lists

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

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)

The Best Older Movies I Saw in 2021

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 2021. Previous years include: 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, and 2006. I watched just over 260 films this year, less than a quarter of which qualified for this list. Here are 55 of my favorites.

1. His Motorbike, Her Island (Ōbayashi Nobuhiko, 1986)
2. The Great Silence (Sergio Corbucci, 1968)
3. Yokohama BJ Blues (Kudō Eiichi, 1981)
4. The Shooting (Monte Hellman, 1966)
5. Hercules in the Haunted World (Mario Bava, 1961)
6. Django (Sergio Corbucci, 1966)
7. Mirage (Tsui Siu-ming, 1987)
8. The Gunfighter (Henry King, 1950)
9. Hard Rain (Jacques Levy, 1976)
10. Conquest (Lucio Fulci, 1983)

11. Neil Young: Heart of Gold (Jonathan Demme, 2006)
12. Ride in the Whirlwind (Monte Hellman, 1966)
13. Hercules and the Captive Women (Vittorio Cottafavi, 1961)
14. The Iron Rose (Jean Rollin, 1973)
15. Jerichow (Christian Petzold, 2008)
16. Navajo Joe (Sergio Corbucci, 1966)
17. Black Sunday (Mario Bava, 1960)
18. Queen of Sports (Sun Yu, 1934)
19. Debra Paget, For Example (Mark Rappaport, 2016)
20. The Street Fighter (Ozawa Shigehiro, 1974)

21. Ulysses (Mario Camerini, 1954)
22. The Cat o’Nine Tails (Dario Argento, 1971)
23. The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy, 1973)
24. Every Which Way But Loose (James Fargo, 1978)
25. The Holiday (Nancy Meyers, 2006)
26. Rust Never Sleeps (Neil Young, 1979)
27. The Mysterious Rider (Riccardo Freda, 1948)
28. Festival! (Murray Lerner, 1967)
29. The Road to Fort Alamo (Mario Bava, 1964)
30. The Eiger Sanction (Clint Eastwood, 1975)


31. Iron Angels 2 (Teresa Woo, 1987)
32. Erik the Conquerer (Mario Bava, 1961)
33. Ninja, a Band of Assassins (Yamamoto Satsuo, 1962)
34. Scream 3 (Wes Craven, 2000)
35. Bury Me High (Tsui Siu-ming, 1991)
36. Hercules Unchained (Pietro Francisci, 1959)
37. China 9, Liberty 37 (Monte Hellman, 1978)
38. The American Epic (Bernard MacMahon, 2017)
39. The Mystery of Chess Boxing (Joseph Kuo, 1979)
40. The Other Side of the Mirror (Murray Lerner, 2007)

41. Iron Angels 3 (Teresa Woo, 1989)
42. Red Hollywood (Thom Andersen & Noël Burch, 1996)
43. Scream 4 (Wes Craven, 2011)
44. Hercules (Pietro Francisci, 1958)
45. Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (Brad Silberling, 2004)
46. Akeelah and the Bee (Doug Atchison, 2006)
47. Corpse Bride (Tim Burton & Mike Johnson, 2005)
48. Feel Like Going Home (Martin Scorsese, 2003)
49. Trouble No More (Jennifer LeBeau, 2017)

50. Fatal Termination (Andrew Kam, 1990)
51. Jumanji (Joe Johnston, 1995)
52. The Rocketeer (Joe Johnston, 1991)
53. I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (Danny Cannon, 1998)
54. Paper Marriage (Alfred Cheung, 1988)
55. Princess Madam (Godfrey Ho, 1989)

Books of 2021

This is a ranked list of the books I finished reading in 2021:

1. Moby-Dick, Herman Melville
2. Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson
3. Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut
4. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
5. Hard Times, Charles Dickens
6. As You Like It, William Shakespeare
7. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Unknown
8. The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler
9. The Old Weird America, Greil Marcus
10. Hawkeye, Matt Fraction
11. The Dragon Waiting, John M. Ford
12. Nature, Ralph Waldo Emerson
13. The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury
14. All of the Marvels, Douglas Wolk
15. Shakey, Jimmy McDonough
16. Watching the River Flow, Paul Williams
17. Performing Artist 1960-1973, 1974-1986, & 1986-1990 & Beyond, Paul Williams
18. Crabgrass Frontier, Kenneth T. Jackson
19. The ABC Murders, Agatha Christie
20. A Hundred Years of Japanese Film, Donald Richie
21. Alright Alright Alright, Melissa Maerz
22. When We Were Good, Robert Cantwell
23. Bob Dylan, Greil Marcus
24. Sketches by Boz, Charles Dickens
25. Neil Young: Love to Burn, Paul Williams
26. Hellboy Vol. 1, Mike Mignola
27. True Believer, Abraham Riesman
28. Revolution in the Air & Still on the Road, Clinton Heylin
29. One More Night, Andrew Muir
30. The Time Machine Did It, John Swartzwelder

And here are the books I’m still working on, in order of how long I’ve been reading them:

  1. Against the Day, Thomas Pynchon
  2. The Fourth World Omnibus, Jack Kirby
  3. The Path to Power, Robert Caro
  4. City of Quartz, Mike Davis
  5. Emerson: The Mind on Fire, Robert D. Richardson
  6. The History of Jazz, Ted Gioia
  7. Don Quixote, Cervantes
  8. American Renaissance, FO Matthiessen
  9. The Ramayana: A New Retelling, Linda Egenes & Kumuda Reddy
  10. James Joyce, Richard Ellman
  11. Before the Storm, Rick Perlstein
  12. Debt: the First 5000 Years, David Graeber
  13. Crisis on Infinite Earths (plus Crossovers), Marv Wolfman, etc
  14. Bach: The Learned Musician, Christoph Wolff
  15. The Story of the Stone (Dream of the Red Chamber), Cao Xueqin
  16. Dickens, Peter Ackroyd
  17. The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens
  18. Chaucer: A European Life, Marion Turner
  19. The Canterbury Tales (Riverside), Geoffrey Chaucer
  20. The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian, Robert E. Howard
  21. The Dawn of Everything, David Graeber & David Wengrow
  22. The Annotated Arabian Nights, trans. Yasmine Seale
  23. The Arabian Nights: A Companion, Robert Irwin
  24. Revolution in the Head, Ian MacDonald
  25. Player Piano, Kurt Vonnegut
  26. Norwood, Charles Portis

A Top 100 Films of All-Time

It is time once again for a Top 100 Films of All-Time list. As I’ve done for the last few years, the first ten spots on the list comprise a hypothetical Sight & Sound-style ballot. We had an on-going project related to this on The George Sanders Show, that is now based at Seattle Screen Scene. This top ten is presented here in chronological order. The remaining 90 films were randomly selected from a consideration set of 1024 films, which excluded films that made my Top Tens in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020.

1. Hellzapoppin’ (HC Potter, 1941)

2. Anatomy of a Murder (Otto Preminger, 1959)

3. Duvidha (Mani Kaul, 1973)

4. Renaldo & Clara (Bob Dylan, 1978)

5. His Motorbike, Her Island (Obayashi Nobuhiko, 1986)

6. Slacker (Richard Linklater, 1990)

7. Ballet (Frederick Wiseman, 1995)

8. Goodbye, Dragon Inn (Tsai Ming-liang, 2003)

9. Throw Down (Johnnie To, 2004)

10. Claire’s Camera (Hong Sangsoo, 2017)

11. New York, New York (Martin Scorsese, 1977)

12. Woodstock (Michael Wadleigh, 1970)

13. Return of the King (Peter Jackson, 2003)

14. Mr. Thank You (Shimizu Hiroshi, 1936)

15. Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999)

16. They Live by Night (Nicholas Ray, 1948)

17. Predator (John McTiernan, 1987)

18. Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1969)

19. Miami Vice (Michael Mann, 2006)

20. Trouble in Paradise (Ernst Lubitsch, 1932)

21. The Romance of Astrea and Celadon (Eric Rohmer, 2007)

22. Dishonored (Josef von Sternberg, 1931)

23. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Tobe Hooper, 1974)

24. Suspicion (Alfred Hitchcock, 1941)

25. My Night at Maud’s (Eric Rohmer, 1969)

26. Window Water Baby Moving (Stan Brakhage, 1959)

27. A Matter of Interpretation (Lee Kwangkuk, 2014)

28. How Green was My Valley (John Ford, 1941)

29. Bye Bye Birdie (George Sidney, 1963)

30. The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (Fritz Lang, 1933)

31. Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion (Itō Shunya, 1972)

32. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Philip Kaufman, 1978)

33. The Wind Will Carry Us (Abbas Kiarostami, 1999)

34. Le Samouraï (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967)

35. Blackhat (Michael Mann, 2015)

36. 24 Frames (Abbas Kiarostami, 2017)

37. Modern Times (Charles Chaplin, 1936)

38. Judge Priest (John Ford, 1934)

39. M (Fritz Lang, 1931)

40. PTU (Johnnie To, 2003)

41. Les Vampires (Louis Feuillade, 1915)

42. Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944)

43. Charade (Stanley Donen, 1963)

44. Humanity and Paper Balloons (Yamanaka Sadao, 1937)

45. My Young Auntie (Lau Kar-leung, 1981)

46. Our Hospitality (Buster Keaton & John G. Blystone, 1923)

47. The Thin Man (WS Van Dyke, 1934)

48. My Fair Lady (George Cukor, 1964)

49. The Other Side of the Wind (Orson Welles, 2018)

50. Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade, 2016)

51. Chimes at Midnight (Orson Welles, 1965)

52. Vengeance! (Chang Cheh, 1970)

53. The Southerner (Jean Renoir, 1945)

54. My Heart is that Eternal Rose (Patrick Tam, 1989)

55. Two Lovers (James Gray, 2008)

56. On Dangerous Ground (Nicholas Ray, 1951)

57. Schindler’s List (Steven Spielberg, 1993)

58. The Miracle Fighters (Yuen Woo-ping, 1982)

59. Vampir-Caudecuc (Pere Portabella, 1973)

60. Rashomon (Kurosawa Akira, 1950)

61. Hoop Dreams (Steve James, 1994)

62. Dodsworth (William Wyler, 1936)

63. The History of the Seattle Mariners (Jon Bois, 2020)

64. Martin Eden (Pietro Marcello, 2019)

65. Crippled Avengers (Chang Cheh, 1978)

66. M. Hulot’s Holiday (Jacques Tati, 1953)

67. The Untold Story (Herman Yau, 1993)

68. Kamikaze Taxi (Herman Yau, 1993)

69. Earth (Alexander Dovzhenko, 1930)

70. Pride and Prejudice (Andrew Davies, 1995)

71. The ‘Burbs (Joe Dante, 1989)

72. Wife of a Spy (Kurosawa Kiyoshi, 2020)

73. Office Space (Mike Judge, 1999)

74. The Deep Blue Sea (Terence Davies, 2011)

75. Godfather Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)

76. Park Row (Samuel Fuller, 1953)

77. Bacurau (Kleber Mendonça Filho & Juliano Dornelles, 2019)

78. Heathers (Michael Lehmann, 1988)

79. Unknown Pleasures (Jia Zhangke, 2002)

80. The Lady Eve (Preston Sturges, 1941)

81. The Sting (George Roy Hill, 1973)

82. The One-Armed Swordsman (Chang Cheh, 1967)

83. 7 Women (John Ford, 1966)

84. The Master (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2012)

85. Taste of Cherry (Abbas Kiarostami, 1997)

86. Frankenstein (James Whale, 1931)

87. The Bad News Bears (MIchael Ritchie, 1976)

88. The Pirate (Vicente Minnelli, 1948)

89. Paterson (Paterson, 2016)

90. The French Connection (William Friedkin, 1971)

91. Brigadoon (Vincente MInnelli, 1954)

92. Grass (Hong Sangsoo, 2018)

93. Alexander Nevsky (Sergei Eisenstein, 1938)

94. Scarface (Brian De Palma, 1983)

95. 35 Shots of Rum (Claire Denis, 2008)

96. Sparrow (Johnnie To, 2008)

97. The Set-Up (Robert Wise, 1949)

98. Force of Evil (Abraham Polonsky, 1948)

99. The World (Jia Zhangke, 2004)

100. Madame de… (Marcel Ophuls, 1953)

The Best Older Movies I Saw in 2020

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 2019. Previous years include: 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, and 2006. I watched just over 275 films this year, almost a hundred of which qualified for this list. These are 75 of my favorites.

1. Mughal-e-Azam (K. Asif, 1960)
2. The Rocking Horsemen (Obayashi Nobuhiko, 1992)
3. The Bridges of Madison County (Clint Eastwood, 1995)
4. Duvidha (Mani Kaul, 1973)
5. Real Life (Albert Brooks, 1979)
6. The Harder they Come (Perry Henzell, 1972)
7. Om Shanti Om (Farah Khan, 2007)
8. Black Christmas (Bob Clark, 1974)
9. Mother India (Mehboob Khan, 1957)
10. Original Cast Album: Company (DA Pennebaker, 1970)

11. Dil Se.. (Mani Ratnam, 1998)
12. Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 (Itō Shun’ya, 1972)
13. Welcome to LA (Alan Rudolph, 1976)
14. Eega (SS Rajamouli, 2012)
15. Lagaan (Ashutosh Gowariker, 2001)
16. Peggy Sue Got Married (Francis Ford Coppola, 1986)
17. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Philip Kaufman, 1978)
18. Mikey and Nicky (Elaine May, 1976)
19. Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje (V. Shantaram, 1955)
20. Klute (Alan J. Pakula, 1971)

21. Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa (Kundan Shah, 1994)
22. Stray Cat Rock: Machine Animal (Hasebe Yasuharu, 1970)
23. Aag (Raj Kapoor, 1948)
24. Diwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (Aditya Chopra, 1995)
25. Cageman (Jacob Cheung, 1992)
26. In Our Time (Edward Yang, Yi Chang, Ko I-Chen and Tao Te-Chen, 1982)
27. Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion (Itō Shun’ya, 1972)
28. Mrs Parker & the Vicious Circle (Alan Rudoplh, 1994)
29. The Dead Zone (David Cronenberg, 1983)
30. The Crazies (George A. Romero, 1973)

31. Deewar (Yash Chopra, 1975)
32. Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor (Dave Fleischer, 1936)
33. Tamasha (Imtiaz Ali, 2015)
34. Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter (Hasebe Yasuharu, 1970)
35. Amrapali (Lekh Tandon, 1966)
36. Fan (Maneesh Sharma, 2015)
37. On the Run (Alfred Cheung, 1988)
38. Night Moves (Arthur Penn, 1975)
39. Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable (Itō Shun’ya, 1973)
40. Deathdream (Bob Clark, 1974)

41. Main Hoon Na (Farah Khan, 2004)
42. Gangs (Lawrence Ah Mon, 1988)
43. Ram Jaane (Rajiv Mehra, 1995)
44. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band: Hammersmith Odeon, London ’75 (Derek Burbidge, 2005)
45. New Blood (Soi Cheang, 2002)
46. Devdas (PC Barua, 1936)
47. Ringu (Nakata Hideo, 1998)
48. Stray Cat Rock: Delinquent Girl Boss (Hasebe Yasuharu, 1970)
49. Iron Angels (Teresa Woo, 1987)
50. Batman Forever (Joel Schumacher, 1995)

51. Enthiran (S. Shankar, 2010)
52. Wings for Wheels (Thom Zimny, 2005)
53. Dangal (Nitesh Tiwari, 2016)
54. Stray Cat Rock: Beat 71 (Fujita Toshiya, 1971)
55. Clash (Le Thanh Son, 2009)
56. Ordinary Heroes (Ann Hui, 1999)
57. Salem’s Lot (Tobe Hooper, 1979)
58. Who Killed Captain Alex? (Nabwana IGG, 2010)
59. The Delinquent (Kuei Chih-hung & Chang Cheh, 1973)
60. Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (Karan Johar, 1998)

61. Dream Home (Pang Ho-cheung, 2010)
62. Growing Up (Chen Kun-hou, 1983)
63. The Dark Knight Rises (Christopher Nolan, 2012)
64. Our Time Our Story (Hsiao Chu-Chen, 2002)
65. A Chinese Ghost Story II (Ching Siu-tung, 1990)
66. Happy New Year (Farah Khan, 2014)
67. A Christmas Story (Bob Clark, 1983)
68. Twilight (Robert Benton, 1998)
69. Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (John Hancock, 1971)
70. Jackie Chan: My Stunts (Jackie Chan, 1999)

71. The Rebel (Charlie Nguyen, 2007)
72. The Iceman Cometh (Clarence Fok, 1989)
73. Friday the 13th (Sean S. Cunningham, 1980)
74. Love at Large (Alan Rudolph, 1990)
75. Sex and Zen (Michael Mak, 1991)

A Top 100 Films of All-Time

It is time once again for a Top 100 Films of All-Time list. As I’ve done for the last few years, the first ten spots on the list comprise a hypothetical Sight & Sound-style ballot. We had an on-going project related to this on The George Sanders Show, that is now based at Seattle Screen Scene. This top ten is presented here in chronological order. The remaining 90 films were randomly selected from a consideration set of 402 films, which excluded films that made my Top Tens in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.

  1. The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor, 1940)
  2. Mughal-e-azam (K. Asif, 1960)
  3. Yearning (Naruse Mikio, 1964)
  4. It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (Bill Melendez, 1966)
  5. Night of the Living Dead (George Romero, 1968)
  6. The Terrorizers (Edward Yang, 1986)
  7. Om Shanti Om (Farrah Khan, 2007)
  8. Dusty Stacks of Mom (Jodie Mack, 2013)
  9. The Midnight After (Fruit Chan, 2014)
  10. Liz and the Blue Bird (Yamada Naoko, 2018)



  11. Steamboat Bill, Jr (Charles Resiner, 1928)
  12. Meet Me in St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli, 1944)
  13. Miller’s Crossing (Joel & Ethan Coen, 1990)
  14. The Gold Rush (Charles Chaplin, 1925)
  15. Safety Last! (Sam Taylor & Fred C. Newmeyer, 1923)
  16. Rushmore (Wes Anderson, 1998)
  17. Dirty Ho (Lau Kar-leung, 1979)
  18. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, 1962)
  19. The Last Waltz (Martin Scorsese, 1978)
  20. The Day He Arrives (Hong Sangsoo, 2011)



  21. Awaara (Raj Kapoor, 1951)
  22. Meshes of the Afternoon (Maya Deren, 1943)
  23. Romancing in Thin Air (Johnnie To, 2012)
  24. 7 Women (John Ford, 1966)
  25. Sparrow (Johnnie To, 2008)
  26. Modern Times (Charles Chaplin, 1936)
  27. Only Angels Have Wings (Howard Hawks, 1939)
  28. The Godfather Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)
  29. The Dawn Patrol (Howard Hawks, 1930)
  30. The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946)



  31. The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)
  32. Little Women (Greta Gerwig, 2019)
  33. Wagon Master (John Ford, 1950
  34. The Manchurian Candidate (John Frankenheimer, 1962)
  35. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (Joseph Sargent 1974)
  36. The Outlaw Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood, 1976)
  37. The Right Stuff (Philip Kaufman, 1983)
  38. School on Fire (Ringo Lam, 1988)
  39. Japanese Girls at the Harbor (Hiroshi Shimizu, 1933)
  40. A Matter of Life and Death (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, 1946)



  41. Histoire(s) du cinèma (Jean-Luc Godard, 1998)
  42. Welcome to LA (Alan Rudolph, 1976)
  43. Choose Me (Alan Rudolph, 1984)
  44. Reds (Warren Beatty, 1981)
  45. My Neighbor Totoro (Hayao Miyazaki, 1988)
  46. Heaven’s Gate (Michael Cimino, 1980)
  47. Cabaret (Bob Fosse, 1972)
  48. Fantasia (Ben Sharpsteen, et al, 1940)
  49. The Pan-American Exposition By Night (Edwin S. Porter, 1901)
  50. Red River (Howard Hawks, 1948)



  51. L’Atalante (Jean Vigo, 1934)
  52. Sans soleil (Chris Marker, 1983)
  53. Sátántangó (Béla Tarr, 1994)
  54. All that Jazz (Bob Fosse, 1979)
  55. New Rose Hotel (Abel Ferrara, 1998)
  56. Love & Friendship (Whit Stillman, 2016)
  57. Hanagatami (Obayashi Nobuhiko, 2017)
  58. Les amants du pont-neuf (Leos Carax, 1991)
  59. The Harder They Come (Perry Henzell, 1972)
  60. Dawson City: Frozen Time (Bill Morrison, 2016)



  61. Made in Hong Kong (Fruit Chan, 1997)
  62. Three Times (Hou Hsiao-hsien, 2005)
  63. Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)
  64. La danse: The Paris Opera Ballet (Frederick Wiseman, 2009)
  65. Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975)
  66. Desperately Seeking Susan (Susan Seidelman, 1985)
  67. How Green was My Valley (John Ford, 1941)
  68. Mahjong (Edward Yang, 1996)
  69. Pauline at the Beach (Eric Rohmer, 1983)
  70. Kid Auto Races at Venice (Henry Lehrman, 1914)



  71. Legend of the Mountain (King Hu, 1979)
  72. Maison du bonheur (Sofia Bohdanowicz, 2017)
  73. The Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner, 1980)
  74. My Left Eye Sees Ghosts (Johnnie To & Wai Ka-fai, 2002)
  75. Holiday (George Cukor, 1938)
  76. Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman, 1974)
  77. Mean Streets (Martin Scorsese, 1973)
  78. Two-Lane Blacktop (Monte Hellman, 1971)
  79. The Lady Eve (Preston Sturges, 1941)
  80. It Felt Like a Kiss (Adam Curtis, 2009)



  81. 2046 (Wong Kar-wai, 2004)
  82. Stagecoach (John Ford, 1939)
  83. The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1939)
  84. Xiao Wu (Jia Zhangke, 1998)
  85. The History of the Seattle Mariners (Jon Bois, 2020)
  86. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (Gore Verbinski, 2006)
  87. The Immigrant (Charles Chaplin, 1917)
  88. Bram Stoker’s Dracula (Francis Ford Coppola, 1992)
  89. Paterson (Jim Jarmusch, 2016)
  90. All that Heaven Allows (Douglas Sirk, 1955)



  91. Throw Down (Johnnie To, 2004)
  92. The Wind Rises (Hayao Miyazaki, 2013)
  93. Dazed and Confused (Richard Linklater, 1993)
  94. Die Nibelungen (Fritz Lang, 1924)
  95. Happy Together (Wong Kar-wai, 1997)
  96. The Bridges of Madison County (Clint Eastwood, 1995)
  97. Mr. Arkadin (Orson Welles, 1955)
  98. Design for Living (Ernst Lubitsch, 1933)
  99. Irma Vep (Olivier Assayas, 1996)
  100. Cat People (Jacques Tourneur, 1942)

The Best Movies of 2020 (So Far)

 

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We are now halfway through the year and as has become an annual tradition here at The End, it’s time to look back at the best movies of the year so far. As I discussed in the 2013 halfway post, the consensus movie-dating system is nonsensical and posits New York as the center of the universe. Far more logical (and much easier to use) is a system reliant on imdb’s dating system, which locates a film in whatever year it first played for an audience. That’s what we use here for all Rankings & Awards as it’s the most fair to all eras and areas. (A dating system reliant on playing in a certain locality I think can be valuable for a publication that is geographically specific, like a local newspaper or website. But here at The End, we have a global reach.)

A by-product of the system is that a number of films that first go into wide-release in any given year actually had their premiere in the year before. A number of the films on many critics’ halfway-point lists will include these films, films that find their proper home here on my 2019 list. And so here we have two lists: the Best Movies of 2020, following the strict imdb dating system, and the Best 2019 Movies of 2020, which includes those films from last year (and a couple from years before that) that you might find on a more chronologically-illogical list. On this list I’m including anything that didn’t get a theatrical release but was made available on VOD and is therefore eligible for this year’s Seattle Film Critics Awards. For obvious reasons, the New York theatrical release standard is even more nonsensical this year. I also have a third list, Best Unreleased Movies of 2019, of last year’s films that have yet to see a New York release and therefore don’t (yet) exist by the standards of most critics. And there’s a fourth list, a halfway version of my annual Best Older Movies list, counting the top movies I saw for the first time this year that are more than a few years old.

woman

The Best Movies of 2020 (So Far)

1. The Woman Who Ran (Hong Sangsoo)
2. The History of the Seattle Mariners (Jon Bois)
3. Da 5 Bloods (Spike Lee)
4. We Have Boots (Evans Chan)
5. Birds of Prey (Cathy Yan)
6. New York New York (Spike Lee)
7. Be Water (Bao Nguyen)
8. The Cube Phantom (Alan Lau)
9. Enter the Fat Dragon (Wong Jing & Tanigaki Kenji)
10. Long Gone Summer (AJ Schnack)

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The Best 2019 Movies of 2020 (So Far)

1. Yourself and Yours (Hong Sangsoo)
2. Fourteen (Dan Sallitt)
3. Made in Hong Kong (Fruit Chan)
4. Bacurau (Kleber Mendonça Filho & Juliano Dornelles)
5. Ride Your Wave (Masaaki Yuasa)
6. The Grand Bizarre (Jodie Mack)
7. Jallikattu (Lijo Jose Pellissery)
8. Hill of Freedom (Hong Sangsoo)
9. I Wish I Knew (Jia Zhangke)
10. Woman on the Beach (Hong Sangsoo)
11. MS Slavic 7 (Sofia Bohdanowicz & Deragh Campbell)
12. The Wild Goose Lake (Diao Yinan)
13. Weathering With You (Makoto Shinkai)
14. The Whistlers (Corneliu Porumboiu)
15. Young Ahmed (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne)
16. Disappearance at Clifton Hill (Albert Shin)
17. House of Hummingbird (Kim Bora)

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The Best Unreleased Films of 2019 (So Far)

1. Labyrinth of Cinema (Obayashi Nobuhiko)
2. Chasing Dream (Johnnie To)
3. Martin Eden (Pietro Marcello)
4. Jeux de plage (Aimi Natsuto)
5. A Voluntary Year (Henner Winckler & Ulrich Köhler)
6. Heart (Jeong Gayoung)
7. Demolition Girl (Matsugami Genta)
8. The Bob Emergency (Jon Bois)
9. To Live To Sing (Johnny Ma)
10. Wet Season (Anthony Chen)

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2020 Discoveries (So Far)

1. Mughal-e-Azam (K. Asif, 1960)
2. The Rocking Horsemen (Obayashi Nobuhiko, 1992)
3. Om Shanti Om (Farah Khan, 2007)
4. Duvidha (Mani Kaul, 1973)
5. Mother India (Mehboob Khan, 1957)
6. Lagaan (Ashutosh Gowariker, 2001)
7. The Harder They Come (Perry Henzell, 1972)
8. Original Cast Album: Company (DA Pennebaker, 1970)
9. Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje (V. Shantaram, 1955)
10. Dil Se.. (Mani Ratnam, 1998)
11. Welcome to LA (Alan Rudolph, 1976)
12. Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa (Kundan Shah, 1994)
13. Eega (SS Rajamouli, 2012)
14. Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 (Itō Shunya, 1972)
15. Deewar (Yash Chopra, 1975)
16. Tamasha (Imtiaz Ali, 2015)
17. Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion (Itō Shunya, 1972)
18. The Crazies (George Romero, 1973)
19. Stray Cat Rock: Machine Animal (Hasebe Yasuharu, 1970)
20. Cageman (Jacob Cheung, 1992)
21. Aag (Raj Kapoor, 1948)
22. Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (Aditya Chopra, 1995)
23. Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter (Hasebe Yasuharu, 1970)
24. Devdas (PC Barua, 1936)
25. Stray Cat Rock: Delinquent Girl Boss (Hasebe Yasuharu, 1970)
26. Main Hoon Na (Farah Khan, 2004)
27. Ordinary Heroes (Ann Hui, 1999)
28. Ram Jaane (Rajiv Mehra, 1995)
29. Amrapali (Lekh Tandon, 1966)
30. Fan ((Maneesh Sharma, 2016)
31. Gangs (Lawrence Ah Mon, 1988)
32. emale Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable (Itō Shunya, 1973)
33. Batman Forever (Joel Schumacher, 1995)
34. Enthiran (S. Shankar, 2010)
35. The Delinquent (Chang Cheh & Kuei Chih-hung, 1973)

Rankings: 2020-2029

2020:
2020 Endy Awards

1. The History of the Seattle Mariners
2. Lovers Rock
3. Septet: the Story of Hong Kong
4. Wife of a Spy
5. Undine
6. Days
7. Mangrove
8. The Woman Who Ran
9. Her Socialist Smile
10. Still Processing
11. Hold Me Back
12. Da 5 Bloods
13. Inside the Red Brick Wall
14. Tesla
15. We Have Boots
16. Monster Hunter
17. City Hall
18. Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets
19. Keep Rolling
20. Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes
21. Greyhound
22. The Cure
23. Shock Wave 2
24. The Calming
25. Hubie Halloween
26. Tenet
27. Point and Line to Plane
28. My Missing Valentine
29. Kung Fu Stuntmen
30. Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue
31. Demon Slayer: Mugen Train
32. The Invisible Man
33. One Second
34. The Disciple
35. Hand Rolled Cigarette
36. World of Tomorrow 3
37. Hopper/Welles
38. Lost Bullet
39. 12 Day Tale of the Monster that Died in 8
40. Birds of Prey
41. Emma.
42. Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
43. Another Round
44. Minari
45. Love Aaj Kal
46. The Eight Hundred
47. Crazy Samurai Musashi
48. Love After Love
49. American Utopia
50. Nomadland
51. Hamilton
52. Leap
53. The Paper Tigers
54. Palm Springs
55. The Rescue
56. Inventing the Future
57. MLK/FBI
58. Sonic the Hedgehog
59. Mank
60. France Against the Robots
61. Promising Young Woman
62. October Rumbles
63. Class Action Park
64. The New Mutants
65. The Cube Phantom
66. Be Water
67. New York New York
68. Visit
69. Long Gone Summer
70. Trial of the Chicago 7
71. Wonder Woman 1984
72. Enter the Fat Dragon

2021:
2021 Endy Awards

1. Drive My Car
2. Shadow Kingdom
3. In Front of Your Face
4. Benedetta
5. The Night
6. West Side Story
7. Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
8. Licorice Pizza
9. Get Back
10. Karnan
11. Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched
12. Baby Assassins
13. A New Old Play
14. The French Dispatch
15. We’re All Going to the World’s Fair
16. Belle
17. A Writer’s Odyssey
18. Limbo
19. Nothing Serious
20. The Velvet Underground
21. Inu-Oh
22. Matrix Resurrections
23. The History of the Atlanta Falcons
24. Evangelion 3.0+1.01 Thrice Upon a Time
25. Can’t Get You Out of My Head
26. Drifting Petals
27. Introduction
28. Bergman Island
29. The Falls
30. Dune
31. The Green Knight
32. Old
33. The Power of the Dog
34. Sycorax
35. Just Remembering
36. The Good Woman of Sichuan
37. One Shot
38. Cliff Walkers
39. Hell Hath No Fury
40. Justice League
41. Coffin Homes
42. The Worst Person in the World
43. Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time
44. Judas and the Black Messiah
45. Venom: Let There Be Carnage
46. The Battle at Lake Changjin
47. The Voyeurs
48. Kate
49. The Witches of the Orient
50. The Last Duel
51. Shaun the Sheep: The Flight Before Christmas
52. Cry Macho
53. Malignant
54. Pompo: The Cinephile
55. The Card Counter
56. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
57. The Fable: The Killer Who Doesn’t Kill
58. Muppets Haunted Mansion
59. Mad God
60. Spider-Man: No Way Home
61. JFK Revisited: Through The Looking Glass
62. The Suicide Squad
63. Schemes in Antiques
64. Eternals
65. Raging Fire
66. Disney’s FastPass: A Complicated History
67. The Many Saints of Newark
68. No Time to Die
69. Nightmare Alley
70. The Mole Song: Final
71. Queenpins
72. King Richard
73. Kid 90
74. Black Widow
75. Cloudy Mountain
76. Who Are You, Charlie Brown?
77. New York Ninja
78. As We Like It
79. CODA
80. Don’t Look Up
81. House of Gucci
82. Eyes of Tammy Faye
83. Framing Britney Spears
84. Gunpowder Milkshake
85. Woodstock ’99: Peace Love and Rage

2022:

2022 Endy Awards

1. The Novelist’s Film
2. Ponniyin Selvan: Part 1
3. The Fabelmans
4. Walk Up
5. Shin Ultraman
6. Captain Ahab: The Story of Dave Stieb
7. Three Thousand Years of Longing
8. Detective vs. Sleuths
9. Decision to Leave
10. The King of Wuxia
11. Apollo 10 1/2
12. Avatar: The Way of Water
13. Tár
14. RRR
15. Nope
16. Thirteen Lives
17. Section 1
18. Armageddon Time
19. Crimes of the Future
20. White Noise
21. Blue Island
22. The Battle at Lake Changjin II
23. The Banshees of Inishirin
24. Ambulance
25. Prey
26. Turn Every Page
27. Fire of Love
28. How to Score Ten Runs in the First Inning and Lose
29. Vikram
30. Hustle
31. Elvis
32. Confess, Fletch
33. The Munsters
34. Disney Channel’s Theme: A History Mystery
35. The Eternal Daughter
36. The Princess
37. Everything Everywhere All at Once
38. Dead for a Dollar
39. The Roundup
40. Lost Bullet 2
41. Next Sohee
42. Eo
43. The Northman
44. The Killer
45. Top Gun: Maverick
46. Confession
47. Emily the Criminal
48. Broker
49. The Woman King
50. Don’t Worry Darling
51. Glass Onion
52. Warriors of Future
53. Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness
54. Accident Man: Hitman’s Holiday
55. The Batman
56. The People You’re Paying to Be in Shorts
57. Barbarian
58. Day Shift
59. The Kids in the Hall: Comedy Punks
60. We Are Still Here
61. George Carlin’s American Dream
62. Hansan: Rising Dragon
63. Werewolf By Night
64. The Menu
65. Thor: Love and Thunder
66. Selena Gomez: My Mind and Me
67. I Want You Back
68. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
69. Scream
70. Wolf Pack
71. Legendary in Action!
72. Morbius