Defend Your Darlings, You Sad Pandas! (The Lists Project)

[thirtyframesasecond]

Some of mine that never made the final list.

Temptress Moon (#5) When melodrama was the chosen path of the Fifth Generation, Chen Kaige's film turns in on itself; an often bewildering film about power, corruption and family, complete with some of Chris Doyle's best camerawork.

The End of the Affair (#11) Graham Greene's my favourite writer and finally we have a cinematic adaptation that does his work justice. Jordan's film is a mature romance with a blackly comic edge, with an especially fine performance by Julianne Moore.

The Cable Guy (#29) Never really liked Carrey's straight performances in Man on the Moon and The Truman Show, two films that don't really hold up, though critics admired his work. Instead, this is Carrey's comic persona taken to its extreme; the blackest of black comedies - often frightening but always exceptionally amusing.

Strawberry and Chocolate (#31) Had some reservations about this; loyal pro-Castro student and homosexual artist strike up an unlikely friendship - it's the recipe for mawkish sentiment. Instead, it's rather affecting.

Pleasantville (#33) One of two Reese Witherspoon films in my list. I assure you there'll be none in my 00s list. Satirises the mores of the 50s and proves that the grass wasn't always greener.

Not One Less (#38) Zhang Yimou's career is bookended by lurid, intense melodramas and extravagant wuxia films. In between comes this documentary-style, almost neo-realist account of a rural school. Simple, real, honest and moving.

[colinr0380]

I’ve never been a great John Sayles fan, but my favourite film of his (Limbo, 1999) was eligible this time around but attracted nary a mention. It starts out in clunky, earnest issue-dom like a lot of his films (to me, City of Hope seemed like a really long episode of L.A. Law), but turns into a survival thriller and, ultimately, a sly narrative experiment. And, shot by Haskell Wexler, it’s surely his best-looking film.

Darn my memory, another film I was specifically going to mention on my list, had even posted about and then completely forgot to include. #-o

I also agree on The End of the Affair - while I quite liked the 1950s film (with Peter Cushing in the cuckolded husband role!), it was obviously hampered by having to skirt around some issues, while the Jordan film was able to fully explore them which made the choice of restraint (despite the rather excessive 18 rating given by the BBFC due to a couple too many vigorous buttock thrusts by Fiennes in the sex scene!) in both the characters and the film itself at certain moments much more impactful. But in the end it did not make my list.

I remember saying to zedz when I submitted my list that I couldn't do justice to the decade with only 50 spots. I ended up having to drop Liebestraum, Taste of Cherry, One False Move and so on, among many others that I didn't get to see before voting, though I did remember about Smoking/No Smoking just in time to swap Seven out for it!

[Michael Kerpan]

My most expected (but nonetheless painful) orphan:

1. Ohikkoshi / Moving (Shinji Somai, 1993). Comments and pictures here. Dyue to a computer catastrophe, I couldn't even lend an unsubbed copy of this gem (no subbed release exists, and no subbing script has ever shown up online).

The rest:

5. Qiu Ju da guan si / The Story of Qiu Ju (ZHANG Yimou,1992). I'm very surprised that this ZY film fared so poorly. Have less people seen this? Or do people just not like seeing a frowsy GONG Li?

6. Palwolui Christmas / Christmas in August (HUR Jin-ho, 1998). One of the best Korean films ever made. And I didn't do a lick of campaigning for it. Not sure of its current availability (this was the first Korean DVD I ever bought).

7. Pidä huivista kiinni, Tatjana / Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatiana (Aki Kaurismaki, 1994). One of the most good-natured of Kaurismaki's film. I never have been able to understand why others don't love this as much as I do.

8. Persuasion (Roger Michell, 1995). I consider this the best Jane Austen adaptation ever, hands down. Michell does a fantastic job of capturing the look of Austen's era. And the two leads are virtually perfect (as is the rest of the cast).

9. Haut bas fragile / Up, Down, Fragile (Jacques Rivette, 1995). Oh well, this did a bit better than these others. Perhaps it would have fared better if a subbed version was available.

10. Bakha satang / Peppermint Candy (LEE Chang-dong, 1999). Another of the best Korean films ever. Clearly few (or no) other Korean movie fans are currently active here.

12. You hua hao hao shuo / Keep Cool (ZHANG Yimou,1997). No surprise here -- as this rather atypical ZY film remains almost completely unavailable. I've only seen it courtesy of a Spanish-subbed video (which I treasure).

13. Am zin / Running Out of Time (Johnnie To, 1999) . Not much sign of Johnnie To fandom in the voting pool. Too bad. A tour de force for To and the two Lau's.

16. Conte d'hiver / A Winter's Tale (Eric Rohmer, 1992). I am quite surprised by the overlooking of this, the most interesting of Rohmer's seasonal films.

18. Musuko / My Sons (Yoji Yamada, 1991). Maybe someday Yamada will get his due in the West. This is one of his best. Too bad the only available subbed version is the mediocre (albeit passable) HK DVD.

20. Le fleuve aux grandes eaux / The Mighty River (Frederic Back, 1993). One of the most visually beautiful animated films of the decade. A bit more "political" than Crac or Man Who Planted Trees, but still this history of the St. Lawrence River is a must-see for animation fans.

24. Little Dieter Needs to Fly (Werner Herzog, 1997). I thought other people also thought this was one of Herzog's best works of the decade.

26. Ke tu qiu hen / Song of the Exile (Ann Hui,1990). Another film that has been almost impossible to see. The good news -- a subbed DVD was released recently. The bad news -- its a mediocre pan and scan job (despite the fact there was once a nice widescreen Laserdisc version).

27. Moe no suzaku / Suzaku (Naomi Kawase, 1997). Kawase's first feature film might still be her best (despite a few minor lapses). There is (or was) a wonderful French DVD (French subs only).

29. Secret défense (Jacques Rivette, 1998). Another fine Rivette film that got almost no love here.

30. Yi ge dou bu neng shao / Not One Less (ZHANG Yimou, 1999). I concur in thirtyframesasecond's lament that this got so little recognition.

33. Guo nian hui jia / Seventeen Years (ZHANG Yuan, 1999). I find Zhang Yuan's output variable, but this one (about a prisoner and a jail guard) is one of his best films.

34. Jeon tae-il / A Single Spark (PARK Kwang-su. 1995). An important Korean film -- and a very powerful one. My pick for the best "political film" ever (about a crusader for workers rights).

36. Nashan naren nagou / Postmen in the Mountains (HUO Jianqi, 1999). A sweet-natured naturalistic film by one of ZY's younger classmates.

37. Tian mi mi Comrades: Almost a Love Story (Peter Chan, 1996). Possibly the best HK romance (with comic tinges, but not quite a romantic comedy) ever. Maggie Cheung and Leon Lai are superb. Not currently available on DVD, of course.

39. Karisuma / Charisma (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 1999). One of KK's most intriguing films. I can't believe no one else voted for it.

40. Hôhokekyo tonari no Yamada-kun / My Neighbors the Yamadas (Isao Takahata, 1999). Episodic (it was based on a comic strip), but utterly wonderful animated home drama (rather reminiscent of Naruse's Sudden Rain).

41. Serial Experiments: Lain (Ryutaro Nakamura, Yoshitoshi Abe, Chiako Konaka et al, 1998). One of the best animated series ever (despite a few rough edges).

42. Trzy kolory: Bialy / Three Colors: White (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1994). The only one of this trilogy I affirmatively like.

43. The Secret Garden (Agnieszka Holland, 1993). One of the best "children's films" of the decade.

44. Jeanne la Pucelle / Joan the Maid (Jacques Rivette, 1994). Yet another fine Rivette film virtually ignored. Ho hum.

45. Wo de fu qin mu qin / The Road Home (ZHANG Yimou,1999). Possibly ZY's most moving film. If only Zhang Ziyi didn't run around _quite_ so much, I would consider it perfect.

46. Ban sheng yuan / Eighteen Springs (Ann Hui, 1997). Perhaps once Ann Hui dies people in the West will begin taking an interest in her remarkable body of work. A wonderful period piece.

47. Kikujirô no natsu / Kikujiro (Takeshi Kitano, 1999). One of my favorite Kitano films -- with my favorite Jo Hisaishi score.

49. Keduldo urichurum / The Black Republic (PARK Kwang-su. 1990). The first film of the Korean new wave (though there were a few precursors). A politically hard-hitting work that could not have been made even a few years earlier.

[mattkc]

Just a few, since only eight of my choices made the top 100.

1. J'entends plus la guitare (Philippe Garrel, 1991)
A sort of elegy for Nico, the sense of a specter looms over every frame, and the living feel almost absorbed in light. It's personal to the bone and beautifully formed. Now available on DVD with the equally magnificent Les baisers de secours.

5. Sicilia! (Straub/Huillet, 1998)
It's great to see this landed on some other lists. Not my favorite of theirs, but perhaps one of their most moving. Each frame is perfect, and the stately rhythm of this feature, little more than an hour in length, gives it an almost monumental weight, and its persuasive power (like all Straub/Huillet) far exceeds its running time. Antigone ranked even higher for me, the wonderful short Lothringen! came in at number 10, and Gropius and I were probably the only ones to vote for the severe Von heute auf morgen.

8. Good Men, Good Women (Hou Hsiao-Hsien, 1995)
Probably not his most perfect work, but extraordinary and moving all the same. This was one of the first Hou films I watched and the one that began to convince me this wasn't just another great filmmaker. The amazing fluidity of the transition towards the end from b/w to color in one camera movement reminds me oddly of a similar moment in Bruce Baillie's Quixote...

9. Secret défense (Jacques Rivette, 1998)
"Classical" Rivette, and I love it. The train ride has already been commented on elsewhere on the forum. Formally imposing but luscious, strangely statuesque, and all-round remarkable.

11. Inquietude (Manoel de Oliveira, 1998)
The last film I saw in an Oliveira retrospective, and the one that really clicked on every level for me. These strange picturesque images feel like they themselves are looking outward even as you're looking in.

13. The Blade (Tsui Hark, 1995)
To Ashes of Time what Rio Bravo is to High Noon! Well, alright, not quite, but this frantically paced tale of a one-armed swordsman is my choice of action movie of the decade. On one hand it's a wild, visceral experience, and on the other it's masterfully handled, unpretentious, aesthetically rich, minutely crafted and built up of details rather than grand gestures.

15. Babylon Series #3 (Stan Brakhage, 1990)
Part of a group of numbered series' using entirely abstract, photographed shapes of colors (the others are called Romans, Arabics and Egyptians). The Babylon Series is maybe the most mystical, cryptic arrangements of light inspired by Babylonian glyphs.

[Yojimbo]

My most expected (but nonetheless painful) orphan:

5. Qiu Ju da guan si / The Story of Qiu Ju (ZHANG Yimou,1992). I'm very surprised that this ZY film fared so poorly. Have less people seen this? Or do people just not like seeing a frowsy GONG Li?

7. Pidä huivista kiinni, Tatjana / Take Care of Your Scarf, Tatiana (Aki Kaurismaki, 1994). One of the most good-natured of Kaurismaki's film. I never have been able to understand why others don't love this as much as I do.


16. Conte d'hiver / A Winter's Tale (Eric Rohmer, 1992). I am quite surprised by the overlooking of this, the most interesting of Rohmer's seasonal films.

24. Little Dieter Needs to Fly (Werner Herzog, 1997). I thought other people also thought this was one of Herzog's best works of the decade.

29. Secret défense (Jacques Rivette, 1998). Another fine Rivette film that got almost no love here.

.

The Story of Qiu Ju was in my first draft 50, but it was one of 2 or 3 films that had to make way.

I voted for both 'Tatjana' and the Rivette: I haven't seen your other Rivette
(I take it like me you were disappointed with 'Noiseuse')
'Little Dieter' was another film that slipped through my IMDb power-search radar as I'm sure I would have found space for it, - probably at the expense of 'Crumb', in my final 50.

I haven't watched 'Winter' yet: until then 'Autumn' is my favourite: perhaps we most love those that most closely approximate our own stage in life?

[roujin]

11. Bruce Weber's video for Pet Shop Boys' "Being Boring" (1990) - Not surprised this didn't make it since it's not as creative or jaw-dropping as the Gondry videos or whatever. It sort of aims to capture that elusive feeling of youth and fun (italics very much required) and succeeds in part because the song is just that good and because of the lovely and playful way Weber's b&w images are edited. It's not all that impressive, really, just completely invigorating.

14. Simple Men + 21. Amateur - Outside of Wong, Hartley was my director for the 90s. Trust may turn out to be the best of the 90s films, but I feel like even after a couple of viewings, I've exhausted it (and the grenade business was always just really silly). Simple Men contains that great Sonic Youth dance sequence while the latter has what's probably Donovan's best performance. The Book of Life and Henry Fool could've made it in, too, but these two felt right at the time.

30. Porco Rosso - There's nothing better than being inside Miyazaki's world for a couple of hours. The image of a pig flying an airplane is so silly that by the end, I'm always surprised that I could let myself be as moved as I am by it.

31. Boyz n the Hood + 32. A Bronx Tale - It wasn't a concidence that I placed these two right next to each other. They're pretty similar films. It might be nostalgia since I associate these two with some of my earlier times, but my memory tells me that they are both extremely moving (if not terribly original) pieces of filmmaking. I figure they'd make a good double feature.

33. Live Flesh - Surely this is Almodovar's sexiest film (or at least the one that fetishizes (sp?) the bodies of each sex the most). It also features a fine performance from Javier Bardem who even back then was all smoldering and fantastic (in a wheelchair!).

36. Sombre - One of the more haunting experiences I've ever had. It's a film haunted by darkness and fraught with danger and terror. Its images are dazzlingly fragmented but the perverse beauty to be found within them is without equal in what I've seen (not much but still).

38. Umi Ga Kikoeru - I'm hoping that someone else can step in to defend this one as I don't feel to comfortable talking about it since it's been a while. I just remember tentative romance and that damn trademark Ghibli joyfulness which for me is enough to put it above most films.

39. Crooklyn - It's one of my favorite Lee films (since I'm a sucker for films about childhood) with a soundtrack that is out of this world. I'm still not sure about the fish lenses (?) in that one sequence but the rest is delightful.

40. In the Heat of the Sun - I can't help but link this to A Brighter Summer Day although in all respects it's a lesser film. I mainly remember those jarring instances where the film would interrupt the narrative to interrogate the truth of the images (did this event really take place like this? Is our protagonist lying?).

42. She and Her Cat - There's an inverse relationship in Makoto Shinkai films between the length of the film and its quality. So, the shortest of his films is actually his best. At 5 minutes, it manages to be both extremely silly and kind of poignant in the way that it portrays loneliness. I also really love that faux-grainy animation. It's tops!

43. South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut - For my money, it's one of the best musicals ever. Make of that what you will.

48. Gummo + 49. Nowhere - Another two films that I'll always associate together. They're both kind of ridiculous in a way. The former with its hillbilly metalheads and cat killing and poetic voiceovers. The latter with its dayglo teenage pop culture ultraviolence, aliens, and god knows what else. They're both ridiculous but its the ending of both films that really sell them for me. One suggesting the fragility of the images we've been watching and the second suggesting the impossibly of love. I think I also pretty much hated Nowhere the first time I watched it. Another good double feature.

50. A Touch of Fever - Apparently one of the landmarks of 90s Japanese film? It's an examination into the lives of a couple of college students who begin to sell their bodies. There's this really fascinating scene late into the film that's both completely awkward and shamelessly emotional that features the director of the film (in what feels like an exorcism of his demons, weird stuff).

[Gropius]

I’m as irritated with Matthew Barney as the next guy, and have found his recent stuff hopelessly overinflated and much less interesting, but Cremaster 2 is a rather dazzling spectacle (squeaked into my list last time around), and Cremaster 1 has a hypnotic discipline that works strongly in its favour. The ‘how dare he have such a budget and such exposure when other / better experimental filmmakers are struggling?’ criticism is understandable, but I’d rather see these films from the other end of the telescope: ‘why can’t other big budget blockbusters be this bat-shit crazy?’

That's sort of my take on him, too. He may live up to every tabloid stereotype of the money-wasting conceptual artist, and be a bit of vain buffoon, but the Cremaster Cycle conjures up an alternate universe in which the fantasies of classical Hollywood at its most lurid are cannibalised, given the mystical modernist treatment and regurgitated in unrecognisable shapes. He is perhaps most valuable as a symbol for what might be possible in a world in which film artists were not constrained by market demands, and with any luck, and some no doubt unfair distribution of cash into strategically-positioned hands, the remainder of the 21st century will throw up several more Barneys.

As for where he's gone since (namely Drawing Restraint 9), I disagree that it's 'hopelessly overinflated' (surely overinflation is the name of his game), and would argue that the alliance with Björk - apposite, given that she's in some sense his female parallel in the music industry - has been beneficial, although I found the scene in which

Spoiler

they hack at each other's limbs with flensing knives

(that might be considered a spoiler by some) as difficult to stomach as anything in Miike's Audition or an Eli Roth torture flick.

Just a few, since only eight of my choices made the top 100.

I'd be intrigued to see your full list, then, since the Straub-Huillet is the only one I've actually seen of these few you discuss. A copy & paste would do if you don't have time to annotate it. I hope some of the much-praised Oliveira's back catalogue makes it to Anglo-subbed DVD before he expires.

[Michael Kerpan]

8. Good Men, Good Women (Hou Hsiao-Hsien, 1995)
Probably not his most perfect work, but extraordinary and moving all the same. This was one of the first Hou films I watched and the one that began to convince me this wasn't just another great filmmaker. The amazing fluidity of the transition towards the end from b/w to color in one camera movement reminds me oddly of a similar moment in Bruce Baillie's Quixote...

Arggggh!

I was certain I had included this on my list (one of my top 5 HHH films). And somehow it's not there. Major screw-up for me!

The Story of Qiu Ju was in my first draft 50, but it was one of 2 or 3 films that had to make way.

I voted for both 'Tatjana' and the Rivette: I haven't seen your other Rivette
(I take it like me you were disappointed with 'Noiseuse')

'Little Dieter' was another film that slipped through my IMDb power-search radar as I'm sure I would have found space for it, - probably at the expense of 'Crumb', in my final 50.

I haven't watched 'Winter' yet: until then 'Autumn' is my favourite: perhaps we most love those that most closely approximate our own stage in life?

I like Belle Noiseuse well enough -- but already had too many other Rivette films to squeeze in.

I like Rohmer's Tales of Winter and Summer _almost_ equally, Autumn trails behind a bit -- and Spring (though okay) is far behind.

[zedz]

(surely overinflation is the name of his game)

A very fair point. Maybe stretching is a better metaphor. Cremaster 2 may be grandiose and pretentious, but it churns through a lot of visual and conceptual ideas in under and hour and a half. Cremaster 3 probably has about the same amount of stuff to work with, but stretches it out for three hours (including some interminable, badly conceived and executed sequences, like the failed slapstick in the bar). Drawing Restraint 9 has some of the focus on process and pace that worked so well with Cremaster 1, but it drags on for over two hours without, for me, ever attaining the hypnotic intensity that the earlier film managed in less than a third of the time (I found the narcissism of Drawing Restraint 9 really distracting, repeatedly draining away the tension the film was trying to build up).

[Michael Kerpan]

30. Porco Rosso - There's nothing better than being inside Miyazaki's world for a couple of hours. The image of a pig flying an airplane is so silly that by the end, I'm always surprised that I could let myself be as moved as I am by it.

38. Umi Ga Kikoeru - I'm hoping that someone else can step in to defend this one as I don't feel to comfortable talking about it since it's been a while. I just remember tentative romance and that damn trademark Ghibli joyfulness which for me is enough to put it above most films.

Both these were on my long list. I love parts of Porco, but find other parts annoyingly cartoonish. ;~}

Umi ga kikoeru has only one fault -- it is 15 or 20 minutes too short. It is an essential part of the Ghibli triptych on "young love" -- which also includes Whisper of the Heart and Only Yesterday. It's a shame that this one is so under-appreciated.

40. In the Heat of the Sun - I can't help but link this to A Brighter Summer Day although in all respects it's a lesser film. I mainly remember those jarring instances where the film would interrupt the narrative to interrogate the truth of the images (did this event really take place like this? Is our protagonist lying?).

Also on my long list.

42. She and Her Cat - There's an inverse relationship in Makoto Shinkai films between the length of the film and its quality. So, the shortest of his films is actually his best. At 5 minutes, it manages to be both extremely silly and kind of poignant in the way that it portrays loneliness. I also really love that faux-grainy animation. It's tops!

The only Shinkai work I like. (But not even on my long list).

50. A Touch of Fever - Apparently one of the landmarks of 90s Japanese film? It's an examination into the lives of a couple of college students who begin to sell their bodies. There's this really fascinating scene late into the film that's both completely awkward and shamelessly emotional that features the director of the film (in what feels like an exorcism of his demons, weird stuff).

I've read about this, but never seen it. No subbed release, I'm pretty sure.

[Scharphedin2]

6. Palwolui Christmas / Christmas in August (HUR Jin-ho, 1998). One of the best Korean films ever made. And I didn't do a lick of campaigning for it. Not sure of its current availability (this was the first Korean DVD I ever bought).

Fascinating! I wish you would have campaigned for it. I actually bought and viewed this film on the recommendation of a guy at a local DVD store back in 2002. He sold me an edition that was released in 2002, and since the cover is all in Korean, I filed it under 2002 in my database, so never even thought about it for this project. It was my first Korean film as well, and I remember being very taken with it.

[vivahawks]

5. Qiu Ju da guan si / The Story of Qiu Ju (ZHANG Yimou,1992). I'm very surprised that this ZY film fared so poorly. Have less people seen this? Or do people just not like seeing a frowsy GONG Li?

8. Persuasion (Roger Michell, 1995). I consider this the best Jane Austen adaptation ever, hands down. Michell does a fantastic job of capturing the look of Austen's era. And the two leads are virtually perfect (as is the rest of the cast).

9. Haut bas fragile / Up, Down, Fragile (Jacques Rivette, 1995). Oh well, this did a bit better than these others. Perhaps it would have fared better if a subbed version was available.

13. Am zin / Running Out of Time (Johnnie To, 1999) . Not much sign of Johnnie To fandom in the voting pool. Too bad. A tour de force for To and the two Lau's.

26. Ke tu qiu hen / Song of the Exile (Ann Hui,1990). Another film that has been almost impossible to see. The good news -- a subbed DVD was released recently. The bad news -- its a mediocre pan and scan job (despite the fact there was once a nice widescreen Laserdisc version).

29. Secret défense (Jacques Rivette, 1998). Another fine Rivette film that got almost no love here.

37. Tian mi mi Comrades: Almost a Love Story (Peter Chan, 1996). Possibly the best HK romance (with comic tinges, but not quite a romantic comedy) ever. Maggie Cheung and Leon Lai are superb. Not currently available on DVD, of course.

I never got around to submitting a list and was content to sit on the sidelines watching the action, but I wanted to interject since these are all great favorites of mine (although I would go for To's The Mission, which I was surprised to see didn't even make the also-rans; his ghost-directed Milkway projects The Longest Nite and Expect the Unexpected are also outstanding). I am particularly glad to see you mention Song of the Exile, which is flawed in some obvious conventional ways but is deeply moving for me, perhaps in part because I saw it a few years at a particularly apposite time in my life. And Persuasion is a fine adaptation of the best novel ever written.
Since I'm here, some other unlisted greats that come to mind would be Histoire(s) du Cinema (a probably unshakeable #2 for the decade after A Brighter Summer Day), The Blue Kite (the greatest mainland Chinese film of the decade), Topsy-Turvy (outdoes even Renoir as a "stage" movie), Abraham's Valley (the best rereading/reworking of a great novel since I Walked with a Zombie anticipated and outdid Jean Rhys on Jane Eyre), Actress / Ruan Lingyu (I haven't seen this in a long time, and in the memory certain things about it start to grate on me, but Maggie Cheung's awesome performance destroyed me), The White Balloon (I can't believe this didn't make also-rans, Kiarostami's scripts for "kid" films are better than his own directed ones, as this and The Key prove), Babe: Pig in the City (the best not-really-for-kids kid's movie), Good Men Good Women, A Confucian Confusion (despite the horrible script, its unbelievable mise-en-scene is the closest thing to capturing the spirit of Playtime in recent cinema). Since I like last days stuff, I'm sure at least one of two Sean Connery late cold war thrillers would have wormed its way in: The Red House or The Hunt for Red October, plus The Last Bolshevik and The Last Days of Disco in slightly different veins.

[roujin]

I've read about this, but never seen it. No subbed release, I'm pretty sure.

It's actually on Netflix! The one thing is that it's under a different name, Slight Fever of a 20-year-old. I'd love to see the director's Like Grains of Sands, it looks to improve on the rougher aspects of this film.

42. She and Her Cat - There's an inverse relationship in Makoto Shinkai films between the length of the film and its quality. So, the shortest of his films is actually his best. At 5 minutes, it manages to be both extremely silly and kind of poignant in the way that it portrays loneliness. I also really love that faux-grainy animation. It's tops!

The only Shinkai work I like. (But not even on my long list).

I get you. I don't get the praise that Shinkai gets. The other only remotely good thing he's done is Voices of a Distant Star. As I said, the longer his films are, the worse they are. They're beautiful, all right, but their beauty signifies nothing for me and they're extremely saccharine.

[reno dakota]

A few of my darlings, as yet undefended by anyone else this round:

1. Maborosi (Kore-eda, 1995) – I am surprised this one, which I still think is Kore-eda’s best, did not make the cut (zedz, I thought for sure I would find it on your list). It’s his most delicately constructed and heartbreaking film, and it never fails to move me. Maybe it will fair better next time around.

7. Wild Reeds (Téchiné, 1994) – Along with The Long Day Closes and A Brighter Summer Day, this was the decade's other great film about childhood (of those that I have seen). Not as incisive (or as bleak) as films like The 400 Blows or L’enfance-nue, for sure, but sensitively developed and bittersweet.

19. Woman Sesame Oil Maker (Xie, 1993) – The only Xie film I’ve seen so far, but well worth inclusion in the list. A great film about tradition and sacrifice. Perhaps a more accessible DVD with a better transfer might have made the difference.

32. 42 Up (Apted, 1998) & 33. 35 Up (Apted, 1991) – The omission of these two installments of Apted’s Up series is really a shame. I believe I was the only one to list either of these. Does anyone else like these? Has anyone else seen them?

[zedz]

A few of my darlings, as yet undefended by anyone else this round:

1. Maborosi (Kore-eda, 1995) – I am surprised this one, which I still think is Kore-eda’s best, did not make the cut (zedz, I thought for sure I would find it on your list).

Nearly: it got bumped and bruised and ended up at number 53. If I'd seen it since first release that might have saved it (but what would I have sacrificed?) I'll try to not let the same thing happen to Distance next time.

7. Wild Reeds (Téchiné, 1994) – Along with The Long Day Closes and A Brighter Summer Day, this was the decade's other great film about childhood (of those that I have seen). Not as incisive (or as bleak) as films like The 400 Blows or L’enfance-nue, for sure, but sensitively developed and bittersweet.

This had some strong support, but not enough of it. I like it, but for me it pales alongside the Denis, Assayas and Akerman contributions to the same series.

32. 42 Up (Apted, 1998) & 33. 35 Up (Apted, 1991) – The omission of these two installments of Apted’s Up series is really a shame. I believe I was the only one to list either of these. Does anyone else like these? Has anyone else seen them?

What? You missed 35Up's comet-like appearance at number 290, rubbing shoulders with Edward Yang and Martin Scorsese? That was on my list, but, again, got bumped, even though I think it's the best of the series and 28Up did make my 80s list.

[reno dakota]

1. Maborosi (Kore-eda, 1995) – I am surprised this one, which I still think is Kore-eda’s best, did not make the cut (zedz, I thought for sure I would find it on your list).

Nearly: it got bumped and bruised and ended up at number 53. If I'd seen it since first release that might have saved it (but what would I have sacrificed?) I'll try to not let the same thing happen to Distance next time.

Good to hear. It would be great to see more love for Kore-eda on the 2000s list. I'm not wild about Hana, but Distance, Nobody Knows, and Still Walking are all worthy of inclusion.

32. 42 Up (Apted, 1998) & 33. 35 Up (Apted, 1991) – The omission of these two installments of Apted’s Up series is really a shame. I believe I was the only one to list either of these. Does anyone else like these? Has anyone else seen them?

What? You missed 35Up's comet-like appearance at number 290, rubbing shoulders with Edward Yang and Martin Scorsese? That was on my list, but, again, got bumped, even though I think it's the best of the series and 28Up did make my 80s list.

#290? Wow. Clearly this will continue to be an uphill battle.

[Scharphedin2]

Reno, it sounds like our orphans kept each other company.

I had both Maborosi and 35Up on my list, and wrote briefly about them above.

With Apted's Up series, I started a thread a long time ago, but it has been a very lonely affair. I had started to wonder, if there simply is no interest in these films, or, people just have not seen them. Good to hear that you hold these films in the same high esteem as zedz and myself.

[reno dakota]

I'm not sure how I missed your earlier comments, Scharphedin2, but I'm delighted to find that my orphans were not alone. I would like to think that the trouble with each of these is that too few people have seen them, so getting the word out may help for next time. I realize that slow-moving Japanese films can be a tough sell, but the Up series is so immediate and accessible--not to mention cumulatively powerful--that I cannot imagine anyone coming away from these films unmoved.

[Yojimbo]

A few of my darlings, as yet undefended by anyone else this round:

32. 42 Up (Apted, 1998) & 33. 35 Up (Apted, 1991) – The omission of these two installments of Apted’s Up series is really a shame. I believe I was the only one to list either of these. Does anyone else like these? Has anyone else seen them?

I remember when the original, 7 Up, was screened on television: being a contemporary of the subjects made it especially interesting for me. Its a pity, though, that a number of the participants opted out when it could have been really interesting to see how their paths diverged.

Is there a box-set? It certainly merits one

[reno dakota]

I remember when the original, 7 Up, was screened on television: being a contemporary of the subjects made it especially interesting for me. Its a pity, though, that a number of the participants opted out when it could have been really interesting to see how their paths diverged.

Is there a box-set? It certainly merits one

Yes, indeed. There is a UK box-set here, and a US one here.

[Scharphedin2]

I remember when the original, 7 Up, was screened on television: being a contemporary of the subjects made it especially interesting for me. Its a pity, though, that a number of the participants opted out when it could have been really interesting to see how their paths diverged.

Is there a box-set? It certainly merits one

Yojimbo, as a contemporary of the series, and as an Irishman, I would be particularly interested in reading your thoughts in more detail in the thread I started.

I travel often to London through my work, and I have brought up the series with a few of the people that I work with over there, but so far (to my immense surprise) no one has seemed to be anything but vaguely aware of the series. Surprising, as I thought these films had reached a point of being cultural phenomena in Britain.

[colinr0380]

I think I caught the 1998 series but otherwise I have not really much connection with it, so my theories that follow should perhaps be seen in this context but I wonder whether the lack of promotion for the series had anything to do with it - after all these long running series need a commitment not just from the filmmakers and their subjects but also from the television channel that broadcasts it treating it respectfully and providing the opportunity for newcomers to the series as a whole to be introduced to the concept and the characters. I think that the latest 49 Up series did not get as much attention as the previous series back in 1998 had for a number of reasons.

Interestingly I think that the series charts the fortunes of ITV and its own ups and downs as much as the various people that were followed in front of the cameras. When the series began on World In Action (a defunct series in itself now) in the 60s ITV was the only commercial channel (a conglomeration of local networks really) whose only competition was the publically funded BBC. The series itself showed an ambitious and socially purposeful approach to documentary along with a more socially and culturally diverse group of participants in the series than you would ever get from the relatively more conservative and straight laced BBC, with an obviously more populist and people centred approach to the material.

Even just in the seven year jump from the 1998 to 2005 series ITV changed from an amalgamation of regional broadcasters to one over-arching company (and since 2005 for the last few years has had to pay fines for not meeting their yearly quota for the amount of programmes produced and monies spent in the regions outside of London; and has in the last few months stated that they are looking to drop their obligation to produce local news reports because they cannot afford the expense of doing so. By 2012 the country will have gone through digital switch-over and viewers will either have many hundreds of channels to choose from beyond ITV or no signal at all and ITV is already struggling with the implications of this) and reality television exploded. So while 49 Up was treated respectfully as an iconic programme it got somewhat lost in the attempts by ITV to chase Channel 4's Big Brother show, so the Apted film was shown in schedules full of I'm A Celebrity, Survivor and Celebrity Love Island stuff - things that made its 40-something participants look bizarrely quaint to a youthful audience and maybe did not fire the interest of people suffering from reality overkill and a general malaise towards the quality of ITV in general. In a sense that is a shame, as it is a series that shows life unfolding in a way which puts the lie to all these reality shows whose participants are trained to speak about their 'journey' and the lessons they learnt over the course of their ten week series of manufactured 'trials'.

While I do not often agree with many of the views David Thomson expresses, I often find his writing thought provoking. I found his piece on the series in his Biographical Dictionary of Film interesting when he wrote of the course of an 'average' British life taking quite a dark downhill course that can make quite a stark contrast to youthful idealism and naive hopes of the future, something which might make viewing later episodes a rather harrowing experience. While I'm not sure if I would fully agree with Thomson (I don't know if this is less a 'British life' thing than a 'human life' thing, though perhaps we are a grumpier people and more vocal about our frustrations so it might seem more pointed up than in other cultures!) it does make me think that 49 Up in its focus on its participants maturing and facing difficult decisions in their lives, finding themselves with obligations to families and careers that can send their lives down completely different paths than they had intended, and with no guarantee that the choice is a 'correct' one, is a very different form of reality TV, and perhaps a bleaker and more frightening one, for viewers of safely packaged emotionalist shows such as Britain's Got Talent or Big Brother where nothing is really at stake beyond the in-built manufactured tension that runs only for the length of the series itself.

[Michael Kerpan]

Since I'm here, some other unlisted greats that come to mind would be .... Topsy-Turvy (outdoes even Renoir as a "stage" movie), Actress / Ruan Lingyu (I haven't seen this in a long time, and in the memory certain things about it start to grate on me, but Maggie Cheung's awesome performance destroyed me), ... Good Men Good Women,

I did list Actress -- but didn't mention it because it did comparatively well (I think). I also listed Topsy-Turvy, but forgot to add it to my list of orphans. And Good Men Good Women was (as mentioned above) an unforgivable error -- I planned on it being high on my list -- but it got left behind in the process of cutting and pasting my final list. (My only excuse is that I was in the hospital at the time).

As to Kore'eda in the 2000s. I love everything -- including the woefully under-appreciated Hana.

By the way -- Maborosi was in my top 20 -- but I tried to avoid moaning about things that at least made it into the second tier (I don't consider this phenomenal group of films to be true orphans -- even though I wish Maborosi HAD made it into the top tier).

It's{Touch of Fever} actually on Netflix! The one thing is that it's under a different name, Slight Fever of a 20-year-old. I'd love to see the director's Like Grains of Sands, it looks to improve on the rougher aspects of this film.

Hasiguchi's recent Gururi no koto has gotten huge amount of praise. I have it in my "to be watched pile".

I get you. I don't get the praise that Shinkai gets. The other only remotely good thing he's done is Voices of a Distant Star. As I said, the longer his films are, the worse they are. They're beautiful, all right, but their beauty signifies nothing for me and they're extremely saccharine.

Not only I -- but also my three children -- loathed Voices of a Distant Star. The idea was okay -- but the execution was dreadful.

[reno dakota]

As to Kore'eda in the 2000s. I love everything -- including the woefully under-appreciated Hana.

I do like Hana--and you're probably right about it being under-appreciated--but it didn't impress me as much as his other films. I'll certainly be watching it again, though, before I make my 2000s list. Any word on his newest one, Air Doll?

[Michael Kerpan]

I do like Hana--and you're probably right about it being under-appreciated--but it didn't impress me as much as his other films. I'll certainly be watching it again, though, before I make my 2000s list. Any word on his newest one, Air Doll?

Hana might actually be right behind Distance as my favorite Kore'eda film of the decade -- so far. Air Doll got a lot of great reviews. I suspect I won't see this myself until the Japanese DVD eventually comes out.