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.
Colour of Pomegranates is not a biography of the 18th Century Armenian poet Sayat Nova, but a film which tries to depict his poetry on film. If you’re looking for plot, storyline, and a conclusion, stay away from this movie. However, if you want to explore how you can use film as an artistic medium, check out this brilliantly esoteric and stylish film.
How much do you know about the Syrian Civil War? Here’s an opportunity to learn how the crisis started and to see footage made by different sides of the crisis. Silvered Water is made from 1001 images shot by the Syrian people across the opening years of the Civil War. You will be presented with an array of evidence so you can debate the Syrian crisis with your friends and family.
Why Watch Silvered Water?
You want to know a bit more about why the Syrian refugee crisis started
Witness revolution and war from first hand mobile footage
Unlike some films, nothing is hidden from Silvered Water – the violence, the torture, the dead bodies are all real
To see how important film is in documenting history
The Breakdown
This film is a compilation of 1001 images shot by Syrian men and women. It starts with footage of a dripping water tap surrounded by rubble. Next we are shown a newborn baby being washed and a man in underwear crouched in a corner. The half-naked man is beaten and tortured. He is the one that wrote “Topple the Regime” in graffiti. The authorities tell his parents to “forget about him,” to “go make another one,” and if they can’t to “send their women to him”. This is the start of the Syrian crisis.
Silvered Water is a documentary of the Syrian crisis as recorded on the mobile phones of the population. Nothing is spared from the camera as phone cameras explore dead bodies lying in the street. The close-ups of the wounded and the deceased may seem a bit over-the-top just like a gory Tarantino film. However, this is real life, the camera focuses on the violence as if in disbelief of what is happening in Syria. The gore is shown as it is part of life in Syria, and it must be shown to shock people around the world into awareness.
The amazing part of Silvered Water is that it is constituted from footage of both sides of the crisis. Everyone is making their ‘movie’ of the events. As a result, Silvered Water, is a combination of the cinema of the murderer, the victim, the poetic, the realist, and more. It documents the perspectives of the nation.
Conclusion
The makers of Silvered Water want people to watch this film to then talk and debate about it. The narrator describes an acquaintance who asked for his help in setting up a film club. To start a film club, all you need is to watch a film and then talk and debate. Silvered Water is not meant to be watched alone. The makers want as many people watching it to then talk about the issues together.
The directors also imply that everyone should add their story or opinion to the film’s thread of images. They have documented the cinema of the murderer, the victim, the poetic, and the realist, but we must add the final piece.
I haven’t read Journey to the West and I’m completely unfamiliar with the story line, so I can’t vouch for the accuracy of this adaptation of the Chinese Classic. However, if you’re looking for pure cinematic mayhem, Chinese Odyssey Part One and Part Two are as good as you get.
If you talk about Japanese film it is impossible to avoid talking about Akira Kurosawa. Kurosawa has been one of the most influential film-makers in the history of film. He inspired Star Wars (Hidden Fortress), made the original Magnificent Seven (Seven Samurai), and influenced many American westerns, therefore it was no surprise that he was given a the Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1990.
More reasons why you should pay attention to Kurosawa!
He’s an artist first and foremost! He was infamous for waiting weeks for the right cloud formations!
His Samurai epics are, well, EPIC!
His admirers include Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Hayao Miyazaki, Satyajit Ray, Ingmar Bergman, Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu, Spike Lee… (probably easier to mention the non-admirers if there actually are any).
If you want to get into Japanese film you must have seen at least one Kurosawa film!
what’s great about Ran?
Ran is the film that Kurosawa always wanted to make. He even said that the character Hidetora was himself, a director nearing the end of his career trying to end it well. The film translates roughly as Chaos or Turmoil which reflects Kurosawa’s life preceding it’s release in 1985. He had faced loads of trouble trying to get financial backing for his ‘perfectionist’ films and many of his younger rivals boasted that he was finished. A suicide attempt was evidence of Kurosawa’s fall from grace. Ran and the massive $12 million budget granted by French producer Silberman (biggest in Japan) became Kurosawa’s curtain call.
Tribute to Shakespeare?
As many viewers have commented, Ran is the Japanese version of Shakespeare’s King Lear. However, Kurosawa only noticed the similarities between his story and Shakespeare’s when he realised the similarities between King Lear and the story of Mori Motonari (the Japanese warlord that originally inspired Ran). After noticing the similarities, there can be no doubt that Shakespeare influenced Kurosawa – the evidence is permeated in many of the characters. However, Kurosawa definitely adds a lot of grit to Shakespeare’s version.
Firstly the addition of new characters bring new dimensions to the story. Taro’s wife Lady Kaede for example is one of the most interesting characters in the story, playing a revenge crazed wife to both Taro and Jiro. She can whip out some knife skills just as well as she can manipulate those she draws close to her. There is also the religious Lady Sue (wife of Jiro) and her brother Tsurumaru, who was blinded by Hidetora years ago in war. Lady Sue, Tsurumaru, and Lady Kaede are symbols of the world that Hidetora has created through violence. A world that is slowly returning his evil deeds.
The backstory of Hidetora is also much more complex than King Lear. Hidetora won his fortune and fame in violent conquest, whereas King Lear’s background is undisclosed. Therefore whilst King Lear has done no evil, Hidetora is a monster. We witness his destruction through Lady Kaede and Tsurumaru, through his forces, and later through his regret at what he has done. This extra dimension to the lead character makes Kurosawa’s version even more epic. We witness the downfall of the once feared Japanese Warlord into a insane peasant.
Lastly, Hidetora’s Kyoami is an interesting addition. Whilst King Lear does have the company of a fool in King Lear, Kyoami is different. As written on Jim’s Reviews, Kurosawa ‘made a fascinating decision to make Kyoami sexually ambiguous. The character is played by transgender Japanese pop star Peter and becomes the healing opposite of the chaos of the film by balancing both masculine and feminine energy, great courage as well as flexibility and tenderness. As we see, those qualities are especially important in a rigidly hierarchical society, founded on machoism, like the one disastrously promoted by Hidetora.’
2. Landscape is Divine
The Landscape in Ran plays a central role in the film right from the start. The landscape is the television for the Gods above, they watch everything that happens from the sky.
Starting on the plains of Japan’s wild Southern Island Kyushu, Kurosawa cuts between still horseman surveying the vast landscape. The deep green grass of the plains contrasts with the light blue sky, marking the divide between the earth and the heavenly realms. The use of a telephoto lens (zoomed in from a point far away) also emphasises the division between the horsemen on the earth, and the gods watching in the sky. The telephoto lens therefore offers the same point of view as the gods in the sky. The clouds gathering indicate that the Gods are getting restless, an ominous sign for those horsemen, lit up by sunlight, that something may happen to them.
As in the opening scene, there are many scenes filmed from far away. We are given the viewpoint of a fly on the wall. We don’t sympathise with the characters as they always appear distant. Even Saburo (the only son that loves his father) is deliberately made to appear like a spoiled child so we do not sympathise with him. Our role is to view this film as if we are Gods. Only then can we see the selfishness, greed, and violence of humanity as if we are looking in the mirror.
One of the most powerful scenes in the film is the first battle. The entire battle is filmed without diegetic sound (sound where the source is visible on screen). Instead the entire battle is accompanied by Toru Takemitsu’s haunting score. In the same way the telephoto lens detaches us from the characters giving us a God-like perspective, the lack of diegetic sound detaches us from the battle on screen. The violence appears both shocking and inevitable, we cannot hear it, but we can see it and feel it’s devastation in the orchestral score. The view point again emphasises human violence and destruction.
Kurosawa’s use of long camera lenses (to zoom in from afar), division of the sky and earth, and silence in the battle puts the audience in a god-like perspective. We see humanity how the Gods would, without sympathy and attachment, showing humanity as greedy, selfish, and violent.
3. Kurosawa’s use of BIG casts
Obvious in Ran as much as any other of Kurosawa’s films, Kurosawa has become a master at exploiting movement in film. Just think back to the battle scenes in Ran and think of how the impact of the battle might have changed if there had only been 20 extras on each side.
As a break from reading, I encourage you to watch this excellent video from Every Frame a Painting showing you how Kurosawa exploits movement in his films.
What’s Next for Week 3?
Next week we will delve into another Japanese master, Hayao Miyazaki. This master of animation has won global acclaim for his highly imaginative films which have stretched the boundaries of animation and storytelling. Whilst his most famous animation may be the incredible Spirited Away, I’m excited to share with you my favorite next week. It’s beautiful, emotional, and must have helped inspire Avatar, bring on Princess Mononoke!
See you next week for more analysis and our next assignment!
If you talk about Japanese film it is impossible to avoid talking about Akira Kurosawa. Kurosawa has been one of the most influential film-makers in the history of film. He inspired Star Wars (Hidden Fortress), made the original Magnificent Seven (Seven Samurai), and influenced many American westerns, therefore it was no surprise that he was given a the Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1990.
You must be logged in to post a comment.