@saketgyani, Thanks for reviving this thread
I don't visit Hifivision much, so it was interesting to go back and read the thread in its entirety. While I have covered some of the suggestions, it reminded me that there are a lot more good movies I have to catch up on.
Unfortunately, I am not on facebook. I created an account, but I haven't used it beyond the first 3-4 days. I will weigh in on reviving the account and joining that group.
Last year, I came across
Cristian Mungiu, a Romanian director. I watched three of his movies -
4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days,
Beyond the Hills and
Graduation. There are slow films and then, very slow films (Tarkovsky, Bela Tarr), but I find the pacing of Mungiu's films to be just right for my tastes. My rating for his movies is in the opposite order of IMDB ratings, though in terms of the gravity of the subject matter, IMDB rating order would be about right.
I recently watched a few films by
Takeshi Kitano, but I only like his films selectively or in parts.
Sonatine was good as it is the unlikeliest gangster movie you'll ever see (it bursts out with violence in parts, but the second half in Okinawa turned out to be nothing like I expected).
Kikujiro was also good. But his standout films so far are his take on
Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman and a really quiet movie called
A Scene at the Sea. A Scene at the
Sea is actually harder to recommend because nothing much actually happens and a lot of what happens is pretty repetitive (and there is hardly anything about actual surfing). But, I liked its quiet approach. I would suggest
Zatoichi (which is the most entertaining),
Sonatine, and
Kikujiro in that order to see if you like his movies.
This year, thanks to the academy nomination, I found
Hirokazu Koreeda. I have watched a few films of his and I like what I see. You can think of them as variations of the same question -
what makes a family?. He manages to get quite a good mileage out of his child actors. Many are calling him this era's
Ozu. I can understand why, but I can also see differences between their styles. I would rate
Shoplifters as his best so far.
Nobody knows is slightly harder to recommend because of its deliberately slow pace, longer running time and the subject matter (the true event it is based on is actually way worse). But, I liked it very much. Of the films I have seen,
Our Little Sister is easier to recommend because it is a much light-hearted movie, but it didn't appeal to me as much as the other two. I have a few more of his films lined up.
Off-topic: As far as foreign film nominations go, they were generally better than the 'Best Film' category. I liked
Roma (for the second half). I wouldn't have minded if
Shoplifters had won the award.
Capernaum was also good. While I liked a lot about it I also had a few minor quibbles. I liked "
Cold War"'s style and cinematography very much, but on the whole, it did not affect me as much as the other three.
Another director I found recently is a Korean director called
Lee Chang-dong. His slow pacing may not be to everyone's liking, but for me, he is the find of the year on par with Koreeda.
Peppermint Candy, with its reverse chronological order, is a good place to start. But, his best film is
Oasis, which features two of the actors from
Peppermint Candy in much more challenging roles. On reading the plot, I thought it would be an emotionally manipulating tear-jerker and I would hate it, but ended up loving it. (
Aside: If you liked
Oasis, do try an obscure Japanese film called
Jossee, the Tiger and the Fish (2003) - which is another film I thought I'd hate, but ended up liking). The physical part of the acting by the two lead actors is unbelievably good. I would say next to the really weird and crazy
Possession (1981), it is one of the more demanding roles an actress had to play.
I also liked
Poetry very much even though I don't know if most people would like it. Yun Jeong-hie gives one of the most subtle, yet powerful performances as the grandmother and is the main reason why I liked the movie. Let's say I liked the quiet, contemplative, poetic moments in Poetry a lot more than the poetry in
Paterson (completely unrelated, but since it was also about poetry and I had watched it a few days before
Poetry, this comparison ran through my head
).
Burning, on the other hand, would be a hit or a miss. Personally, I thought it took an hour to get going, but I loved the second half. I read that translating Haruki Murakami's works on to the screen is difficult, but I have no familiarity with the source material to say one way or another. Steven Yeun (from "The Walking Dead") was pretty cool.
Hope this thread stays alive.
