Sunday, January 31, 2010

Best of 2000s

Here's my Top 50 Films of the 2000s, as submitted as part of an omnibus project on another website. You may note the absence of any 2009 films; you may also note that my tastes don't run to the commercial. Consequently, I have to wait for a film to reach DVD before I see it, and that rules out a lot of newer releases. Please add a comment telling us a) how many of these films you have seen, and b) how crazy, obstinate, and/or wrong-headed you think I am.

1. Treeless Mountain 2008 Kim So-yong
2. Still Walking 2008 Kore-eda Hirokazu
3. This Charming Girl 2004 Lee Yoon-ki
4. Yi Yi 2000 Edward Yang
5. Take Care of my Cat 2001 Jeong Jae-eun
6. Café Lumière 2003 Hou Hsiao-hsien
7. In the Mood for Love 2000 Wong Kar-wai
8. Eureka 2000 Aoyama Shinji
9. Vertical Ray of the Sun, the 2000 Tran Anh Hung
10. Vibrator 2003 Hiroki Ryuichi
11. Return, the 2003 Andrei Zvyagintsev
12. Oasis 2002 Lee Chang-dong
13. On the Occasion of Remembering the Turning Gate 2002 Hong Sang-soo
14. Long Weekend in Pest & Buda, a 2003 Makk Karoly
15. One Fine Spring Day 2001 Hur Jin-ho
16. Man Who Wasn't There, the 2001 Coen Bros.
17. What Time is it There? 2001 Tsai Ming-liang
18. My Dear Enemy 2008 Lee Yoon-ki
19. Kabei (Our Mother) 2008 Yamada Yoji
20. Nobody Knows 2004 Kore-eda Hirokazu
21. Good Lawyer's Wife, a 2003 Im Sang-soo
22. Chunhyang 2000 Im Kwon-taek
23. Railroad, the 2007 Park Heung-shik*
24. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring 2003 Kim Ki-duk
25. Singles 2003 Kwon Chil-in (not to be confused with the Cameron Crowe 1992 film of the same name)
26. Lilya 4-Ever 2002 Lukas Moodysson
27. Still Life 2006 Jia Zhang ke
28. Maria Full of Grace 2004 Joshua Marston
29. Between Love and Hate 2006 Kim Hae-gon
30. Twilight Samurai, the 2002 Yamada Yoji
31. Into Great Silence 2005 Philip Gröning
32. Royal Tenenbaums, the 2001 Wes Anderson
33. Woman is the Future of Man 2004 Hong Sang-soo
34. Spirited Away 2001 Miyazaki Hayao
35. This is England 2006 Shane Meadows
36. Saving My Hubby 2002 Hyun Nam-seob (aka Be Strong, Geum-soon!, but not to be confused with the Korean TV series of this same name)
37. Clean 2004 Olivier Assayas
38. Saddest Music in the World, the 2004 Guy Maddin
39. Barking Dogs Never Bite 2000 Bong Joon-ho
40. Memories of Murder 2003 Bong Joon-ho
41. Time Out 2001 Laurent Cantet
42. Monday Morning 2002 Otar Iosseliani
43. Woman on the Beach 2006 Hong Sang-soo
44. Last Life in the Universe 2003 Pen-ek Ratanaruang
45. Circle, the 2000 Jafar Panahi
46. Ad-Lib Night 2006 Lee Yoon-ki
47. Secret Sunshine 2007 Lee Chang-dong
48. Tokyo Trash Baby 2000 Hiroki Ryuichi
49. Incredibles, the 2004 Brad Bird
50. Enfant, L' 2005 Dardenne Bros.

*Note to #23: There are two active Korean directors with this name, but imdb conflates them into one. This one is the director of The Railroad and The Twins. The other, more famous one directed (among others) My Sweet Seoul, My Mother the Mermaid, I Wish I Had a Wife Too, and Bravo My Life (aka Mommie Dearest). If you care.

2 comments:

KHP38120 said...

While I have not seen all of the films on this list, and therefore may not be in a good position to comment, I feel pretty good about naming my "Top Five Best Things About the Spoons-Fiddlesticks 'Best of 2000s' Film List:"

1. It contains no films directed by James Cameron.

2. It contains no films starring Adam Sandler or Ben Stiller.

3. It contains no films celebrating hip-hop culture in America.

4. It contains no films that try to pass off flatulence or vulgar behavior as humor.

5. It contains no films that are distinguishable from previously-released films only by the presence of Arabic or Roman numerals after the title.

Spoons Fiddlesticks said...

1. I've never seen any of James Cameron's films, and am unlikely to start anytime soon.

2a. Ben Stiller was in 32-The Royal Tennenbaums, and he was pretty good in it.
2b. Although I am open-minded enough even to have watched the unwatchable Punch-Drunk Love (unceremoniously dumped on you as a parting gift), I consider Adam Sandler-avoidance a cornerstone principle of my cinematic hobby.

3. The hip-hop culture (for lack of a better term) of Korea and of England are depicted in 29-Between Love and Hate and 35-This is England, respectively, but in neither case is it celebrated.

4. Only five of the listed films could even be described as comedies under the most charitable definition of that term (25, 32, 36, 39, 49).

5. No, and none are part of The Lord of the Rings, either.