Thread: Best films I saw for the first time in 2021 (released any year). I mainly focused on Japanese, Hong Kong and Chinese art films this year. Disclaimer: I like "difficult" stuff that takes big swings. Here we go...
MERRY CHRISTMAS, MR. LAWRENCE (1983, Oshima) - Japanese officer running WWII POW camp becomes obsessed with his prisoner, played by David Bowie. Theme is radical empathy. Excellent score.
EROS PLUS MASSACRE (1969) - Four-hour maximalist epic about 1910s anarchism, 1960s disillusionment, and how we retell and alter history for our own ends. Wild, over-the-top, ultimately shattering. Stunning photography in this Arrow Blu-Ray
amazon.com/Kiju-Yoshida-A…
AN ELEPHANT SITTING STILL (2017)- 4-hour depression epic following 4 characters who go through it. Aesthetically gripping, bleak. Channeling that feeling that the world is corrupt and there’s little good people can do, but without hope for better ever quite being extinguished
Okay, a fun one! PEKING OPERA BLUES (1986)- I was getting Tarantino vibes from this one and then saw he said it was "one of the greatest films ever made." Three very different women thrown together in 1910s China and embroiled in various capers. Action, suspense, comedy — a joy.
FALLEN ANGELS (1995)- Wong Kar-Wai's spiritual sequel to Chungking Express, but exploring different tones and emotions. One dramatic plot, one comedic one, but the comedic one is the heartbreaker. As typical of Wong, excellent use of music, especially a Laurie Anderson track
HAPPY HOUR (2015) + ASAKO I & II (2018) - Two films by Japanese auteur Ryusuke Hamaguchi. Talky, about interpersonal relationships in which simmering emotions suddenly boil over. He has 2 highly acclaimed 2021 films I’m psyched for, but they haven’t made it to streaming yet
CASTING BLOSSOMS TO THE SKY (2012) + HANAGATAMI (2017) - An anything-goes aesthetic in the service of retelling stories of WWII tragedies before the generation that remembers them passes from the scene. Veers back and forth between charmingly silly and deadly serious. Monumental
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