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Alright, so I'm looking for some good films to watch and I think I've gone through pretty much any Hollywood film that I'm remotely interested in so I'm turning to foreign cinema for entertainment.

Brotherhood of the Wolf, Dog Soldiers, Yojimbo, Seven Samurai, Hidden Fortress, Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Ip Man, and Ip Man 2 were all at a minimum decent films to watch are there any more excellent action/drama/thriller/science fiction films out there?

China has produced some pretty decent Kung Fu epics lately. I'm a huge fan of most of Tony Jaa's works. Pan's Labyrinth was an awesome movie.

I've been expanding out to some foreign works of late, and I've been liking what I've seen for the most part. Hollywood has gotten a bit stale with recreating movies every 5 years now.

djones520 wrote:China has produced some pretty decent Kung Fu epics lately. I'm a huge fan of most of Tony Jaa's works. Pan's Labyrinth was an awesome movie.

I've been expanding out to some foreign works of late, and I've been liking what I've seen for the most part. Hollywood has gotten a bit stale with recreating movies every 5 years now.

Forgot to mention Pan's Labyrinth. It was decent enough, don't know if I'd be bothered to watch it again.

Not sure where they were made, but Harry Brown, and New Dark City may be worth your while

i actually have a number of foreign films, but many of the rest escape me atm.

Are you interested in old foreign films as well (like, black and white movies), or mostly more recent stuff?

Case to case basis. I generally dislike pre 60s cinema, but there are exceptions to that so I don't automatically ignore everything prior to that point.

Evil Aliens, Black Sheep, Bad Taste, Dead Alive/Brainded, Doghouse, District 13/B13 - haven't seen the sequel though , Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky, Big Man Japan, The Host, these are a few of my favorite things.

13 assassins was pretty good too, made you feel like it really was back in the day cause everyone was butt ugly.

The raid : redemption (indonesian)
Very very action oriented

The man from nowhere (korean)
Action oriented but characters are more fleshed out

Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen (chinese)
Action oriented with Donnie Yen as the main character (from Ip man)
Not as good as Ip Man imo but still good

Red Cliff and Zatoichi are good.

Thanks, I'll definitely check some of these out. On another note, Donnie Yen is awesome as is the guy who plays Jin from Ip Man and Ip Man 2.

I forgot to add to the list

Saat po long (Killzone)
Very good action movie starring Donnie Yen and Sammo Hung (Playing a really really awesome character)

This is just off the top of my head.

I've already discounted the movies that you listed as having already seen, as well as anything that has had a large American release despite being a foreign film (such as Studio Ghibli movies). Nothing on this list is too artsy or will require you to be a film snob. Organized by country of origin:


South Korea:
Oldboy
The Front Line
Shiri
I Saw The Devil
No Mercy For the Rude
The Man From Nowhere
Save the Green Planet


France:
City of Lost Children
Vidocq
Man Bites Dog
Delicatessen


China:
Hard Boiled (Oh my God, if you haven't seen this before, then you have to watch this right friggin' now -why are you still reading this? Go!)
The Killer
Musa: The Warrior
Kung Fu Hustle
Warriors of Heaven and Earth
Shaolin Soccer


Japan:
Battle Royal
Rashomon
Ichi the Killer
Kagemusa
The Bad Sleep Well
Ninja Scroll
Paprika
Ringu


Germany:
Run Lola Run


Sweden:
Insomnia
Let the Right One In
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo


Spain:
The Orphanage
The Devil's Backbone


Russia:
Night Watch
Day Watch

Brazil:
City of God (This movie will find its way into your top ten. That is a promise.)

I'm assuming you're excluding British films as well, yes?

Incendies



I saw the Devil



Oldboy



Jin Roh: The Wolf Brigade



Grave of the Fireflies

Aww man, totally forgot Dead Snow and Trollhunter.

As an aside, I found the Nightwatch movie a total letdown from the book.

Trollhunter was pretty decent. I really need to see Pakira, wish it was on Netflix or Hulu.

Clones of Bruce Lee was hilarious.

Although it wasn't intended to be.

Downfall
Europa Europa

Weird mix of drama and comedy that I really like:

Bread and Tulips

City of God. If you want to watch foreign films, you have to watch that. Even if your not interested if foreign films, you still should watch it.
La Haine. Its French, and really really good.
Oldboy. Also recommend this, great film.

Can't think of any others at the moment, but you say you've watched all the hollywood films your interested in, what about non-Hollywood American films? There is so much great American Indie cinema.

'I saw the devil' is one of my least favourite films ever. Not because it's a badly made film per-se, but because it smacks of the Korean film industry trying to 'mature' and think that making the film as ridiculously gory as possible is the way to to do this. A shame, as Min-Sik Choi is frightening as the lead, he is a remarkable actor, more so if you see him out of role and he comes across as mild in character as someone like Ian McKellan. But, it's almost like the writers and directors got a list of the most revolting things possible, and checked them off as they went through the movie: 'murder of pregnant woman, check, rape scene, check, guy pawing through this own poo, check'. It was just a nasty film, with absolutely no relief from it. I mean I've seen some gory films before, but this one actually made me turn away quite a few times, and I left the pictures in need of a puppy or kitten ! I guess if you enjoyed A Clockwork Orange you might like it, in that it promotes a similar feeling of despair in the viewer.

Would definitely second 'Zatoichii', but the more recent Beat Takeshi version I would probably put up there in my top ten, it was an awesome movie.

rodgers37 wrote:City of God. If you want to watch foreign films, you have to watch that. Even if your not interested if foreign films, you still should watch it.
La Haine. Its French, and really really good.
Oldboy. Also recommend this, great film..

I agree totally.

I'd also recommend some other French films

Doberman I thought was fun.

Irreversible is something of a difficult watch but is definitely a bravura piece of film making.

I've totally blanked the name now but that New zealand Zombie sheep thing from a wee while back was good.

Apocalypto is listed as a foreign film I think (oddly enough directed by Mel Gibson if I remember correctly). Its not for everyone but I liked it, though my degree is in Archaeology/Anthropology so go figure.

We're talking about French films and no one has mentioned Amelie or A Very Long Engagement? For shame.

Agree +1 with the others on La Haine.
It is getting on in years but it is awesome

A really good flick that is NOT action oriented is called After the Wedding. Pretty sure it is available on Netflix Instant now.

I also like the older, but good "Battle for Algiers".

Anything by Krystof Kieslowski is worth a watch:

Dekalog
Three Colours Trilogy
The Double Life of Veronique

And there's a little known Austrian film called 'Funny Games' that has to be one of the most fun, fethed-up horror films ever made

As for English films, you can't go wrong with 'Dead Man's Shoes'. Especially if you're into revenge thrillers.

Delicatessen and Amelie are just amazing. Both are charming. And weird. No, not weird... different:

from Amelie:

Narrator: Amelie has one friend, Blubber. Alas the home environment has made Blubber suicidal.
[Pet fish leaps out of fish bowl in an attempt at suicide]

Aye, I'd g along with Red Cliff, but make sure you get the long China cut, not the hacked apart release for Western audiences.

Evil Aliens is also worth a watch, if for nothing else a couple of awesome wtf moments.

Also would add Seven Swords to the list, awesome film.

Brazil. British sci-fi/black comedy about an Orwellian society of the near future.

Brotherhood Of The Wolf. It's a French pseudo monster movie set some time before the revolution.

Man Bites Dog. Belgian black comedy about a serial murderer, very amusing!

Trollhunter, Norway
Black Sheep, A zombie flick, But with sheep.

I used to fething love Jackie Chan when I was a teenager, I used to get leathered every Saturday and watch Jackie Chan movies with my mate cos we had to stay in and look after his sister, this went on for about a year.

So, I would have to say some of his... obviously they are almost all good. But If I had to pick three I would say Police Story, The Armour of God and Project A.