Time Magazine's The Best Asian Films of All Time
Since when was New Zealand a part of Asia?
Glad to see Himala there, would have preferred Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos (Three Years Without God, Mario O'Hara, 1976), but the others--Shall We Dance? Gwoemul? The Asian bench is much deeper than that.
10 comments:
It's an imperfect list but making a Top Films of Asia is such a daunting task (too many cultures and great filmmakers represented). I can't comment on what's not included (but more Indian films should be there --- where's Ray, Dutt, Ghatak?, also there's a lack of Japanese filmmakers (Imamura, Kiyoshi, Ozu, Suzuki, Miyazaki, Takahata?), no genre films, no... I'm getting redundant). I'm glad Himala made the list (it's probably the least seen there).
I also found the list questionable in the inclusion of Iran, though I do love Gabbeh. Also, the article should have mentioned that the one Thai film listed can't even be seen as intended in Thailand. At least there was the acknowledgment of how much Ang Lee owes King Hu.
By the way, based on the recommendation of a Filipina poet I just met online, and you, I added Temptation Island to my Netflix queue. I am trying to see more Filipino films in general.
Oggs, I'm of two minds about that. At least they picked an Indian musical whereas more conventional enthusiasts would choose the Apu trilogy (no Bimal Roy, no Mrinal Sen, no Shyam Benegal, no Gopalakrishna). And Korea's hugely misrepresented--where's Hong Sang Soon, or Jang Sun Woo, or (unpopular choice) Kim Ki Duk?
Peter--excellent choice. Between you and me, I think he's better than Almadovar. Least he never went soft, like Almadovar.
And who's the poet?
And, come to think of it, the animation giants--Miyazaki, Takahata, Tezuka, Yabushita, Oshii among many many others.
Noel: The poet is Sass Sasot. She has a site with her poetry "Nonetheless Fiction".
Off topic, sorry, but Noel, do you have any recommendations of philipine cinema to catch at the PIFF (Pusan Film Fest) this year? Thanks!
Paco
They shouldn't call it "The Best Asian Films of All Time" when they left out so many great films in their list.
The "Hardly Complete and Mostly Conventional with an Unaccounted Bias Towards Non-Asian Films List."
I agree. That would be more accurate.
Hi, Jeff--sorry for the extremely late reply. Festival's over, I was struggling to look for a search engine of available titles (it turned out to be at the bottom of the page--still, if I had to struggle, it couldn't have been easy to find, could it?). Gave up, forgot about it.
Not familiar with some titles, but the recent digitals were worth catching, particularly Confessional. I hear mixed things about Service, but enough to think it's interesting, the extreme views it inspires.
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