
I have seen other foreign films but they just don't end up on my greatest films list. Taking a look.. I do have akira kurosawa's Dreams on there.

And 3 idiots, a film from bollywood.
Besides ip man and man from nowhere the rest are all american. about 50 films total out of 2000 seen
 
sfoster said:
I have seen other foreign films but they just don't end up on my greatest films list. Taking a look.. I do have akira kurosawa's Dreams on there.

And 3 idiots, a film from bollywood.
Besides ip man and man from nowhere the rest are all american. about 50 films total out of 2000 seen
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That's a lot of films seen! I'd recommend exploring other national cinemas since they have a lot to offer as well. I think my favorite films list has an equal amount (maybe even more) of foreign films with American films. But I also haven't seen as many films as you! I don't like 'great films lists' but after looking through this entire list I feel like it has a right balance of foreign and American films, and it has almost all the important ones so it's a good place to start watching great foreign films.

http://www.theyshootpictures.com/gf1000_all1000films_table.php
 
A Fistful Of Dollars directed by Sergio Leone - 10/10
A masterpiece in the Western genre! I love Sergio Leone's distinctive style, Morricone's awesome score, the film's portrayal of the Old West, and Clint Eastwood's awesome badass character!
 
rayw said:
Red Cliff and Let The Bullets Fly are two more very nice Chinese films I would recommend.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Cliff_(film)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_the_Bullets_Fly

MJames, headsup, if you should try to rouond out your Dollar's Trillogy you may find 'For A Few Dollars More' not as well crafted as 'Fist', and the same for 'The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollars_Trilogy
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Yeah I want to watch the rest of the trilogy, I heard that The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly is the best in the trilogy.

Red Cliff looks awesome as its directed by one of the great action directors, John Woo. I would recommend all of his Hong Kong action films, especially A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, Bullet In The Head, and Hard Boiled.

I saw Let The Bullets Fly at a DVD store here at a cheap price, but I was skeptical because any film that's not expensive here is usually crap. Then I searched it up online and it actually got good reviews, I may go back and pick it up soon!
 
Late to the party, saw yesterday Nebraska - 7/10

I found acting very good, a performance to remember for years

Story was interesting but not exceptional, there was little plot and little background.

Cinematography was the most disappointing. Right at the beginning, I found the grain very distracting. I found it looks too digital (color footage transformed to B&W), and there was something wrong with the image. There were a few beautiful shots (especially landscape shots), but overall lighting was flat and didn't have enough contrast for the story.
 
ChimpPhobiaFilms said:
The Killer is one of Woo's best. Might wanna check that out if you have not!
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I really do want to check out The Killer and Hard Boiled but because they have a region 1 DVD, I feel bad downloading them (I only download stuff that isn't available on DVD/Blu-Ray). And it's impossible to get my hands on those DVD's until I can get someone to send me them.

EDIT: Eh, after doing some research I change my mind. I'll give The Killer and Hard Boiled a shot since like most of Zhang Yimou's most celebrated films, there is no good quality DVD/Blu-Ray for a reasonable price. With these releases, I have to try before I buy. I wish I could give Criterion a long list of films that have awful DVD's or no releases at all so they can just release them, I wouldn't even mind a lack of special features. I just need to watch these films with a good transfer.
 
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Living in Oblivion 4/5
I don't know if this would appeal to general audiences or not, but for someone that has directed a film.. man this was hilarious. I haven't laughed at a movie that hard in a long time
 
Last night I finally got around to watching "Machete Kills". What a load of tripe. A ridiculous story, mixed with completely un-funny comedy. And the CGI... For a movie with an alleged budget of $12M, this really is scraping the barrel. I've seen far superior CGI from kids on YouTube. Some of the worst looking muzzle flashes and fake blood splatter I've ever seen... So disappointed.

I'll give it 3/10, but that might be pushing it.
 
The Cage directed by Shuji Terayama - 9/10
A wonderful experimental short film with as much surrealism as Luis Buñuel's work. I love how this film just kept me entranced for 10 minutes and I didn't want to let go. While watching it, I didn't fully understand the film's concept but it's recurring motifs and images made me think a lot. Not quite up there with Un Chien Andalou but this is a wonderful debut experimental film.

The Kid Auto Race starring Charlie Chaplin - 4/10
Only interesting because this is the first film to star Chaplin in his Tramp costume.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon directed by Ang Lee - 9/10
A wonderful re-invention of the wuxia genre. I don't know why, but I really like this film but I can't quite call it a masterpiece. I love the cinematography, the choreography, the subtle acting, the emotional love stories, but for some reason I never felt absolutely 100% fully engaged like in films that I consider masterpieces. Maybe it was cause I was a bit sick while watching it, I'll give this film a shot again. That fight between Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi is absolutely amazing, that scene alone is a masterpiece IMO. I like the film a lot, but I think I have to watch it again to fully connect with it.

One thing I have to mention is, that many people say "this is clearly the best wuxia film" or "this is the best martial arts film" without having watched films in those genres. I would tell these people to be quiet and explore the genre more. Watch some of King Hu's wuxia films to see that Ang Lee already had tons of awesomeness to work with, all he did was add some emotional depth to an already stellar genre (and I don't feel that emotional depth is required in this kind of cinema). So yeah, I just had to mention how much I hate declarations like this, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is the best martial arts film" or "The Dark Knight is the best superhero film" or stupid stuff like that. I always feel that cinema should be an exploration of both the artists and the viewer, not some cheap competition like that, this isn't sports, this is an art form we're talking about. Of course there are preferences, but grand declarations like that are a waste of time especially when they are completely baseless and arbitrarily built up by hype.
 
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