Since the last Rankings update, I watched all of Jia Zhangke’s movies in order, and then all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies in order, and then watched some more Jia Zhangke movies. I watched a bunch of other stuff too. I wrote about Jia at Mubi, and again about his use of music in his films at the VIFF blog, in the lead up to a lecture on his films I did in Vancouver. I also appeared on the Film Stage podcast to talk about Jia’s Ash is Purest White.

Also at Mubi I wrote about this year’s crop of Lunar New Year films, the rerelease of King Hu’s The Fate of Lee Khan, and Yuen Woo-ping’s Master Z. At InReview Online I wrote about the documentary Father, and at Seattle Screen Scene I reviewed: Ramen Shop, War and Peace, Triple Threat, What is Democracy?, Furie, Captain Marvel, Legend of the Demon Cat, Missbehavior, and Hotel by the River.

Awards season passed by as well. I handed out the 2018 Endy Awards and revised a bunch of older awards and added new ones for the years 1979-1987.

If you like what I do here or at Seattle Screen Scene, The Chinese Cinema, or anywhere else, please consider donating at my kofi page. Every little bit helps.

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

War and Peace (Sergey Bondarchuk) – 9, 1966
The Fate of Lee Khan (King Hu) – 5, 1973
Murder on the Orient Express (Sidney Lumet) – 35, 1974
Harlan County, USA (Barbara Kopple) – 1, 1976
Excalibur (John Boorman) – 4, 1981

The Thing (John Carpenter) – 6, 1982
Breakin’ (Joel Silberg) – 47, 1984
Desperately Seeking Susan (Susan Seidelman) – 4, 1985
Platoon (Oliver Stone) – 11, 1986
Pretty in Pink (Howard Deutch) – 28, 1986

Tragic Hero (Taylor Wong) – 54, 1987
Heathers (Michael Lehmann) – 13, 1988
Ju Dou (Zhang Yimou & Yang Fenliang) – 31, 1990
Fight Back to School (Gordon Chan) – 23, 1991
Fist of Fury 1991 (Cho Chung-sing) – 59, 1991

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (Francis Ford Coppola) – 7, 1992
From Beijing with Love (Stephen Chow & lee Lik-chi) – 19, 1994
Love on Delivery (Stephen Chow & Lee Lik-chi) – 39, 1994
Xiao Shan Going Home (Jia Zhangke) – 48, 1995
Scream (Wes Craven) – 18, 1996

The God of Cookery (Stephen Chow & Lee Lik-chi) – 20, 1996
Xiao Wu (Jia Zhangke) – 4, 1997
The King of Comedy (Stephen Chow & Lee Lik-chi) – 9, 1999
Office Space (Mike Judge) – 11, 1999
Platform (Jia Zhangke) – 2, 2000

In Public (Jia Zhangke) – 41, 2001
The Condition of Dogs (Jia Zhangke) – 58, 2001
Unknown Pleasures (Jia Zhangke) – 5, 2002
The World (Jia Zhangke) – 7, 2004
War of the Worlds (Steven Spielberg) – 11, 2005

Still Life (Jia Zhangke) – 5, 2006
Dong (Jia Zhangke) – 29, 2006
Useless (Jia Zhangke) – 23, 2007
24 City (Jia Zhangke) – 7, 2008
Cry My a River (Jia Zhangke) – 16, 2008

Iron Man (Jon Favreau) – 39, 2008
Ip Man (Wilson Yip) – 49, 2008
The Incredible Hulk (Louis Letterier) – 56, 2008
The Clone Wars (Dave Filoni) – 59, 2008
Let the Bullets Fly (Jiang Wen) – 4, 2010

The Legend is Born: Ip Man (Herman Yau) – 21, 2010
I Wish I Knew (Jia Zhangke) – 22, 2010
Ip Man 2 (Wilson Yip) – 53, 2010
Iron Man 2 (Jon Favreau) – 67, 2010
Thor (Kenneth Branagh) – 39, 2011

Captain America: The First Avenger (Joe Johnston) – 45, 2011
The Avengers (Joss Whedon) – 53, 2012
The Grandmaster (Wong Kar-wai) – 1, 2013
A Touch of Sin (Jia Zhangke) – 2, 2013
Ip Man: The Final Fight (Herman Yau) – 21, 2013

Iron Man 3 (Shane Black) – 43, 2013
Thor: The Dark World (Alan Taylor) – 73, 2013
Gone with the Bullets (Jiang Wen) – 18, 2014
Guardians of the Galaxy (James Gunn) – 55, 2014
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Joe & Anthony Russo) – 63, 2014

Jia Zhangke, A Guy from Fenyang (Walter Salles) – 84, 2014
Mountains May Depart (Jia Zhangke) – 4, 2015
Jupiter Ascending (Lilly & Lana Wachowski) – 22, 2015
Avengers: Age of Ultron (Joss Whedon) – 75, 2015
Ant-Man (Peyton Reed) – 92, 2015

Ip Man 3 (Wilson Yip) – 110, 2015
The Hedonists (Jia Zhangke) – 12, 2016
Mrs. K (Ho Yuhang) – 65, 2016
Captain America: Civil War (Joe & Anthony Russo) – 72, 2016
Doctor Strange (Scott Derrickson) – 111, 2016

Thor: Ragnorak (Taika Waititi) – 40, 2017
Spider-Man: Homecoming (Jon Watts) – 49, 2017
Legend of the Demon Cat (Chen Kaige) – 54, 2017
Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol 2 (James Gunn) – 57, 2017
Father (Yang Li-chou) – 100, 2017

Ash is Purest White (Jia Zhangke) – 1, 2018
Blackkklansman (Spike Lee) – 4, 2018
Hidden Man (Jiang Wen) – 38, 2018
Hotel by the River (Hong Sangsoo) – 39, 2018
Avengers: Infinity War (Joe & Anthony Russo) – 44, 2018
Black Panther (Ryan Coogler) – 48, 2018

An Elephant Sitting Still (Hu Bo) – 58, 2018
Master Z: Ip Man Legacy (Yuen Woo-ping) – 72, 2018
Ant-Man and the Wasp (Peyton Reed) – 76, 2018
What is Democracy? (Astra Taylor) – 90, 2018
Projet Gutenberg (Felix Chong) – 117, 2018
Mary Queen of Scots (Josie Rourke) – 120, 2018

The New King of Comedy (Stephen Chow) – 1, 2019
Avengers: Endgame (Joe & Anthony Russo) – 2, 2019
Us (Jordan Peele) – 3, 2019
Missbehavior (Pang Ho-cheung) – 4, 2019
Furie (Lê Văn Kiệt) – 5, 2019

Pegasus (Han Han) – 6, 2019
Triple Threat (Jesse V. Johnson) – 7, 2019
Captain Marvel (Ryan Fleck & Anna Boden) – 8, 2019
The Wandering Earth (Frant Gwo) – 9, 2019
Integrity (Alan Mak) – 10, 2019
Peppa Celebrates Chinese New Year (Zhang Dapeng) – 11, 2019