DVD International Board Must-See Films List

[CameraBuff]

Japan:
(best suppliers IMHO CDJapan and Amazon.jp, YesAsia overpriced
for R2)
Grave of the Fireflies R1/2
EUREKA R2/3
Gaichu R2 (no Eng sub)
Love Letter R2/3
To Love R2/3
Ganbatte! R2
Nobody Knows
All Kurosawa DVDs - R1/2/3
All Studio Ghibli DVDs incl Episode 2 - R1/2/3
Rikyu - R1/2

Poland (co-produced with France in some cases):
Good supplier: Astabe.pl (site in English)
Double Life of Veronique - R2 this year
Three Colours - R1/2/3
Camera Buff - R1/2
Blind Chance - R1/2
Scar - R1/2
Decalog - R1/2/3
Kieslowski - I'm So-so, R1/2
Danton - R2 so far only
Szpital Przemienienia - R2 (astabe.pl Eng sub)
http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movie...ml?v_id=149191
Big Animal - R2 (script K Kieslowski) - no Eng, Astabe.pl
The Pianist - R1/2/3
The Promised Land - R1/2

Austria
Piano Teacher R1/2/3

Russia
The Mirror R1
The Russian Ark R1
Ballad of a Soldier R1

Spain
Farinelli - R1/2

Umm I guess there are many more, just from the top of my head :-).

[uebetan12@yahoo]

here are some of the other great films:

hababam sinifi [1975] turkey

my name is tamino [2002] italy/canada

moolaade [2002] senegal

one armed sworsman [1967] hong kong

old boy [2003] s.korea

beautiful boxer [2003] thailand

killer clans [1979] hong kong-- from shaw bros

five venoms [1980] hong kong-- from shaw bros

battle royale [2000] japan

and of course.. don't forget criterion titles

[uebetan12@yahoo]

i had the pleasure recently of finding an obscure classic,

the saragossa manuscript {1965},


released by image on region1. considered as the greatest movie to come out of poland.
it recently won a poll in kazakhstan as the greatest from its home country. check it out!

[Vendetta-AKK]

I'm just going to do recent stuff or my list would be too long to read:

I want to join the choir of praise for A Bittersweet Life (Korea)

All 3 parts of The Vengeance Trilogy are wonderful (Korea)

I rather enjoyed Shinobi: Heart Under Blade (Japan). This was sort of like Azumi but with a story line and great CGI action sequences.

Takashi Miike's Great Yokai War (Japan) was good in a very weird sort of way.

[kovacs01]

I will contribute my $.02 and update my list as necessary. I'm trying to go with those I do not already see mentioned.

Hungary
Kontroll -- i heard its being remade for american audiences. they will mess it up for sure.

Poland
Avalon -- Check it out if you are a fan of The Matrix, Equilibrium, and eXistenZ

Korea
Musa (aka The Warrior) -- Great period epic

Hong Kong
Mau Gaan Dou (Infernal Affairs) I-III -- Great cop dramas

Japan
Tasogare Seibei (Twilight Samurai) -- Stunning

Germany
Der Tunnel -- How to get out of communist E. Berlin

[LiK]

Japan:
battle royale (the region 0 and region 3 DVDs are okay but i'd like a region 1 DVD set with subs for the extras...)
azumi (the SE 'out of print' region 2 release is the best one although the lack of subs for the extras was disappointing

China:
anything with gordon liu (all the remastered region 3 shaw bros movies are AWESOME!)

HK:
anything with jackie chan (the remastered region 0 and region 3 DVDs are excellent but the extras are lacking)
infernal affairs I-III (the SE DVDs are great and better than the regular releases with nice little bonuses)

Korea:
the jackie chan set with three remastered VERY old movies of jackie in region 3 (nice video quality and restored footage in "young master" i've never seen. kinda odd it was only distributed in korea.)

[Rypro 525]

Originally Posted by LiK

Japan:
battle royale (the region 0 and region 3 DVDs are okay but i'd like a region 1 DVD set with subs for the extras...)
azumi (the SE 'out of print' region 2 release is the best one although the lack of subs for the extras was disappointing

if your region free player can do a decent ntsc to pal conversion, I'd recomend the 2 disc dc of battle royale from the UK.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...593800-4467630

[uebetan12@yahoo]

the region 2 disc of battle royale from what ive heard was not tweaked a little bit edition and is not the extended version

[dvdordie]

Korean Must See Films

. Failan (Pailan)
. Memories Of Murder (Sal-In Choo-Uk)
. Friend (Chin-Goo)
. My Sassy Girl (Yupki-Jugin Goo-Nyu)
. The Beast and The Beauty (Yasoo Wa Meenyu)

My 2 cents.

[mrwilson]

Originally Posted by LiK

Korea:
the jackie chan set with three remastered VERY old movies of jackie in region 3 (nice video quality and restored footage in "young master" i've never seen. kinda odd it was only distributed in korea.)

What Jackie Chan set is that?

[lordzeppelin]

Originally Posted by kovacs01

Poland
Avalon -- Check it out if you are a fan of The Matrix, Equilibrium, and eXistenZ

Not quite sure if I'd classify this as Polish or Japanese, being that it is a Maomoru Oshii film that just happens to be filmed in the Polish language...but I picked this up years ago. It is a very much overlooked and fantastic film on many levels... I love the style Oshii brings from his animated films to live action, constructing images on screen that look like they are straight out of a manga. The story is pretty damn cool too...definitely a must see.

[uebetan12@yahoo]

how about:

knights of the teutonic order (1960) poland

marketa lazarova (1967) czech republic/slovakia

fall of otrar (1971?) kazakhstan/u.s.s.r.

the red and the white (1973?) hungary/u.s.s.r.

el topo (1973) mexico

cyclo (1995) vietnam

holy mountain, santa sangre, fando & lis- all by alejendro jodorowsky

[Cosmic Bus]

Originally Posted by uebetan12@yahoo

how about:

cyclo (1995) vietnam

All three of Tran Anh-Hung's efforts (Scent of Green Papaya, Cyclo, Verticle Ray of the Sun) are among my favorites, and are certainly some of the lushest, most exquisitely filmed as well. There's a lovely Green Papaya/Cyclo double-feature DVD put out by Arte in France.

Some of my own recommendations:

Eli, Eli, Lema Sabachthani? (Shinji Aoyama; Japan, 2005) -- R2 Jpn [VAP]
Vengeance Is Mine (Shohei Imamura; Japan, 1979) -- R2 UK [Eureka/Masters of Cinema]
The Face of Another (Hiroshi Teshigahara; Japan, 1966) -- R2 UK [Eureka/Masters of Cinema]
Pitfall (Hiroshi Teshigahara; Japan, 1962) -- R2 UK [Eureka/Masters of Cinema]
Toto the Hero (Jaco van Dormael; France, 1991) -- R2 UK [Second Sight]
Innocence (Lucile Hadzihalilovic; France, 2004) -- R2 UK [Artificial Eye]
The Consequences of Love (Paolo Sorrentino; Italy, 2004) -- R2 UK [Artificial Eye]
Day of the Beast (Alex de la Iglesia; Spain, 1995) -- R2 Spain [Universal] *sadly, no anamorphic version is available on DVD*

[uebetan12@yahoo]

el topo

holy mountain

santa sangre

all from alejandro jodorowsky of mexico

[chente]

Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy (Pather Panchali, Aparajito, World of Apu) - India

[Yakuza Bengoshi]

Originally Posted by Cosmic Bus

There's a lovely Green Papaya/Cyclo double-feature DVD put out by Arte in France.

Unfortunately, it's OOP. I sold my R1 "Green Papaya" many months ago in anticipation of buying it, but never got around to it until it was too late to acquire at a reasonable price. I ended up settling for the UK release.

I'll add some musts as well (version selected represents a best-bang-the-buck approach to cost and quality considerations at time of purchase, and could be outdated now):

Complete Jean Vigo (Artificial Eye, UK)
Naked Island (Shindo) (Masters of Cinema, UK)
Apu Trilogy (Ray) (Artificial Eye, UK)
Mirror (Tarkovsky) (Artificial Eye, UK)
Offret (Tarkovsky) (Sverige Frankrike, Sweden)
Maboroshi no hikari (Koreeda) (Spectrum, South Korea)
The Red and the White (Jancso) (Second Run, UK)
Portrait of Jason (Clarke) (Second Run, UK)
Last Year at Marienbad (Resnais) (Optimum Releasing, UK)


EDIT: Removed Man with a Movie Camera (Vertov) (BFI, UK) based on the fact that my copy has been surpassed by later releases. Refer to DVDBeaver for recent comparisons.

[NoirFan]

Originally Posted by Yakuza Bengoshi

Man with a Movie Camera (Vertov) (BFI, UK)

How is the Kino version of this? It isn't mentioned in the DVD Beaver comparison. I'm wondering if I should pick it up now, or hold off and get the BFI edition w/ commentary once I get a region free player. DVD Beaver seems to think the BFI edition has a poor transfer though.

[JuCo]

Tops for me would be:

Familia - (Fernando Leon, don't know if it's available in US)
Barrio - (Fernando Leon - ditto)
Calabuche and Bienvenido Mr. Marshall - (Luis Berlanga, not sure on US avails either)

I love these!

[strathalbions]

Australian Film MODERN LOVE

http://www.devoteddvd.com.au/shop/pr...ducts_id=43481
http://www.dvdorchard.com.au/Product...he=0%2E5254785


VARIETY MAG REVIEW
http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117...goryid=31&cs=1

IMDB LISTING
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0808380/

[dvd_freak]

India:

- Like Stars On Earth (Taare Zameen Par) - R1 release Sept. 2009 from Walt Disney
- Swades (Available in the US)
- Chak De India (Available in the US)
- Sarkar (Available in the US)