Foreign Language Films

I wanted to insert a couple of other things but for some reason it wont let me. Well, here it is.

Technically, the movie is beyond reproach and the acting is powerful and moving. The story line treads a careful line between oppressors and the suppressed. It has few real lead characters but evolves in a loose way around a Japanese officer, a chinese officer, a translator and a group of women which in many ways got the hardest treatment during the occupation.

Memorable scenes; The mass shootings, The resignation on a Japanese officers face, the words 'life is more difficult than death' spoken by the same officer, the ritual dance with the taiko drummers.

regards

The Lives of Others. (I have the DVD and now the Blu-ray.)

Sopyonje. A South Korean made film. Used to be available on YouTube (no Region 2 DVD ever made unfortunately) but taken down now. Luckily I saw it twice whilst it was still available on YouTube. Beautiful and sad.

Every now and then I search to see if a DVD version (with English Subtitles) has been made but I don't think it will ever happen.

Try the Korean movie "I'm a Cyborg but thats OK".  It's billed as a romantic comedy,  I found it pretty dark but compared to most Korean cinema* it's like Disneyland!  Was very interesting, not exactly Amelie, gets 90% on rotten tomatoes.

*(My experience of Korean movies seems to be mostly revenge flicks and psychological thrillers where EVERYONE DIES)

I'm sure I started a simlar thread last year, but I'll happily join in here.

+1 for Lives Of Others. I'm A Cyborg was good, but maybe not my kind of film; my wife thought it was brilliant though.

So many I could recommend, but it does depend on your taste, most of the ones I like are a bit weird for most people.

Some good ones which are not too weird are O'Horten, Kitchen Stories, Timecrimes, Elling, Intacto, Cinema Paradiso, The Host, Kung Fu Hustle, Mesrine, Pan's Labyrinth.

Ashes Of Time, Brotherhood and Downfall are supposed to be great war type films, but I haven't got round to watching them yet.

Another vote here for Pan's Labyrinth and The Lives of Others. Add in Let the Right One In and the Dragon Tattoo trilogy. Will think of some others...

+1 re Pan's Labyrinth, The Lives of Others and Let the Right One In.  

Trente-Six (36) is fantastic. A Paris-set cop epic/tragedy based on a true story. Stars Daniel Auteuil and Gérard Depardieu. BD's £5.99 here.

Also suggest Hierro. Ignore the trailer, it's not a supernatural thriller. However, it is a very effective, low-budget psychological thriller with a neat final act twist. Striking landscapes and photography, plenty of creepy David Lynch-esque 'ordinary people', plus an award-winning performance from the lead, Elena Anaya. BD's £4.69 here.  

Caché (Hidden).  Juliette Binoche (rar).

Cyrano de Bergaerac (Gerard Depardieu)

Letters from Iwo Jima (much better than Flags of Our Fathers, but worth seeing both together)

Amelie

Waltz With Bashir

Three Colours (see them in order but Blue and Red are better than White)

Thanks 6th.replicant, I've just ordered Hierro.

Don't forget "Troll Hunter". Loved it.

A good way of finding films is to go to Amazon, enter a film that you really like, then follow the links to some other similar films. I've found some excellent movies doing this, and a few that were not so good.

I could quite easily recommend 50 or more films to watch, but I guess that would be overkill.

I mainly watch foreign language films now, because IMO the Scandinavians, Spanish, and Koreans are making the best movies now. Plus, the Japanese, French always make watchable films, and I've recently seen Greek and Hungarian films which were teriffic too.

I've had a lot help from people on here in the past with recommendations, so if anyone wants any recommendations in a certain genre, I'm more than willing to help.

+1 for Pan's Labyrinth and the Dragon Tatoo Series. Had I not seen the originals I would have thought the recent remake was actually not bad (it isn't bad, I just can't quite see why they did it as it is in no way superior to the original first one)

regards

Agree

regards

Need to ID a film, please

It's French; cops vs bank robbers theme

Early '00s, maybe late '90s?

Used to be shown regularly on Film 4

Has a city-based cars vs motorbike[s] chase - a biker grabs the side of a car and has a grenade stuffed into his lid... 

Anyone know the title?

Ta

The Chaser was very good, as was The Banquet (Hamlet with martial arts).  Old Boy is a classic.  Angel-A is amazing.

To add a couple of Israeli films to Walt with Bashir, check out Lebanon (the most claustrophobic, visceral war film I've ever seen) and Broken Wings (probably the best slice of life film I've ever seen and featuring a hauntingly brilliant song).