Foreign Films

[SamanosukeShiva]

just any of stephen chow's old movies are good. new ones are crap

[Serif]

Nochnoy dozor (Night Watch) and Dnevnoy dozor (Day Watch)

Basically the Russian equivalent of the Matrix. Opposing sides that have battled for centuries and possess superhuman powers. Worth downloading just for some of the stunning visuals.

Saying the Russian equivalent of the Matrix is kind of misleading, I enjoyed both movies but that is because I was already interested in the books. I would still recommend if you have nothing else to view.

[Lordwafik]

I enjoy foreign films a lot, we have a channel here that plays nothing but foreign movies (they'll play american movies so long as they're indie and not mainstream hollywood - and 90% of the time their choice is amazingly good).

Unfortunately I don't know the names of a lot of movies I watch, I just hope many people start watching foreign film to diversify your cultural understanding, sooner or later you'll start despising cliche film plots.

Some american movie makers have been taking the foreign approach to Cinema (where it doesn't follow a structured cut'n'paste plot), the one that comes to mind would be Napolean Dynamite. You'll notice in many foreign films that if it's a comedy, they'll try to be subtle about it instead of HEY THIS WAS A FUNNY SCENE, YOU SHOULD BE LAUGHING! LET US PUT MORE THINGS SO WE CAN EMPHASISE THE FUNNY JUST IN CASE SOMEONE DOESN'T REALIZE THIS IS A FUNNY MOVIE (cough cough Superbad, fitting title ).


[Flame Suit] equipped.

[Eggroll]

If you enjoyed Oldboy, A Bittersweet Life is a must see, its another Korean revenge film and was wonderfully done.

5min preview: Link
Trailer: Link

Also check out The Good, The Bad, And The Weird, its a Korean tribute to the Clint Eastwood film which I found entertaining. For drama, Secret Sunshine is really good and also check out Hula Girls if you enjoy slice of life films. There's also a french film I recently saw which was I enjoyed called The Science of Sleep, had beautiful visual effects and was directed by the same person who did The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

[Viq]

Someone mentioned City of God. I can not possibly recommend this movie enough.

It's hard to have a foreign film thread without mentioning Akira Kurosawa. Everything the man touched was marvelous, most notably Ran and Rashomon imo.

Waltz With Bashir deserves mention, even though it came up short at the Oscars this year. It's one of the most unique movies (animated documentary? wtf?) that I've ever seen.

[Zeb]

Some slightly older movies:

Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! - Old Antonio Banderas movie where he kidnaps a woman with the intention of having her fall in love with him

Nueve Reinas - A hiest/con movie.

Irreversible - Something traumatic happens to Monica Bellucci one night. The movie is shown in reverse order of events like Momento. The director also filmed this movie using extremely long takes. I think the movie is only like 10 scenes long or so I if remember correctly. Word of warning, this movie is very brutal.

Melena - Another movie starring Monica Bellucci. She plays a newly widowed woman in Italy who changes the life of a young boy.

Grave of the Fireflies - Yes, it's animated. No, it's not your typical anime. Very powerful movie about life during the end of WWII in Japan. You aren't human if this doesn't make you cry like a bitch.

[Elcura]

The vengence series is really good to watch. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy and Sympathy for Mrs. Vengeance. Sympathy for aren't as good as Oldboy, but still a lot of fun to watch.

Crying Fist is an awesome Korean boxing movie starring the actor from Oldboy

Save the Green Planet is a weird korean comedy about a guy who believes aliens have come to earth and abducts this man because he thinks he's an alien.

Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl is a weird Japanese movie (as you would expect) about...something. It's been a long time, I think it's about gangs and somesuch. I just remember it being pretty good and quite funny.

Some other stuff, Shiri and City of Violence are mindless fun. Depends how much you can turn your brain off I guess.

[yayaok]

oh yea i forgot about fighter of the wind too, korean movie about jp invasion period... pimpin shit for men

[aru]

Der Untergang- easily one of the greatest WWII movies ever made. Shot from the German's perspective (it's a German film) and is one of most "human" portrails of Hitler I've seen. I found the different perspective very interesting from what we are normally shown.

[Merovingian]

El orfanato(The orphanage): Great movie, made in Spain i think.
Ché:Although it was made by an american director the whole movie is in spanish.
Princesas: another movie from Spain, great movie.

[TacoTaru]

Do you mean newer foreign film or just foreign film in general? There are some really good Truffaut movies. Most of them are films that you'd watch in a film history class, so if you don't have a taste for that I'll let it go by. Amelie is a more popular movie that's come out in recent years that slipped by a lot of people, but I thought it was fantastic.

[Deband]

El orfanato(The orphanage): Great movie, made in Spain i think.
Ché:Although it was made by an american director the whole movie is in spanish.
Princesas: another movie from Spain, great movie.

Is Che any good? I heard it was a really hard watch, still waiting on the DVD though.

[thetruepandagod]

The Celebration - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

amazing movie.

also infernal affairs was great as well but cant vouch for 2+3

[deshende]

I'll throw my endorsement behind Chocolate, which was already mentioned in this thread. Great martial arts movie, for the action anyway.

Angel-A was decent (black and white French movie with some interesting characters).

If you want to go old school - the Seven Samurai. My favorite old black and white movie.

[-Zer0-]

Oldboy - Korean
The Snow is Red - Chinese/Vietnamese movie series
Pan's Labyrinth - Mexican
Amelie - French
Let's Save the Green Earth! - Korean

I've got plenty more but I can't think of their names atm.

[Quisten]

Cure (1997)
Excellent Kurosawa film.

Última Parada 174 (2008 )
A good companion for City of God

Tropa de Elite (2007)
Same as above. Both actually involved one of the guys from City of God.

[Merovingian]

Is Che any good? I heard it was a really hard watch, still waiting on the DVD though.

Hard to watch in what way? but yea it's a great movie cant wait for them to release it on dvd.

[Starless]

Waltz With Bashir deserves mention, even though it came up short at the Oscars this year. It's one of the most unique movies (animated documentary? wtf?) that I've ever seen.

I'm super pissed it didn't win anything in the Oscars. It got best foreign film at the Golden Globes though. It's also apparently coming out in American theaters soon, if not already.

[Olo401]

Cinema Paradiso

This movie is TERRIFIC. It was also the third foreign language film I saw, after Au Revoir Les Enfants and Le Retour de Martin Guerre which are also pretty decent films in their own right.

Edit: DUH.. links!

Nuovo cinema Paradiso (Italian, 1988)
Au revoir les enfants (French, 1987)
Retour de Martin Guerre, Le (French, 1982)

[Deband]

Hard to watch in what way? but yea it's a great movie cant wait for them to release it on dvd.

Not really sure, i just took it to mean some ppl may find it a bit boring or something. Doesn't bother me though, i already read a massive book about him. Gonna get the films and watch both in a row