World cinema - list your fav local movies

I love world cinema, movies that are not hollywood and give some kind of insight of countries and cultures.
Usually I browse the web for information, buy random movies on ebay/web that look cool, but nothing compares to actually asking locals what they think are the best movies from their own country!

So would everybody be so kind in listing their home country and what you think are the best movies from your side of the globe? You don't need to actually be from that country if you want to mention some gem you found from country x go ahead :thumbsup:

I usually go for movies from South Korea, Brazil, South Africa, China, Spain, Portugal & Germany but I would love to see more countries on my list or get more titles from the above.

 

This Is England is one of the best films ever produced by someone from the UK.

 

British movies that are worth watching... from the last few years, Children of Men, This Is England and Harry Brown stick out as good examples of quintessentially British cinema. (Edit: beaten to the punch there for This Is England)

Moon is fantastic, though it isn't obviously British.

 

My boss said his daughter had some mates over to watch the recent tv adaptation thing of that, and one of them puked during a scene in it as it was too violent or something haha. The films ok, don't get the hype on it though.

Human Traffic (UK) always has me in stitches.

 

23 - Nichts ist so wie es scheint http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0126765/

Not to be confused with Number 23 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0481369/

Lammbock http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0258760/

 

Another good, recent British movie: Dead Man's Shoes

You should track down South West 9, by the same director. It sank without a trace on release but it's actually got a bit more to it plot-wise than Human Traffic.

The former is great, the latter is one of the worst films I've seen in years. Utter dross, I've never rated Carrey but even he should've known better when he saw the script.

 

UK cinema FTW :dance:

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Snatch
Layer Cake
Hot Fuzz
Shaun of the Dead

 

Some of my favourite movies from around the world (random and by head)
Any Genre from comedy to horror.
Any quality from master piece to just entertaining.

Gangsters Paradise Jerusalema (South Africa) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0783532/
My Sassy Girl (South Korea) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0293715/
Shutter (Thailand) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0440803/
Last Life in the Universe (Thailand/Japan) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0345549/
O Homem Que Copiava (Brazil) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0367859/
Il Mare (South Korea) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0282599/
House of Flying Daggers (China) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0385004/
City of Gods (Brazil) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0317248/
Ghost (South Korea) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0410537/
The Eye (China) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0325655/
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring (South Korea) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0374546/
Y tu Mama Tambien (Spain) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0245574/
Windstruck (Sourh Korea) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0409072/
Paradise Now (Palestina) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0445620/
De Tweeling (Holland) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0322674/
Zwartboek (Holland) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0389557/
Recep Ivedik (Turkey) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1193516/
District 9 (South Africa) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1136608/
Banlieu 13 (France) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0414852/
Tom Yum Goong (Thailand) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0427954/
Goodbye Lenin (Germany) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0301357/
Persepolis (Iran/France/USA) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0808417/

And lots more I forgot to mention or don't remember the title of.

 

Loved them!

 

Damn, you just missed a huge "recommend some good German movies" thread over at Krautchan (German 4chan-analogue). Would've been right up your alley I guess.

Some random ones:
Metropolis
Nosferatu
Stalingrad
Lichter
Die Welle
Was nicht passt, wird passend gemacht
Steiner: Das eiserne Kreuz
Barfuß
Keinohrhasen
Das Leben der Anderen
Der Schuh des Manitu
(T)Raumschiff Surprise: Periode 1
Freischwimmer
NVA
Bandits
Vier Minuten
Prinzessinnenbad
Rosenstraße
Stratosphere Girl

I'll add some more if this thread's still alive when I've found some time to go through my DVDs.

There's a flic about Goethe due for release afaik, which looks interesting.

So you liked Goodbye Lenin? You'll probably love "NVA" and "Rosenstraße" then. "Tom Yum Goong" reminds me of "Chocolate" and "Raging Phoenix". And "Ong Bak" and its sequel obviously, but you definitely know about those.

Anyone from (South) Korea around? I've watched some really good movies from there, e.g. "JSA", "Samaria", "Attack the gas station" (and a few bad ones like "Hwal" or "A.F.R.I.K.A." too). Would love some more recommendations.

"Mariah full of grace" was nice too (from Colombia IIRC).

One of the best zombie movies I've ever seen isn't really a movie at all, but a TV miniseries from the UK: "Dead Set".

euTorrents has a really nice selection from all over the EU (surprise), including lots of older stuff (like, pre-80s), all with good summaries etc. (Obviously, you should ignore the torrents and only read the reviews there )

 

I'm not from Korea, but you should definitely watch Oldboy.

 

Great tips thanks, i saw some already but most are unknown so now I have something do to

 

Some more Korean movies for you:

The Host
Barking Dogs Never Bite
How to keep my Love
Phone
The Bow
Guns and Talks
I Wish I had a Wife
Make it Big
Marrying the Mafia
Musa
My Boss my Hero
Daisy
R.U. Ready
Silmido
Samaria
Suprise
The Quiet Family
Untold Scandal
200 pounds beauty
Sex is Zero (1 & 2)
Welcome to Dongmakgol
Whasango
Yesterday
Joint Security Area
Tale of Two Sisters
My Tutor Friend
Sympathy With Mr. Vengeance
Sympathy for Lady Vengeance
Oldboy
Brotherhood
Musa
The Classic
100 Days with Mr Arrogant
My wife is a Gangster

Again.. some great some less good but all are entertaining at some level.
Big Korean cinema fan here if you didn't notice yet :thumbsup:

 

Another Korean one:
I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0497137/

 

take a look at:
"the good the bad and the ugly" in case you missed it!

italy has lots of other great films but i think you can forget to see them in english or even with subtitles

 

Seen it, great movie!

And sadly yes most .it are hard to find with subs.

 

Fuck yeah! That movie is made of pure win and gold! The only bad part about it is that, due to the multilingual cast (afaik, Eastwood communicated with the director using his stuntman as an interpreter) and successive dubbing, it's never, ever gonna be properly lip-synced, which is something that really annoys me. Many other movies have the same issue (at least, many westerns do). But if you're gonna end up watching an out-of-sync movie anyways, might as well go for an english dub, which are somewhat easier to find than subs.

That reminds me, I need to get my hands on a subbed Terrence Hill movie some time - I need to know if the originals were just as silly as the ones I know, or if they got a complete comedy makeover during translation like (I heard) the Louis de Funes movies did...

Some more random recommendations:
With the girl of black soil (Korea IIRC)
Die Geschichte vom weinenden Kamel (another great one from Germany)
Mongol (The story of Genghis Khan, made in the glorious nation of Kazakhstan. Great success!)
Kekexili (China)
Lilja 4-ever (SWE/RUS)
Also, "Interview". The NL version, not the crappy US remake. Impressive what you can do with just two actors (not counting a few extras in the first and last five minutes).
"few actors" reminds me of:
"Abwärts" - Bunch of people getting stuck in an elevator, right at the start of the weekend. Almost all of the movie happens in or on top of said elevator.

 

I wouldn't recommend these:

Stalingrad
Die Welle
Was nicht passt, wird passend gemacht
Steiner: Das eiserne Kreuz
Barfuß
Keinohrhasen
Der Schuh des Manitu
(T)Raumschiff Surprise: Periode 1
NVA
Bandits

In my opinion those are pretty much all awful pieces of crap. Although Die Welle (the wave) starts off very promising, it becomes implausible towards the middle - like most German movies with that certain political undertone. So it took them a week to create a new racist elite society? Oh, and the *cool* tattoo-wearing ex-punk teacher who initiated the whole thing lives on a houseboat with his also pretty damn cool sexy wife? Yeah, I believe it. Just another pile of German TV shit and I'm very disappointed by Jürgen Vogel that he gave himself away for this crude storyline.

Anyway, some German movies I would recommend:

Just about anything by Fritz Lang, one of the greatest directors of all time. Any "Dr. Mabuse"-movie, Metropolis, M, Die Nibelungen, Die Frau im Mond.
Rainer Werner Fassbinder was a great director as well and the "BRD trilogy", which depicted the life in Germany after the war, is internationally well known and appreciated. There's even a great Criterion DVD box! The movies are called "Die Ehe der Maria Braun", "Lola" and "Veronika Voss". "Berlin Alexanderplatz" is another famous & good movie he made.

As for silent movie classics, I'd give "Vampyr" a try (vintage vampire documentary) as well as "Nosferatu".

Some recent films:
"Das Leben der Anderen", "Der Untergang", "23" (takes place in my hometown ^__^), "Funny Games" (it's from Austria though But an absolute thriller highlight, one of the best movies of that genre I've ever seen), "Gegen die Wand", "Der freie Wille". The latter depicts a rapist who got out of prison and now has to fight his drive to repeat his mistakes. I think this movie was quite touching without a glimpse of emotional cliché and it's probably Jürgen Vogel's best performance so far.

 

Question to the Germans, maybe you can help me remember the name of a weird German movie I once saw only the end of on tv:

It was a comedy/thiller? about some killer with a strange mask that called himself the fuckyou (in german die fiksen?) or something? rings any bells?

 

Maybe

Der Wixxer http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0313021/

Actually it is derived from "wichsen" which means to jerk off. "Der Wichser" means the wanker.