Since the last update, I’ve covered a number of films for various film festivals: In Our Day for Cannes, Enter the Clones of Bruce for Tribeca, Vital Sign, Kitty the Killer, A Light Never Goes Out, and Nomad for the New York Asian Film Festival, Shin Kamen Rider, My Heart is that Eternal Rose, Take Care of My Cat, and River for Fantasia, and When Morning Comes I Feel Empty, Mondays, The First Slam Dunk, Convenience Story, Saga Saga, Hand, and Plastic for Japan Cuts. I also wrote about The Roundup: No Way Out at InReview Online and Barbie, Once Upon a Time in Uganda, and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny at Seattle Screen Scene.

At The Chinese Cinema, to which you can subscribe for a mere $1/month or $10/year, I wrote about the Swordsman of All Swordsmen Trilogy, Mutant Ghost Wargirl, The Sparring Partner and A Guilty Conscience, Heart of Dragon, A Janitor and Yellow Dragon’s Village, High Risk, Woman Basketball Player No. 5, Mad Fate, two versions of The Red Detachment of Women, and The Avenging Eagle.

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 Golf (Jack Kinney) – 15, 1944
A Study in Choreography for Camera (Maya Deren) – 13, 1945
Woman Basketball Player No. 5 (Xie Jin) – 19, 1957
Breakfast at Tiffany’s (Blake Edwards) – 5, 1961
The Red Detachment of Women (Xie Jin) – 9, 1961

The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly (Sergio Leone) – 1, 1966
The Swordsman of All Swordsmen (Joseph Kuo) – 12, 1968
The Red Detachment of Women (Pan Wenzhan & Fu Jie) – 11, 1970
The Bravest Revenge (Chien Lung) – 14, 1970
The Ghost Hill (Ting Shan-hsi) – 8, 1971
The Avenging Eagle (Sun Chang) – 19, 1978

Nomad (Patrick Tam) – 1, 1982
Repo Man (Alex Cox) – 22, 1984
Pee Wee’s Big Adventure (Tim Burton) – 21, 1985
Heart of Dragon (Sammo Hung) – 31, 1985
My Heart is that Eternal Rose (Patrick Tam) – 9, 1989

Dances with Wolves (Kevin Costner) – 39, 1990
Ballet (Frederick Wiseman) – 5, 1995
High Risk (Wong Jing) – 21, 1995
Happy Gilmore (Dennis Dugan) – 36, 1996
Take Care of My Cat (Jeong Jae-eun) – 15, 2001
The Princess Diaries (Garry Marshall) – 58, 2001

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Runnin’ Down a Dream (Peter Bogdanovich) – 24, 2007
Transformers (Michael Bay) – 55, 2007
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Michael Bay) – 83, 2009
Transformers: Dark of the Moon (Michael Bay) – 65, 2011
Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson) – 2, 2012
Transformers: Age of Extinction (Michael Bay) – 82, 2014

The American Ballet Theatre: A History (Ric Burns) – 143, 2015
Dunkirk (Christopher Nolan) – 85, 2017
Transformers: The Last Knight (Michael Bay) – 88, 2017
Bumblebee (Travis Knight) – 83, 2018
Extraction (Sam Hargrave) – 40, 2020

Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson) – 6, 2021
Yellow Dragon’s Village (Sakamoto Yugo) – 19, 2021
A Janitor (Sakamoto Yugo) – 50, 2021
Once Upon a Time in Uganda (Cathryne Czubek) – 55, 2021

The First Slam Dunk (Inoue Takehiko) – 19, 2022
When Morning Comes, I Feel Empty (Ichibashi Yuho) – 24, 2022
Mondays (Takebayashi Ryo) – 31, 2022
The Sparring Partner (Ho Cheuk-tin) – 42, 2022
It’s What Each Person Needs (Sophy Romvari) – 45, 2022

A Light Never Goes Out (Anastasia Tsang) – 54, 2022
Hand (Matsui Daigo) – 58, 2022
Mutant Ghost Wargirl (Liu Binjie) – 71, 2022
Convenience Story (Miki Satoshi) – 82, 2022

Asteroid City (Wes Anderson) – 1, 2023
Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan) – 3, 2023
In Our Day (Hong Sangsoo) – 5, 2023
Barbie (Greta Gerwig) – 6, 2023
Mad Fate (Soi Cheang) – 7, 2023

Plastic (Miyazaki Daisuke) – 8, 2023
A Guilty Conscience (Jack Ng) – 11, 2023
John Wick Chapter 4 (Chad Stahelski) – 12, 2023
River (Yamaguchi Junta) – 13, 2023
You Hurt My Feelings (NIcole Holofcener) – 14, 2023

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, Part One (Christopher McQuarrie) – 16, 2023
Shin Kamen Rider (Anno Hideaki) – 17, 2023
Saga Saga (Natsuto Aimi) – 18, 2023
Past Lives (Celine Song) – 19, 2023
Extraction 2 (Sam Hargrave) – 20, 2023

The Roundup: No Way Out (Lee Sang-yong) – 22, 2023
Indiana Jones & the Dial of Destiny (James Mangold) – 23, 2023
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse (Joaquim Dos Santos, Justin K. Thompson, Kemp Powers) – 24, 2023
Enter the Clones of Bruce (David Gregory) – 25, 2023
Following the Sound (Sugita Kyoshi) – 26, 2023

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (John Francis Daley & Jonathan Goldstein) – 27, 2023
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 (James Gunn) – 29, 2023
Vital Sign (Cheuk Wan-chi) – 31, 2023
Kitty the Killer (Lee Thongkham) – 33, 2023
Scream VI (Tyler Gillett & Matt Bettinelli-Olpin) – 34, 2023
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (Steven Caple) – 35, 2023

Since the last update, I handed out the winners for the 2022 Endy Awards and announced that I’ve written an essay for the upcoming Radiance Films release of Benny Chan and Johnnie To’s A Moment of Romance. For InReview Online I wrote about Tsai Ming-liang’s Where, playing at the Prismatic Ground festival, Shinkai Makoto’s Suzume, Ernesto Díaz Espinoza and Marko Zaror’s Fist of the Condor, Veronica Ngô’s Furies, and the Berlin Film Festival’s Remembering Every Night, There is a Stone, and Absence.

Over at The Chinese Cinema, I wrote about: Swordsman and Enchantress, The Bare-Footed Kid, The Wandering Earth II, New Kung Fu Cult Master (Parts I & II), Black Cat and Black Cat II: The Assassination of President Yeltsin, Secret Police, Undeclared War, Hidden Blade, Fist of Legend, Black Mask 2: City of Masks, In Water, Snipers, The Tantana, Easy Money, Red Pirate, Peace Hotel, In the Line of Duty III and IV, The Shaolin Invincibles and Seven to One, Code of the Assassins, Saviour of the Soul I & II, Treasure Hunt, and Full River Red. Please do consider subscribing if you’re able and you like my work. It’s only $1/month or $10/year.

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 Battle of Midway (John Ford) – 17, 1942
Buccaneer Bunny (Friz Freleng) – 28, 1948
Duck Amuck (Chuck Jones) – 5, 1953
The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola) – 5, 1972

Seven to One (Hou Cheng) – 41, 1973
The Godfather Part II (Francis Ford Coppola) – 4, 1974
Shaolin Invincibles (Hou Cheng) – 18, 1977
Swordsman and Enchantress (Chor Yuen) – 11, 1978

Radioactive Dreams (Albert Pyun) – 20, 1984
Dirty Dancing (Emile Ardolino) – 28, 1987
Easy Money (Stephen Shin) – 53, 1987
In the Line of Duty III (Brandy Yuen & Arthur Wong) – 35, 1988

Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (Stephen Herek) – 15, 1989
Dead Poets Society (Peter Weir) – 26, 1989
In the Line of Duty IV (Yuen Woo-ping) – 30, 1989
A Moment of Romance (Benny Chan) – 9, 1990
I Love You to Death (Lawrence Kasdan) – 31, 1990
Undeclared War (Ringo Lam) – 57, 1990

Saviour of the Soul (Corey Yuen, Jeffrey Lau & David Lai) – 49, 1991
Black Cat (Stephen Shin) – 56, 1991
The Royal Scoundrel (Johnnie To) – 85, 1991
The Tantana (Mang Hoi) – 92, 1991

Saviour of the Soul II (Corey Yuen & David Lai) – 49, 1992
Black Cat II: The Assassination of President Yeltsin (Stephen Shin) – 72, 1992
Secret Police (Yiu Tin-hung) – 79, 1992
Dazed and Confused (Richard Linklater) – 3, 1993
Future Cops (Wong Jing) – 49, 1993
A Moment of Romance II (Benny Chan) – 77, 1993
The Bare-Footed Kid (Johnnie To) – 94, 1993

Fist of Legend (Gordon Chan) – 13, 1994
The Returning (Jacob Cheung) – 26, 1994
Eat Drink Man Woman (Ang Lee) – 28, 1994
Treasure Hunt (Jeffrey Lau) – 52, 1994
In Between (Samson Chiu, Yonfan & Sylvia Chang) – 61, 1994

Peace Hotel (Wai Ka-fai) – 35, 1995
The Phantom Lover (Ronny Yu) – 67, 1995
Beyond Hypothermia (Patrick Leung) – 23, 1996
A Moment of Romance III (Johnnie To) – 46, 1996

Eighteen Springs (Ann Hui) – 16, 1997
Walk In (Herman Yau) – 71, 1997
Red Pirate (Chen Chi-hwa) – 81, 1997
The Truman Show (Peter Weir) – 28, 1998
Classic Albums: Steely Dan – Aja (Alan Lewens) – 27, 1999

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee) – 4, 2000
Bend it Like Beckham (Gurinder Chadha) – 44, 2002
Black Mask 2: City of Masks (Tsui Hark) – 50, 2002
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (Peter Weir) – 7, 2003
Jiang Hu (Wong Ching-po) – 43, 2004

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Ken Kwapis) – 53, 2005
Undisputed II: Last Man Standing (Isaac Florentine) – 57, 2006
In Search of Mozart (Phil Grabsky) – 61, 2006
Superbad (Greg Mottola) – 45, 2007
Undisputed III: Redemption (Isaac Florentine) – 55, 2010

George Harrison: Living in the Material World (Martin Scorsese) – 14, 2011
El Gringo (Eduardo Rodriguez) – 49, 2012
John Wick (Chad Stahelski) – 40, 2014
Draft Day (Ivan Reitman) – 63, 2014

Close Range (Isaac Florentine) – 48, 2015
Everybody Wants Some!! (Richard Linklater) – 39, 2016
Boyka: Undisputed IV (Todor Chapkanov) – 55, 2016
John Wick Chapter 2 (Chad Stahelski) – 54, 2017
Savage Dog (Jesse V. Johnson) – 72, 2017

The Debt Collector (Jesse V. Johnson) – 38, 2018
Ballet Now (Steven Cantor) – 55, 2018
Avengement (Jesse V. Johnson) – 32, 2019
John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum (Chad Stahelski) – 47, 2019
Murder Mystery (Kyle Newacheck) – 66, 2019
Abduction (Ernie Barbarash) – 90, 2019

Greyhound (Aaron Schneider) – 21, 2020
Debt Collectors (Jesse V. Johnson) – 30, 2020
The Great Director (Lei Xu) – 72, 2021
Where (Tsai Ming-liang) – 14, 2022
Remembering Every Night (Kiyohara Yui) – 19, 2022
Suzume (Shinkai Makoto) – 32, 2022

Furies (Veronica Ngô) – 37, 2022
New Kung Fu Cult Master (Parts I & II) (Wong Jing and Venus Keung) – 41, 2022
Snipers (Zhang Yimou) – 43, 2022
Fall (Scott Mann) – 44, 2022

Special Delivery (Park Dae-min) – 45, 2022
There is a Stone (Ota Tatsunari) – 49, 2022
Everything Everywhere All At Once (Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert) – 50, 2022
Song of the Assassins (Daniel Lee) – 74, 2022

In Water (Hong Sangsoo) – 1, 2023
Hidden Blade (Cheng Er) – 2, 2023
Fist of the Condor (Ernesto Díaz Espinoza) – 3, 2023
Full River Red (Zhang Yimou) – 4, 2023
Absence (Wu Lang) – 5, 2023

The Wandering Earth II (Frant Gwo) – 6, 2023
Sakra (Donnie Yen & Kam Ka-wai) – 7, 2023
The Super Mario Bros. Movie (Aaron Horvath & Michael Jelenic) – 8, 2023
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (Peyton Reed) – 9, 2023

Since the last update, the terrible year that was 2020 came to an end and the terrible year that is 2021 began. I listed my favorite books and film discoveries of the past year, and a bunch of other stuff with the rest of the crew at Seattle Screen Scene. Also at SSS, I reviewed Monster Hunter and Wonder Woman 1984. I contributed to the annual Double Feature feature at the Notebook, wrote about Yourself and Yours for InReview Online’s End of the Year list, and review Yang Lina’s Spring Tide at The Chinese Cinema. I also announced (and have since revised) the nominees for the 2020 Endy Awards.

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.

Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor (Dave Fleischer & Willard Bowsky) – 18, 1936
Holiday (George Cukor) – 3, 1938
It’s a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra) – 1, 1946
The Mysterious Rider (Riccardo Freda) – 16, 1948

Zipping Along (Chuck Jones) – 32, 1953
One Froggy Evening (Chuck Jones) – 4, 1955
Hare Brush (Friz Freleng) – 16, 1955
The Birds (Alfred Hitchcock) – 1, 1963
My Fair Lady (George Cukor) – 6, 1964

A Charlie Brown Christmas (Bill Melendez) – 3, 1965
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (Chuck Jones) – 13, 1966
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (Bill Melendez & Phil Roman) – 38, 1973
Jaws (Steven Spielberg) – 3, 1975
A Christmas Story (Bob Clark) – 39, 1983

His Motorbike, Her Island (Obayashi Nobuhiko) – 5, 1986
Christmas Vacation (Jeremiah S. Chechik) – 45, 1989
Total Recall (Paul Verhoeven) – 17, 1990
Red Hollywood (Thom Andersen & Noël Burch) – 53, 1996
The Big Lebowski (Joel & Ethan Coen) – 1, 1998

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee) – 4, 2000
Linda Linda Linda (Yamashita Nobuhiro) – 1, 2005
Easy A (Will Gluck) – 38, 2010
Debra Paget, For Example (Mark Rappaport) – 39, 2016
Jimi Could Have Fallen from the Sky (Terence Nance) – 90, 2017
A Simple Favor (Paul Feig) – 32, 2018

To the Ends of the Earth (Kurosawa Kiyoshi) – 5, 2019
First Cow (Kelly Reichardt) – 14, 2019
Ham on Rye (Tyler Taormina) – 19, 2019
The Vast of Night (Andrew Patterson) – 24, 2019
Subject to Review (Theo Anthony) – 30, 2019

Spring Tide (Yang Lina) – 58, 2019
Lupin III: The First (Yamazaki Takashi) – 65, 2019
Wasp Network (Olivier Assayas) – 70, 2019
Capital in the 21st Century (Justin Pemberton) – 89, 2019

The History of the Seattle Mariners (Jon Bois) – 1, 2020
Lovers Rock (Steve McQueen) – 2, 2020
Undine (Christian Petzold) – 3, 2020
Mangrove (Steve McQueen) – 5, 2020
Still Processing (Sophy Romvari) – 8, 2020

Tesla (Michael Almereyda) – 10, 2020
Her Socialist Smile (John Gianvito) – 11, 2020
Monster Hunter (Paul Thomas Anderson) – 12, 2020
Point and Line to Plane (Sofia Bohdanowicz) – 13, 2020
Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets (Bill Ross IV & Turner Ross) – 14, 2020

The Disciple (Chaitanya Tamhane) – 16, 2020
Hopper/Welles (Orson Welles) – 19, 2020
World of Tomorrow 3 (Don Hertzfeldt) – 21, 2020
The Cure (Ahmet Atalay) – 22, 2020
Tenet (Christopher Nolan) – 27, 2020

Nomadland (Chloe Zhao) – 28, 2020
The Invisible Man (Leigh Whannell) – 29, 2020
Love Aaj Kal (Imtiaz Ali) – 30, 2020
Another Round (Thomas Vinterberg) – 31, 2020
American Utopia (Spike Lee) – 32, 2020

Minari (Lee Isaac Chung) – 33, 2020
Leap (Peter Chan) – 34, 2020
Inventing the Future (Isiah Medina) – 35, 2020
Promising Young Woman (Emerald Fennell) – 36, 2020

October Rumbles (Apichatpong Weerasethakul) – 38, 2020
France Against the Robots (Jean-Marie Straub) – 41, 2020
Visit (Jia Zhangke) – 45, 2020
Wonder Woman 1984 (Patty Penkins) – 49, 2020

Since the last update I’ve been a bit more productive, reviewing Johnnie To’s Chasing Dream at Mubi, Tsai Ming-liang’s Journey to the West at InReview Online, and Obayashi Nobuhiko’s Labyrinth of Cinema and Nabwana IGG’s Crazy World at Frame.land. But we’re still locked up in quarantine and I’ve spent most of my movie-watching time catching up on things I’ve not had time for over the last few years, like a bunch of Indian movies, Pirates and Batman movies, and a whole lot of Kaji Maiko and Alan Rudolph.

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.

College Hounds (Zion Myers & Jules White) – 18, 1929
Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa) – 1, 1954
East of Eden (Elia Kazan) – 30, 1955
Anatomy of a Murder (Otto Preminger) – 2, 1959
Amrapali (Lekh Tandon) – 15, 1966

Original Cast Album: Company (DA Pennebaker) – 7, 1970
Stray Cat Rock: Machine Animal (Hasebe Yasuharu) – 10, 1970
Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter (Hasebe Yasuharu) – 12, 1970
Stray Cat Rock: Delinquent Girl Boss (Hasebe Yasuharu) – 13, 1970
Stray Cat Rock: Wild Jumbo (Fujita Toshiya) – 16, 1970

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (Mel Stuart) – 18, 1971
Stray Cat Rock: Beat ’71 (Fujita Toshiya) – 20, 1971
Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 (Itō Shunya) – 11, 1972
Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion (Itō Shunya) – 13, 1972
The Greenhouse Jungle (Boris Sagal) – 24, 1972

Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable (Itō Shunya) – 17, 1973
Female Prisoner Scorpion: #701’s Grudge Song (Hasebe Yasuharu) – 22, 1973
Welcome to LA (Alan Rudolph) – 6, 1976
Body Heat (Lawrence Kasdan) – 28, 1981
Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis) – 13, 1985

The Moderns (Alan Rudolph) – 8, 1988
Batman (Tim Burton) – 19, 1989
Dick Tracy (Warren Beatty) – 20, 1990
Love at Large (Alan Rudolph) – 44, 1990
Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael (Jim Abrahams) – 50, 1990

The Rocking Horsemen (Obayashi Nobuhiko) – 6, 1992
Batman Returns (Tim Burton) – 15, 1992
Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa (Kundan Shah) – 20, 1994
Mrs. Parker & the Vicious Circle (Alan Rudolph) – 24, 1994
Ram Jaane (Rajiv Mehra) – 34, 1995

Batman Forever (Joel Schumacher) – 37, 1995
Neil Young & Crazy Horse: The Complex Sessions (Jonathan Demme) – 48, 1995
Batman & Robin (Joel Schumacher) – 67, 1997
Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (Karan Johar) – 20, 1998
Love on a Diet (Johnnie To & Wai Ka-fai) – 21, 2001

Kabhi Kushi Kabhie Gham (Karan Johar) – 33, 2001
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Chris Columbus) – 37, 2001
Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (Gore Verbinski) – 13, 2003
Love for All Seasons (Johnnie To & Wai Ka-fai) – 36, 2003
Throw Down (Johnnie To) – 2, 2004

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (Gore Verbinski) – 6, 2006
Zodiac (David Fincher) – 7, 2007
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (Gore Verbinski) – 13, 2007
The Rebel (Charlie Nguyen) – 32, 2007
Clash (Le Thanh Son) – 36, 2009

Enthiran (S. Shankar) – 37, 2010
Who Killed Captain Alex? (Nabwana IGG) – 42, 2010
Tees Maar Khan (Farah Khan) – 69, 2010
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (Rob Marshall) – 70, 2011
Chennai Express (Rohit Shetty) – 48, 2013

Journey to the West (Tsai Ming-liang) – 5, 2014
Crazy World (Nabwana IGG) – 79, 2014
Tamasha (Imtiaz Ali) – 17, 2015
Piku (Shoojit Sircar) – 55, 2015
Fan (Maneesh Sharma) – 28, 2016

Bad Black (Nabwana IGG) – 30, 2016
Dangal (Nitesh Tiwari) – 53, 2016
20th Century Women (Mike Mills) – 80, 2016
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (Joachim Rønning & Espen Sandberg) – 160, 2017

Labyrinth of Cinema (Obayashi Nobuhiko) – 3, 2019
Chasing Dream (Johnnie To) – 8, 2019
Jallikattu (Lijo Jose Pellissery) – 11, 2019
Heart (Jeong Gayoung) – 26, 2019
The Bob Emergency (Jon Bois) – 40, 2019
Where’d You Go, Bernadette (Richard Linklater) – 51, 2019

The Woman Who Ran (Hong Sangsoo) – 1, 2020
The History of the Seattle Mariners (Jon Bois) – 2, 2020
Da 5 Bloods (Spike Lee) – 3, 2020
New York New York (Spike Lee) – 6, 2020
Be Water (Bao Nguyen) – 7, 2020
Long Gone Summer (AJ Schnack) – 10, 2020