The 29 Most Rewatchable Films in My Collection: Part 28

The 20 Most Rewatchable Films In My Collection: Part 17

The 20 Most Rewatchable Films In My Collection: Part 16

The 20 Most Rewatchable Films In My Collection: Part 14

The 29 Most Rewatchable Films in My Collection: Part 9

The 29 Most Rewatchable Films in My Collection: Part 8

The 29 Most Rewatchable Films in My Collection: Part 6

The 29 Most Rewatchable Films in My Collection: Part 5

Netflix Vacation

I'm one of the few people in the world who has almost no experience with Netflix. Since I have a collection of over 1500 films on blu-ray alone, i don't usually feel the need to spend a monthly fee to have access to more films. It's hard enough to find time to watch the ones i own. I'm also not a huge fan of streaming. I like to own a physical copy of something. Some of the physical copies of films in my collection are gorgeous works if art, even before you put the disc in the player. I also don't want my film collection to change based on the whims of a company and it's licensing rights. Not to mention if i was going to go down the streaming road, I'd be a Hulu guy, since they have over 800 films streaming from The Criterion Collection.

So I'm not a Netflix guy.

But I'm on vacation, and our Air B&B on the lake here in Ithaca doesn't have cable, but *does* have usable Netflix. I'm still not a fan, especially of it's choices or search functionality. Actually maybe it's choices are excellent, but i just can't tell because i can't find any of the good stuff. We did find a few things to watch however.

First up was the documentary The Search For General Tso. We spend most of our vacations seeking out good food, so it makes sense that when it came time to watch a documentary, it was one about food. The Search For General Tso is just what it sounds like, a quest to find out the roots of America's most popular Chinese Restaurant menu item. A fun journey if you like food and ever wondered if General Tso was a real person, and if so, how much did he like chicken.

Next up was Hector and The Search For Happiness, the film adaptation of the book above. It's a generally feel good movie about a psychiatrist's journey to try and find out what makes people (and himself) happy. I enjoyed it, and was glad that it was a R-rated film. It would have felt a little too hokey and feel good for my tastes without the slight edge the rating provided. It also stars Simon Pegg, who's a bit of a guilty pleasure actor for me.

I still won't be getting Netflix anytime soon, even if it *is* currently offering Hirokazu Koreeda's Nobody Knows to stream.

Sion Sono!

Apologies for the terribly unflattering picture of me, but it's Sion Sono! At TIFF last night was the world premiere of one of Sono's many (i count 7) 2015 releases, The Whispering Star. They kept talking about how this film was unlike anything else Sono has done previously, but I feel like you could say that about almost any of Sono's films. This one was filmed in the restricted area of Fukushima, much like his 2012 film The Land Of Hope, but the similarities end there (although both films do star Sono's wife Magumi Kagurazaka). The Whispering Star is a fairly minimalist black and white science fiction film. People always ask which Sono film makes the most sense to try and get into The Criterion Collection. I'd love to see them do a double feature of The Land Of Hope and The Whispering Star, and maybe include a documentary about 3.11 (There are several out there) as a bonus feature.

Koreeda!

I felt lucky enough that I was getting a chance to see the North American premiere of Hirokazu Koreeda's latest film Our Little Sister. I didn't know that he'd be there as well to introduce the film and give a small Q&A session afterwards. As you can see, i even got to snag a quick photo op with him afterwards.

The movie was tremendous, reminding me a bit of his Excellent Stll Walking. While his style of filmmaking is much different, if there is any director that kids able to continue the spirit of Yasujiro Ozu's Japanese family dramas, It's Koreeda. There are a few of his films that have yet to find their way into my collection, but I'll be rectifying that soon!

TIFF!

One of the perks of living where i do is being able to make my way each year to The Toronto International Film Festival. It's a great way to see movies that i might otherwise not get to see for a long time (if ever). In the past I've gotten to see such great films as The Drop, Still The Water, The World of Kanako, and even the North American premiere of Hayao Miyazaki's The Wind Rises. Sometimes you see things like The Drop, which was in theatres locally barely a month after TIFF. Other films like Still the Water, still haven't been released anywhere in the world with English subtitles, so I feel super lucky that i got to see it.

This year I got tickets to 4 films, and hopefully I'll be able to make all the showings. First up is tomorrow where i have a ticket to see Hirokazu Koreeda's latest film Our Little Sister. Koreeda's films have sadly not found their way to North America often enough, or with enough care. The Criterion Collection released the excellent Still Walking, but films like Like Father, Like Son just end up getting a bare bones DVD only release in states. A lot of his other films can only be acquired as DVD only releases from other territories. Hopefully this trend reverses sooner rather than later.

On Monday night i hope to see a double feature, including Sion Sono's Whispering Star. This might be the film I'm most excited about as Sono is the type of director who can pull off almost any genre of film, and is always able to surprise you. Some of his films I love, and others I'm much cooler on, but I'm always glad I've watched another of his films. There can never be too many Sion Sono films in my collection (and considering he's already directed 7 films in 2015, it will be a long time before i have them all).

Rounding out my Monday night is a super interesting looking film called Imbisibol about undocumented Filipino workers in Japan working jobs under the table.

My final film of the festival will be next Sunday as i start my vacation. Naomi Kawase's latest, An. Every time i read a review of a Kawase film at a film festival it always gets ripped about, but I've enjoyed both films (Still The Water, and The Mourning Forest) that I've seen by her. I guess no likes her films except me and the festival programmers?

Collection of Ozu Films

Yasujiro Ozu is my favorite director of all time, so my shelf where I keep all of his films is one of my favorite spots in my collection. I'm only missing one of his surviving films (his only documentary Kagami Jishi) and one of his partially survived films (a silent film called Fighting Friends Japanese Style). Ozu is a director that is appreciated throughout the world so there are frequently new releases of his films coming out in different territories. His main studio in Japan has been releasing newly restored 4K scans of some of his best films, so I've been cheerfully re-purchasing each new release as they come out.

In The Mood For Love

Normally I'm very focused on watching movies i haven't seen before. The two main reasons for this are that i feel like i developed an appreciation for cinema later in life than most, and therefore have ground to make up, as well as having a large film collection that includes a lot of movies I've yet to watch.

Last night however i was worn from a long week of work and just wanted to enjoy something beautiful and perfect. The first thing i thought of was Wong Kar-wai's In The Mood For Love, a film I could never see too many times. Kar-wai manged to take a 15 month shoot utilizing 2 different cinematographers (Christopher Doyle and Mark Lee Ping Bin) and make one of most beautiful visual films. It doesn't hurt that he had two of the best and most visually appealing actors in the world to work with (Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung), along with the vintage allure of 1960's Hong Kong, which sometimes feels like it's own character in the film (much like Tokyo in Sofia Coppola's Lost In Translation).

If you want to get a sense of the style of film (although the poster is a great start), check out this great blog that chronicles Maggie's dresses throughout the film. As someone who is not generally interested in fashion, i still find myself mesmerized seeing dress after dress in the film as it progresses.

The film unfolds like a visual love letter to the 1960's Hong Kong. The plot unfolds in layered bursts of moments sometimes seemingly unconnected portions of dialogue and interaction, intermingled with lush slow motion shots of interiors or street level Hong Kong as the characters pass through. The nontraditional love story that unfolds as the film progresses is what you take from the experience of watching of the film, but the visuals and the amazing attention to detail with every shot are what cause this story to embed itself in your head.

The film is also the 2nd film of a trilogy of sorts (Kar-wai's Days of Being Wild is the first, and 2046 being the 3rd), but the film is not only the best of three, but can be well enjoyed even if you never seek out the other two. It goes without saying that i recommend this film, as it's one of my all time favorites. It's available readily in the US from The Criterion Collection on both Blu-ray and DVD. Feel free to let me know what you think if you check it out. I'll surely be mentioning it again in these parts.