The Films of Nagisa Oshima

Spotlight on Nagisa Oshima

If one had to describe the cinematic style of Nagisa Oshima, the words “radical”, “provocative”, “bold”, “pushing the envelope”, “political” would often be used. These words are apt description for two of his most well-known films, In the Realm of the Senses (1976) and Night and Fog in Japan (1960). However, after seeing the films as part of this spotlight, I can add the words “experimental” and “avant-garde” to describe his films.

There are 17 films as part of this spotlight, with 14 of the films being first-time views. A little over two decades ago, the first Oshima film I saw was his last film Taboo (1999). Then I jumped to his most well-known film, In the Realm of the Senses and then moved onto Night and Fog in Japan. That is not an ideal order and one that left me ill prepared to appreciate his cinema. This spotlight allowed me to view his films in order and that allowed a better understanding of his style and his tackling of political topics.

The 17 Nagisa Oshima films part of this spotlight:

Tale of Love and Hope (1959)

Cruel Story of Youth (1960)

Night and Fog in Japan (1960)

The Pleasures of the Flesh (1965)

Violence at Noon (1966)

Sing a Song of Sex (1967)

Double Suicide: Japanese Summer (1967)

Death by Hanging (1968)

Three Resurrected Drunkards (1968)

Diary of a Shinjuku Thief (1969)

Boy (1969)

The Man Who Left His Will on Film (1970)

The Ceremony (1971)

In the Realm of the Senses (1976)

Empire of Passion (1978)

Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983)

Taboo (1999)

 1.0 Crime & Punishment

Majority of Oshima’s films depict crime of one sort or another. Murder and rape are the more common depictions in his films but he has also tackled war crimes, frauds/scams, robberies, embezzlement, blackmail and crimes of passion. The criminal acts in his films aren’t shown in isolation as his films examine the social and economic scenarios that lead the characters to go down the path of crime. Characters who commit murder are shown to undergo guilt and a moral crisis before they ultimately meet their fate. In majority of his films, punishment is duly handed out to the characters and a criminal is caught or apprehended by police even if they are caught off camera and audience is informed via a radio commentary (such as in Violence at Noon).

1.1 Fraud & Scams

Multiple Oshima films tackle the concept of fraud or breaking the law to make ends meet. We see a simple example of this in his first film, Tale of Love and Hope, where a boy sells his pet pigeons repeatedly. This is because once he sells his pigeons, they fly back to his home, and he then proceeds to sell them again. No one is forcing the boy to sell the pigeons but he does this to ensure their family has much-needed money. The film shows the harshness of life for those on the street with barely enough money to feed themselves.

Fraud or scams plays a pivotal part in Boy, a film where a family claims fake injuries by jumping in front of a vehicle to extract money from a shook-up driver. In the film, the father starts the scam by getting his wife to jump in front of cars. When she is unable to continue with this, he gets his older son to take her place. The film was inspired by a true story in Japan.

1.2 Murder and Assault

Murder and sexual assault are two of the more common criminal acts found in many Oshima films. In films such as The Pleasures of the Flesh, Double Suicide, Violence at Noon, the male characters don’t start out as cold-blooded criminals as they are initially shown before they commit their first murder. After the initial shock and guilt of that first murder wears off, we see the same person commit the 2^nd murder with ease. Violence at Noon (based on a true story) depicts a serial killer but before he killed frequently, he robbed houses and assaulted women. Rape is frequently shown in his films such as in Cruel Story of Youth, Violence at Noon, Sing a Song of Sex, Diary of a Shinjuku Thief, The Man Who Left His Will on Film, Empire of Passion. Death by Hanging doesn’t show the crime but the man sentenced to death is guilty of that crime.

Crime of passion also plays a part in Oshima’s films with the most famous such crime depicted In the Realm of the Senses where the woman cuts off the member of her lover (again based on a true story).

Murder, blackmail and embezzlement are featured in The Pleasures of the Flesh which is also about the moral collapse of a human being. In the film, Atsushi is blackmailed by a man who comes to his house and asks Atsushi to keep a suitcase full of his money safe until the man serves his prison sentence. The money is gotten through embezzlement and the man calculated that if he served his prison sentence and the police didn’t find the money, he could live a life of luxury after he got out. This plot sounds like something out of Hugo Fregnese’s Apenas un Delincuente (Hardly a Criminal), which later inspired The Delinquents (2023). However, Oshima’s film is a completely different beast and goes into a different direction altogether.

1.3 Justice and Punishment

Atoning for one’s crimes and seeking punishment are highlighted in multiple films but Death by Hanging stands out in debating the ethics of justice and how to punish a criminal. In the film, a man is sentenced to be killed by hanging but somehow he doesn’t die after being hung. The police, jail officials and priest do not know how to handle this scenario, especially after the man loses his memory. The film descends into satire and surrealism as everyone around the man try to act out his crime in the hope that his memory comes back and they can hang him again.

Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence is a rare Oshima film in this spotlight that highlights war but it is not a conventional war film. Instead, it raises topics of war crimes and how prisoners of war should be treated or punished. The film also raises cultural differences between Japan and the West in how captured soldiers are perceived. There are some sentiments in the film that echo what Martin Scorsese tried to highlight decades later with Silence (2016, based on a Japanese novel by Shūsaku Endō). 

2.0 Political ideas

Nagisa Oshima packed his films with dizzying political ideas, in a manner that recalls Miklós Jancsó especially since both directors’ spliced political ideas with songs such as Oshima did with Sing a Song of Sex. Jancsó and Oshima tackled politics almost at the same time in the 1960s but their topics highlighted the changes their nations were going through. In Jancsó’s case, the topic was capitalism vs socialism illustrating the differing ways of life in the West vs Soviet Union. Meanwhile, Oshima depicted leftist ideology as a failed movement against the backdrop of the US-Japanese Security Treaty of 1960.

Night and Fog in Japan is the most political Oshima film where a wedding sequence results in past discussions about failed political movements and examination of guilt. The sentiments of failed ideologies and what people could do better spills over into his other films as well such as Double Suicide: Japanese Summer which shows how a grassroots revolution can ignite and then be extinguished.

Oshima didn’t only tackle internal Japanese political sides (left vs right) but he also tackled external politics. He wasn’t shy to depict Japanese sentiments towards Koreans as highlighted in Death by Hanging and Three Resurrected Drunkards. In Death by Hanging, he takes a Korean side of things by turning an individual crime into a cause-effect about national guilt. In Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, Oshima depicts a humanist side to the British in how they deal with prisoners of war and their willingness to show compassion. This is completely opposite to how Hollywood and many other film industries of the world show the opposing side. There is no rallying cry to show a superior Japanese in Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence and instead the Japanese look like the more brutal side. This ignoring of marching towards the war is also shown in just a single scene In The Realm of the Senses, which focuses on the sexual relationship indoors but the film shows the male in the film is shutting out the world and making love because he doesn’t want to go to war. It is his choice to ignore the drums of war and in a similar manner, it is Oshima’s choice in how he depicts politics in his films.

3.0 Pushing the Envelope

Jonathan Rosenbaum mentioned that “..no two Oshima films are alike.”

OSHIMA’S CINEMA CONSISTS of particular interventions in Japan’s internal political debates, and freely draws on forms as well as styles that seem to come from everywhere, including Japan. Some would call this disconcertingly voracious trait “very Japanese,” and it helps to account for the truism that no two Oshima films are alike. Jonathan Rosenbaum, ArtForum

Rosenbaum’s words are certainly true in that even though many Oshima films share common elements, traits, plots, they are still different in how they portray the characters or take a path towards a different outcome. One consistent thread in his films is his ability to push the envelope and shatter boundaries. These boundaries could either be cultural, political, social, societal, economic or religious. For example, The Ceremony savagely shatters the norms of a Japanese family as one has seen in other Japanese films. The Ceremony can be called an anti-Ozu film. If one’s notion of Japanese society has come from Ozu or Kurosawa films, then The Ceremony shatters that.

Oshima wasn’t satisfied with challenging the aspect of a society but even took aim at the form of cinema itself. His films can’t be classified to fit neatly in any single genre. On first glance, Empire of Passion feels like a successor to In the Realm of the Senses but Empire of Passion turns into a ghost story; Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence is not a war film but is in fact anti-war or even a love story; The Ceremony is about weddings and funerals but it isn’t a typical family relationship film. The Man Who Left his Will on Camera completely deconstructs the form of cinema. It is an experimental, avant-garde film that is unclassifiable and its style echoes Godard and Oshima’s contemporary Yoshishige Yoshida (Eros + Massacre, 1969).

Sex and nudity are sprinkled in Oshima’s films but they reach peak form In the Realm of the Senses, a film whose honest naked depiction of lovemaking has few parallels in Cinema, even to this day. Almost all his films show a male-female relationship, but he broke this boundary with his last film Taboo, which shows strong samurai infatuated with a young male warrior. However, this isn’t the first Oshima film to showcase homoeroticism. Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence has a hint of homoeroticism throughout but it only comes to the surface via a tiny kiss. That subtle layer is shattered and explored more in Taboo.

Top 10 films of Nagisa Oshima:

Ranking Oshima’s films isn’t an easy task. None of his films are comfortable viewing. All the films forced me to grapple with multiple topics (ethics, political ideas) or with the character’s personalities. There are no traditional heroes or easily identifiable good characters. I couldn’t even finish any of these films in one sitting. However, watching the films in order allowed a proper appreciation of his cinematic style and topics. It is clear he is a radical filmmaker, both in terms of form and content.

1. The Boy (1969)

Blends social depiction with realism. The rare Oshima film with an emotional beating heart.

2. In the Realm of the Senses (1976)

Oshima’s most well-known film is still in a category of its own. There really is nothing like this out there!

3. The Pleasures of the Flesh (1965)

Murder, Blackmail, embezzlement, debauchery, sex, gangsters, violence. This film encapsulates the essence of Oshima’s cinematic style, topics.

4. Cruel Story of Youth (1960)

A rebellious character depicted in a bright palette channels the energy of James Dean and 1950s American cinema.

5. Death by Hanging (1968)

Starts off in documentary style before descending into a surrealistic satire.

6. The Man Who Left his Will on Camera (1970)

Experimental film which deconstructs what cinema means.

7. The Ceremony (1971)

Savage depiction of a Japanese family.

8. Night and Fog in Japan (1960)

Wears its political heart on its sleeve.

9. Violence at Noon (1966)

A serial killer film that defies form as its progresses.

10. Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983)

The most emotional ending of any Oshima film.

Extra reading:

Jonathan Rosenbaum.

Tony Rayns.

Q&A with James Quandt.

Matt Crawford's ranking of Oshima's films.

The Films of Paul Thomas Anderson

Every new Paul Thomas Anderson (PTA) film is treated as a major event and like Quentin Tarantino, his film counts are part of the marketing release such as the recent One Battle After Another marketed as the 10^th PTA film. With 10 PTA films in the books, it feels like an appropriate time to collect my notes and ranking of his films. The 10 films in order of release are:

Hard Eight (1996)

Boogie Nights (1997)

Magnolia (1999)

Punch-Drunk Love (2002)

There Will be Blood (2007)

The Master (2012)

Inherent Vice (2014)

Phantom Thread (2017)

Licorice Pizza (2021)

One Battle After Another (2025)

The contemporary nature of PTA means I have seen all but his debut film, Hard Eight, in order and majority of them in a cinema. Boogie Night was seen via VHA tape as that didn’t play long in cinemas around me and Hard Eight and Licorice Pizza were via streaming.

10 films over a span of 29 years is approximately 1 film every 3 years. At the start of his career, PTA was more prolific with his first three feature films released over a three-year span (1996-99) but the gap increased after that. There were two 5-year gaps in between his films and not coincidentally, those 5-year gaps were prior to the release of There Will be Blood and The Master. Considering that both There Will be Blood and The Master create such an intense universe, the extra time prior to their releases makes sense.

Character Studies & Location

Paul Thomas Anderson’s films are brilliant character studies where we are introduced to memorable characters who stay long in the memory. In that regard, his films are an actor’s dream because their work will get noticed. Every single actor in his films has given a stellar performance, no matter how small their role was. This means all the roles are brilliantly casted but also PTA's attention to detail means that actors are given a platform to showcase their talents.

Location is another vital aspect of PTA’s films. This applies to both location in time and space, meaning his films capture the essence of a particular location across a time period. Boogie Nights, Magnolia and Licorice Pizza highlight the energy and sentiments of San Fernando Valley (Los Angeles) across different decades; Phantom Thread has an impressive eye for detail related to fashion and food in 1950s London; There Will be Blood captures the ruthless greedy world of 1920-30s oil rush; Hard Eight showcases the transactions and rules of a casino; One Battle After Another exudes the essence of a revolutionary life and the drugs and paranoia associated with it.

Ranking all 10 PTA films in order of preference:

1. There Will be Blood (2007)

The first hour is pure cinematic excellence but it is the finale that draws blood and ends with a thud. A simple dialogue about "drinking your milkshake" underlines the problem with greed. Someone is always carrying a bigger straw.

2. Phantom Thread (2017)

Sumptuous, seductive film with an eye for detail. The fabric and cut of cloth were what I recall most but as it turns out, I missed the focus on food. Phantom Thread is now included by some on their best food films of all time.

3. One Battle After Another (2025)

This brilliant stoner political comedy is a lot funnier than I expected. The second PTA-Thomas Pynchon effort is a home run!

4. The Master (2012)

Long before our world was overrun by crazy delusional men with no principals, virtues or ethics, PTA crafted this devastating case study depicting people who can easily be manipulated by impressive speakers. In this regard, The Master is a film whose message is much more universal and not grounded to just a single religion or ideology.

5. Boogie Nights (1997)

PTA’s 2^nd film became a cult sensation and was one of those films whose popularity was spread by word of month long before the internet and social media made that task easier.

6. Punch-Drunk Love (2002)

After the weighty Magnolia, PTA changed gears and surprised with Punch-Drunk Love which showed a completely different side of Adam Sandler. There are many layers to Sandler’s performance and the film balances tender romance with release of anger.

7. Inherent Vice (2014)

The first PTA-Thomas Pynchon test run is a stoner comedy that sets the ground for One Battle for Another. Inherent Vice contains an impressive cast of actors with many memorable cameos.

8. Magnolia (1999)

Magnolia came out long before social media and memes went viral. The film has many scenes (yes including that frog scene) that felt like they were talked about everywhere, on radio, in newspapers, around the office and among friends. Magnolia was released just before 1999 ended and there was already some anxiety about what 2000 (Y2K) would bring so perhaps that frog rain scene played into an end of the world sentiment. The film was also highly divisive. Looking back, it is impressive to think that this was just PTA’s 3^rd feature and one packed with some risky decisions.

Note: 1999 also saw the release of American Beauty, Fight Club, The Matrix, The Sixth Sense, Being John Malkovich so there were a handful of Hollywood films showcasing reality in a different light.

9. Hard Eight (1996)

PTA’s impressive debut takes a hard turn from the initial first few scenes. At first, it feels like we will be seeing a master-student relationship in the art of gambling, but the film has other ideas.

10. Licorice Pizza (2021)

The refreshing acting of Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman ensures their on-screen characters exude an easy flowing chemistry.

Best Films of the 2010s

The 2010s (2010-2019) continued the streak of stellar global films from the 2000s. The cinematic trajectory was firmly on the way up and in the last year of the decade we had the first truly global crossover film in Parasite (2019), which went all the way from winning the Palme d’Or (Cannes 2019) to top of the Academy Awards in Feb 2020. The success of Parasite gave hope that global cinema would continue to soar in the 2020s. But alas, March 2020 arrived and the world shut down. Cinemas struggled to stay afloat, film festivals had to scale back and the already fragile film distribution broke down. It took a few years for some form of global film output to resume but it was clear the world had drastically changed. Time will tell where the 2020s stand in terms of cinematic quality. Was 2019 the highpoint for global cinema and film festivals? Currently, it appears so. Looking from the vantage point of 2025, it does feel that the 2010s may be the last great decade for cinema for a long time. The next 5 years may prove me wrong. But this post is about celebrating the beautiful films of the 2010s.

Top 30 films of the 2010s (2010-19):

1. Dil Dhadakne Do (2015, India, Zoya Akhtar)

Sholay (1975) was #1 in my 1970s film list and is still considered to be the greatest Hindi language film of all time. Dil Dhadakne Do arrived 4 decades later, directed by Zoya Akhtar and co-written by her brother Farhan Akhtar (who also stars in the film). Both Zoya and Farhan are the children of Javed Akhtar, one of the brilliant co-writers of Sholay (the other being Salim Khan, the duo often known as Salim-Javed). The two films, Sholay and Dil Dhadakne Do, couldn’t be more different yet in their own way capture a sentiment of the times.

Sholay captured the anger, angst and fear of the 1970s while Dil Dhadakne Do captures sentiments of an evolving India, one where women are fighting for their dreams/careers/identity against a highly patriarchal society; where families rarely discuss their problems and where children don’t want to blindly follow their parents wishes. Dil Dhadakne Do depicts many hard-hitting realities but in an entertaining way. The film is packed with stars, catchy songs (yes there is dancing) and beautiful locales like many Bollywood films but unlike most Bollywood films, Dil Dhadakne Do has a brain and a heart.

2. Zama (2017, Argentina co-production, Lucrecia Martel)

3. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011, Turkey, Nuri Bilge Ceylan)

4. Certified Copy (2010, France/Iran/Italy, Abbas Kiarostami)

5. Timbuktu (2014, Mauritania/France, Abderrahmane Sissako)

6. Holy Motors (2012, France, Leos Carax)

7. Transit (2018, Germany/France, Christian Petzold)

8. Jauja (2014, Argentina co-production, Lisandro Alonso)

9. Like Father, Like Son (2013, Japan, Hirokazu Kore-eda)

10. This is Not a Film (2011, Iran, Mojtaba Mirtahmasb/Jafar Panahi)

11. The Treasure (2015, Romania/France, Corneliu Porumboiu)

12. Carlos (2010, France, Olivier Assayas)

13. Burning (2018, South Korea, Lee Chang-dong)

14. Parasite (2019, South Korea, Bong Joon-ho)

15. Neighboring Sounds (2012, Brazil, Kleber Mendonça Filho)

16. Embrace of the Serpent (2015, Colombia co-production, Ciro Guerra)

17. Right Now, Wrong Then (2015, South Korea, Hong Sang-soo)

18. The Pearl Button (2015, Chile/France/Spain/Switzerland, Patricio Guzmán)

19. A Man of Integrity (2017, Iran, Mohammad Rasoulof)

20. Shin Godzilla (2016, Japan, Hideaki Anno/Shinji Higuchi)

21. Long Day’s Journey Into Night (2018, China, Bi Gan)

22. A Gentle Creature (2017, France/Russia/Ukraine co-production, Sergei Loznitsa)

23. One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk (2019, Canada, Zacharias Kunuk)

24. Faces Places (2017, France, JR/Agnès Varda)

25. The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open (2019, Canada/Norway, Kathleen Hepburn, Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers)

26. The Turin Horse (2011, Hungary co-production, Béla Tarr/Ágnes Hranitzky)

27. An Elephant Sitting Still (2018, China, Hu Bo)

28. Ash is Purest White (2018, China co-production, Jia Zhang-ke)

29. Get Out (2017, USA/Japan, Jordan Peele)

30. Under the Skin (2013, UK/Switzerland/USA, Jonathan Glazer)

Honourable mentions (in no particular order):

Vitalina Varela (2019, Portugal, Pedro Costa)

The Master (2012, USA, Paul Thomas Anderson)

The Social Network (2010, USA, David Fincher)

Cocote (2017, Dominican Republic co-production, Nelson Carlo de Los Santos Arias)

A Separation (2011, Iran/France/Australia, Asghar Farhadi)

45 Years (2015, UK, Andrew Haigh)

Phantom Thread (2017, USA/China, Paul Thomas Anderson)

Closeness (2017, Russia, Kantemir Balagov)

Varda by Agnès (2019, France, Agnès Varda)

The Nothing Factory (2017, Portugal, Pedro Pinho)

Happy Hour (2015, Japan, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi)

Pain and Glory (2019, Spain/France, Pedro Almodovar)

La Flor (2018, Argentina, Mariano Llinás)

Ship of Theseus (2012, India/Holland, Anand Gandhi)

Kaili Blues (2015, China, Bi Gan)

Li’l Quinquin (2014, France, Bruno Dumont)

The Tribe (2014, Ukraine/Netherlands, Miroslav Slaboshpitsky)

The Strange Case of Angelica (2010, Portugal co-production, Manoel de Oliveira)

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010, Thailand co-production, Apichatpong)

Drive (2011, USA, Nicolas Winding Refn)

The Great Beauty (2013, Italy/France, Paolo Sorrentino)

Jafar Panahi's Cinema

Notes and Ranking of all 11 features of Jafar Panahi to date:

The White Balloon (1995)

The Mirror (1997)

The Circle (2000)

Crimson Gold (2003)

Offside (2006)

This Is Not a Film (2011)

Closed Curtain (2013)

Taxi (2015)

3 Faces (2018)

No Bears (2022)

It Was Just an Accident (2025)

Jafar Panahi’s 2025 Palme d’Or win at Cannes for It Was Just an Accident means he is only one of four directors (Robert Altman, Michelangelo Antonioni and Henri-Georges Clouzot being the other 3) to have won top awards at Berlin, Cannes and Venice. Panahi won the Golden Bear at Berlin with Taxi in 2015 and the Golden Lion at Venice in 2000 with The Circle. The fact that two of have these awards have come in the last decade is incredible especially after Panahi’s 2010 sentence in Iran which raised fears that he may never direct a film again. However, he and his entire film crew and cast have shown incredible courage and creativity to not only get films made but also getting them released out of Iran.

Jafar Panahi started running into problems with authorities from his earlier films two decades ago. The reason for that stems from Panahi depicting social topics and plight of characters (especially women) who don’t have a voice. In this brilliant interview with Doug Saunders (from back in 2007) Panahi mentions reveals the following:

Doug Saunders: Has censorship been a constant through your filmmaking career, or is it more intense today?

Jafar Panahi: I started my career making children’s films, and while doing that I had no problems with censors. As soon as I started making feature films, it all started and I had problems.

Really, making children’s films was a way of saying what we wanted to say in adult films. But because of the circumstances, we chose that format because it was less prone to censorship at the time.

It just got worse and worse as time went on, and one could say that the past year or year and a half have been the darkest age for filmmaking in Iran.

Since I make a film once every 3 years, I haven’t had a chance to present the current administration with a project. But everyone around me, my friends, has had experiences that are quite awful.

Panahi goes on to mention:

In 2003 I was arrested by the information ministry; they kept me and interrogated me for four hours. In the end their question was: ‘Why don’t you just leave this country and work outside of Iran, given that the core of your supporters live there?’

Panahi’s stand back then and even now is staying in Iran and making films. His films are some of the finest made in the history of cinema despite working with barriers and restrictions other filmmakers may never encounter.

Ranking his films feels inappropriate. All 11 of his features are remarkable works of art. Each of them present fascinating ideas to ponder upon and highlight perspective that one may not think of. So this ranking is a personal preference, one that has shifted over the years and will likely still change.

Ranking all 11 of Jafar Panahi’s films:

1. Crimson Gold (2003, Director Jafar Panahi, Writer Abbas Kiarostami)

This brilliant film about class difference is also one of the most incredible cinematic collaborations in history with Panahi directing a story written by maestro Abbas Kiarostami.

Ali and Hussein are average men who go about making an honest living by working as pizza delivery men. When Ali finds an expensive purse, he comes across a receipt for an Italian necklace which costs 75 million Tomans. The two are shocked that someone could spend so much on a necklace and decide to visit the jewellery store and look at what such an expensive necklace looks like. But the jeweler refuses to let the two in because of how they are dressed. Therefore, a few days later, Hussein dresses smartly and returns to the store with his fiancée and Ali. But even then, the same jeweler manages to find a way to get the message across that store is not for people like them. This insult eats at Hussein and results in him going over the edge.

Besides this class difference, the film manages to cover other aspects of Iranian society such as how police perceive younger people in enforcing law. The film also alludes to a time when women didn't have to cover up in Iran while also depicting attitude difference of Iranians who live abroad and return to Iran.

2. The Circle (2000)

After his first two children themed films, Panahi changed gears completely with this insightful powerful film which depicts the treatment of women in Iranian society. This ranges from the inability of women to travel without the permission (or presence) of a male figure to women not being able to speak freely or live on their own terms. Any infringements against the patriarchal society means that women find themselves thrown into prison. This film completes a circle with Panahi’s recent film It Was Just an Accident which discusses the harsh treatment that both women and men get in prison.  It is safe to assume that after The Circle, Panahi put himself on the Iranian authorities list.

3. This Is Not a Film (2011, Mojtaba Mirtahmasb/Jafar Panahi)

The first film that Panahi made after his filmmaking ban is the next evolution in his cinema as this film shows that in the hands of a talented filmmaker even a tiny, confined space can be a liberating cinematic experience. The final moments capture those magical moments that Werner Herzog has claimed happen only when the camera is left recording just a little bit longer.

4. Taxi (2015)

Taxi is the third film Jafar Panahi crafted after he was banned from making films by the Iranian Government in 2010. Like This Is Not a film, the first film Panahi made under the ban, Taxi does not appear to be a scripted film and hence, not a film also.

Taxi features Jafar Panahi driving a taxi around the streets of Tehran, picking up passengers and dropping them off at different locations. All the interactions with passengers are recorded from a camera on his dashboard, so technically, Panahi is not directing anything. However, the inclusion of smart dialogues, shift in camera angles and the presence of a few memorable passengers reveals Panahi’s brilliance. Pushed into a corner by the government, Panahi has tapped into the same creative energy as The White Balloon and Crimson Gold; films he directed before the ban. He uses a taxi as a medium to bring forth relevant discussions about society, freedom, censorship, public vs private space and even film distribution while also paying a tribute towards Abbas Kiarostami’s Ten (2002), which featured a female driver.

5. The White Balloon (1995, co-written by Abbas Kiarostami, Jafar Panahi and Parviz Shahbazi)

6. The Mirror (1997)

Jafar Panahi’s first two features The White Balloon and The Mirror are the purest examples of the exciting Iranian New Wave cinema that started making waves in the 1990s.

Both films are presented from a little child’s perspective, much like Abbas Kiarostami’s earlier films. In fact, The White Balloon is co-written by Kiarostami. In many aspects, The White Balloon and The Mirror are similar but diverge when the 4^th wall is shattered half-way through The Mirror. After that point onwards, The Mirror becomes a meta film about filmmaking echoing some aspects of Kiarostami’s Close Up.

7. It Was Just an Accident (2025)

The topic of justice and retribution feels more like that of a Mohammad Rasoulof’s film, especially The Seed of the Sacred Fig and There Is No Evil, but Panahi has mentioned in interviews the story came from the experience he heard of other prisoners and also from his own experience in prison. The film sheds a light on trauma and suffering that individuals face under an oppressive system that feels like a living breathing example of The Stanford Prison Experiment, an experiment that many Latin, Asian and African countries started facing from the 1970s onward. Panahi’s film shows that the experiment isn’t over yet and even if it were over tomorrow, it would take decades (or generations) for citizens to heal.

8. No Bears (2022)

Panahi travels to the Iranian border and shows how a film can be potentially directed remotely, an appropriate nod to our times where remote work has become a lot more commonplace across the globe.

9. 3 Faces (2018)

3 Faces is the fourth film Panahi made since his filmmaking ban and was the first since that ban where he left Tehran for the countryside. This travel allows some cultural and political conversations to enter the frame and the end result is one of Panahi’s strongest works, one that even has a nod to the late master Abbas Kiarostami’s films.

10. Offside (2006)

This film is an extension of The Circle in depicting the restrictions women face in Iranian society. In Offside, Panahi shows how female soccer fans are not allowed to watch games in the stadium alongside men. The film contains plenty of magical moments such as the nervous expression on one of the girl's face as she tries to sneak into the stadium, the passion with which the guard narrates a running commentary for the girls who are held in custody and the mesmerizing moment when we finally see the beautiful green soccer field. The best part of the film unfold in the last 15-20 minutes where the camera highlights the emotions and expressions of fans who are delighted at Iran's qualification for the 2006 World Cup -- there is very little dialogue, and we can see unscripted human emotion on display.

11. Closed Curtain (2013)

Following This Is Not a Film, Panahi shows another creative way to make a film despite his ban. As per the title, the film takes place in a house with the curtains shut. What at first appears to be a tranquil setting turns out to be anything but that.

YRF Spy Universe

Here are the six films so far part of the YRF Spy Universe:

Ek Tha Tiger (2012, Kabir Khan)

Tiger Zinda Hai (2017, Ali Abbas Zafar)

War (2019, Siddharth Anand)

Pathaan (2023, Siddharth Anand)

Tiger 3 (2023, Maneesh Sharma)

War 2 (2025, Ayan Mukerji)

Blame it on the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe). Once MCU showed everyone the financial benefits of having a multi-film, multi-year plan, others naturally followed with their own cinematic universe tie-ins. The thinking was multiple films with crossover characters/storylines, bigger stars, bigger budgets would lead to larger revenues. Ultimately, revenue is the long-term goal of these cinematic universes, which ensure a longer duration for characters thereby building or maintaining fanbase loyalty in turn leading to long-term financial growth. Of course, not all these cinematic universes have faired as well as Marvel. DCU (DC Universe) hasn’t worked out and is now in the process of a reboot. Indian Cinema alone has multiple such cinematic universes on the go, with Rohit Shetty Cop Universe, Lokesh Cinematic Universe, Maddock Horror Comedy Universe, Astraverse (unsure of its future status) and YRF Spy Universe.

YRF Spy Universe, like majority of the Indian Cinematic Universes, was conceived only after the first initial films were released. YRF Spy Universe only started with the 4^th of the 6 films thus far. The first three films, Ek Tha Tiger, Tiger Zinda Hai, War, were standalone films. The idea to create this YRF Spy Universe was likely conceived after the huge success of War. Pathaan then was the first out of these 6 films to reap the benefits of the Cinematic Universe framework.

Action, Dance and Romance

All the six films involve Indian agents part of the RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) agency trying to save the nation and/or its citizens from both internal-external threats, which not surprisingly involves Pakistani ISI agents. The main RAW agents are: Tiger (Salman Khan, all 3 Tiger films), Kabir (Hrithik Roshan, War, War 2), Khalid (Tiger Shroff, War), Pathaan (Shah Rukh Khan), Vikram (N.T. Rama Rao Jr. , War 2), Kavya (Kiara Advani, War 2). The main ISI female agents are Zoya (Katrina Kaif, Tiger films), Rubai (Deepika Padukone, Pathaan).

The films are set in global locations. Even though India is under threat, the Indian agents hop across countries faster than it would take to be beamed via Star Trek’s teleportation device.  Tiger Zinda Hai is one exception in that the film is set exclusively outside of India (in Iraq) and involves Tiger saving Indian nurses from a terrorist organization (plot based on a real-life 2014 incident).

In order to ensure the films have a global appeal and don’t alienate Muslim viewers, ISI isn’t the main villain anymore but has provided a bit of romance in the form of double agents. A hilarious line from Pathaan has a character musing if ISI is running a dating service with Tiger, Pathaan falling for ISI agents Zoya, Rubai respectively. With ISI no longer the main villain, the last few films have featured rogue ex-RAW agents or mercenaries for hire working for a global crime syndicate as the main foes. The stakes for saving the nation have grown with each film with the nation on the verge of destruction with each passing minute. However, it doesn’t matter how dire the situation is, all the agents find time to dance for a few songs, show off their six-pack abs and even have a romantic fling with female agents that look like swimsuit models (casting criteria for female actors clearly requires looking good in a bikini).

Ranking the films in order of preference:

It feels unfair to rank or even rate these films. That is because half the films can be disregarded as having any cinematic merit because the three Tiger films feature Salman Khan who cannot act, despite being one of the largest box-office stars in the country.

1. War (2019)

Easily the best film in the franchise. The action scenes are nicely done with good acting, direction and story.

2. Pathaan (2023)

The film marked the long return of Shah Rukh Khan and was a huge box-office success. SRK is good in his role but the film is bloated with needless plot twists and action sequences. The film was also the first in the franchise to feature a crossover character from the YRF Spy Universe (Tiger making an appearance).

3. Tiger 3 (2023)

The only real merit in the film is the appearance of Pathaan.

4. War 2 (2025)

This awful film undoes any of the good work of the first War film. The first segment of the film feels like the director trying to channel John Wick with a splash of Tarantino but that isn’t anything compared to the absurd middle segment which rehashes the worst aspect of 1980s Hindi cinema plot (long lost childhood friends). That awful middle segment introduces melodrama which isn’t as commonplace in Bollywood as it once used to be and destroys any narrative momentum before a final third which feels like it will never end as the characters keep fighting and fighting.

5. Tiger Zinda Hai (2017)

This is mostly watchable in scenes when the camera doesn’t feature Tiger (Salman Khan) but instead focuses on Zoya (Katrina Kaif).

6. Ek Tha Tiger (2012)

Unwatchable. The movie features the worst masala aspects of Indian cinema, where comedy, action, drama and songs are all mixed and thereby weaken the overall content.

Next Steps

The run rate of this YRF Spy Universe isn’t that great. I would only qualify one of these six films as good (War), with another one as decent (Pathaan) and 0 points for the others (in fairness, I should have negative points for the others). That leaves 1.5/6 which is 25%. Of course, my personal rating has no bearing on anything and the financial returns of the films ensure this franchise will continue.

The 7^th film in this franchise arrives on Dec 25, 2025 with Alpha and the post-credits of War 2 depicted the main antagonist (Bobby Doel, who seems to be every where now, be it Cinema or Streaming TV). Pathaan 2 is in the works and a future Tiger-Pathaan film as well. 

Best Films of 2024

This is an update to the previous Best Films of 2024 list. I finally now have 10 films!

Best Films of 2024

1. No Other Land (Palestine co-production, Yuval Abraham/Basel Adra/Hamdan Ballal/Rachel Szor)

Easily the most relevant film of 2024! It is amazing that this film exists at all. This isn’t the first time theft of Palestinian land is shown on camera. Pomegranates and Myrrh (2008) showed how the Israeli army uses a pretext of security to annex a Palestinian family’s home. That 2008 fictional film, albeit based on real-life scenarios, was ignored. No Other Land shows this very topic in a documentary format and it has gotten some attention. The Academy Award for Best Documentary also helped gain distribution but people will see the film and nothing will change. In fact, the land grab and stealing has been increasing after this film came out. At least, this film documents what happens and in the future, it will be evidence that the world did nothing and watched it all happen.

2. Santosh (UK/Germany/India/France, Sandhya Suri)

The core topic of the film isn’t new as many films have depicted how corruption and abuse of power allows crimes against girls/women to go unchecked. Yet, since this isn’t an Indian production, it lends an outsider observational perspective that is focused on tiny details often neglected by Indian films. Director Sandhya Suri’s previous work on documentaries is also another reason those details help in giving this film a realistic feel. In addition, there is a new angle to observe the events from women. The film is shown from the perspective of a female police officer who is wearing the uniform but who is still a civilian at heart, due to how she got the job in the first place. That allows her to straddle the line between the two worlds while still maintaining her humanity.

The two performances by Shahana Goswami and Sunita Rajwar are top-notch.

3. Soundtrack for a Coup D’état (Belgium/France/Holland, Johan Grimonprez)

Another film that takes a topic covered before but adds a new entry point which allows things to be considered in a new light. The assassination of Patrice Lumumba has been shown on film before but the association with jazz music and the incorporation of Khrushchev’s words give plenty of food for thought. This film will always be relevant because the cycle of events that this assassination started is still impacting our world.

4. Dahomey (France/Senegal/Benin/Singapore, Mati Diop)

The film focuses on the specific return of 26 artifacts to Benin but opens up what should be a universal debate about the fate of looted property across Latin America, Africa and Asia. Highly relevant and essential viewing.

5. Cloud (Japan, Kiyoshi Kurosawa)

Cloud is a gripping thriller that seamlessly weaves horror, dark humour, gangsters, crime and a social commentary of our contemporary world.

6. Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In (Hong Kong/China, Soi Cheang)

Perfect illustration of that brilliant Hong Cinema of old: incredible choregraphed fights, larger than life characters, socially relevant topic, a touch of supernatural and mythology.

7. Grand Tour (Portugal/Italy/France/Germany/Japan/China, Miguel Gomes)

The film lives up to the title yet being playful. A woman is abandoned by her fiancée who runs away yet she doesn’t give up. She follows him around the world, picking up on clues. A leisurely chase.

8. Misericordia (France/Spain/Portugal, Alain Guiraudie)

One of the most creative murder investigation films that plays with genre and expectations. There is a very subtle deadpan layer to the film which becomes apparent once the strangeness of the scenarios increases.

9. Sister Midnight (UK/India/Sweden, Karan Kandhari)

Like many films in this list, another one that creatively blends many genres together. Even though the different references and genres are admirable in their own right, not everything adds up to a coherent whole. Still, the film stands out for many stunning flourishes.

10. Universal Language (Canada, Matthew Rankin)

Matthew Rankin showed his creative talent with The 20^th Century. This time he raises the creativity bar a few more notches with a reimagined version of Canada where Farsi-French are the two official languages and people confuse Manitoba with Alberta (entirely believable from a Toronto perspective).

Honourable Mention: 

Caught by the Tides (China/France/Japan, Jia Zhang-ke)