rankings

The Top 309 Films of All-Time

It’s time once again for a list of my favorite movies. For the last decade or so, I’ve been creating a randomly selected Top 100 out of a much larger consideration set. This year, I tried to make a list of my favorites that was as small as possible, and ended up with 309 I simply couldn’t bear to cut. Here they are in random order.

1. Labyrinth of Cinema
2. Steamboat Bill, Jr
3. Celine and Julie Go Boating
4. An Autumn Afternoon
5. Hard-Boiled
6. Millennium Mambo
7. Moonrise Kingdom
8. Ballet
9. Vampyr
10. Red Cliff
11. The Lion in Winter
12. A Canterbury Tale
13. The Love Eterne
14. Dangerous Encounters — First Kind
15. Kicking and Screaming
16. The Grandmaster
17. Trouble in Paradise
18. Whisper of the Heart
19. Ran
20. School on Fire
21. Funny Face
22. The Day He Arrives
23. Seven Samurai
24. Bram Stoker’s Dracula
25. Modern Times


26. One Froggy Evening
27. Made in Hong Kong
28. Shanghai Express
29. I’m Not There
30. Rushmore
31. The Matrix
32. The Right Stuff
33. Yi yi
34. The Lady Eve
35. Intolerance: Love’s Struggle through the Ages
36. Only Angels Have Wings
37. Legend of the Mountain
38. Throw Down
39. In the Mood for Love
40. House
41. The Empire Strikes Back
42. The Adventures of Robin Hood
43. Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons
44. 35 Shots of Rum
45. Once Upon a Time in the West
46. Casablanca
47. Nomad
48. A Matter of Life and Death
49. Dead Man
50. Fantasia


51. A Touch of Zen
52. Blind Detective
53. Dazed and Confused
54. Days of Being Wild
55. Eyes Wide Shut
56. Oki’s Movie
57. The Flowers of Shanghai
58. The Thin Red Line
59. The General
60. The Bellboy
61. Zulu
62. Bull Durham
63. Slacker
64. Jackie Brown
65. Original Cast Album: Company
66. Die Nibelungen
67. L’Avventura
68. Harlan County, USA
69. Metropolis
70. Fantastic Mr. Fox
71. Duck Soup
72. The Puppetmaster
73. Black Narcissus
74. Duvidha
75. The Midnight After


76. Inherent Vice
77. Awaara
78. Last of the Mohicans
79. Chan is Missing
80. Orlando
81. Reds
82. Heat
83. The History of the Seattle Mariners
84. Comrades: Almost a Love Story
85. Still Life
86. The Mission (1999)
87. Big Night
88. Xiao Wu
89. Johnny Guitar
90. The Last Temptation of Christ
91. Duck Amuck
92. In the Heat of the Sun
93. The New World
94. Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
95. A New Leaf
96. What’s Opera, Doc?
97. The Red Shoes
98. The Terrorizers
99. Pierrot le fou
100. A City of Sadness


101. Two-Lane Blacktop
102. The Philadelphia Story
103. Wheels on Meals
104. Yearning
105. Mahanagar
106. The 36th Chamber of Shaolin
107. The Searchers
108. Shanghai Blues
109. Bringing Up Baby
110. All About Eve
111. The Quiet Man
112. Howard’s End
113. All that Jazz
114. Robin and Marian
115. The Battle of Algiers
116. Mughal-e-azam
117. Les amants du Pont-Neuf
118. Hero
119. They Were Expendable
120. A Day in the Country
121. The Docks of New York
122. The Musketeers of Pig Alley
123. Rock ‘n’ Roll High School
124. The Third Man
125. Raiders of the Lost Ark


126. Touch of Evil
127. Stranger than Paradise
128. The Rules of the Game
129. Romancing in Thin Air
130. Certified Copy
131. Sunrise
132. The Miracle Fighters
133. Annie Hall
134. Dragon Gate Inn
135. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
136. A Woman is a Woman
137. Hatari!
138. Beau travail
139. Unforgiven
140. The Eight-Diagram Pole Fighter
141. The Harder They Come
142. Singin’ in the Rain
143. Exiled
144. The Shop Around the Corner
145. The Blade
146. Police Story
147. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
148. Lovers Rock
149. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
150. Punch-Drunk Love


151. Chungking Express
152. Alien
153. Hellzapoppin’
154. Airplane!
155. Fort Apache
156. Blackhat
157. SPL 2: A Time for Consequences
158. Les Vampires
159. Mulholland Dr.
160. Histoire(s) du cinema
161. Wagon Master
162. Renaldo & Clara
163. Out of the Past
164. The Last Days of Disco
165. La Commune (Paris 1871)
166. Charade
167. Peking Opera Blues
168. Bambi
169. The Bad News Bears
170. Mahjong
171. Broadcast News
172. Hana and Alice
173. Sans soleil
174. Pyaasa
175. The Age of Innocence


176. Holiday
177. Los Angeles Plays Itself
178. The Heart of the World
179. His Motorbike, Her Island
180. Goodbye, Dragon Inn
181. Metropolitan
182. Shadow Kingdom
183. The Fellowship of the Ring
184. Late Spring
185. Throne of Blood
186. Running on Karma
187. Three Colors: Blue
188. Vertigo
189. City Lights
190. Don’t Go Breaking My Heart 2
191. Liz and the Blue Bird
192. The Bridges of Madison County
193. Tropical Malady
194. Perceval le Gallois
195. The Princess Bride
196. Ash is Purest White
197. Anatomy of a Murder
198. Ugetsu
199. Satantango
200. Speed Racer


201. Chimes at Midnight
202. The Royal Tenenbaums
203. Glengarry Glen Ross
204. Mad Max: Fury Road
205. It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
206. Playtime
207. Let the Bullets Fly
208. A Charlie Brown Christmas
209. Rear Window
210. Gremlins 2: The New Batch
211. Sparrow
212. My Fair Lady
213. The Music Room
214. La danse: The Paris Opera Ballet
215. Trainspotting
216. Dirty Ho
217. Young Mr. Lincoln
218. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
219. The BIg Sleep
220. Miller’s Crossing
221. My Neighbor Totoro
222. I am Cuba
223. Platform
224. Meek’s Cutoff
225. Citizen Kane


226. Linda Linda Linda
227. Fallen Angels
228. Miami Vice
229. Children of Paradise
230. Song of the Exile
231. Night of the Hunter
232. Only Yesterday (1991)
233. Happy Together
234. Meet Me in St. Louis
235. Broken Blossoms
236. Kiki’s Delivery Service
237. The Big Red One
238. My Left Eye Sees Ghosts
239. Excalibur
240. Green Snake
241. Bound for the Fields, the Mountains, and the Seacoast
242. Kung Fu Hustle
243. The Killer
244. Good Men, Good Women
245. Conan the Barbarian
246. A Moment of Romance
247. An American in Paris
248. Phantoms of Nabua
249. Henry V
250. It Felt Like a Kiss


251. Voyage in Italy
252. Journey to the West (2014)
253. Days of Heaven
254. Sherlock, Jr
255. Once Upon a Time in China
256. Kill Bill Vol. 1
257. Rio Bravo
258. Kiss Me Kate
259. The Big Lebowski
260. Wolf Children
261. Om Shanti Om
262. Dangerous Liaisons
263. City on Fire
264. Irma Vep
265. Morocco
266. The Time to Live, the Time to Die
267. M. Hulot’s Holiday
268. The Rocking Horsemen
269. Pulp Fiction
270. Full Contact
271. Safety Last
272. It’s a Wonderful Life
273. A Brighter Summer Day
274. Last Life in the Universe
275. Paterson


276. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
277. Apocalypse Now
278. The Story of Woo Viet
279. Do the Right Thing
280. Fire Walk with Me
281. Rouge
282. F for Fake
283. Little Women
284. The Birds
285. Ruggles of Red Gap
286. 2046
287. The Wind that Shakes the Barley
288. News from Home
289. The Green Ray
290. Ashes of Time
291. Mean Streets
292. The Band Wagon
293. Cat People
294. A Better Tomorrow
295. Oxhide II
296. The Pirate
297. One Week
298. Psycho
299. Jaws
300. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly


301. Amanda (2019)
302. Spring in a Small Town
303. Japanese Girls at the Harbor
304. Ishtar
305. North by Northwest
306. Yourself & Yours
307. Claire’s Camera
308. Baahubali
309. Early Summer

This Week in Rankings

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

This Week in Rankings

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


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

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

This Week in Rankings

The big news since the last rankings update is that I’ve launched a new home for my Chinese Cinema project. I’m moving all the old writings over there, and they’ll remain free for everyone. But all my future full reviews will be behind a modest paywall. The subscription is $1/month or $10/year while the site is under construction; after that’s done (or after April 1, whichever is later), it’ll go up to $2/month or $20/year. So far I’ve revised and transferred everything in the 36th Chamber category, and I’m about halfway through the Fallen Angels. New subscriber only reviews are up for the late Chor Yuen’s Web of Death and Fruit Chan’s latest, Coffin Homes. I really like how the site is shaping up and if you enjoy my writings, I hope you’ll consider subscribing.

Before the move, I wrote about a number of films at the old Chinese Cinema site, including: Kung Fu Stuntmen, The Rescue, Schemes in Antiques, 7 Grandmasters, The 36 Deadly Styles, The World of the Drunken Master, The Shaolin Kids, The 18 Bronzemen, Return of the 18 Bronzemen, Project S, The Inspector Wears Skirts series, The Seventh Curse, The Legend of Fong Sai-yuk, The Legend of Fong Sai-yuk II, Burning Ambition, and Angel Terminators 2.

Elsewhere, I reviewed Hosoda Mamoru’s Belle, the reconstruction of John Liu’s New York Ninja, Hell Hath No Fury and Kate, West Side Story, Karnan, and One Shot at Seattle Screen Scene. I also wrote about Benedetta and Licorice Pizza for InReview Online, had some double feature ideas for the Mubi Notebook, and wrote about Bob Dylan’s Shadow Kingdom at Frame.land.

I also appeared on a couple of podcasts: talking about Lau Kar-leung and The 36th Chamber of Shaolin on The Dead Beat Film Society; and about Jia Zhangke for The Great Movies Pod.

End of the year content here at The End includes the best books I read last year, my favorite film discoveries, and the Endy Award nominees of 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.

The Haunted House (Edward F. Cline & Buster Keaton) – 11, 1921
Mickey’s Trailer (Ben Sharpsteen) – 9, 1938
Casey at the Bat (Jack Kinney) – 13, 1946
Rabbit Transit (Friz Freleng) – 17, 1947
Buccaneer Bunny (Friz Freleng) – 24, 1948

Beep, Beep (Chuck Jones) – 12, 1952
Operation: Rabbit (Chuck Jones) – 17, 1952
Duck Amuck (Chuck Jones) – 5, 1953
Robot Rabbit (Friz Freleng) – 31, 1953
Roman Legion-Hare (Friz Freleng) – 40, 1955
Yankee Dood It (Friz Freleng) – 29, 1956

Hercules in the Haunted World (Mario Bava) – 8, 1961
A Charlie Brown Christmas (Bill Melendez) – 3, 1965
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (Chuck Jones) – 15, 1966
Original Cast Album: Company (DA Pennebaker) – 4, 1970
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (Bill Melendez & Phil Roman) – 38, 1973

Shaolin Kung Fu (Joseph Kuo) – 39, 1974
The Shaolin Kids (Joseph Kuo) – 15, 1975
Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown (Phil Roman) – 19, 1975
The Web of Death (Chor Yuen) – 14, 1976
The 18 Bronzemen (Joseph Kuo) – 23, 1976
Return of the 18 Bronzemen (Joseph Kuo) – 28, 1976

The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (Lau Kar-leung) – 2, 1978
The 7 Grandmasters (Joseph Kuo) – 15, 1978
Warriors Two (Sammo Hung) – 23, 1978
The 36 Deadly Styles (Joseph Kuo) – 23, 1979
The World of the Drunken Master (Joseph Kuo) – 38, 1979
The Old Master (Joseph Kuo) – 43, 1979

Airplane! (David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, Jerry Zucker) – 6, 1980
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (Steven Spielberg) – 32, 1984
Lost in America (Albert Brooks) – 9, 1985
Mr. Vampire (Ricky Lau) – 15, 1985
The Seventh Curse (Lam Nai-choi) – 15, 1986

The Inspector Wears Skirts (Wellson Chin) – 50, 1988
Mr. Canton & Lady Rose (Jackie Chan) – 21, 1989
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Steven Spielberg) – 28, 1989
Burning Ambition (Frankie Chan) – 33, 1989
The Inspector Wears Skirts II (Wellson Chin) – 62, 1989

Outlaw Brothers (Frankie Chan) – 50, 1990
Home Alone (Chris Columbus) – 70, 1990
Raid on Royal Casino Marine (Wellson Chin) – 78, 1990
Dreaming the Reality (Tony Lou Chun-ku) – 46, 1991
Naked Killer (Clarence Fok) – 22, 1992
Angel Terminators 2 (Tony Lu Chun-ku & Chan Lau) – 47, 1992
The Inspector Wears Skirts IV (Wellson Chin) – 57, 1992
Angel Terminators (Wai Lit) – 61, 1992

The Legend of Fong Sai-yuk (Corey Yuen) – 10, 1993
Addams Family Values (Barry Sonnenfeld) – 36, 1993
The Legend of Fong Sai-yuk II (Corey Yuen) – 47, 1993
Project S (Stanley Tong) – 66, 1993
The Sandlot (David Mickey Evans) – 75, 1993

Drunken Master II (Lau Kar-leung) – 6, 1994
Party Girl (Daisy von Scherler Mayer) – 16, 1995
The Daytrippers (Greg Mottola) – 12, 1996
Forbidden City Cop (Stephen Chow & Vincent Kok) – 41, 1996
Muppet Treasure Island (Brian Henson) – 55, 1996

The Matrix (Lana & Lilly Wachowski) – 3, 1999
Platform (Jia Zhangke) – 2, 2000
The Cat’s Meow (Peter Bogdanovich) – 34, 2001
The Matrix Reloaded (Lana & Lilly Wachowski) – 16, 2003
The Matrix Revolutions (Lana & Lilly Wachowski) – 32, 2003
Elf (Jon Favreau) – 42, 2003

Kung Fu Hustle (Stephen Chow) – 5, 2004
Howl’s Moving Castle (Miyazaki Hayao) – 22, 2004
Still Life (Jia Zhangke) – 2, 2006
Speed Racer (Lana & Lilly Wachowski) – 2, 2008

A Touch of Sin (Jia Zhangke) – 7, 2013
The Mole Song: Undercover Agent Reiji (Miike Takashi) – 28, 2013
Spectre (Sam Mendes) – 109, 2015
The Mole Song: Hong Kong Capriccio (Miike Takashi) – 113, 2016
Trainspotting 2 (Danny Boyle) – 137, 2017
Peter Rabbit (Will Gluck) – 139, 2018

Kung Fu Stuntmen (Wei Junzi) – 28, 2020
Love After Love (Ann Hui) – 45, 2020
The Rescue (Dante Lam) – 52, 2020
The New Mutants (Josh Boone) – 60, 2020

Benedetta (Paul Verhoeven) – 4, 2021
West Side Story (Steven Spielberg) – 5, 2021
Get Back (Peter Jackson) – 8, 2021
Karnan (Mari Selvaraj) – 9, 2021
Belle (Hosoda Mamoru) – 12, 2021

We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (Jane Schoenbrun) – 15, 2021
The Matrix Resurrections (Lana Wachowski) – 19, 2021
Drifting Petals (Clara Law) – 21, 2021
One Shot (James Nunn) – 30, 2021
Hell Hath No Fury (Jesse V. Johnson) – 32, 2021

Coffin Homes (Fruit Chan) – 34, 2021
The Worst Person in the World (Joachim Trier) – 35, 2021
The Voyeurs (Michael Mohan) – 39, 2021
Kate (Cedric Nicolas-Troyan) – 40, 2021
The Last Duel (Ridley Scott) – 42, 2021

Shaun the Sheep: The Flight Before Christmas (Steve Cox) – 43, 2021
Spider-Man: No Way Home (Jon Watts) – 51, 2021
JFK Revisited: Through The Looking Glass (Oliver Stone) – 52, 2021
Schemes in Antiques (Derek Kwok) – 54, 2021
No Time to Die (Cary Joji Fukunaga) – 58, 2021

Nightmare Alley (Guillermo del Toro) – 59, 2021
The Mole Song: Final (Miike Takashi) – 60, 2021
Queenpins (Aron Gaudet & Gita Pullapilly) – 61, 2021
King Richard (Reinaldo Marcus Green) – 62, 2021
New York Ninja (John Liu & Kurtis Spieler) – 67, 2021

Don’t Look Up (Adam McKay) – 69, 2021
House of Gucci (Ridley Scott) – 70, 2021
The Eyes of Tammy Faye (Michael Showalter) – 71, 2021
Gunpowder Milkshake (Navot Papushado) – 73, 2021

Blue Island (Chan Tze-woon) – 1, 2022
I Want You Back (Jason Orley) – 2, 2022

This Week in Rankings

Since the last update I wrote the liner notes essay for the upcoming Criterion Collection release of Johnnie To’s Throw Down (preorder now!). I also wrote about Christian Petzold’s Jerichow for InReview Online and the Demon Slayer movie at Seattle Screen Scene. I also handed out 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.


The Goat (Buster Keaton & Malcolm St. Clair) – 5, 1921
Duck Soup (Leo McCarey) – 1, 1933
Three Little Pigs (Burt Gillett) – 22, 1933
Queen of Sports (Sun Yu) – 22, 1934
The Foghorn Leghorn (Robert McKimson) – 24, 1948

Rabbit Seasoning (Chuck Jones) – 10, 1952
Feed the Kitty (Chuck Jones) – 13, 1952
One Froggy Evening (Chuck Jones) – 3, 1955
What’s Opera, Doc? (Chuck Jones) – 3, 1957
Hare-way to the Stars (Chuck Jones) – 17, 1958
Robin Hood Daffy (CHuck Jones) – 21, 1958

The Road to Fort Alamo (Mario Bava) – 25, 1964
The Good, the Bad & the Ugly (Sergio Leone) – 1, 1966
The Shooting (Monte Hellman) – 6, 1966
Ride in the Whirlwind (Monte Hellman) – 7, 1966
Navajo Joe (Sergio Corbucci) – 16, 1966

Festival (Murray Lerner) – 20, 1967
The Great Silence (Sergio Corbucci) – 7, 1968
The Heartbreak Kid (Elaine May) – 5, 1972
The Eiger Sanction (Clint Eastwood) – 15, 1975
The Bad News Bears (Michael Ritchie) – 6, 1976
Hard Rain (Jacques Levy) – 16, 1976

China 9, Liberty 37 (Monte Hellman) – 11, 1978
Every Which Way but Loose (James Fargo) – 26, 1978
The Butterfly Murders (Tsui Hark) – 19, 1979
Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain (Tsui Hark) – 5, 1983
Wheels on Meals (Sammo Hung) – 2, 1984
The Muppets Take Manhattan (Frank Oz) – 48, 1984

Peking Opera Blues (Tsui Hark) – 3, 1986
Willow (Ron Howard) – 38, 1988
Paper Marriage (Alfred Cheung) – 48, 1988
Green Snake (Tsui Hark) – 2, 1993
Dylan at Woodstock ’94 (Bruce Gowers) – 49, 1994

The Blade (Tsui Hark) – 7, 1995
Scream (Wes Craven) – 18, 1996
Independence Day (Roland Emmerich) – 56, 1996
I Know What You Did Last Summer (Jim Gillespie) – 45, 1997
Scream 2 (Wes Craven) – 55, 1997

Chicken Run (Nick Park & Peter Lord) – 30, 2000
Running Out of Time 2 (Johnnie To & Law Wing-cheong) – 14, 2001
Fat Choi Spirit (Johnnie To & Wai Ka-fai) – 6, 2002
Feel Like Going Home (Martin Scorsese) – 27, 2003

Throw Down (Johnnie To) – 2, 2004
Breaking News (Johnnie To) – 14, 2004
Yesterday Once More (Johnnie To) – 17, 2004
War of the Worlds (Steven Spielberg) – 7, 2005
No Direction Home (Martin Scorsese) – 12, 2005
Akeelah and the Bee (Doug Atchison) – 30, 2006

1966-1978: After the Crash (Chrome Dreams) – 34, 2006
The Other Side of the Mirror (Murray Lerner) – 33, 2007
Sparrow (Johnnie To) – 4, 2008
Jerichow (Christian Petzold) – 13, 2008
1978-1989: Both Ends of the Rainbow (Chrome Dreams) – 46, 2008
Coraline (Henry Selick) – 45, 2009
1990-2006: The Never-Ending Narrative (Chrome Dreams) – 58, 2011

Into the Woods (Rob Marshall) – 45, 2014
Roads Rapidly Changing (Tom O’Dell) – 63, 2015
The American Epic (Bernard MacMahon) – 61, 2017
Trouble No More (Jennifer Lebeau) – 65, 2017

Wife of a Spy (Kurosawa Kiyoshi) – 4, 2020
Demon Slayer: Mugen Train (Satozaki Haruo) – 25, 2020
Mank (David Fincher) – 44, 2020
Shadow Kingdom (Alma Har’el) – 1, 2021
Black Widow (Cate Shortland) – 8, 2021

This Week in Rankings

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

The Best Movies of 2020 (So Far)

 

unnamed-2

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)

117383819_o

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)

Labyrinth-of-Cinema-furyosa-3

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)

unnamed

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)

This Week in Rankings

image-w448

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