Best Foreign Movie Ever?

[gflores]

I've been getting a few foreign movies and have realized that the U.S. is not the only country that makes good films. Just recently, I saw The Dinner Game, Amelie, Shall We Dance, and Hidden Dragon, Crouching Tiger (again). Great stuff. So, what foreign movies do you like best?

 

[Spoooon]

Indian movies are the best. Especially when they sing.

 

[Chiropteran]

Run Lola Run

 

[3point14]

Originally posted by: gflores
I've been getting a few foreign movies and have realized that the U.S. is not the only country that makes good films. Just recently, I saw The Dinner Game, Amelie, Shall We Dance, and Hidden Dragon, Crouching Tiger (again). Great stuff. So, what foreign movies do you like best?

Try Ying xiong (Hero) if you like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. It's MUCH BETTER (IMHO)!

 

[GTaudiophile]

Amelie

 

[DigDug]

Cine Paridisio (Sp?). Fabulous!

 

[Dragnov]

My Sassy Girl, easily takes the cake.

Hero was alright. Nothing great about it... not much of a story, just nice artistic fight scenes.

 

[Bv3]

Abre Los Ojos and Das Boot

 

[OIKOS]

?ï?D?Å?I?Æ?Ð?v?G?o?Ò

 

[cheapgoose]

try city of lost children, the monster...there's so many

 

[burnedout]

Stroszek, Olympia, Stalingrad, La Légion saute sur Kolwezi, Das Boot (long version) to name a few.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Here's the list I made for a couple of friends who just joined Netflix, unfortunately I couldn't put Raise The Red Lantern or Dellamorte Dellamore (Cemetery Man) on it since there aren't region 1 DVDs yet.

(movie descriptions simplified for my semi-ignorant friends )

Hong Kong - martial arts
- Iron Monkey (be sure to get the 1993 PG-13 disc, they have an older version)
- A Chinese Ghost Story - good mix of martial arts and sorcery
- The Bride With White Hair - more swords and sorcery
- The Heroic Trio - super-heroines vs. super-villains (avoid the awful dub track!)

Hong Kong - "gun operas": crime dramas with exaggerated, operatic battles.
- The Killer (John Woo directed, he went on to do Face/Off and Mission Impossible 2)
- Hard-Boiled - John Woo's other great HK film
- A Better Tomorrow - not as quite as good, but some memorable scenes
- Time and Tide: Special Edition (2000) - an amazing extended sequence in a tenement
(just endure the bad HK comedy at the start)

French - "gun operas" directed by Luc Besson (The Fifth Element)
- La Femme Nikita - inspired the TV series and bad Bridget Fonda US remake
- Leon: The Professional - classic, set in the US so no subtitles needed
- Wasabi - a comedy of a Frenchman in Japan, written but not directed by Besson

French ? more serious fare
- The Big Blue / Le Grand Bleu - very interesting story of competitive free-divers
- Le Dernier Combat - almost-silent, black-and-white, post-apocalyptic tale
- Krzysztof Kieslowski's amazing "Three Colors" trilogy of loosely connected films:
1. Blue / Bleu
2. White / Blanc
3. Red / Rouge
- Brotherhood of the Wolf - OK it's actually a period piece martial-arts werewolf murder-mystery, but it's good!

German
- Das Boot - you've probably seen it, but if not an excellent WW2 drama
- Run Lola Run - a clever punk variation on the Groundhog Day theme

Norway
Insomnia (1997) - original version of the movie about a detective trying to solve a murder while coping with 24-hour daylight

Taiwan
Eat Drink Man Woman - good drama about a master chef and his family


Japan - Comedy
Tampopo - comedy about (among other things) the search for the perfect ramen recipe


Japan - Samurai
- Ran - lush epic of the battle for succession between sons of a warlord
- Chushingura - slow, good drama of the story told to DeNiro in Ronin about masterless samurai avenging their lord.
- Seven Samurai - film that inspired The Magnificent Seven
- Yojimbo - film that inspired Clint Eastwood's Fistful of Dollars
- Zatoichi - series of films about a blind master swordsman

Japanese - Animation (anime) (best watched with subtitles!)
- Ghost in the Shell - SciFi story, one of the inspirations for The Matrix
- Hayao Miyazaki's films, he's an icon of Japanese animation, with the same stature that Walt Disney had in his prime:
1. Spirited Away - reminds me of a Brothers Grim or Hans Christian Anderson tale
2. Princess Mononoke - action / heroic fantasy
3. Kiki's Delivery Service - sweet story about a little girl witch growing up
4. Castle In The Sky - the most Disney-like, but inventive and original
- Spriggan - what if Jet Li or Steven Seagal replaced Harrison Ford in Raiders of the Lost Ark?

- Cowboy Bebop - good SF action series about far-future bounty hunters
- Lain - this series is a weird cross between x-files, twin peaks, and cyberpunk
- Noir - female assassins with mysterious pasts, the anime La Femme Nikita / Leon
- RahXephon - stylish series about alien invaders and giant robots

 

[Czar]

Black Cat, White Cat

One of the funniest movie I have seen

 

[DaWhim]

how about City of God? folks, if you haven't seen it, go to rent it and watch it. one of the top 10 movie for 2003 on my list! high rate on imdb as well!

 

[bigdog1218]

Originally posted by: BlipBlop
Cine Paridisio (Sp?). Fabulous!

Cinema Paradiso, La vita e bella, Johnny Stecchino (Roberto Benigni comedy)

Not the best foreign films ever, but I think they're all good.

 

[kenshorin]

Either Seven Samurai or Ran, both by Akira Kurosawa.

 

[Ketteringo]

Originally posted by: DaWhim
how about City of God? folks, if you haven't seen it, go to rent it and watch it. one of the top 10 movie for 2003 on my list! high rate on imdb as well!

Another vote for City of God. Comes out on dvd Feb. 17th.

Also, there is a lot of good anime. Try Princess Mononoke, Grave of the Fireflys, Spirited Away, Castle in the Sky, and move on from there

 

[Kanalua]

Once Were Warriors....

Most moving movie I ever watched...

GO out and rent it...

 

[BlamoHammer]

Strange Brew...or was that just about Canadians?!

 

[Joker81]

Delicatessen is my favorite.

 

[AvesPKS]

Originally posted by: ANY5546

Originally posted by: DaWhim
how about City of God? folks, if you haven't seen it, go to rent it and watch it. one of the top 10 movie for 2003 on my list! high rate on imdb as well!

Another vote for City of God. Comes out on dvd Feb. 17th.

Also, there is a lot of good anime. Try Princess Mononoke, Grave of the Fireflys, Spirited Away, Castle in the Sky, and move on from there

City of God is messed up. I guess I would say it's powerful...it also makes me glad to be American...

 

[AvesPKS]

Originally posted by: ANY5546

Originally posted by: DaWhim
how about City of God? folks, if you haven't seen it, go to rent it and watch it. one of the top 10 movie for 2003 on my list! high rate on imdb as well!

Another vote for City of God. Comes out on dvd Feb. 17th.

Also, there is a lot of good anime. Try Princess Mononoke, Grave of the Fireflys, Spirited Away, Castle in the Sky, and move on from there

City of God is messed up. I guess I would say it's powerful...it also makes me glad to be American...

 

[DaWhim]

Originally posted by: ANY5546

Originally posted by: DaWhim
how about City of God? folks, if you haven't seen it, go to rent it and watch it. one of the top 10 movie for 2003 on my list! high rate on imdb as well!

Another vote for City of God. Comes out on dvd Feb. 17th.

Also, there is a lot of good anime. Try Princess Mononoke, Grave of the Fireflys, Spirited Away, Castle in the Sky, and move on from there

IIRC, I was so shocked after I finished the movie, because it said the movie is based on true story :Q that's why I like it so much. this is the best foreign movie for me so far.

I wanna see Amelie tho.

 

[Pastfinder]

DAS BOOT

 

[martensite]

let me add to the lists above:

stalingrad - german
Le Samourai - french
Nine Queens -- spanish. very good 'con' themed movie