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.

101

Waar (Pakistan) – The Pakistani Answer to The Expendables

Waar Film Difficulty Ranking: 2

If you love melodramatic action movies with loads of clichéd characters, you’ve got to watch Waar. It’s the Pakistani answer to the narco-peliculas (genre drug war films) of Mexico. Instead of drug cartels and undercover cops trying to assassinate the head capos you’ll see special forces trying to stop terrorists. Check it out here on Netflix if cheesy one liners are your thing!

Image result for waar

Why Watch Waar?

You love cheesy action movies such as The Expendables or Rambo: First Blood Part 2 with loads of hilarious one-liners
It’s ready for you to watch on Netflix
If you want to see a Pakistani film
For the melodrama – it’s on a par with the home-made drug cartel film you’ll find all across Mexico

The Breakdown

The good thing about Waar is that you know exactly what kind of film it is going to be from the opening minutes.

The film starts in a dimly lit interrogation room. One man smoking a cigarette sits opposite two men handcuffed to their chairs – it’s obvious who’s interrogating who. Then one of the prisoners says “we are not afraid of dying”. The interrogator responds by grabbing the speakers hand and firing a bullet into the back of it.

The interrogator is not there to mess around, and with this opening Waar:

Grabs our attention
Sets the scene for an action driven genre film

What else makes this film cheesy? Other than the one-liners, one-dimensional antagonist, and clichéd characters? Answer: the music. You’ll notice it when we are introduced to this ex-special forces agent who is accompanied by wailing singing as he arrives at the graves of his dead wife and son. You’ll also notice it when heavy metal music starts playing in the action films. Is the music necessary? No. But it does add to it’s cheesy action film credentials, a lot like the narco corridos (drug songs) that randomly interrupt the Mexican drug-genre films.

Conclusion and What to Watch Next

Unless you’re a big cult/genre action film fan or you love watching serious action movies for laughs, you might find Waar a bit too melodramatic.

If you’re looking for an action film with a better narrative and a bit less cheese I’d recommend checking out Drug War from China and Elite Squad from Brazil. Both are action films like Waar, but they both exclude the irrationally evil villain and melodrama.

Or if you love cheesy action films, go check out Rambo: First Blood, Predator, Die Hard, or most things with Sylvester Stallone, JCVD, Arnold Schwarzenegger, or Jason Statham.

Please also send all you’re Pakistani film recommendations to rowan@filmroot.com

102

Chronology – International Competition – SBIFF

A day after Hakan finds out his wife Nihal cannot conceive, she disappears. The last time he saw her was entering an apartment with a man he doesn’t recognize. In his attempts to find her, he brazenly follows the clues to discover things about his wife that he struggles to come to terms with. In order to find her, he has to dispel his idea of a happy marriage.

The film spends a lot of time building up ambiguous clues, which puts more pressure on a grand reveal to deliver the resolution. Unfortunately it builds expectations so high that when the reveal strikes, it isn’t overly surprising or well thought out. The reveal contradicts a lot of what has been done and said from the first half so it has to revisit every part of it to show you how it matches. The reveal does answer some of the questions from the first half but does leave a lot unanswered, as the second half effectively completely rewrites the first act of the film in a quarter of the time. As a result, it feels rushed and almost unbelievable.

That being said, the film deserves credit for portraying domestic violence. It first portrays a violent but innocent man that we can sympathize with and then a man capable of domestic violence. What is clear is that these two perspectives of the same man are indeed the same man. Just as domestic violence perpetrators are ‘normal’ humans by appearance, but violent husbands at home. If only the rest of the script could have held together through the two parts.

103

Steppe Man – A Modern Woman Follows a Camel Herdsman

Steppe Man Film Difficulty Ranking: 2

Unfortunately Steppe Man isn’t one of the best films you are going to see. It’s a bit predictable in parts and seems ignorantly sexist. However, if you like camels and myth, or if you’re trying to complete a film tour of the Caucasus and need to tick of Azerbaijan, give it a watch. Step (no pun intended) into the world of the Steppe Man.

From: Azerbaijan, Asia
Watch: Trailer, Vimeo
Next: Australia, Tarzan, Timbuktu

Read The Full Review

104

There is No Evil – AFI Fest 2020

There is No Evil is made to be provocative in both the story structure and the content. Each of the four stories contains a mystery: we have to ask who the main character is and what they have done? Revealing their identity and actions is provocative as it shows how they’re linked to capital punishment and mandatory military service. None of the characters are what they initially seem.

Likewise the content is provocative. As mentioned, each story is linked to the death penalty and mandatory military service. But not just one of the other, as often the mandatory military service requires you to enforce capital punishment. Regular citizens are expected to follow orders and pull the stool from under those citizens deemed worthy of death. The director focuses on this to show how encompassing authoritarian rule is in Iran, and how blindly some people follow it. By showing how the state forces you to commit the absolute highest crime for it’s benefit, the director reveals that there’s nothing some citizens wouldn’t do to facilitate the authoritarian government in Iran.

There is No Evil is split into four parts partly for political/logistical reasons. Director Mohammad Rasoulof is currently banned from filmmaking in Iran and breaking the film into shorts made it easier to hide his name from the permits and delegate. However, breaking the film up into four sections also helps to expand the perspective of the film. Instead of focusing on one family in one singular feature, the four parts show the range of people and lives the death penalty affects. We see those who resist and those that follow the law, as well as family members and friends who can’t escape it. It shows that everyone can be implicated.

Whilst it shows people from both sides, the film appears to favor those who resist. This is shown in the openness of the worlds in each short, especially when comparing the first short to the last. In the first, we follow a father governed by his routines. He follows rules and chastises his wife for forgetting to do things by the book. Despite being free to go wherever he wants, his world feels narrow and restricted. A lot of the time he’s inside either a car stuck in traffic, or in buildings, and he works in a windowless room far underground in artificial light. So whilst he’s not an outcast to society, his world feels limited and bleak. In contrast, the outcast in part four has escaped from Iranian society. He’s been forced to live off the land far from civilization because he resisted. But his world also feels more free for it. His story is full of natural light and wide expansive shots of the landscape. His world feels more free despite his political status because he stood up for what he believed in. His spiritual freedom is reflected in his bright world. In him, the director shows he favors those who resist.

Head to our AFI Fest Hub for more reviews and short films from AFI Fest 2020.

105

Nasir – AFI Fest 2020

This film portrays a day in the life of Nasir, a Muslim tailor in Tamil-Nadu, one of India’s Southern states. It doesn’t shy away from the mundane, as it takes time to show Nasir go about his everyday tasks. We see him wash, eat, sleep, chat, and work. The aim is to portray Nasir as an ordinary Indian man. Just like everyone else, he’s burdened by life’s necessities.

The only thing that might stand out about him is that he’s a bit of a poet. He makes up poetry in his head and recites it to his colleagues and is shot walking around with his inner thoughts voiced over in the narrative. There’s also a few long takes of Nasir’s face in close up as he’s resting by an aquarium. These long takes force us to notice him thinking or day dreaming, to add a thoughtfulness to his character. It further adds to the construction of Nasir as an ordinary nice guy, humbly living his life.

The director sets up Nasir’s humble life to contrast with the threatening rise of Hindu nationalism in the background. It’s first heard on the market loudspeakers when Nasir walks his wife to the bus station. Then we hear his boss talking about the upcoming Hindu festival and how they need to get rid of the Muslims. It’s clear the Islamophobic sentiment is getting stronger and becoming more outspoken. Nasir seems to be oblivious of this, partly because the director protects him from it with a much narrower aspect ratio than your standard widescreen. It keeps him and his humble life as the focus and keeps the threatening presence of Hindu nationalism out of the screen.

Nasir is a humble look at one person trying to live a humble life amidst rising nationalism.

Head to our AFI Fest Hub for more reviews and short films from AFI Fest 2020.