Asia

Best Asian films

If you’re looking for the best Asian films, there’s plenty to choose from. Asia holds approximately 60% of the world’s population, so it’s no surprise the continent has a wealth of great films. The continent hosts one of the world’s largest (if not the largest) film industries in India’s Bollywood, the most famous animation studio outside the U.S. in Japan’s Studio Ghibli, as well as the second largest film market in the world by box office receipts in China (second only to the U.S.).

But that’s not all. The Iranian art-house cinema scene is still booming despite government bans. Southeast Asia holds two of the most famous torch-bearers of the transcendental film movement in Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Lav Diaz. Plus, there’s South Korean, Bong Joon-ho, whose Parasite became the first foreign language film to win the Best Picture. And we haven’t even mentioned the growing film presence of the countries in Central Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, and the Caucasus.

So scroll down to see some of the best Asian films. Or, if you know where you want to go, pick a country from the links below.

Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Cyprus, East Timor, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Lebanon,Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar (Burma), Nepal, North Korea, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Syria, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Yemen

*We’re still looking for the best Asian films from countries without links. Send us your recommendations.

Wadjda (Saudi Arabia) – The Perfect Coming of Age Film

Wadjda Film Difficulty Ranking: 2

This is your opportunity to see the perfect heartwarming story from Saudi Arabia. In fact, it’s probably your best chance to see a film from Saudi Arabia, as this was the first feature film shot entirely in the country. So go watch it here (rent on Amazon) now.

Image result for wadjda

Why Watch Wadjda?

It’s the first feature film shot entirely in Saudi Arabia and by a female director!
If you love coming-of-age films
To experience the what life as a woman is like in Saudi Arabia
If you saw Children of Heaven and want to see more similar films!

The Breakdown

The film starts in a girls school in Saudi Arabia. The very first thing you see is a close up of the shoes on the feet of the girls as their names are being taken for register in the morning. The camera passes an array of smart school shoes before settling on a pair of converses. This is how we meet our protagonist Wadjda.

The close up shots don’t stop when we meet Wadjda, as all the scenes of her at school and at home are never shot from far away. Therefore we are never given a complete view of her school or her home, and you rarely get an establishing shot (a shot which allows you to ‘establish’ the setting) of the area she lives in. But this changes as she begins to challenge the authority of her parents and school. Towards the end of the film, these establishing shots are more common. You’ll see a wider view of the school assembly hall, complete shots of the square by their house, and a shot of Wadjda cycling through the town. The whole world frees up just as Wadjda starts breaking boundaries. It’s an subtle way of using camera distance to reflect the restrictive social boundaries.

Religion and Gender Roles

Of course you’ll also witness all the lack of freedom of women in Saudi Arabia in this film. You’ll hear some great quotes, such as:

“If you can see them (the men), they can see you. Respectable girls go inside”
“Don’t touch the Koran if you are on your period”
“A woman’s voice must not be heard by a man outside. Her voice is her nakedness”

These lines are meant to be provocative, but they’re also pretty funny and add to the slightly comic tone of the film. And that’s what makes this film great: it’s a feelgood film but it doesn’t hide the repressive society.

Conclusion and What to Watch Next

Wadjda perfectly walks the line between becoming a heavy political movie and a childish one. As a result, it’s the perfect coming of age film: Wadjda is an awesome character oppressed by the cultural and religious restrictions. The way she stands up to society is amazing. So go and watch it here.

If you want more, I’d first check out another awesome family friendly film from Iran: Children of Heaven. It’s even more heartwarming.

But I’d also recommend checking out The Bicycle Thieves. It’s obvious that Wadjda draws a lot of influences from The Bicycle Thieves. It uses bikes as a symbol of freedom and even shares a similar final shot.

The Handmaiden (South Korea)

The Handmaiden Film Difficulty Ranking: 2 Image result for the handmaiden poster

Did you think Gone Girl or Oldboy was good? Well here’s another thriller for you to figure out. The Handmaiden will keep you guessing throughout the film. What is being hidden from you? In addition you’ll witness some gorgeous set and costume design and a lot of nudity (probably not one to take your mum to see). If you have a chance to watch this in the cinema – don’t wait!

Why Watch The Handmaiden?

You want to see something thrilling and erotic
If you liked Gone Girl or any of Park-Chan wook’s earlier films (definitely check out his classic revenge thriller Oldboy)
To see colonial Korea recreated in costume and setting (the house is like the mansion in The Shining)
Do you want to find out what is in the basement?

The Breakdown

The Handmaiden starts with Sook-hee, a petty thief living with a family of con-artists in Japanese ruled Korea. Her prospects are pretty much non-existent. However, she is taken to become the maid of a wealthy Japanese lady living in a colonial palace in a remote part of the country.

We soon find out that one of her fellow con-artists, Count Fujiwara, has set her up to become Lady Hideko’s handmaiden. His goal is for her to help her seduce the rich heiress into marrying him and for them to split the profits. You should note how she acts throughout the first part of the film. Her character is at the center of a number of laughs. She is a target for the other maids, she storms through the house with shoes on, and gets scared on her first night in the mansion. The director, Park Chan-wook uses her role to play with us.

Park Chan-wook tells the story like piecing together a puzzle. Initially he gives us a decent idea of the story-line. We think we know what is going on until he places the next puzzle piece and changes what we see. He is a master of guise (just think how he tricks you in Oldboy). In addition, the characters hide a lot at the start and slowly reveal more and more as the film progresses. Park Chan-wook is a master of surprise.

Conclusion

The Handmaiden is another classic thriller from Park Chan-wook. If you like films with twists and turns (like the old M. Night Shyamalan films) you will love Park Chan-wook.

So Long My Son – An Epic Cross Generational Drama

So Long My Son Film Difficulty Ranking: 4

If you’re looking for an epic cross generational drama with tragedy, family rivalry, and common people subject to the government, you’ve come to the right place. So Long My Son is the story of two families driven apart by China’s infamous one child policy and their differing fortunes. It’s just over three hours, so there’s plenty of time to build each of the characters, but it also doesn’t feel too long. This might be because of the narrative that pieces together different time periods without ever leaving the present. It forces us to figure out which part of the protagonist’s lives we are at, but also slowly reveals more and more about the characters and their lives to add to our mental picture. It’s like a Memento of cross generational drama with a dramatic Chinese one child policy backdrop.

From: China, Asia
Watch: Trailer, Vimeo
Next: A Touch of Sin, Summer Palace, The Son's Room

Tokyo Story – Film Analysis (Intro to Japanese Film – Week 1)

In a time when Japanese films were just reaching foreign shores, Tokyo Story director, Yasujiro Ozu, was considered too Japanese to be exported. His simplistic style and go-to themes reflect his very modest life. Ozu never married, living with his mother until the end of his life after he returned from service in the Second World War. His gravestone today bears one single Japanese character; the character of nothingness.

So why should you care about Yasujiro Ozu?

He was one of the leading film-makers in Japan’s golden age of film (1950s).
His techniques broke Hollywood’s unwritten rules of cinematography (how a film is shot).
His films appeal to everyone with universal themes of family, time, and loss.
Tokyo Story is ranked No.3 on Sight & Sound’s best films of ALL TIME!

What makes this film great?

1. Rule-Breaking Cinematography

You might have noticed the low placement of the camera in most of this film. The height of the camera is set to around 3 foot off of the ground, the same height as someone kneeling on a Tatami mat (the ‘tatami shot’). In Hollywood, a camera looking up at characters gives them power, in contrast, in Tokyo Story, this low camera feels respectful and open, as no character dominates a single scene.

You might have also noticed how in conversation, Ozu points the camera straight at the talking characters. In Hollywood, we would normally see characters talking from behind the shoulder of the character they are talking to, but here the focus on the talking character places us (the viewer) in the center of the conversation. It also completely exposes the characters to our judgment.

Another feature Ozu deliberately does not use is camera movement. There was only one moving shot in the whole film (apparently more than his other films), where the camera moves along a fence to show the elderly couple evicted by their children. Some of you might be put off by this, but fortunately for us, Ozu magically creates 360 degree spaces. The still shots force us to absorb everything he puts in front of us.

The still shots add tone by lingering at the beginning and end of each shot. For example, characters often leave the room before the director cuts to follow them into the next room. Again, this is completely different to Hollywood films which employed ‘invisible editing’ where the cuts between each shot are so smooth that you often don’t notice them. So maybe if you are confused about what cutting is, then you’ve probably just grown up surrounded by smooth Hollywood editing. (Follow this link to learn more about editing). The lingering shots in Tokyo Story force us to think about what has happened, a lot like the when a theater stage is changed in-between scenes.

Together, the effects that Ozu uses help to build the tone of the film. The camera conveys respect, serenity, and tradition. This probably sounds pretentious so I’ll quickly explain. The camera is respectful because it never cuts from that is speaking and usually looks each character straight in the eye when they are speaking. The camera is serene in the silence and empty spaces shown at the beginning and end of shots (through the lingering). Lastly, the camera represents tradition through the ‘tatami shot’ and its lack of movement (the only movement in the film signifies a progression of time. No progression = no modernization = tradition!). So there you have it! Cinematography (the art of camera-work) does an awful lot!

2. Themes! The battle of the Old vs. the New in Tokyo Story

Tokyo Story shows what it was like to live in Japan in the post-war period. The Second World War drained a lot of resources from Japan and ultimately ended in defeat for Japan in 1945. Images of Tokyo are used to break up scenes of the family. It is mostly shown as industrial, with pictures of factories billowing smoke and railways. The city is busy with development and modernization which reflects in its inhabitants. All of the elderly couple’s children in Tokyo are too busy and pre-occupied to spend time with them. Their jobs in Tokyo have become their lives.

The modernization of Tokyo has favored work at the expense of tradition. This is obviously pointed out on a bus tour the elderly couple are taken on which shows ancient temples surrounded by modern buildings. The past is also forgotten by the children who are too wrapped up in their careers and self to spend time with their elderly parents. The grandchildren are even more distant, too sheltered to know who their grandparents are or the traditions that they represent. The traditional central role of the family has been destroyed within these three generations, family is no longer important.

Ozu was a supporter of tradition, evident in his ‘Tatami shots’ and late adoption of film with sound (even most of his sound films feature very little background music). It is therefore not surprising that he chooses an elderly couple and a respectful daughter in law to sympathize with. With their mother’s death in the final act, tradition breathes its last breath. After a brief sob, her daughter Shige disrespectfully asks her father if she can take her mother’s Kimono, a symbol of Japanese culture. With this Shige dilutes Japanese tradition and culture further as it is replaced by self-obsession.

3. Acting – Small-talk in Tokyo Story

Quickly, I would also like to point out the subtlety of the acting in Tokyo Story. Firstly, the grandparents convey a lot without speaking. For example, the grandpa, played by Chishu Ryu, conveys so much by gently nodding. It may sound silly, but think about it. Before leaving for Tokyo he nods with excitement at the neighbor when answering her questions about his upcoming trip. In Tokyo he nods respectfully and fairly formally when greeting his children that he has not seen in a long time (showing the distance between the generations). Later, his nods convey disappointment when his family asks him to stay somewhere else. Lastly, his nods convey deep sadness when talking to his neighbor and Noriko after his wife passes away. Do I still sound crazy?

As film critic Roger Ebert said of Tokyo Story: “given the opportunity as a family o share our hopes and disappointments, we talk about the weather and watch TV.” The formalities in family conversation during the film reflect Ebert’s statement. When speaking with their children, the parents make polite conversation. They only talk about their hopes and disappointments to their daughter-in-law Noriko and with the help of alcohol. The nods of the Grandpa are the only clue to his true feelings, marking the break in the two generations.

What’s Next for Week 2?

I hope you enjoyed Tokyo Story as much as I did. Next week we will take a look at Japan’s most famous film director, Akira Kurosawa. Stick around for Samurai epic Ran, Kurosawa’s favorite film of his storied career. A mixture of Samurai genre and Shakespeare (King Lear), this film is truly epic in size (the beautiful landscapes and enormous casts are astonishing) and is worth watching just for the spectacle alone.

See you next week for more analysis and our next assignment!

Shoplifters – Let this Oddball Family guide you around Japan

Shoplifters Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

If you’re looking for a heart warming family to guide you around contemporary Japan, check out Shoplifters. Everyone is welcome to join this oddball family and find beauty in life’s simple pleasures.

From: Japan, Asia
Watch: Trailer, Hulu, Rent on Amazon, Buy on Amazon
Next: Boyhood, Kikujiro, Little Miss Sunshine