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)

The Films of Hou Hsiao-hsien

Notes on all 18 Features of Hou Hsiao-hsien and a Top 10 list:

Cute Girl (1980)

Cheerful Wind (1981)

The Green, Green Grass of Home (1982)

The Boys from Fengkuei (1983)

A Summer at Grandpa's (1984)

A Time to Live, A Time to Die (1985)

Dust in the Wind (1986)

Daughter of the Nile (1987)

A City of Sadness (1989)

The Puppetmaster (1993)

Good Men, Good Women (1995)

Goodbye South, Goodbye (1996)

Flowers of Shanghai (1998)

Millennium Mambo (2001)

Café Lumière (2003)

Three Times (2005)

Flight of the Red Balloon (2008)

The Assassin (2015)

This spotlight started with the Early films of Hou Hsiao-hsien(HHH) and then was completed by viewing the half-dozen missing films from his output. A few patterns emerged and I am going to arrange his films in the following phases.

HHH 1.0: light-hearted romantic films

The first three films of Hou Hsiao-hsien films fall in this category: Cute Girl (1980), Cheerful Wind (1981), The Green, Green Grass of Home (1982).

The Boys from Fengkuei (1983) stands apart from these three and can be considered HHH 1.5.

HHH 2.0: autobiographical, memories, coming-of-age

The three films in this phase are: A Summer at Grandpa's (1984), A Time to Live, A Time to Die (1985), Dust in the Wind (1986).

Two of the three films are part of Hou’s Coming-of-age trilogy: A Summer at Grandpa's (1984), A Time to Live, A Time to Die (1985), Daughter of the Nile (1987).

The style we associate with Hou Hsiao-hsien are present in these films: long takes, static camera, realistic settings. There are sprinkles of Ozu flourishes in Dust in the Wind, which features images of the village, sky and landscape.

A Summer at Grandpa's, A Time to Live, A Time to Die and Dust in the Wind have such a lived-in feel that they don’t feel like scripted cinema. The realism of the settings, the character’s behaviours are so well outlined that it feels like we watching a camera capture everyday occurrences of the town folk. In addition, Dust in the Wind nicely sets up the urban lifestyle challenges in the next phase.

HHH 2.5: contemporary / urban portrayals

The contemporary / urban portrayal can be its own phase, but I am putting it at 2.5 because stylistically it is an extension of the 2.0 coming-of-age phase except the main characters are in the next age category (young adults in early 20s) compared to the teenagers from the 2.0 phase.

The first film in this phase is Daughter of the Nile (1987) with the next few films separated by decades: Goodbye South, Goodbye (1996), Millennium Mambo (2001) plus the third segment of Three Times.

Daughter of the Nile is closely aligned with Millennium Mambo in showing the isolated alienated life of a young woman in a city. Daughter of the Nile is the first pure city set film of Hou’s career.

Goodbye South, Goodbye is the first film dealing with crime and gangsters even though earlier Hou films featured those elements on the fringes. The film is also a contemporary look at youth in Taiwan, something explored in Daughter of Nile and subsequently in Millennium Mambo.

The final segment of Three Times (2005, A Time For Youth) forms a connective thread along with Millennium Mambo in depicting the isolation and alienation of characters in urban centers.

HHH 3.0: political topics as background, remembrance of a time past

The political past serves as fodder for A City of Sadness (1989), The Puppetmaster (1993), half of Good Men, Good Women (1995) and also for two segments of Three Times (2005). In addition, A City of Sadness, The Puppetmaster form Hou’s Taiwan trilogy along with Dust in the Wind.

It is in this phase that HHH got plenty of universal acclaim and it is easy to see why. A City of Sadness and The Puppetmaster are two of his strongest films that intelligently use historical aspects to craft personal tales of everyday people.

HHH 4.0: films set outside of Taiwan

The films in this phase are Flowers of Shanghai (1998), Café Lumière (2003), Flight of the Red Balloon (2008), The Assassin (2015).

Flowers of Shanghai and The Assassin are set in earlier periods of China, which sets them apart from his other Taiwan based films. Café Lumière is set in Japan (primarily Tokyo) and is HHH’s tribute to Ozu while Flight of the Red Balloon is set in Paris and uses the 1956 French film The Red Balloon as a reference point.

Top 10 HHH films

With the exception Hou Hsiao-hsien’s first 3 features (the trio of romantic comedies), his remaining films are all excellent. It is tough to leave out many films from this 10.

1. Flowers of Shanghai (1998)

This stunning visual feast is the high-point of Hou Hsiao-hsien’s cinematic style! The story centers around brothels in 1880’s China where games are played and the losers have to drink up. Food is served and then someone leaves with a girl of their choice. Problems arise when love comes into the equation. A man wants to buy a woman’s freedom but that does not go as per plan. Jealousy and doubts set in, and in the end, heartbreak follows.

2. Three Times (2005)

This film is the perfect encapsulation of Hou Hsiao-hsien’s filmography as it deals with the director’s past and contemporary themes, as indicated by the title. The titles of the segments are a nod towards the director’s previous film A Time to Live and a Time to Die. In Three Times, the three segments are called “A Time for Love” (1966 love story), “A Time for Freedom (1911 segment nod towards his The Flower of Shanghai) while “A Time for Youth” is an extension of the urban characters Hou covered later in his career.

Each segment has a different colour palette with the first 1966 segment in simple colours (not too bright), the middle 1911 segment in bright colours while the final 2005 segment as grayish tones. One connecting element of the three stories in Three Times is the usage of text messages as a form of communication. All the characters use one form of the written word to express their feelings, be it via letters, scrolls or SMS text messages. The audience is brought in the loop as we get to read the messages itself in the 1911 via title cards.

3. A City of Sadness (1989)

An emotional powerful film that highlights the period of “White Terror” in late 1940s Taiwan (1945-49) by depicting the plight of the Lin family. This film marked a departure from Hou’s previous coming-of-age / rural portrayals by directly depicting the impact of political changes on Taiwanese lives.

4. The Puppetmaster (1993)

This is the second in Hou’s political films after A City of Sadness but the time period is earlier than A City of Sadness. The Puppetmaster covers the time period from 1909 to 1945 and depicts Taiwanese life under Japanese occupation. Based on the memoirs of Li Tian-lu, a real-life Taiwanese puppeteer, the film creatively depicts puppet performances spliced with snippets of Li Tian-lu’s life. As a result, the puppet performances fill a narrative gap by showing key historical events and also highlighting the Japanese propaganda that the puppet plays were meant to depict.

5. Dust in the Wind (1985)

An emotional yet beautiful love story that straddles the rural-urban divide that Hou Hsiao-hsien covered in his films. In that regard, this film is the precursor to the alienated urban life portrayed in HHH’s 2.5 phase.

6. The Assassin (2015)

The Assassin shows that in the hands of an auteur a wuxia genre can be transformed into a work of breath-taking art. Hou Hsiao-Hsien references his earlier films but also dives into a political landscape with a razor-sharp eye for detail.

7. The Boys from Fengkuei (1983)

The Boys from Fengkuei observes the characters in their moments of mischief, fights, joy, sadness without adding any emotional musical cues. The film even features a motorcycle tracking shot, a sequence found in many subsequent Hou Hsiao-hsien films especially Goodbye South, Goodbye.

8. Goodbye South, Goodbye (1996)

Gangsters go through their complicated lives trying to etch out a better deal and a better future for themselves. At times the movie has shades of Hong Kong gangster/Japanese Yakuza movies but this one stands completely on its own. The film gives a glimpse into the lowest rungs of gangster business, a tier where negotiations are made over the kind of chickens to be traded, gambling rackets, family inheritances and other back-room deals. The camera just waits patiently and allows us to observe what the characters will do next, how they will react and how they will cope.

9. Millennium Mambo (2001)

With Millennium Mambo, Hou changes gears completely and portrays the club hopping life of Taiwanese youth. The film is basked in cool bluish visuals mixed with some bright neon lights as the main character Vicky (Shu Qi) alternates from clubs and bars while her boyfriend gets into fights. Shu Qi carries this film on her shoulders and the camera leisurely hovers over her as she changes clothes, walks around half-naked, makes love, gets into fights with her boyfriend and attempts to run away from him.

10. Café Lumière (2003)

The movie is HHH’s tribute to Ozu’s Tokyo and I hadn’t appreciated this movie when I first saw it because I hadn’t seen too many Ozu films. Café Lumière is a lovingly nod towards Ozu but also shows the tender restraint in Hou’s style. This film is a rarity now because it shows us a Tokyo that isn’t overrun with tourists like our current times. In a way, this film is a memory of the charm and beauty one could find in Tokyo decades ago.

Other Reading:

1. David Bordwell on Early Hou films.

2. Yvonne Ng on The Puppetmaster (note: this downloads a pdf).

3. Kent Jones on HHH in Film Comment.

4. J. Hoberman on The Puppetmaster.

5. Jonathan Rosenbaum on HHH.

Best Films of the 2000s

The clock ticked from 1999 into 2000 and surprise! The World didn’t end! In order to celebrate the planet’s survival, the year 2000 ushered in some incredible films. But wait, there was more to follow. Each subsequent year in this decade resulted in even more stellar films from all corners of the world. New Waves from South Korea and Romania washed up on all corners of the globe, first via Film festival reports and then word of mouth. In addition, South East Asian cinema announced itself on the world stage led by emerging works from Thailand, Malaysia and Philippines. This decade saw the arrival of Apichatpong Weerasethakul and even the Cannes Jury led by Quentin Tarantino was lost for words over the poetic brilliance of Apichatpong’s Tropical Malady. The advent of digital camera certainly made filmmaking more accessible to many nations and Philippine cinema took advantage of that: Brillante Mendoza and Lav Diaz took very different approaches to cinema but both made waves at film festivals. Latin American cinema had many new brilliant voices in this decade: the Argentine New Wave started in the 1990s but auteurs such as Lisandro Alonso, Lucretia Martel released their films in this decade; Brazilian cinema was a force to be reckoned with again led by City of God, which shocked audience and became a buzz worthy must-see film.

If the 1960s was a Golden age of cinema, then the 2000s was a New Golden Age of Cinema and featured many more new nations releasing films that topped critics/cinephiles list. The 2000s have way too many good films to narrow down to just 30. This list has changed quite a bit over the years due to my changing perspective with re-watches. I expect this list will change again in the future.

Top 30 Films of 2000s:

1. In the Mood for Love (2000, Hong Kong, Wong Kar-wai)

2. Black Friday (2004, India, Anurag Kashyap)

3. L’Intrus (2004, France, Claire Denis)

4. Yi Yi: A One and a Two (2000, Taiwan, Edward Yang)

5. Mulholland Drive (2001, USA, David Lynch)

6. Khosla Ka Ghosla (2006, India, Dibakar Banerjee)

7. The Time That Remains (2009, Palestine co-production, Elia Sulieman)

8. Crimson Gold (2003, Iran, Jafar Panahi)

9. Children of Men (2006, UK/USA/Japan, Alfonso Cuarón)

10. Tropical Malady (2004, Thailand, Apichatpong Weerasethakul)

11. Liverpool (2008, Argentina, Lisandro Alonso)

12. Police, Adjective (2009, Romania, Corneliu Porumboiu)

13. The Motorcycle Diaries (2004, Argentina/Brazil co-production, Walter Salles)

14. Cinema, Aspirins and Vultures (2005, Brazil, Marcelo Gomes)

15. Mr. and Mrs. Iyer (2002, India, Aparna Sen)

16. Election (2005, Hong Kong, Johnnie To)

17. Infernal Affairs (2002, Hong Kong, Andrew Lau/Alan Mak)

18. Slingshot (2007, Philippines, Brillante Mendoza)

19. In the City of Sylvia (2007, Spain, José Luis Guerín)

20. Volver (2006, Spain, Pedro Almodóvar)

21. Donnie Darko (2001, USA, Richard Kelly)

22. Extraordinary Stories (2008, Argentina, Mariano Llinás)

23. Bend it Like Beckham (2002, UK/Germany/USA, Gurinder Chadha)

24. Colossal Youth (2006, Portugal, Pedro Costa)

25. Memories of Murder (2003, South Korea, Bong Joon Ho)

26. Evolution of a Filipino Family (2004, Philippines, Lav Diaz)

27. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2005, Romania, Cristi Puiu)

28. Werckmeister Harmonies (2000, Hungary, Béla Tarr/Ágnes Hranitzky)

29. Platform (2000, China, Jia Zhang-ke)

30. What Time is It There? (2001, Taiwan, Tsai Ming-liang)

Honourable mentions (in no particular order):

West of the Tracks (2002, China, Wang Bing)

Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait (2006, France/Iceland,Douglas Gordon/Philippe Parreno)

Breathless (2008, South Korea, Yang Ik-joon)

Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! (2008, India, Dibakar Banerjee)

4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007, Romania, Cristian Mungiu)

District 9 (2009, South Africa co-production, Neill Blomkamp)

Amélie (2001, France/Germany, Jean-Pierre Jeunet)

Bad Education (2004, Spain, Pedro Almodóvar)

Our Beloved Month of August (2008, Portugal, Miguel Gomes)

The Referees (2009, Belgium, Y.Hinant/E.Cardot/L.Delphine)

Kontroll (2003, Hungary, Nimród Antal)

Amores Perros (2000, Mexico, Alejandro G. Iñárritu)

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006, Mexico/Spain, Guillermo del Toro)

Devils on the Doorstep (2000, China, Wen Jiang)

The Barbarian Invasions (2003, Canada, Denys Arcand)

Nine Queens (2000, Argentina, Fabián Bielinsky)

Salt of This Sea (2007, Palestine co-production, Annemarie Jacir)

City of God (2002, Brazil, Fernando Meirelles/Kátia Lund)

Moolaade (2004, Senegal co-production, Ousmane Sembene)

Be Calm and Count to Seven (2008, Iran, Ramtin Lavafipour)

Iron Island (2005, Iran, Mohammad Rasoulof)

Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002, South Korea, Park Chan-wook)

Best Films of the 1990s

The 1990s started an upward trend in Cinema led by the emergence of New Waves of Independent Cinema throughout the world. USA, India, Argentina and Iran are just a few example nations that had notable surges of quality cinema. Many celebrated directors made their feature debut in this 1990s such as Jafar Panahi, Jia Zhang-ke, Hong Sang-soo, Park Chan-wook, Tsai Ming-liang, Bruno Dumont, Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson, David Fincher, Richard Linklater to name just a few. In addition, the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 meant that cinema from Eastern Europe started to re-emerge. 

The 1990s also saw an increase in usage of special effects in Hollywood films which coupled with the increase of multiplex cinemas changed cinema and theatrical experience forever. As an example, the decade is book-ended by Terminator 2 (1991) and The Matrix (1999), two films whose special effects helped pave the way for current Comic book films. Almost two decades after Jaws, Steven Spielberg raised the stakes for summer blockbusters with Jurassic Park (1993). Interestingly, The Phantom (1996) and Blade (1998) came out in this decade long before the multiplexes regularly showed Comic book movies. Then there were the animated Disney movies Aladdin (1992), The Lion King (1994) and Pixar’s Toy Story (1995) which opened the floodgates for more animated films to follow. In terms of both commercial and artistic cinema, the 1990s laid the groundwork for even better cinema to emerge in the 2000s. In that sense, the 1990s mirrored the 1950s. The 1950s had some brilliant films leading into a stellar 1960s.

Top 30 Films of the 1990s

1. Taste of Cherry (1997, Iran/France, Abbas Kiarostami)

2. Chungking Express (1994, Hong Kong, Wong Kar-wai)

3. The Stranger (1991, India, Satyajit Ray)

4. Beau Travail (1999, Claire Denis)

5. Flowers of Shanghai (1998, Taiwan, Hou Hsiao-Hsien)

6. Satantango (1994, Hungary, Béla Tarr)

7. Dharavi (1992, India, Sudhir Mishra)

8. Maachis (1996, India, Gulzar)

9. The Big Lebowski (1998, USA/UK, Joel Coen/Ethan Coen)

10. A Summer in La Goulette (1996, Tunisia co-production, Férid Boughedir)

11. Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar (1992, India, Mansoor Khan)

12. A Brighter Summer Day (1991, Taiwan, Edward Yang)

13. The Wind Will Carry Us (1999, Iran, Abbas Kiarostami)

14. The White Balloon (1995, Iran, Jafar Panahi)

15. Underground (1995, Yugoslavia, Emir Kusturica)

16. Central Station (1998, Brazil/France, Walter Salles)

17. Eat Drink Man Woman (1994, Taiwan, Ang Lee)

18. Dark City (1998, Australia/USA, Alex Proyas)

19. Is Raat ki Subah Nahin (1996, India, Sudhir Mishra)

20. Open Your Eyes (1997, Spain/France/Italy. Alejandro Amenábar)

21. Sarfarosh (1999, India, John Mathew Matthan)

22. Cure (1997, Japan, Kiyoshi Kurosawa)

23. Close-Up (1990, Iran, Abbas Kiarostami)

24. Hyenas (1992, Senegal, Djibril Diop Mambéty)

25. Bolivia (1999, Argentina/Holland, Israel Adrián Caetano)

26. Rebels of the Neon God (1992, Taiwan, Tsai Ming-liang)

27. Eyes Wide Shut (1999, UK/USA, Stanley Kubrick)

28. The Matrix (1999, USA/Australia, Lana Wachowski/Lilly Wachowski)

29. Fight Club (1999, USA, David Fincher)

30. All About my Mother (1999, Spain, Pedro Almodóvar)

Honourable Mentions:

Casa De Lava (1994, Portugal/France/Germany, Pedro Costa)

Satya (1998, India, Ram Gopal Varma)

Crane World (1999, Argentina, PabloTrapero)

My Cousin Vinny (1992, USA, Jonathan Lynn)

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999, USA co-production, Jim Jarmusch)

Delicatessen (1991, France, Marc Caro/Jean-Pierre Jeunet)

Rudaali (1993, India, Kalpana Lajmi)

The Shawshank Redemption (1994, USA, Frank Darabont)

Good Will Hunting (1997, USA, Gus Van Sant)

The Game (1997, USA, David Fincher)

12 Monkeys (1995, USA, Terry Gilliam)

Pulp Fiction (1994, USA, Quentin Tarantino)