Predictions for the 95th Annual Academy Awards

These are my Oscar predictions. I’m not sure yet if I’m going to live-tweet the Endy Award winners during the ceremony again this year. Maybe.

BEST PICTURE

All Quiet on the Western Front
Avatar: The Way of Water
The Banshees of Inisherin
Elvis
Everything Everywhere All at Once
The Fabelmans
Tár
Top Gun: Maverick
Triangle of Sadness
Women Talking

BEST DIRECTOR

Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin
Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Steven Spielberg, The Fabelmans
Todd Field, Tár
Ruben Östlund, Triangle of Sadness

BEST ACTOR

Austin Butler, Elvis
Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin
Brendan Fraser, The Whale
Paul Mescal, Aftersun
Bill Nighy, Living

BEST ACTRESS

Cate Blanchett, Tár
Ana de Armas, Blonde
Andrea Riseborough, To Leslie
Michelle Williams, The Fablemans
Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All at Once

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Brendan Gleeson, The Banshees of Inisherin
Brian Tyree Henry, Causeway
Judd Hirsch, The Fabelmans
Barry Keoghan, The Banshees of Inisherin
Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All at Once

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Angela Bassett, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Hong Chau, The Whale
Kerry Condon, The Banshees of Inisherin
Jamie Lee Curtis, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Stephanie Hsu, Everything Everywhere All at Once

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Todd Field, Tár
Tony Kushner and Steven Spielberg, The Fabelmans
Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin
Ruben Östlund, Triangle of Sadness

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, and Christopher McQuarrie from a story by Peter Craig and Justin Marks, Top Gun: Maverick
Kazuo Ishiguro, Living
Rian Johnson, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Sarah Polley, Women Talking
Edward Berger, Ian Stokell, and Lesley Paterson, All Quiet on the Western Front

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

All Quiet on the Western Front
Bardo
Elvis
Empire of Light
Tár

BEST FILM EDITING

The Banshees of Inisherin
Elvis
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Tár
Top Gun: Maverick

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

All Quiet on the Western Front
Avatar: The Way of Water
The Batman
Black Panther
Top Gun: Maverick

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

All Quiet on the Western Front
Avatar: The Way of Water
Babylon
Elvis
The Fabelmans

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Babylon
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Elvis
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris

BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING

All Quiet on the Western Front
The Batman
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Elvis
The Whale

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

All Quiet on the Western Front
Babylon
The Banshees of Inisherin
Everything Everywhere All at Once
The Fabelmans

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

Applause – Tell It Like a Woman (Diane Warren)
Hold My Hand – Top Gun: Maverick (Lady Gaga, BloodPop)
Naatu Naatu – RRR (MM Keeravaani, Chandrabose)
Lift Me Up – Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Tems, Ludwig Göransson, Rihanna and Ryan Coogler)
This Is A Life – Everything Everywhere All at Once (Ryan Lott, David Byrne, Mitski)

BEST SOUND

All Quiet on the Western Front
Avatar: The Way of Water
The Batman
Elvis
Top Gun: Maverick

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
Marcel the Shell With Shoes On
Puss In Boots: The Last Wish
The Sea Beast
Turning Red

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

All That Breathes
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Fire of Love
A House Made of Splinters
Navalny

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM

All Quiet on the Western Front (Germany)
Argentina, 1985 (Argentina)
Close (Belgium)
EO (Poland)
The Quiet One (Ireland)

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT

The Elephant Whisperers
Haulout
How Do You Measure a Year
The Martha Mitchell Effect
Stranger at the Gate

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT

An Irish Goodbye
Ivalu
Le Pupille
Night Ride
The Red Suitcase

BEST ANIMATED SHORT

The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse
The Flying Sailor
Ice Merchants
My Year of Dicks
An Ostrich Told Me the World is Fake and I Think I Believe It

This Week in Rankings

Since the last update, a whopping four (4) Charlie Brown specials have come and gone. I wrote a bunch of stuff for subscribers only over at The Chinese Cinema: Wolf Pack and Baby Assassins, House, Walk Up, a series on the later In the Line of Duty films (Middle Man, Forbidden Arsenal, Sea Wolves, and Queen’s High), A Confucian Confusion, Warriors of Future, School in the Crosshairs, Revengeful Swordswoman and Tower of Death, and Police Story 3: Supercop. Please do consider subscribing if you’re able and you like my work. It’s only $1/month or $10/year.

I also had all the usual end of the year stuff here at The End: my favorite Books and Film Discoveries of the year, along with the nominations for the 2022 Endy Awards.

These are the movies I’ve watched or rewatched over the last few weeks, and where they place on my year-by-year rankings.

The Scarlet Pumpernickel (Chuck Jones) – 30, 1950
Zipping Along (Chuck Jones) – 35, 1953
A Charlie Brown Christmas (Bill Melendez) – 3, 1965
It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (Bill Melendez) – 2, 1966
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Chuck Jones) – 15, 1966
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (Bill Melendez, & Phil Roman) – 38, 1973

House (Obayashi Nobuhiko) – 4, 1977
The Lord of the Rings (Ralph Bakshi) – 28, 1978
Revengeful Swordswoman (Artis Chow) – 28, 1979
Prom Night (Paul Lynch) – 38, 1980

School in the Crosshairs (Obayashi Nobuhiko) – 16, 1981
Tower of Death (Ng See-yuen) – 30, 1981
The Keep (Michael Mann) – 32, 1983
Happy New Year, Charlie Brown (Sam Jaimes & Bill Melendez) – 60, 1986
Batman (Tim Burton) – 22, 1989

In the Line of Duty V: Middle Man (Cha Chuen-yee) – 77, 1990
Queen’s High (Chris Lee Kin-sang) – 48, 1991
In the Line of Duty 7: Sea Wolves (Cheng Siu-keung) – 52, 1991
In the Line of Duty 6: Forbidden Arsenal (Cheng Siu-keung & Yuen Jun-man) – 70, 1991
Police Story 3: Supercop (Stanley Tong) – 1992

Nemesis (Albert Pyun) – 21, 1992
A Confucian Confusion (Edward Yang) – 7, 1994
Speed (Jan de Bont) – 25, 1994
Heat (Michael Mann) – 4, 1995
Jerry Maguire (Cameron Crowe) – 34, 1996

The Fellowship of the Ring (Peter Jackson) – 3, 2001
The Two Towers (Peter Jackson) – 8, 2002
The Return of the King (Peter Jackson) – 11, 2003
The Lake House (Alejandro Agresti) – 18, 2006
Avatar (James Cameron) – 25, 2009

The Three Musketeers (Paul WS Anderson) – 13, 2011
Ballet 422 (Jody Lee Lipes) – 9, 2014
Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller) – 2, 2015
The Weaving of a Dream (Ferris Lin) – 114, 2016
Accident Man (Jesse V. Johnson) – 133, 2018

Lost Bullet (Guillaume Pierret) – 38, 2020
Sonic the Hedgehog (Jeff Fowler) – 58, 2020
Mad God (Phil Tippett) – 59, 2021
Disney’s FastPass: A Complicated History (Kevin Perjurer) – 66, 2021

Ponniyin Selvan Part 1 (Mani Ratnam) – 2, 2022
The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg) – 3, 2022
Walk Up (Hong Sangsoo) – 4, 2022
Three Thousand Years of Longing (George Miller) – 7, 2022
Apollo 10 1/2 (Richard Linklater) – 11, 2022

Avatar: The Way of Water (James Cameron) – 12, 2022
Tár (Todd Field) – 13, 2022
Nope (Jordan Peele) – 15, 2022
Thirteen Lives (Ron Howard) – 16, 2022
Armageddon Time (James Gray) – 18, 2022

Crimes of the Future (David Cronenberg) – 19, 2022
White Noise (Noah Baumbach) – 20, 2022
The Banshees of Inishirin (Martin McDonagh) – 23, 2022
Turn Every Page (Lizzie Gottlieb) – 26, 2022
Fire of Love (Sara Dosa) – 27, 2022

Vikram (Lokesh Kanagaraj) – 29, 2022
The Munsters (Rob Zombie) – 33, 2022
Disney Channel’s Theme: A History Mystery (Kevin Perjurer) – 34, 2022
The Eternal Daughter (Joanna Hogg) – 35, 2022
Dead for a Dollar (Walter Hill) – 38, 2022

Lost Bullet 2 (Guillaume Pierret) – 40, 2022
Eo (Jerzy Skolimowski) – 42, 2022
Emily the Criminal (John Patton Ford) – 47, 2022
The Woman King (Gina Prince-Bythewood) – 49, 2022
Don’t Worry Darling (Olivia Wilde) – 50, 2022

Glass Onion (Rian Johnson) – 51, 2022
Warriors of Future (Ng Yuen-fai) – 52, 2022
Accident Man: Hitman’s Holiday (George & Harry Kirby) – 54, 2022
The People You’re Paying to Be in Shorts (Jon Bois) – 56, 2022
Barbarian (Zach Cregger) – 57, 2022

Day Shift (JJ Perry) – 58, 2022
Werewolf by Night (Michael Giacchino) – 63, 2022
The Menu (Mark Mylod) – 64, 2022
Selena Gomez: My Mind and Me (Alek Keshishian) – 66, 2022
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Ryan Coogler) – 68, 2022
Wolf Pack (Michael Chiang) – 70, 2022

2022 Endy Awards

These are the 2022 Endy Awards, wherein I pretend to give out maneki-neko statues to the best movies, performances, etc of this year in film. Awards for many other years can be found in the Rankings & Awards Index. Eligibility is determined by imdb date and by whether or not I’ve seen the movie in question. Films are presented in alphabetical order, and the winners are bolded. As always, the winners and nominees are subject to change as I watch more movies. And the Endy goes to. . .

Best Picture:

1. Apollo 10 1/2
2. Captain Ahab: The Story of Dave Stieb
3. Decision to Leave
4. Detective vs. Sleuths
5. The Fabelmans
6. The Novelist’s Film
7. Ponniyin Selvan: Part 1
8. Shin Ultraman
9. Three Thousand Years of Longing
10. Walk Up

Best Director:

1. James Cameron, Avatar: The Way of Water
2. Park Chan-wook, Decision to Leave
3. Steven Spielberg, The Fabelmans
4. Hong Sangsoo, The Novelist’s Film
5. Mani Ratnam, Ponniyin Selvan: Part 1

Best Actor:

1. Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin
2. Jon Hamm, Confess, Fletch
3. Lau Ching-wan, Detective vs. Sleuths
4. Austin Butler, Elvis
5. Gabriel LaBelle, The Fabelmans
6. Karthi, Ponniyin Selvan: Part 1
7. Ram Charan, RRR
8. NT Rama Rao Jr, RRR
9. Idris Elba, Three Thousand Years of Longing
10. Kamal Haasan, Vikram
11. Kwon Hae-hyo, Walk Up
12. Adam Driver, White Noise

Best Actress:

1. Tang Wei, Decision to Leave
2. Aubrey Plaza, Emily the Criminal
3. Tilda Swinton, The Eternal Daughter
4. Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All at Once
5. Bae Doona, Next Sohee
6. Keke Palmer, Nope
7. Lee Hye-young, The Novelist’s Film
8. Amber Midthunder, Prey
9. Park So-dam, Special Delivery
10. Cate Blanchett, Tár
11. Tilda Swinton, Three Thousand Years of Longing
12. Viola Davis, The Woman King

Supporting Actor:

1. Anthony Hopkins, Armageddon Time
2. Barry Keoghan, The Banshees of Inisherin
3. Willem Dafoe, Dead for a Dollar
4. Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All at Once
5. Paul Dano, The Fabelmans
6. Judd Hirsch, The Fabelmans
7. Michael Wincott, Nope
8. Vikram, Ponniyin Selvan: Part 1
9. Ray Stevenson, RRR
10. Vijay Sethupathi, Vikram

Supporting Actress:

1. Sigourney Weaver, Avatar: The Way of Water
2. Kerry Condon, The Banshees of Inisherin
3. Kristen Stewart, Crimes of the Future
4. Chloe East, The Fabelmans
5. Jessica Henwick, Glass Onion
6. Janice Man, New Kung Fu Cult Master
7. Kim Min-hee, The Novelist’s Film
8. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Ponniyin Selvan: Part 1
9. Trisha, Ponniyin Selvan: Part 1
10. Lashana Lynch, The Woman King

Original Screenplay:

1. Apollo 10 1/2, Richard Linklater
2. Captain Ahab: The Story of Dave Stieb, Jon Bois & Alex Rubenstein
3. Detective vs. Sleuths, Wai Ka-fai, Ray Chan, & Mak Tin-shu
4. The Fabelmans, Steven Spielberg & Tony Kushner
5. Walk Up, Hong Sangsoo

Adapted Screenplay:

1. Confess, Fletch, Zev Borow & Greg Mottola
2. Ponniyin Selvan: Part 1, Mani Ratnam & Elango Kumaravel
3. Shin Ultraman, Hideaki Anno
4. Three Thousand Years of Longing, George Miller & Augusta Gore
5. White Noise, Noah Baumbach

English Language Film:

1. Apollo 10 1/2 (Richard Linklater)
2. Avatar: The Way of Water (James Cameron)
3. Captain Ahab: The Story of Dave Stieb (Jon Bois)
4. The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg)
5. Three Thousand Years of Longing (George Miller)

Non-English Language Film:

1. Detective vs. Sleuths (Wai Ka-fai)
2. The Novelist’s Film (Hong Sangsoo)
3. Ponniyin Selvan: Part 1 (Mani Ratnam)
4. Shin Ultraman (Higuchi Shinji)
5. Walk Up (Hong Sangsoo)

Non-Fiction Feature Film:

1. Blue Island (Chan Tze-woon)
2. Captain Ahab: The Story of Dave Stieb (Jon Bois)
3. Fire of Love (Sara Dosa)
4. The King of Wuxia (Lin Jing-jie)
5. Turn Every Page (Lizzie Gottlieb)

Animated Feature Film:

1. Apollo 10 1/2 (Richard Linklater)

Short Film:

1. How to Score Ten Runs in the First Inning and Lose (Jon Bois)
2. Section 1 (Jon Bois)
3. The Great Director (Xu Lei)

Unseen Film:


1. Benediction (Terence Davies)
2. Both Sides of the Blade (Claire Denis)
3. Pacification (Albert Serra)
4. Saint Omer (Alice Diop)
5. Stars at Noon (Claire Denis)

Film Editing:

1. Avatar: The Way of Water
2. Decision to Leave
3. Detective vs. Sleuths
4. RRR
5. Tár

Cinematography:

1. Avatar: The Way of Water
2. Decision to Leave
3. Nope
4. Ponniyin Selvan: Part 1
5. RRR

Art Direction:

1. Avatar: The Way of Water
2. The Munsters
3. Ponniyin Selvan: Part 1
4. Three Thousand Years of Longing
5. White Noise

Costume Design:

1. Elvis
2. The Munsters
3. Ponniyin Selvan: Part 1
4. Three Thousand Years of Longing
5. White Noise

Make-Up and Hair:

1. Elvis
2. The Munsters
3. Ponniyin Selvan: Part 1
4. RRR
5. White Noise

Original Score:

1. Crimes of the Future
2. Decision to Leave
3. Nope
4. Ponniyin Selvan: Part 1
5. RRR

Adapted Score:

1. Confess, Fletch
2. Decision to Leave
3. Don’t Worry Darling
4. Elvis
5. Tár

Choreography:

1. Accident Man: Hitman’s Holiday
2. The Killer
3. Lost Bullet 2
4. The Princess
5. Special Delivery

Sound:

1. Avatar: The Way of Water
2. Decision to Leave
3. The Fabelmans
4. Nope
5. Tár

Sound Editing:

1. Ambulance
2. Avatar: The Way of Water
3. The Battle at Lake Changjin II
4. Nope
5. Top Gun: Maverick

Visual Effects:

1. Avatar: The Way of Water
4. Nope
3. RRR
5. Shin Ultraman
5. Three Thousand Years of Longing

The Best Older Movies I Saw in 2022

An annual tradition here at The End, this is a look at my favorite film discoveries of the year, any movie more than a few years old that I saw for the first time in 2022. Previous years include: 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, and 2006. I watched just over 260 films this year, about a third of which qualified for this list. Here are 50 of my favorites.

1. House (Obayashi Nobuhiko, 1977)
2. A Confucian Confusion (Edward Yang, 1994)
3. The Seventh Curse (Lam Nai-choi, 1986)
4. Miami Blues (George Armitage, 1990)
5. Naked Killer (Clarence Fok, 1992)
6. The Daytrippers (Greg Mottola, 1997)
7. So Close (Corey Yuen, 2002)
8. The 7 Grandmasters (Joseph Kuo, 1977)
9. The Keep (Michael Mann, 1983)
10. Burning Ambition (Frankie Chan, 1989)
11. The Web of Death (Chor Yuen, 1976)
12. Dreaming the Reality (Tony Lou Chun-ku, 1991)
13. It’s a Drink! It’s a Bomb! (David Chung, 1985)
14. 18 Bronzemen (Joseph Kuo, 1976)
15. Tiger Cage II (Yuen Woo-ping, 1990)
16. Outlaw Brothers (Frankie Chan, 1990)
17. The 36 Deadly Styles (Joseph Kuo, 1979)
18. Gorgeous (Vincent Kok, 1999)
19. Angel Terminators 2 (Tony Lou Chun-ku & Chan Lau, 1993)
20. Nemesis (Albert Pyun, 1992)
21. Muppet Treasure Island (Brian Henson, 1996)
22. The Outlaws (Kang Yoon-Sung, 2017)
23. The Shaolin Kids (Joseph Kuo, 1975)
24. The Sandlot (David Mickey Evans, 1993)
25. Den of Thieves (Christian Gudegast, 2018)


26. Return of the 18 Bronzemen (Joseph Kuo, 1976)
27. Lethal Panther 2 (Cindy Chow, 1993)
28. Mercenaries from Hong Kong (Wong Jing, 1982)
29. A Girl at My Door (July Jung, 2014)
30. Prom Night (Paul Lynch, 1980)
31. Lethal Panther (Godfrey Ho, 1990)
32. Devil Hunters (Tony Lou Chun-ku, 1989)
33. In the Line of Duty VII: Sea Wolves (Cheng Siu-keung, 1991)
34. The Cat’s Meow (Peter Bogdanovich, 2001)
35. Hero (Corey Yuen, 1997)
36. The Admiral: Roaring Currents (Kim Han-min, 2014)
37. The Inspector Wears Skirts (Wellson Chin, 1988)
38. Butterfly & Sword (Michael Mak, 1993)
39. Tiger Cage 3 (Yuen Woo-ping, 1991)
40. The Mole Song: Undercover Agent Reiji (Miike Takashi, 2013)
41. Monkey Kung Fu (John Law Ma, 1979)
42. Project S (Supercop 2) (Stanley Tong, 1993)
43. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Peter Jackson, 2013)
44. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (Peter Jackson, 2014)
45. The Shaolin Plot (Huang Feng, 1977)
46. The Eight Hundred (Guan Hu, 2020)
47. This is Korea! (John Ford, 1951)
48. Shaolin Kung Fu (Joseph Kuo, 1974)
49. Angel Terminators (Wai Lit, 1992)
50. Last Christmas (Paul Feig, 2019)

Books of 2022

This is a ranked list of the books I finished reading in 2022.

1. Compass, Mathias Énard
2. On the Road, Jack Kerouac
3. The Seagull, Anton Chekhov
4. The Philosophy of Modern Song, Bob Dylan
5. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
6. Death on the Nile, Agatha Christie
7. Norwood, Charles Portis
8. A Hero Born (Condor Heroes #1), Louis Cha
9. A Bond Undone (Condor Heroes #2), Louis Cha
10. These Fists Break Bricks, Grady Hendrix & Chris Poggiali
11. The Flintstones: Deluxe Edition, Mark Russell & Steve Pugh
12. Murder in Mesopotamia, Agatha Christie
13. Memento Mori, Muriel Spark
14. The Essence of Entertainment: Cinema City’s Glory Days, HKFA
15. Cards on the Table, Agatha Christie
16. A Different Brilliance, The D & B Story, HKFA
17. Bruce, Peter Carlin Ames
18. Masters of Atlantis, Charles Portis
19.. The Good Asian Vol 1, Pornsak Pichetshote
20. Bruce Springsteen: The Stories Behind the Songs, Brian Hiatt
21. Ask for the Moon, Meredith Lewis
22. Poirot Loses a Client, Agatha Christie
23. Red Carpet, Erich Schwartzel

These are my favorites of the books I spent significant time reading in 2022 but did not (yet) finish:


1. The Annotated Arabian Nights, trans. Yasmine Seale
2. The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens
3. The Silmarillion, JRR Tolkien
4. The Arabian Nights: A Companion, Robert Irwin
5. Hawaii (first two sections only), James Michener
6. Typee, Herman Melville
7. Killing Floor, Lee Child
8. The King James Bible
9. The Method, Isaac Butler
10. The Dawn of Everything, David Wengrow and David Graeber
11. Always in the Dark: A Study of Hong Kong Gangster Films, HK Film Archive
12. Dictionary of the Khazars, Milorad Pavić
13. Bullshit Jobs, David Graeber
14. The World of Jia Zhang-ke, Jean-Michel Frodon
15. God Only Knows: The Story of Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys, and the California Myth, David Leaf

This Week in Rankings

Since the last update, I’ve written the following new subscription-only reviews at The Chinese Cinema: Septet: The Story of Hong Kong, The King of Wuxia, the Running Out of Time series, A New Old Play, Lethal Panther, Lethal Panther 2, the Tiger Cage trilogy, The Best of the Martial Arts Films, The Novelist’s Film, Righting Wrongs, and Detective vs. Sleuths. I reviewed Yuasa Masaaki’s Inu-Oh at Seattle Screen Scene. Over at InReview Online I wrote about Tsai Ming-liang’s The Night, and a bunch of festival movies: Decision to Leave, Broker, We Are Still Here, The Roundup, Legendary in Action!, Confession, Hansan: Rising Dragon, Mercenaries from Hong Kong, Just Remembering, The Mole Song: Final, Shin Ultraman, and Nothing Serious.

These are the movies I’ve watched or rewatched over the last few weeks, and where they place on my year-by-year rankings.

Rabbit Every Monday (Friz Freleng) – 28, 1951
Mercenaries from Hong Kong (Wong Jing) – 41, 1982
The Breakfast Club (John Hughes) – 27, 1985
Righting Wrongs (Corey Yuen) – 13, 1986

Tiger Cage (Yuen Woo-ping) – 20, 1988
Troop Beverly Hills (Jeff Kanew) – 66, 1989
Tiger Cage II (Yuen Woo-ping) – 30, 1990
The Best of the Martial Arts Films (Sandra Weintraub) – 65, 1990
Tiger Cage III (Yuen Woo-ping) – 51, 1991

Lethal Panther (Godfrey Ho) – 53, 1991
Hard-Boiled (John Woo) – 4, 1992
Lethal Panther 2 (Cindy Chow) – 68, 1993
Maverick (Richard Donner) – 68, 1994
Whisper of the Heart (Kondō Yoshifumi) – 3, 1995
Clueless (Amy Heckerling) – 14, 1995

Titanic (James Cameron) – 14, 1997
Running Out of Time (Johnnie To) – 15, 1999
Dick (Andrew Fleming) – 45, 1999
Shaolin Soccer (Stephen Chow) – 8, 2001
Running Out of Time 2 (Johnnie To & Law Wing-cheong) – 13, 2001

Phantoms of Nabua (Apichatpong Weerasethakul) – 6, 2009
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (Peter Jackson) – 49, 2012
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (Peter Jackson) – 49, 2013
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (Peter Jackson) – 69, 2014
The Admiral: Roaring Currents (Kim Hanmin) – 88, 2014

Pumpkin Movie (Sophy Romvari) – 30, 2017
The Outlaws (Kang Yoonsung) – 53, 2017
The History of the Seattle Mariners (Jon Bois) – 1, 2020
Septet: The Story of Hong Kong (Various) – 3, 2020

The Night (Tsai Ming-liang) – 5, 2021
Baby Assassins (Sakamoto Yugo) – 12, 2021
A New Old Play (Qiu Jiongjiong) – 13, 2021
Inu-Oh (Yuasa Masaaki) – 21, 2021
Just Remembering (Matsui Daigo) – 35, 2021

The Novelist’s Film (Hong Sangsoo) – 1, 2022
Detective vs. Sleuths (Wai Ka-fai) – 3, 2022
The King of Wuxia (Lin Jing-jie) – 5, 2022
Decision to Leave (Park Chanwook) – 6, 2022

Prey (Dan Trachtenberg) – 13, 2022
Elvis (Baz Luhrmann) – 14, 2022
Confess, Fletch (Greg Mottola) – 15, 2022
Broker (Kore-eda Hirokazu) – 18, 2022
The Roundup (Lee Sangyong) – 19, 2022

Top Gun: Maverick (Joseph Kosinski) – 21, 2022
We Are Still Here (Various) – 28, 2022
Hansan: Rising Dragon (Kim Hanmin) – 30, 2022
Thor: Love and Thunder (Taika Waititi) – 32, 2022
Morbius (Daniel Espinosa) – 35, 2022

A Top 100 Films of All-Time

It is time once again for a Top 100 Films of All-Time list. The film listed here were randomly selected from a consideration set of 310 films . The order is also randomized.

My Left Eye Sees Ghosts (Johnnie To & Wai Ka-fai, 2002)
Reds (Warren Beatty, 1981)
Hellzapoppin’ (HC Potter, 1941)
It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (Bill Melendez, 1966)
Last Life in the Universe (Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, 2003)
Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (Sam Peckinpah, 1973)
The Killer (John Woo, 1989)
A Day in the Country (Jean Renoir, 1936)
The Lion in Winter (Anthony Harvey, 1968)
Mother! (Darren Aronofsky, 2017)


Broadcast News (James L. Brooks, 1987)
Titanic (James Cameron, 1997)
The Rules of the Game (Jean Renoir, 1939)
Duck Soup (Leo McCarey, 1933)
Certified Copy (Abbas Kiarostami, 2010)
What’s Opera, Doc? (Chuck Jones, 1957)
Original Cast Album: Company (DA Pennebaker, 1970)
The Love Eterne (Li Han-hsiang, 1963)
One Froggy Evening (Chuck Jones, 1955)
Journey to the West (Tsai Ming-liang, 2014)


The Wind that Shakes the Barley (Ken Loach, 2006)
Les amants du Pont-Neuf (Leos Carax, 1991)
Meek’s Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt, 2010)
News from Home (Chantal Akerman, 1977)
The Gang’s All Here (Busby Berkeley, 1943)
Meet Me in St Louis (Vincente Minnelli, 1944)
The Big Red One (Samuel Fuller, 1980)
They Were Expendable (John Ford, 1946)
Duvidha (Mani Kaul, 1973)
The Bellboy (Jerry Lewis, 1960)


Early Summer (Ozu Yasujiro, 1951)
Three Times (Hou Hsiao-hsien, 2005)
Rouge (Stanley Kwan, 1987)
The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor, 1940)
The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer, 1962)
Yourself & Yours (Hong Sangsoo, 2016)
The Lady Eve (Preston Sturges, 1941)
Bound for the Fields, the Mountains, and the Seacoast (Obayashi Nobuhiko, 1986)
8 Diagram Pole Fighter (Lau Kar-leung, 1984)
Intolerance (DW Griffith, 1916)


Seven Samurai (Kurosawa Akira, 1954)
The Terrorizers (Edward Yang, 1986)
City on Fire (Ringo Lam, 1987)
Last of the Mohicans (Michael Mann, 1992)
Tropical Malady (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2004)
Robin and Marian (Richard Lester, 1976)
Zulu (Cy Endfield, 1964)
Japanese Girls at the Harbor (Shimizu Hiroshi, 1933)
Drive My Car (Hamaguchi Ryusuke, 2021)
Beau travail (Claire Denis, 1999)


The Young Girls of Rochefort (Jacques Demy, 1967)
Made in Hong Kong (Fruit Chan, 1998)
Morocco (Josef von Sternberg, 1930)
Xiao Wu (Jia Zhangke, 1997)
Don’t Look Back (DA Pennebaker, 1967)
The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966)
Fire Walk with Me (David Lynch, 1992)
The Quiet Man (John Ford, 1952)
Kiss Me Kate (George Sydney, 1953)
Pierrot le fou (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965)


Cat People (Jacques Tourneur, 1942)
Only Angels Have Wings (Howard Hawks, 1938)
Miami Vice (Michael Mann, 2006)
Choose Me (Alan Rudolph, 1984)
Time and Tide (Tsui Hark, 2000)
Om Shanti Om (Farah Khan, 2007)
The Harder they Come (Perry Henzell, 1972)
Rock n Roll High School (Allan Arkush, 1979)
Liz and the Blue Bird (Yamada Naoko, 2018)
Jazz on a Summer’s Day (Aram Avakian & Bert Stern, 1959)


Heat (Michael Mann, 1995)
Green Snake (Tsui Hark, 1993)
Yearning (Naruse Mikio, 1964)
Shanghai Blues (Tsui Hark, 1984)
Out of the Past (Jacques Tourneur, 1947)
Metropolitan (Whit Stillman, 1990)
Bull Durham (Ron Shelton, 1988)
Speed Racer (Lana & Lilly Wachowski, 2008)
The Music Room (Satyajit Ray, 1958)
Ace Attorney (Miike Takashi, 2012)


The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)
Linda Linda Linda (Yamashita Nobuhiro, 2005)
F for Fake (Orson Welles, 1973)
The Last Days of Disco (Whit Stillman, 1998)
Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975)
Phantoms of Nabua (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2009)
Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock, 1962)
Hero (Zhang Yimou, 2002)
A Brighter Summer Day (Edward Yang, 1991)


The Docks of New York (Josef von Sternberg, 1928)
Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2014)
Amanda (Mikhaël Hers, 2018)
His Motorbike, Her Island (Obayashi Nobuhiko, 1986)
Mughal-e-azam (K. Asif, 1960)
La Commune (Paris, 1871) (Peter Watkins, 2000)
Fat Choi Spirit (Johnnie To & Wai Ka-fai, 2002)
The Day He Arrives (Hong Sangsoo, 2011)
Once Upon a Time in China (Tsui Hark, 1991)
Dirty Ho (Lau Kar-leung, 1979)

This Week in Rankings

Since the last update I’ve continued to add a bunch of new reviews to the subscription only side of The Chinese Cinema: A Serious Shock! Yes, Madam!, Detective Chinatown 3, It’s a Drink! It’s a Bomb!, Gorgeous, So Close, Monkey Kung Fu, The Millionaires’ Express, Hero (1997), The Tiger on the Beat Series, The Master (1992), My Father is a Hero, The Tai Chi Master, and The Princess. At InReview Online I have a review of one of Bae Doona’s Cannes films, Next Sohee, while I Seattle Screen Scene I reviewed the Korean action flick The Killer. I also made a couple of trips up to the Pickford Film Center in Bellingham, where I introduced the first two of three parts of a series I programmed there on Hong Kong cinema in the first decade after the Handover, double features of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Kung Fu Hustle, and Election and Election 2. We’ve got one more show coming up in a few weeks, Fruit Chan’s Made in Hong Kong.

These are the movies I’ve watched or rewatched over the last few weeks, and where they place on my year-by-year rankings.

Donald’s Double Trouble (Jack King) – 32, 1946
Knights Must Fall (Friz Freleng) – 31, 1949
Donald in Mathmagic Land (Hamilton Luske, Joshua Meador, Les Clark, Wolfgang Reitherman) – 16, 1959
The Parent Trap (David Swift) – 27, 1961
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Terry Gilliam & Terry Jones) – 1, 1975

The Shaolin Plot (Huang Feng) – 22, 1977
Monkey Kung Fu (John Law Ma) – 44, 1979
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Nicholas Meyer) – 8, 1982
The Karate Kid (John G. Avildsen) – 12, 1984
It’s a Drink! It’s a Bomb! (David Chung) – 29, 1985

The Millionaires’ Express (Sammo Hung) – 18, 1986
Top Gun (Tony Scott) – 22, 1986
Spaceballs (Mel Brooks) – 52, 1987
Tiger on the Beat (Lau Kar-leung) – 23, 1988

Miami Blues (George Armitage) – 24, 1990
Tiger on the Beat 2 (Lau Kar-leung) – 54, 1990
Martial Law (Steve Cohen) – 81, 1990
Martial Law II: Undercover (Kurt Anderson) – 75, 1991

The Master (Tsui Hark) – 56, 1992
Rage and Honor (Terence H. Winkless) – 64, 1992
The Tai Chi Master (Yuen Woo-ping) – 12, 1993
A Serious Shock! Yes, Madam! (Albert Lai) – 85, 1993
My Father is a Hero (Corey Yuen) – 60, 1995

Mission: Impossible (Brian De Palma) – 20, 1996
Hero (Corey Yuen) – 63, 1997
Gorgeous (Vincent Kok) – 42, 1999
Mission: Impossible II (John Woo) – 25, 2000
So Close (Corey Yuen) – 21, 2002

Election (Johnnie To) – 9, 2005
Election 2 (Johnnie To) – 8, 2006
Mission: Impossible III (JJ Abrams) – 53, 2006
Stardust (Matthew Vaughn) – 52, 2007

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (Brad Bird) – 30, 2011
Thor (Kenneth Branagh) – 42, 2011
Pitch Perfect (Jason Moore) – 10, 2012
A Girl at My Door (July Jung) – 98, 2014
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (Christopher McQuarrie) – 89, 2015

Den of Thieves (Christian Gudegast) – 73, 2018
Mission: Impossible – Fallout (Christopher McQuarrie) – 131, 2018
Nothing Serious (Jeong Ga-young) – 21, 2021
Sycorax (Lois Patiño & Matías Piñeiro) – 30, 2021

Shin Ultraman (Higuchi Shinji) – 1, 2022
Section 1 (Jon Bois) – 5, 2022
Hustle (Jeremiah Zagar) – 7, 2022
Ambulance (Michael Bay) – 8, 2022

The Northman (Robert Eggers) – 9, 2022
Next Sohee (July Jung) – 10, 2022
The Princess (Le-Van Kiet) – 12, 2022
The Killer (Choi Jaehoon) – 13, 2022

Confession (Yoon Jong-seok) – 14, 2022
The Batman (Matt Reeves) – 16, 2022
The Kids in the Hall: Comedy Punks (Reginald Harkema) – 17, 2022
George Carlin’s American Dream (Judd Apatow & MIchael Bonfiglio) – 18, 2022
Legendary in Action! (Justin Cheung & Li Ho) – 21, 2022

This Week in Rankings

Since the last update I finished the new Chinese Cinema site. All my old reviews have been re-edited and updated and reorganized. Any new reviews are for subscribers only, at the low low price of $1/month or $10/year. I’ve decided to leave that as the price for the foreseeable future rather than bump it up. I hope you’ll consider subscribing.

Recent reviews include the Tsui Hark/Dante Lam/Chen Kaige war movies The Battle at Lake Changjin I & II, the Sammo Hung/Jackie Chan/Yuen Biao classic Dragons Forever, Guan Hu’s controversial The Eight Hundred, the Kara Hui Girls with Guns/Hopping Vampire comedy Who Cares, Wong Jing’s epic Jet Li wuxia Kung Fu Cult Master, the Moon Lee/Cynthia Khan/Oshima Yukaria vehicle The Avenging Quartet, and Ohku Akiko’s not-quite rom-com My Sweet Grappa Remedies.

Elsewhere I wrote about Michelle Yeoh and her new hit film Everything Everywhere All At Once for the Mubi Notebook, the only review of that film I know of to make extensive reference not only to her Hong Kong career, but also Star Trek: Discovery and Last Christmas. At InReview Online I have reviews for Chan Tze-woon’s new protest documentary Blue Island and Ann Hui’s latest Eileen Chang adaptation Love After Love. And here at The End, I handed out the Endy Awards for 2021.

These are the movies I’ve watched or rewatched over the last few weeks, and where they place on my year-by-year rankings.

How to Play Baseball (Jack Kinney) – 16, 1942
This is Korea (John Ford) – 38, 1951
Steal Wool (Chuck Jones) – 23, 1957
A Witch’s Tangled Hare (Abe Levitow) – 23, 1959

Three Styles of Hung School’s Kung Fu (Chang Cheh) – 34, 1974
Freaky Friday (Gary Nelson) – 29, 1976
Flash Gordon (Mike Hodges) – 24, 1980
The Natural (Barry Levinson) – 32, 1984
Yes, Madam (Corey Yuen) – 8, 1985

Big Trouble in Little China (John Carpenter) – 9, 1986
Royal Warriors (David Chung) – 24, 1986
Magnificent Warriors (David Chung) – 25, 1987
Bull Durham (Ron Shelton) – 2, 1988
Dragons Forever (Sammo Hung) – 30, 1988

Field of Dreams (Phil Alden Robinson) – 22, 1989
Devil Hunters (Tony Lou Chun-ku) – 48, 1989
Who Cares (Max Lee Chiu-chun) – 54, 1989
Howards End (James Ivory) – 6, 1992
A League of Their Own (Penny Marshall) – 48, 1992

Kung Fu Cult Master (Wong Jing) – 18, 1993
Shadowlands (Richard Attenborough) – 25, 1993
The Remains of the Day (James Ivory) – 35, 1993
Butterfly & Sword (Michael Mak) – 65, 1993
The Avenging Quartet (Stanley Siu Wing) – 71, 1993

10 Things I Hate About You (Gil Junger) – 37, 1999
Adventureland (Greg Mottola) – 14, 2009
Lost in the Mountains (Hong Sangsoo) – 18, 2009
Oki’s Movie (Hong Sangsoo) – 1, 2010

Our Sunhi (Hong Sangsoo) – 12, 2013
Nobody’s Daughter Haewon (Hong Sangsoo) – 17, 2013
The Peanuts Movie (Steve Martino) – 106, 2015
My Sweet Grappa Remedies (Ohku Akiko) – 21, 2019
Last Christmas (Paul Feig) – 85, 2019
The Eight Hundred (Guan Hu) – 44, 2020
The Battle at Lake Changjin (Tsui Hark, Dante Lam, & Chen Kaige) – 2021
CODA (Sian Heder) – 70, 2021

Captain Ahab: The Story of Dave Stieb (Jon Bois) – 1, 2022
RRR (SS Rajamouli) – 2, 2022
The Battle at Lake Changjin II (Tsui Hark, Dante Lam, & Chen Kaige) – 3, 2022
Everything Everywhere All At Once (Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert) – 5, 2022
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (Sam Raimi) – 6, 2022
Scream (Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett) – 8, 2022

Predictions for the 94th Annual Academy Awards

These are my Oscar predictions. I’m not sure yet if I’m going to live-tweet the Endy Award winners during the ceremony again this year. Maybe.

BEST PICTURE

Belfast
CODA
Don’t Look Up
Drive My Car
Dune
King Richard
Licorice Pizza
Nightmare Alley
The Power of the Dog
West Side Story

BEST DIRECTOR

Kenneth Branagh, Belfast
Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Drive My Car
Paul Thomas Anderson, Licorice Pizza
Jane Campion, The Power of the Dog
Steven Spielberg, West Side Story

BEST ACTOR

Javier Bardem, Being the Ricardos
Benedict Cumberbatch, The Power of the Dog
Andrew Garfield, tick, tick…BOOM!
Will Smith, King Richard
Denzel Washington, The Tragedy of Macbeth

BEST ACTRESS

Jessica Chastain, The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Olivia Colman, The Lost Daughter
Penelope Cruz, Parallel Mothers
Nicole Kidman, Being the Ricardos
Kristen Stewart, Spencer

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Ciarán Hinds, Belfast
Troy Kotsur, CODA
Jesse Plemons, The Power of the Dog
J.K. Simmons, Being the Ricardos
Kodi Smit-McPhee, The Power of the Dog

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Jessie Buckley, The Lost Daughter
Ariana DeBose, West Side Story
Judi Dench, Belfast
Kirsten Dunst, The Power of the Dog
Aunjanue Ellis, King Richard

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Belfast
Don’t Look Up
King Richard
Licorice Pizza
The Worst Person in the World

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

CODA
Drive My Car
Dune
The Lost Daughter
The Power of the Dog

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Dune
Nightmare Alley
The Power of the Dog
The Tragedy of Macbeth
West Side Story

BEST FILM EDITING

Don’t Look Up
Dune
King Richard
The Power of the Dog
Tick, Tick…Boom!

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Dune
Free Guy
No Time To Die
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Spider-Man: No Way Home

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

Dune
Nightmare Alley
Power
The Tragedy of Macbeth
West Side Story

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Cruella
Cyrano
Dune
Nightmare Alley
West Side Story

BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING

Coming 2 America
Cruella
Dune
The Eyes of Tammy Faye
House of Gucci

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

Don’t Look Up
Dune
Encanto
Parallel Mothers
The Power of the Dog

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

“Be Alive,” King Richard, Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, Dixson
“Dos Oroguitos,” Encanto, Lin-Manuel Miranda
“Down to Joy,” Belfast, Van Morrison
“No Time To Die,” No Time To Die, Billie Eilish, Finneas O’Connell
“Somehow You Do,” Four Good Days, Diane Warren

BEST SOUND

Belfast
Dune
No Time To Die
The Power of the Dog
West Side Story

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

Encanto
Flee
Luca
The Mitchells vs. the Machines
Raya and the Last Dragon

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Ascension
Attica
Flee
Summer of Soul
Writing With Fire

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM

Drive My Car (Japan)
Flee (Denmark)
The Hand of God (Italy)
Yanna (Bhutan)
The Worst Person in the World (Norway)

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT

Audible
Lead Me Home
The Queen of Basketball
Three Songs of Benazir
When We Were Bullies

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT

Ala Kacchu – Take and Run
The Dress
The Long Goodbye
On My Mind
Please Hold

BEST ANIMATED SHORT

Affairs of the Art
Bestia
Boxballet
Robin Robin
The Windshield Wiper