Soi Cheang Spotlight

Spotlight on the following 5 films of Soi Cheang:

Accident (2009)

Motorway (2012)

Kill Zone 2 (2015)

Limbo (2021)

Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In (2024)

I have to thank Filipe Furtado in inspiring me to finally do a spotlight on Soi Cheang. I often saw Filipe mention films of Soi Cheang in his end of the year film lists yet I hadn’t seen any of Soi Cheang’s films. I finally decided to address my cinematic gap after seeing both Filipe place Twilight of the Warriors #8 in his top 100 of 2024 and also seeing Srikanth place the same film at #2 in his list.

Hong Kong Nostalgia

Seeing Soi Cheang’s films reminded me of a time when Hong King cinema felt top of the world. This was two decades ago when I looked forward to seeing the newest crime, thriller or romantic comedies from Hong Kong. It wasn’t just the newest Johnnie To film (PTU, Breaking News, Election, Election 2, Exiled) or the Infernal Affairs Trilogy because there was plenty of discoveries to be had on a weekly/monthly basis. These discoveries happened shortly after I came across David Bordwell’s essential Planet Hong Kong book which emphasized the need to keep up with Hong Kong cinema.

My task to keep up with Hong Kong cinema was easier in those days. A local video shop carried the newest DVDs/VCDs of Hong Kong films. I just had to show on a weekly and bi-weekly basis and select what seemed to catch my eye. Once that video store closed, then my struggles to keep up with Hong Kong started and I was down to only seeing a few films from Hong Kong per year. The last decade has resulted in many blind spots for Hong Kong cinema for me and this is around the time when many of Soi Cheang’s films were released. Watching his films took me instantly back in time to when my regular viewing consisted of watching crime, gangster, police and action thrillers from Hong Kong.

Planning, Speeding, Chasing and Fighting

Hong Kong Cinema has shown many police procedural films but Accident shows planning and procedures from a group of criminals who make their murders look like accidents. The early stages of the film show them planning out their execution strategy and with a few trial runs. However, when things don’t go as per their plan, the leader begins to doubt if they were setup and starts questioning everything including the loyalty of his group. The film shows that wafer thin line between trust and paranoia, which isn’t surprising since the group goes to great lengths to make their plans look like chance. The surveillance and scenes of waiting echo Coppola’s The Conversation. Of interest is that this is the first Soi Cheang film produced by Johnnie To’s MilkyWay production.That makes sense as this film compliments the police films of Johnnie To such as PTU.

As the title indicates, Motorway involves fast cars. Fast police cars against those driven by criminals, or specifically one cop with an aching need for speed vs a criminal with similar need. The film echoes Fast and Furious films. Importantly, Motorway came out a few years after The Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006). Tokyo Drift featured those remarkable drift sequences but Motorway has its own unique car movements, a near impossible side-way turn through a narrow street. The trick for such a turn? 8000 rpm, 2 km/hr and a steady hand as per the advice given out by veteran cop Lo Fung (Anthony Chau-Sang Wong, a regular in Johnnie To films) to the young Chan Cheung (Shawn Yue), mentor to trainee. The film also features a backstory which shows the chase for the speedy criminal goes back decades. On a separate note, the enhancing of the car to add more speed also foreshadows the recent Lost Bullet trilogy.

A cop’s missing gun is a big component of Johnnie To’s PTU (2003) but that missing gun plays a minor part in Limbo which is a serial killer hunt film. The black and white depiction of the film is an excellent choice as it enhances the darkness and filth of the surroundings. The film has a separate thread, featuring an experienced cop Cham Lau (Ka-Tung Lam), seeking revenge from the young girl who killed his wife in an accident. That separate thread is weaved into the main serial thread segment resulting in an emotional conclusion.

Emotions are also notched up near the end of Kill Zone 2 even though majority of the film focuses on fights in confined areas. Given the presence of Tony Jaa (Ong-Bak), one expects such fights and on that note, the film delivers. The story is not as refined and instead layered with plenty of melodrama, similar to that of 1980-90s Hindi language cinema. Still, Kill Zone 2 has some merit in showcasing fights that Soi Cheang would hone to perfection in Twilight of the Warriors.

Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In is easily the most accomplished of the 5 films in this spotlight and a perfect distillation of what one expects from Hong Cinema: incredible choregraphed fights, larger than life characters, social relevant topic, a touch of supernatural and mythology. The film recreates the demolished Kowloon Walled City and has a strong story which matches the visual language. The success of the film means that Soi Cheang is working on both a prequel and sequel, both of which will be shot back-to-back.

Ranking of these 5 Soi Cheang films in order of preference:

1. Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In (2024)

2. Motorway (2012)

3. Accident (2009)

4. Limbo (2021)

5. Kill Zone 2 (2015)

Best Films of the 1970s

After the rich global cinematic feast dished out by the 1960s, one would have expected that the 1970s would have increased that output. However, the 1970s pushed cinema in different directions. A few political events, some starting from the 1960s, easily played a part. To name a few global events: increasing American involvement in the Vietnam War from the mid 1960s, the May 1968 French protests, the toppling of Salvador Allende in Chile (Sept 11, 1973) violent military dictatorships in Brazil, Argentina and their disappearance of citizens, Emergency in India from 1975-77, Canada’s October crisis in 1970 and the OPEC Oil Embargo. This is not a comprehensive list but shows that cinema couldn’t have been top of people’s minds. Interestingly, this likely also played a part in the escapist summer blockbuster that came out in 1975: Jaws. This was followed 2 years later by Star Wars. Recently, Sight and Sound magazine labeled 1975 as the “year that changed cinema forever”. They picked Jaws in one corner and Jeanne Dielman in the other. One started the summer blockbuster trend, the other a path towards a new variation of artistic cinema. The 1970s also saw a handful of post-Vietnam American films and the war’s impact played a direct and indirect part in many violent and crime films. It wasn’t all doom and gloom violence in 1970s cinema. In India, the continued Parallel Cinema movement ushered in new socially charged films from the 1970s-1980s that examined rural life and also the plight of the growing middle class in urban areas.

It is tough to limit this list down to 30 films especially with the diverse range of cinematic genres and style.

Top 30 films of the 1970s:

1. Sholay (1975, India, Ramesh Sippy)

2. The Godfather (1972, USA, Francis Ford Coppola)

3. Aguirre, The Wrath of God (1972, West Germany/Mexico/Peru, Werner Herzog)

4. Ankur (1974, India, Shyam Benegal)

5. Stalker (1979, Russia, Andrei Tarkovsky)

6. The Battle of Chile (1975, Venezuela/France/Cuba, Patricio Guzmán)

7. Network (1976, USA, Sidney Lumet)

8. Manila in the Claws of Light (1975, Philippines, Lino Brocka)

9. The Last Picture Show (1971, USA, Peter Bogdanovich)

10. Touki Bouki (1973, Senegal, Djibril Diop Mambéty)

11. Scenes from a Marriage (1973, Sweden, Ingmar Bergman)

12. Solaris (1972, Russia, Andrei Tarkovsky)

13. The Conversation (1974, USA, Francis Ford Coppola)

14. The Godfather Part II (1974, USA, Francis Ford Coppola)

15. Uski Roti (1970, India, Mani Kaul)

16. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974, West Germany, Rainer Werner Fassbinder)

17. Les Orders (1974, Canada, Michel Brault)

18. Adoption (1975, Hungary, Márta Mészáros)

19. Montreal Main (1972, Canada, Frank Vitale)

20. Chess of the Wind (1976, Iran, Mohammad Reza Aslani)

21. Titas Ekti Nodir Naam (A River Called Titas, 1973, India, Ritwik Ghatak)

22. Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975, Belgium, Chantal Akerman)

23. Insiang (1976, Philippines, Lino Brocka)

24. The Emigrants / The New Land (1971/1972, Sweden, Jan Troell)

25. The Spirit of the Beehive (1973, Spain, Victor Erice)

26. The Devil, Probably (1977, France, Robert Bresson)

27. Taxi Driver (1976, USA, Martin Scorsese)

28. Days of Heaven (1978, USA, Terrence Malick)

29. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972, France/Italy/Spain, Luis Buñuel)

30. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975, UK, Terry Gilliam/Terry Jones)

Honourable mentions (in no particular order):

Killer of Sheep (1977, USA, Charles Burnett)

Le Cercle Rouge (1970, France/Italy, Jean-Pierre Melville)

The Goalie’s Anxiety at the Penalty Kick (1972, West Germany/Austria, Wim Wenders)

The Conspirators (1972, Brazil, Joaquim Pedro de Andrade)

Cuadecuc, vampir (1971, Spain, Pere Portebella)

Garm Hava (Hot Winds, 1974, India, M.S. Sathyu)

The Conformist (1970, Italy/France/Germany, Bernardo Bertolucci)

A Clockwork Orange (1971, UK, Stanley Kubrick)

Two-Lane Blacktop (1971, USA, Monte Hellman)

The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976, USA, John Cassavetes)

A Woman Under the Influence (1974, USA, John Cassavetes)

Ek Din Pratidin (And Quiet Rolls the Dawn, 1979, India, Mrinal Sen)

Chronicles of the Years of Fire (1975, Algeria, Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina)

The Mother and the Whore (1973, France, Jean Eustache)

Claire’s Knee (1970, France, Eric Rohmer)

Note: Fassbinder’s World on a Wire is a TV serial but if I considered it as a film, it would be on this list.

Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Cloud

Cloud (2024, Japan, Kiyoshi Kurosawa)

Cloud continues the multi-genre style associated with Kurosawa’s films and fits nicely within Kurosawa’s body of work. The style and themes identified in this earlier Spotlight still apply to Cloud. In addition, Cloud is a worthy extension to ideas first explored in Pulse.

Pulse (2001) was released just as the internet was becoming commonplace. The horror in the film is transmitted to anyone whose computer is connected to the internet via a dial-up modem. In Pulse, people are starting to form connections only virtually and losing face-to-face social connections. An observation from a character in the film is that everyone is sitting lifelessly in front of their computer and she notes that it is hard to tell if those people are already dead or still alive. In a way, Pulse was decades ahead of its time and came out long before smart phones, laptops and other devices allowed people to be constantly connected on the internet. The loneliness and erosion of community that Pulse raises has increased substantially over the last two decades and truly accelerated since 2020.

Cloud picks up from Pulse and continues exploration of the internet in our contemporary times when people order anything and everything over the internet. Rare items, every day items, illegal items, legal items, all are snapped up online especially if people can save a few dollars. Cloud looks at an internet reseller Yoshii (Masaki Suda) who earns a living by buying items on the cheap and selling them for a hefty profit. As the film shows, Yoshii is savvy in sniffing out deals and often buys well below the market price. He identifies situations where people are desperate and takes advantage of their needs. All is fine until Yoshii moves out of Tokyo into the countryside where his ways catch the attention of locals including the police. Meanwhile, angry online users want revenge for faulty purchases from Yoshii and band together to teach Yoshii a lesson.

The revenge unfolds in a manner reminiscent of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s style albeit with a few cinematic homages (a touch of Michael Haneke to name one). Cloud is a gripping thriller that seamlessly weaves horror, dark humour, gangsters and crime with a social commentary of our contemporary world. It is easily one of the best films of 2024!

David Cronenberg's Cinema

I have to thank Michael Guillen for helping me realize the importance of the human body in David Cronenberg’s films. Michael’s 2007 interview talked about the importance of skin in Cronenberg’s films. Expanding on his words, I started thinking about the human body in Cronenberg’s films. Since that article, I have lost count on how many articles/reviews I have come across which used “body horror” in reference to Cronenberg’s films.

Of course, horror films are driven by fear of the mind which eventually results in the physical body getting harmed. But Cronenberg has never made traditional horror films. His films have always scratched beneath the surface and in most cases, shattered the surface.

The human body:

Videodrome (1983): Evolution of the human body.
The Fly (1986): Physical transformation of the body.
Dead Ringers (1988): Two bodies sharing one emotional spirit.
M. Butterfly (1993): Hidden secrets of the human flesh.
Crash (1996): Torture of the body for pleasure.
eXistenZ (1999): Virtual mind games.
Crimes of the Future (2022): mutations/transformation of body and its organs, body as art form.

After eXistenZ Cronenberg started examining deep within the human psyche with his next 3 features.

The human mind:

Spider (2002): fragmented mind

A History of Violence (2007): darkness that exists within the human soul.

Note: The two sex scenes in A History of Violence examine the physical body; the first is a tender scene where the body is acceptable to love whereas the second scene is of a violent animal instinct which renders the female body (Maria Bello's character) lifeless.

A Dangerous Method (2011): psychoanalysis, theories of the mind.

Then a diversion from the body with Cosmopolis (2012) and Maps to the Stars (2014) before  Cronenberg returned back to the human body with Crimes of the Future.

Having explored the body and mind, now Cronenberg turns his attention to post-body.

The Shrouds (2024): decay of human body.

The Shrouds ticks off what one would expect from a Cronenberg film: sci-fi, horror, human body, technology, bursting with ideas.

Cronenberg has always been in touch with technology and found a way to weave them into his films. The Shrouds continues exploration of contemporary technology that started with Videodrome (TV, VHS) and eXistenZ (games, virtual reality). The Shrouds looks at our current usage of AI, social media, internet conspiracy theories, hacking and cellphone surveillance to ponder upon a future that may already be here.

It is exciting to see that even at the age of 82 (he was 81 when The Shrouds was released), Cronenberg is making relevant, thoughtful cinema. I look forward to his next film.

Best Films of the 1960s

The 1950s saw the release of many brilliant works of cinema from around the world but the 1960s increased that quality substantially. The 1960s is the decade when the words 'World Cinema' truly came to fruition. Some of my all-time favourite films come from this decade so trying to narrow down a list to just 30 titles was a very difficult task.

When it comes to co-productions, Italy and France rule this list with 53% of all titles (16/30) being either an Italian or French production: 8 co-productions involve both France and Italy; 13 productions involving Italy and 3 productions involving France. Of course, when it comes to those co-productions, many are perceived as belonging to only 1 country such as La Dolce Vita is considered an Italian film while Playtime as being French.

Interestingly, Italy dominates the top 10 with 5 titles including the first 4 spots. Safe to say, Italian films never hit such highs in any of my other decades list. So the 1960s were easily my favourite decade when it came to Italian cinema.

Top 30 films of the 1960s:

1. The Battle of Algiers (1966, Italy/Algeria, Gillo Pontecorvo)

2. Hands over the City (1963, Italy/France, Francesco Rosi)

3. Il Posto (1961, Italy, Ermanno Olmi)

4. La Dolce Vita (1960, Italy/France, Federico Fellini)

5. Mahanagar (The Big City, 1963, Satyajit Ray)

6. Bandits of Orgosolo (1961, Italy, Vittoria De Seta)

7. Playtime (1967, France/Italy, Jacques Tati)

8. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968, UK/USA, Stanley Kubrick)

9. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964, UK/USA, Stanley Kubrick)

10. Soleil Ô (1967, Mauritania/France, Med Hondo)

11. Black God, White Devil (1964, Brazil, Glauber Rocha)

12. Army of Shadows (1969, France/Italy, Jean-Pierre Melville)

13. An Autumn Afternoon (1962, Japan, Yasujiro Ozu)

14. L'Avventura (1960, Italy/France, Michelangelo Antonioni)

15. Le samouraï (1967, France/Italy, Jean-Pierre Melville)

16. Le Trou (1960, France/Italy. Jacques Becker)

17. Z (1969, France/Algeria, Costa-Gavras)

18. Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962, France/Italy, Agnès Varda)

19. My Life to Live (1962, France, Jean-Luc Godard)

20. Aimless Bullet (1961, South Korea, Yu Hyun-mok)

21. El Verdugo (The Executioner, 1963, Spain, Luis García Berlanga)

22. Change of Life (1966, Portugal, Paulo Rocha)

23. The Sound of Music (1965, USA, Robert Wise)

24. A Married Couple (1969, Canada, Allan King)

25. When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960, Japan, Mikio Naruse)

26. Blow-Up (1966, UK/Italy, Michelangelo Antonioni)

27. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966, Italy/Spain, Sergio Leone)

28. Memories of Underdevelopment (1968, Cuba, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea)

29. The Exterminating Angel (1962, Mexico, Luis Buñuel)

30. Meghe Dhaka Tara (The Cloud-Capped Star, 1960, India, Ritwik Ghatak)

Tough to leave out many films. Here are 11 that shouldn’t have missed out (in no particular order):

Psycho (1960, USA, Alfred Hitchcock)

Last Year at Marienbad (1961, France, Alain Resnais)

The Housemaid (1960, South Korea, Kim Ki-young)

Breathless (1960, France, Jean-Luc Godard)

Ikarie XB1 (1963, Czechoslovakia, Jindrich Polák)

Once Upon a Time in the West (1968, Italy/USA, Sergio Leone)

Closely Watched Trains (1966, Czechoslovakia, Jirí Menzel)

Noite Vazia (1964, Brazil, Walter Hugo Khouri)

The Round-Up (1966, Hungary, Miklós Jancsó)

The House is Black (1963, Iran, Forugh Farrokhzad)

La Jetée (1962, France, Chris Marker)

Best Films of the 1940s

Safe to say, the world had more serious matters to consider in the 1940s. Yet, somehow this decade resulted in two films that have dominated the Best Films of All Time list for the longest time – Casablanca and Citizen Kane. In addition, a shining example of Neorealism cinema debuted in this decade with Bicycle Thieves. Plus, quite a few 1940s noir films still top many all time film noir lists.

As WWII was fought mostly in Europe and some parts of Asis and North Africa, it isn’t surprising that majority of this list is made up of American films (6/10 films). The 4 non-American films in the list were released in 1945 or after, which makes sense with the end of WWII and the post-war recovery.

Top 10 Films of the 1940s (roughly in order of preference):

1. Citizen Kane (1941,USA, Orson Welles)

2. Bicycle Thieves (1948, Italy, Vittorio De Sica)

3. Rome: Open City (1945, Italy, Roberto Rossellini)

4. Double Indemnity (1944, USA, Billy Wilder)

5. Casablanca (1994, USA, Michael Curtiz)

6. Sullivan’s Travels (1941, USA, Preston Sturges)

7. The Great Dictator (1940, USA, Charles Chaplin)

8. The Third Man (1949, UK, Carol Reed)

9. Late Spring (1949, Japan, Yasujirô Ozu)

10. I Walked with a Zombie (1943, USA, Jacques Tourneur)

Honourable mentions:

Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949, UK, Robert Hamer)

The Lady Eve (1941, USA, Preston Sturges)

Best Films of the 1930s

While the 1920s produced a wealth of cinematic riches, that decade also marked the final flourish of silent cinema. The 1930s were characterized by the advent of “talkies” or sound films, which changed the cinematic landscape and how people perceived cinema. Hollywood studios began the shift away from silent films but the 1930s still had a good amount of silent cinema to choose from, especially from Japanese director Yasujirô Ozu who released a handful of silent cinema at the start of the decade.

Top 10 Films of the 1930s:

1. Modern Times (1936, USA, Charles Chaplin)

2. M (1931, Germany, Fritz Lang)

3. L'Âge d'or (1930, France, Luis Buñuel)

4. The Rules of the Game (1939, France, Jean Renoir)

5. I Was Born, But… (1932, Japan, Yasujirô Ozu)

6. Duck Soup (1933, USA, Leo McCarey)

7. City Lights (1931, USA, Charles Chaplin)

8. Bringing Up Baby (1938, USA, Howard Hawks)

9. The Blood of a Poet (1932, France, Jean Cocteau)

10. Earth (1930, Soviet Union, Aleksandr Dovzhenko)

Best Films of 2024

My previous comments about the broken film distribution model still stands for 2024. What I didn’t expect was that this broken distribution model and its needlessly delayed timeline of seeing films 1-1.5 years after their Cannes debut would impact my perception of a film. This is because the world was in different place in May 2024 (Cannes) compared to the first few months of 2025, which is when I saw a handful of the award-winning Cannes 2024 titles. Films such as Anora (Palme D’or), All We Imagine as Light (Grand Prix), Emilia Pérez (Jury Prize), The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Prix Special) paled in comparison to the chaotic drama that the world was thrown into. Perhaps, the warm weather at Cannes played a part in the glowing reception of these films but in the harsh reality of the cruel world, these films shrunk in stature. I like to think this isn’t a purely subjective take. Films such as Universal Language, Grand Tour and Misericordia also debuted at Cannes yet their artistic merit shone through. I may be picking on a few Cannes titles but this view also applied to other award winning festival films (Berlin, Sundance) so much so that for the first time in more than two decades, I cannot put together a list of 10 films.

My year-end list will only consist of 7 titles with 3 of those films being documentaries and 3 others that borrow heavily from documentaries. Three Documentaries in my end-of-the-year list is also another rare occurrence but all three films are timely. There are still a few 2024 films that I am waiting to see so perhaps by the end of 2025, I may be able to finally have a proper 10.

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. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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).

Best Films of the 1920s

This Best of Decades list is inspired by the recent Decades Countdown at Wonders in the Dark. Also, the idea of looking back at Cinema made 100 years ago was appealing. Silent Cinema through the 1910s produced many worthy gems but the 1920s saw a jump in film production both in terms of quantity and quality. The “Roaring 20s” meant that Hollywood studio system was properly established along with the current star system. Notable directors also made their first films such as Alfred Hitchcock, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Sergei Eisenstein. In the case of Chaplin and Keaton, their style and notable signature was established in the 1920s including the releasing of many iconic films. Half of this top 10 could easily be filled with films from Chaplin and Keaton. Films of many genres were released not only in US but across Europe as well. Many of the films that have become part of the Essential Cinema canon came out in this decade as well, such as Sunrise (1927, F.W. Murnau), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920, Robert Wiene), Metropolis (1927, Fritz Lang), Battleship Potemkin (1925, Sergei Eisenstein), Nosferatu (1922, F.W. Murnau), Greed (1924, Erich von Stroheim), The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928, Carl Theodor Dreyer) plus a handful of Chaplin (The Kid, The Gold Rush) and Keaton (Sherlock Jr., The General) titles.

Top 10 films of the 1920s:

1. Metropolis (1927, Germany, Fritz Lang)

2. The Gold Rush (1925, USA, Charles Chaplin)

3. The Crowd (1928, USA, King Vidor)

4. Battleship Potemkin (1925, Soviet Union, Sergei Eisenstein)

5. The General (1926, USA, Clyde Bruckman / Buster Keaton)

6. Man with a Movie Camera (1929, Soviet Union, Dziga Vertov)

7. Nosferatu (1922, Germany, F.W. Murnau)

8. Pandora’s Box (1929, Germany, G. W. Pabst)

9. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928, France, Carl Theodor Dreyer)

10. Napolean (1927, France, Abel Gance)

Honourable mentions:

The Kid (1921, USA, Charles Chaplin)

The Cameraman (1928, USA, Edward Sedgwick / Buster Keaton)

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920, Germany, Robert Wiene)

Un chein Andalou (1929, France, Luis Buñuel)

Top 10 by Country

Germany and US are tied with 3 films each in the top 10. France and Soviet Union have 2 films each. The top 10 ended up being more spread-out than I had anticipated. Of course, there are still a lot of films from many international nations that are either lost or not widely available, which means this list will change over the years.

Best Films of the 1950s

The Best Films of the 1950s list is inspired by the Decades list countdown at Wonders in the Dark. I will duly post the previous decades list (1920s-40s) over the next few weeks but I will start with the 1950s.

As per Sam Juliano's ask, we are allowed up to 30 titles. It is quite hard to narrow the list down to 30 films and this list has changed quite a bit over the last few decades. There are a handful of titles that were not in this list 5 years ago. For now, here goes.

Best Films of the 1950s (roughly in order of preference):

1. Apur Sansar (1959, India, Satyajit Ray)

2. Pickpocket (1959, France, Robert Bresson)

3. Ikiru (1952, Japan, Akira Kurosawa)

4. Tokyo Story (1953, Japan, Yasujirô Ozu)

5. The Wages of Fear (1953, France/Italy, Henri-Georges Clouzot)

6. Seven Samurai (1954, Japan, Akira Kurosawa)

7. The Seventh Seal (1957, Sweden, Ingmar Bergman)

8. Rear Window (1954, USA, Alfred Hitchcock)

9. Ashes and Diamonds (1958, Poland,  Andrzej Wajda)

10. Pyaasa (1957, India, Guru Dutt)

11. Rashomon (1950, Japan, Akira Kurosawa)

12. Pather Panchali (1955, Satyajit Ray)

13. La Strada (1954, Italy, Federico Fellini)

14. Kaagaz ke Phool (1959, India, Guru Dutt)

15. Vertigo (1958, USA, Alfred Hitchcock)

16. Sweet Smell of Success (1957, USA, Alexander Mackendrick)

17. Umberto D. (1952, Italy, Vittorio De Sica)

18. Godzilla (1954, Japan, Ishirô Honda)

19. Death of a Cyclist (1955, Spain, Juan Antonio Bardem)

20. 12 Angry Men (1957, USA, Sidney Lumet)

21. Roman Holiday (1953, USA, William Wyler)

22. The Red Balloon (1956, France, Albert Lamorisse)

23. The 400 Blows (1959, France, François Truffaut)

24. Orpheus (1950, France, JeanCocteau)

25. Rififi (1955, France, Jules Dassin)

26. Los Olvidados (1950, Mexico, Luis Buñuel)

27. The Gunfighter (1950, USA, Henry King)

28. Hiroshima mon Amour (1959, France, Alain Resnais)

29. Fires on the Plain (1959, Japan, Kon Ichikawa)

30. Ace in the Hole (1951, USA, Billy Wilder)

Steven Soderbergh Double-bill

Notes on two recent Steven Soderbergh films:

Presence (2024)

Black Bag (2025)

Very few directors can boast the career arc of Steven Soderbergh. His feature debut film is the stuff of Cinematic dreams. Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989) debuted at the Sundance Film Festival, won the audience award and then went on to win the Palme d’Or at Cannes. Winning the Palme d’Or at the first time of asking and at the age of 26 is an incredible feat, especially for an independent film. Soderbergh then made the jump to commercial cinema yet still finding a way to incorporate artistic indie film elements. Films such as Out of Sight (1998), Ocean’s Eleven, (2001) have a cool seductive feel and it is safe to say that in the hands of another director would have turned into mindless action films. Soderbergh directed many notable films such as Erin Brockovich (2000), Traffic (2000), Che (2008), Contagion (2011). That is why his 2011 announcement that he would retire from filmmaking was a shock. Later on, as more details emerged, he expressed his reasons related for that retirement and his return to filmmaking with a new distribution model. He has certainly re-emerged with a new prolific creativity that has filtered into both films and TV series. Case in point, his recent double: Presence (2024) and Black Bag (2025).

Both Presence and Black Bag refine genre (horror and spy thriller respectively) through an independent film’s sensibilities such as singular location and limited cast. The end result are highly creative engaging films.

The idea behind Presence is electric: a horror film where the entire perspective is seen via the eyes of the spirit with the camera doubling as the spirit’s eyes. The hovering camera is a technical joy to behold and also lends a levity to the film as the camera floats from room to room. There are no conventional jump scares in the film but still some hair-raising moments. Due to the spirit’s POV, the entire film is confined to the house the spirit occupies. The confined house location along with a very tight script and running time of just 84 minutes ensures the film is engaging from start to finish.

Black Bag is equally efficient with his running time of 93 minutes and film is bookended with scenes in a house’s dining room. These dining room scenes feature smart probing dialogues laced with alcohol or drugs (at film’s start) which ensure brutal honest jabs. The camera does leave the house and follows the characters to their place of work and outdoor locations to show agents at work in the field or making deals/exchanging information. A spy thriller wouldn’t be complete without blood, explosions and backstabbing, all three of which are present in the film but in unconventional forms. The film’s lighting and cinematography is more akin to a small indie film and add to the film’s atmosphere. Black Bag looks and feels like an indie spy thriller but one that features Hollywood recognizable stars.

It is safe to say that Soderbergh wouldn’t have been able to make films such as Presence and Black Bag prior to his retirement. However, since Logan Lucky (2017), Soderbergh has been releasing such creative films. Presence and Black Bag form a nice trilogy along with 2022’s Kimi as Soderberg worked with writer David Koepp on all 3. Soderberg and Koepp have certainly formed a nice combination and it will be interesting to see if the two combine for more films.

Kiyoshi Kurosawa Spotlight

The multi-genre bending world of Kiyoshi Kurosawa

One’s view of Kiyoshi Kurosawa will vary depending on which film of his one comes across. He has directed various genre features ranging from horror (including ghost), crime (serial killer, yakuza), thriller, mystery, fantasy, sci-fi or pure drama (family, supernatural, historical). Take a few steps back and one can see threads of family/relationships running through his films and even romance, the everlasting kind that lingers after death. In fact, many of his features are hard to classify under one genre. Given his comfort with all genres, aspects of various genres blend into one film and for good reason. In Kurosawa’s films, genre is part of the film’s framework and helps bolster the overall story and social commentary on the human condition.  For example, a film like Pulse falls under horror category but blends mystery, sci-fi and is a smart commentary on the human condition and loneliness. 

Even though he has directed multiple genre films, he has still carved out his distinctive signature because all his films are anchored with a strong narrative-character framework. This spotlight focuses on 10 of his films across these different genres to get a true flavour of his work.

Notes on 10 films of Kiyoshi Kurasawa:

Cure (1997)

Serpent’s Path (1998)

License to Live (1998)

Pulse (2001)

Doppelganger (2003)

Tokyo Sonata (2008)

Journey to the Shore (2015)

Daguerrotype (2016)

Before We Vanish (2017)

Wife of a Spy (2020)

Crime without evidence

Multiple gruesome murders are committed in Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Cure but it is not a single killer that performs the acts. Instead, loved ones or people close to the victims do the killing. Yet, the killers are not aware of their crimes as they are remotely driven by an unknown man.

The topography of Cure feels like that of a serial killer investigation film yet Kurosawa's film immediately stands apart because of the hands-off approach of the instigator who never really gets his own hands bloody. Yet, if one could open his brain, then one would see the images of blood that are being projected onto innocent would be killers. Also, another interesting layer added to the film is the weakening health of the lead police officer's wife, resulting in the killer exploiting the officer's mental state. Reality is toyed with especially in a case when the killer never has to kill a victim himself, which does raise some questions related to the true perpetrator of crimes.

Note: Kurosawa’s film predates both Bong Joon-Ho’s Memories of Murder (2003) and David Fincher’s Zodiac (2007), two stand-out murder investigation films.

Drama sprinkled with genre

Given that Kiyoshi Kurosawa made his name with horror and crime films, it is a huge surprise to see him change gears completely with the beautiful Tokyo Sonata which depicts the breakdown of a family and eventual rebirth. Ryuhei (Teruyuki Kagawa) loses his job and instead of telling his wife Megumi (Kyoko Koizumi), he continues to leave home everyday dressed for work while spending time on the streets or at a free soup kitchen. Megumi is slowly inching her way to independence but yearns for full freedom. Their elder son Takashi (Yu Koyanagi) is disenchanted with his life and believes his life would be better served by joining the American military. The youngest son Kenji (Kai Inowaki) also rebels against his parents by skipping school and using the money from his school fees to pay for secret piano lessons knowing full well that his father is against him learning music. Each character goes through a transformation after reaching a breaking point before awakening to a new dawn. Some of the family’s tender moments and even tensions share a bond with the cinema of Ozu.

Multiple Kiyoshi Kurosawa films can fall under the drama category but with unique variations that make the film hard to classify. For example, Journey to the Shore has the feel of a romantic drama about a married couple’s relationship except for a small caveat that the husband is actually dead and is a spirit who has returned to tie up a few loose threads with his wife. Wife of a Spy is dressed as a historical drama but leans heavily into a spy thriller framework but without the chases, explosions one would expect from a spy thriller. Then there is Daguerrotype which is a sumptuous fantasy drama where a daguerreotype photographer is obsessed with creating the perfect art form at the expense of his daughter’s health. However, a ghost haunts the frame and the house. In addition, the entire setting of the film in France and overall set design invokes early 19^th century even though the film is set in contemporary France.

The most straightforward drama film in this Spotlight is Kurosawa’s 1998 feature License to Live which centers around Yoshi (Hidetoshi Nishijima) who tries to rebuild his life after waking up from a 10-year coma. The film is drizzled with enough comedic elements which match the tone of the concept. The film also features an early look at actors who have become more popular over the decades. Hidetoshi Nishijima got plenty of recognition with Drive My Car (2021) but his character of Yoshi is one of his earliest feature roles; Kôji Yakusho has featured prominently in many Kurosawa films but this film along with Cure was his early collaboration with the director; Shô Aikawa found fame in Takashi Miike’s Dead or Alive films and one can get an early look at his distinctive style here; plus roles for Shun Sugata (Tokyo Vice) and also for Kôsuke Toyohara (Tokyo Vice, Godzilla vs. Biollante, Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah). On another note, the feel of License to Live has shades of Lee Chang-dong’s Green Fish (1997) which came out a year earlier.

Horror, Crime, Sci-Fi with some helping of dark comedy

Pulse is the most well-known horror film from Kurosawa’s filmography and like his other films, it isn’t confined to the horror genre. On the surface, Pulse belongs to same type of horror category as Ringu (1998) two films where technology is the medium for horror to be unleashed. However, Pulse then combines horror with sci-fi elements and a smart social commentary about loneliness and human connection. Pulse came out just as the internet was becoming commonplace and the horror in the film is transmitted to anyone whose computer is connected to the internet via a dial-up modem. In the film, people are starting to form connections only virtually and losing face-to-face social connections. An observation from a character in the film is that everyone is sitting lifelessly in front of their computer and she notes that it is hard to tell if those people are already dead or still alive. In a way, Pulse was decades ahead of its time and came out long before smart phones, laptops and other devices allowed people to be constantly connected on the internet. The loneliness and erosion of community that Pulse raises has increased substantially over the last two decades.

Like Pulse, Doppleganger is another film that was well ahead of its time. The film raises questions about Robots, Engineering and the race to harness such technology first. The core concept in the film centers around people’s doubles who mysteriously start appearing. This sci-fi scenario raises questions about who is the authentic person and who can be expendable, which in turn can be extended to apply to our contemporary world where AI is replacing the work of humans. In the film, the doubles gradually replace the main character as someone in the film notes that the original and copy can’t co-exist. However, the exception is the robot inventor Hayasaki (played by Kurosawa regular Kôji Yakusho) who learns to share work and responsibilities with his double as both are different personalities. In a way, Hayasaki’s double is akin to a Hayasaki robot, same look but none of the emotional weakness of Hayasaki. The film starts off with deaths that feel like an extension of Pulse but the film quickly changes tone to sci-fi and then comedy, both dark and slapstick. The film was clearly decades ahead of Hollywood’s AI/robot fantasies.

Before We Vanish is unlike any other alien invasion film. It starts off with gory blood before layering the material with some absurd humour before giving into its sci-fi elements. With this film, Kurosawa again shows his artistry in creating a multi-layered film. The film also has oodles of humour but in unexpected ways.

Some traces of humour can be found in Serpent’s Path although those aren’t as apparent as the film is a crime thriller. The location of a warehouse and two men threatening criminals reminds of Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs but without any of the punchy dialogue of Tarantino’s film. Serpent’s Path falls under the V-Cinema category which means straight to video and that is apparent from the film’s lower production value compared to other Kurosawa films.

Overall comments

Kiyoshi Kurosawa is not related to Japanese legend Akira Kurosawa, who is easily one of World Cinema’s most celebrated directors. While the same last name may have brought some pressure, Kiyoshi has carved out his own unique place in both Japanese and World cinema. Kiyoshi’s name is most associated with horror cinema but he has shown his talents in a variety of genres. More importantly, his films have predicated the future by accurately taking the pulse of new technology and extrapolating them to show scenarios which may have seemed unrealistic two decades ago but have come to fruition. This is why I am looking forward to seeing his newest film Cloud (2024) to see how he has built on what Pulse showed. Also, I want to view his new Serpent’s Path (2024) which transports the 1998 film story to France and is an updated remake. With a mixed French-Japanese cast and more budget, it will be interesting to see how Kurosawa has updated the material from the original V-Cinema film.

Ranking all 10 films in this Spotlight:

1. Tokyo Sonata (2008)

2. Cure (1997)

3. Pulse (2001)

4. Wife of a Spy (2020)

5. Doppelganger (2003)

6. Before We Vanish (2017)

7. Journey to the Shore (2015)

8. Daguerrotype (2016)

9. License to Live (1998)

10. Serpent’s Path (1998)