Tickets go on sale today for the Hong Kong International Film Festival.  There are many films listed that I’m not familiar with and need to research further.  From those I know or know of, some recommendations:

  • A Better Tomorrow – essential film from John Woo starring Chow Yun-fat
  • A Serious Man – The Coen Brothers’ brilliant musings about understanding the un-understandable
  • Bright Star – from director Jane Campion
  • Double Take – the premise is fascinating – using existing footage of Hitchcock to cast him as the lead in a new spy thriller
  • Enter the Dragon, Fist of Fury, The Big Boss, The Game of Death, The Kid, The Way of the Dragon – Bruce Lee.  Even if you have these on DVD, you might want to see them on a big screen.  (Bruce was just 10 years old when he did The Kid.)
  • Enter the Void – From the director of Irreversible, this looks to be equally shocking
  • Metropolis – the seminal science fiction film, newly restored in 2008.
  • Micmacs – latest film from the director of Amelie
  • Tetro – recent film from Francis Ford Coppola said to mark a return to his early indie style of filmmaking
  • The Dust of Time – Bruno Ganz, Willem Dafoe and Michel Piccoli in the same film?  How could it not be interesting?
  • The Ghost Writer – Roman Polanski’s latest film, already a critically acclaimed festival winner
  • The Killer Inside Me – director Michael Winterbottom and actor Casey Affleck should make an interesting team
  • The Red Shoes – The greatest film about dance ever made.  One of the greatest films ever made.  Newly restored.
  • Yatterman – the latest from Miike Takashi

There are so many films from so many countries.  Most I haven’t heard of but the descriptions make many of them tempting.  It’s a shame that most of these will only screen in Hong Kong just once, that DVDs will not be easily obtainable, and that we don’t have a repertory cinema dedicated to showing this sort of stuff year round.

Which ones do you recommend?  Which ones are you planning to see?

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