This Week in Rankings

Since the last update, I wrapped up my festival coverage for the year with reviews of Matsui Daigo’s Rewrite (my favorite film of the year so far), Miike Takashi’s Sham, Honeko Akebane’s Bodyguards, and Holy Night: Demon Hunters from the Fantasia Film Festival, Amoeba from the Toronto Film Festival, and Dear Stranger from Busan. Most of the rest of my reviews of new movies were for films with limited theatrical runs or which went straight-to-video, including Dongji Rescue, Prisoner of War, Affinity and Diablo, and Red Sonja (at Seattle Screen Scene). Reviews of older movies consist of Linda, Linda, Linda, and Evil Cat and The Cat. I also wrote about three Japanese TV series: Baby Assassins Everyday!, Glass Heart and CITY the Animation. Additionally, I served on the Best International Short Film jury at the San Diego Asian Film Festival, which was pretty wild.

You can get all those reviews and much much more by subscribing to The Chinese Cinema today for the low price of only $1/month or $10/year.

These are the movies I’ve watched and rewatched over the last few months, and where they place on my year-by-year rankings.

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (Bill Melendez) – 1, 1966
Three Days of the Condor (Sydney Pollack) – 15, 1975
Reds (Warren Beatty) – 3, 1981
Red Sonja (Richard Fleischer) – 58, 1985
Evil Cat (Dennis Yu) – 52, 1987

The Cat (Lam Nai-choi) – 26, 1992
Cure (Kurosawa Kiyoshi) – 4, 1997
Pulse (Kurosawa Kiyoshi) – 11, 2001
Gosford Park (Robert Altman) – 15, 2001
Bright Future (Kurosawa Kiyoshi) – 18, 2002
28 Days Later (Danny Boyle) – 50, 2002

Linda Linda Linda (Yamashita Nobuhiro) – 1, 2005
Runnin’ Down a Dream (Peter Bogdanovich) – 24, 2007
28 Weeks Later (Juan Carlos Fresnadillo) – 76, 2007
Moneyball (Bennett Miller) – 21, 2011
Conan the Barbarian (Marcus Nispel) – 55, 2011

The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Stephen Chobsky) – 73, 2012
Seventh Code (Kurosawa Kiyoshi) – 8, 2013
Creepy (Kurosawa Kiyoshi) – 35, 2016
Downton Abbey (Michael Engler) – 103, 2019
Baby Assassins (Sakamoto Yugo) – 13, 2021
Downton Abbey: A New Era (Simon Curtis) – 96, 2022

Baby Assassins: 2 Babies (Sakamoto Yugo) – 4, 2023
Baby Assassins Everyday! (Sakamoto Yugo) – 4, 2024
Baby Assassins: Nice Days (Sakamoto Yugo) – 9, 2024
Cloud (Kurosawa Kiyoshi) – 18, 2024

CITY the Animation (Ishidate Taishi) – 2, 2025
Fool Time (Jon Bois) – 10, 2025
Red Sonja (MJ Bassett) – 11, 2025
Amoeba (Tan Siyou) – 18, 2025
Ordinary Life (Mizushiri Yoriko) – 19, 2025
Water Sports (Whammy Alcazaran) – 20, 2025

Glass Heart (Goto Kotaro and Kakimoto Kensaku) – 21, 2025
Dongji Rescue (Guan Hu & Fei Zhenxiang) – 24, 2025
Through Your Eyes (Nelson Yeo) – 25, 025
Diablo (Ernesto Díaz Espinoza) – 26, 2025
A House of Dynamite (Kathryn Bigelow) – 27, 2025

Scorigami (Jon Bois) – 29, 2025
Ali (Adnan Al Rajeev) – 31, 2025
28 Years Later (Danny Boyle) – 32, 2025
Weapons (Zach Cregger) – 33, 2025
Ballerina (Len Wiseman) – 34, 2025
Prisoner of War (Louis Mandylor) – 36, 2025
Mr. Scorsese (Rebecca Miller) – 42, 2025

A Very Straight Neck (Sora Neo) – 49, 2025
Dear Stranger (Mariko Tetsuya) – 51, 2025
A South-Facing Window (Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir) – 52, 2025
Correct Me If I’m Wrong (Zhou Hao) – 54, 2025

John Candy: I Like Me (Colin Hanks) – 55, 2025
Thunderbolts* (Jake Schrier) – 56, 2025
Affinity (Brandon Slagle) – 62, 2025
The Red Banca (Nena Jane Achacoso) – 63, 2025

This Week in Rankings

Since the last update, festival season dominated my schedule, with coverage of Japan Cuts and the New York Asian Film Festival over at The Chinese Cinema and Fantasia and Cannes at InReview Online. I also put together a video introduction for a Tsui Hark retrospective that played at The Cinematheque in Vancouver.

At The Chinese Cinema, I’ve reviewed Scenes of City Life and Street Angel, Bullet Train and Bullet Train Explosion, Girl Students’ Dormitory, The Old Woman with the Knife, All the Wrong Clues (…For the Right Solution), 11 Rebels, and Ghost Killer.

Also, since it’s apparently quarter-century list season, I counted down the top Chinese Language and Non-Chinese Language films of the 2000s so far.

You can get all those reviews and much much more by subscribing to The Chinese Cinema today for the low price of only $1/month or $10/year.

These are the movies I’ve watched and rewatched over the last few months, and where they place on my year-by-year rankings.

Scenes of City Life (Yuan Muzhi) – 4, 1935
Street Angel (Yuan Muzhi) – 4, 1937
Casablanca (Michael Curtiz) – 1, 1942
Singin’ in the Rain (Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly) – 1, 1952

Lawrence of Arabia (David Lean) – 6, 1962
The Bullet Train (Sato Jun’ya) – 11, 1975
All the Wrong Clues (…For the Right Solution) (Tsui Hark) – 32, 1981
Girl Students’ Dormitory (Shi Shujun) – 5, 1983

Love Hotel (Somai Shinji) – 16, 1985
Working Class (Tsui Hark) – 23, 1985
Bull Durham (Ron Shelton) – 1, 1988
The Naked Gun (David Zucker) – 20, 1988
Glory (Edward Zwick) – 17, 1989

Love Letter (Iwai Shunji) – 13, 1995
The Chinese Feast (Tsui Hark) – 41, 1995
I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times (Don Was) – 51, 1995
Carrotblanca (Douglas McCarthy, Spike Brandt, Tony Cervone) – 108, 1995
Mission: Impossible (Brian De Palma) – 20, 1996

Serpent’s Path (Kurosawa Kiyoshi) – 23, 1998
License to Live (Kurosawa Kiyoshi) – 27, 1998
Mission: Impossible 2 (John Woo) – 24, 2000
Final Destination (James Wong) – 42, 2000
Final Destination 2 (David R. Ellis) – 45, 2003

Beautiful Dreamer (David Leaf) – 66, 2004
Final Destination 3 (James Wong) – 43, 2006
Mission: Impossible 3 (JJ Abrams) – 48, 2006
Tom Waits: Under Review (Unknown) – 60, 2006
The Simpsons Movie (David Silverman) – 50, 2007

The Final Destination (David R. Ellis) – 81, 2009
Hugo (Martin Scorsese) – 19, 2011
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (Brad Bird) – 20, 2011
Final Destination 5 (Steven Quale) – 59, 2011
42 (Brian Helgeland) – 73, 2013

Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (Christopher McQuarrie) – 92, 2015
Rogue One (Gareth Edwards) – 23, 2016
Mission: Impossible – Fallout (Christopher McQuarrie) – 132, 2018
Long Promised Road (Brent Wilson) – 35, 2021
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning (Christopher McQuarrie) – 73, 2023

She Taught Me Serendipity (Ohku Akiko) – 5, 2024
11 Rebels (Shiraishi Kazuya) – 10, 2024
The Gesuidouz (Ugana Kenichi) – 18, 2024
Ghost Killer (Sonomura Kensuke) – 25, 2024
See You Tomorrow (Michimoto Saki) – 39, 2024

Honeko Akabane’s Bodyguards (Ishikawa Junichi) – 42, 2024
Possession Street (Jack Lai) – 48, 2024
Serpent’s Path (Kurosawa Kiyoshi) – 54, 2024
Striking Rescue (Cheng Siyu) – 64, 2024

Rewrite (Matsui Daigo) – 1, 2025
Shifty (Adam Curtis) – 2, 2025
Sinners (Ryan Coogler) – 3, 2025
Muromachi Outsiders (Irie Yu) – 7, 2025
Bullet Train Explosion (Higuchi Shinji) – 8, 2025

Deep in the Mountains (Li Yongyi) – 9, 2025
Superman (James Gunn) – 10, 2025
Girl on Edge (Zhou Jinghao) – 11, 2025
Thug Life (Mani Ratnam) – 12, 2025
The Phoenician Scheme (Wes Anderson) – 13, 2025

Sham (Miike Takashi) – 14, 2025
Pee Wee as Himself (Matt Wolf) – 15, 2025
Predator: Killer of Killers (Dan Trachtenberg) – 16, 2025
Girls on Wire (Vivian Qu) – 17, 2025
A Useful Ghost (Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke) – 18, 2025

Fantastic Four: First Steps (Matt Shakman) – 19, 2025
Informant (Kim Seok) – 22, 2025
Happy Gilmore 2 (Kyle Newacheck) – 24, 2025
Billy Joel: And So It Goes (Jessica Levin & Susan Lacy) – 25, 2025
Holy Night: Demon Hunters (Lim Daehee) – 26, 2025

Becoming Led Zeppelin (Bernard MacMahon) – 27, 2025
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (Christopher McQuarrie) – 28, 2025
Smashing Frank (Trevor Choi) – 29, 2025
Final Destination: Bloodlines (Directed by Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein) – 30, 2025
The Stone (Arak Amornsupasiri and Vuthipong Sukhanindr) – 31, 2025
Behind the Shadows (Jonathan Li and Chou Man You) – 32, 2025

Lost Bullet 3 (Guillaume Pierret) – 34, 2025
The Old Woman with the Knife (Min Kyudong) – 35, 2025
So Beautiful, Wonderful, and Lovely (Okawara Megumi) – 36, 2025
The Old Way (Fan Xiang) – 37, 2025
Another Simple Favor (Paul Feig) – 38, 2025
Captain America: Brave New World (Julius Onah) – 39, 2025

This Week in Rankings

Since the last update, 2024 ended and I listed my favorite books of the year as well as my favorite older movies I saw for the first time. I also handed out the Endy Awards for the year.

I dusted off Seattle Screen Scene in order to review Paul WS Anderson’s In the Lost Lands. Over at InReview Online I reviewed a couple of films for the International Film Festival Rotterdam (Miike Takashi’s Blazing Fists and Anselm Chan’s The Last Dance), Rendez-vous with French Cinema (Rithy Panh’s Rendez-vous avec Pol Pot), and First Look ’25 (Yamanaka Yoko’s Desert of Namibia).

At The Chinese Cinema, I continued to explore the emergent iQIYI cinema with a look at seven films starring Raquel Xu Dongdong (The Raquel Report) and two starring Muqi Miya (The MIYA Memo), as well as two adaptations of Louis Cha’s Condor Heroes series (More Condors, More Heroes). The latter of those coincided with the release of Tsui Hark’s theatrical adaptation, Legends of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants.

Speaking of legendary filmmakers, I also reviewed Kitano Takeshi’s Broken Rage, Kuei Chih-hung’s Killer Constable, Donnie Yen’s The Prosecutor, and Ram Gopal Varma’s Enter the Girl Dragon, and saw a martial arts triple feature at the now-homeless Grand Illusion Cinema which included films by Chang Cheh and Lau Kar-leung. Finally, I started what I hope will be an extended exploration of Shanghai Cinema with a pair of Li Li-li movies: Fei Mu’s Blood on Wolf Mountain and National Customs, the final film made by actress Ruan Lingyu.

You can get all those reviews and much much more by subscribing to The Chinese Cinema today for the low price of only $1/month or $10/year.

These are the movies I’ve watched and rewatched over the last few months, and where they place on my year-by-year rankings.

National Customs (Zhu Shilin & Luo Mingyou) – 13, 1935
Blood on Wolf Mountain (Fei Mu) – 8, 1936
The Old Mill (Wilfred Jackson & Graham Heid) – 6, 1937
Confucius (Fei Mu) – 21, 940
Citizen Kane (Orson Welles) – 1, 1941

Bugs and Thugs (Friz Freleng) – 34, 1954
Funny Face (Stanley Donen) – 1, 1957
The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola) – 3, 1972
Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (Sam Peckinpah) – 7, 1973
Enter the Dragon (Robert Clouse) – 11, 1973

The Brave Archer (Chang Cheh) – 24, 1977
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (Lau Kar-leung) – 2, 1978
Crippled Avengers (Chang Cheh) – 7, 1978
Killer Constable (Kuei Chih-hung) – 9, 1980
The Clones of Bruce Lee (Joseph Kong Hung & Nam Ki-nam) – 42, 1980
Revenge of the Ninja (Sam Firstenberg) – 47, 1983

Silverado (Lawrence Kasdan) – 23, 1985
Blue Velvet (David Lynch) – 6, 1986
Die Hard (John McTiernan) – 8, 1988
Young Guns (Christopher Cain) – 55, 1988
Cocktail (Roger Donaldson) – 69, 1988
Wild at Heart (David Lynch) – 11, 1990

Chungking Express (Wong Kar-wai) – 1, 1994
Ricky Jay and His 52 Assistants (David Mamet) – 25, 1996
The Rock (Michael Bay) – 31, 1996
Fat Choi Spirit (Johnnie To & Wai Ka-fai) – 6, 2002

The Hours (Stephen Daldry) – 47, 2002
The Stepford Wives (Franz Oz) – 62, 2004
David Lynch: The Art Life (Jon Nguyen, Rick Barnes, & Olivia Neergaard-Holm) – 148, 2016
Ash is Purest White (Jia Zhangke) – 1, 2018
The Dead Don’t Die (Jim Jarmusch) – 23, 2019

Miss Agent (Zeng Li) – 61, 2020
Queen of Triads (Venus Keung & Wong Jing) – 39, 2021
The Sniper (Chris Huo) – 46, 2021
The Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Dragon Tamer (Zhu Lingfeng & Yu Diao) – 81, 2021
Enter the Girl Dragon (Ram Gopal Varma) – 62, 2022

Lynch/Oz (Alexandre O. Philippe) – 65, 2022
Female Special Police Officer (Zhang Zhen) – 71, 2022
Queen of Triads 2 (Venus Keung & Wong Jing) – 87, 2022
Queen of Triads 3 (Kam Ka-wai) – 87, 2023

Broken Rage (Kitano Takeshi) – 7, 2024
Rendez-vous avec Pol Pot (Rithy Panh) – 22, 2024
Desert of Namibia (Yamanaka Yoko) – 27, 2024
The Last Dance (Anselm Chan) – 46, 2024
The Prosecutor (Donnie Yen) – 55, 2024

Wild Agent 2: Peach Assassination (Huang He) – 57, 2024
The Art of the Calendar (Kier-La Janisse) – 58, 2024
Shell Girl (Wang Xia) – 61, 2024
Sniper 2 (Shen Zhaoqing) – 65, 2024
Cunk on Life (Al Campbell) – 67, 2024

Blazing Fists (Miike Takashi) – 1, 2025
Legends of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants (Tsui Hark) – 2, 2025
In the Lost Lands (Paul WS Anderson) – 3, 2025
Den of Thieves 2: Pantera (Christian Gudegast) – 4, 2025
The Legend of Condor Hero: What is love (Lin Zhenzhao) – 5, 2025
We Beat the Dream Team (Michael Tolajian) – 6, 2025

Predictions for the 97th Annual Academy Awards

These are my Oscar predictions. I’m probably going to live-tweet the Endy Award winners during the ceremony again this year. Nominees listed in whatever order the page I copied them from had them, predicted winners are in bold. Guaranteed to get 16-18 correct, no more, no less.

BEST PICTURE

Anora
The Brutalist
A Complete Unknown
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Pérez
I’m Still Here
Nickel Boys
The Substance
Wicked

BEST DIRECTOR

Anora, Sean Baker
The Brutalist, Brady Corbet
A Complete Unknown, James Mangold
Emilia Pérez, Jacques Audiard
The Substance, Coralie Fargeat

BEST ACTOR

Adrien Brody, The Brutalist
Timothée Chalamet, A Complete Unknown
Colman Domingo, Sing Sing
Ralph Fiennes, Conclave
Sebastian Stan, The Apprentice

BEST ACTRESS

Demi Moore, The Substance
Mikey Madison, Anora
Cynthia Erivo, Wicked
Karla Sofía Gascón, Emilia Pérez
Fernanda Torres, I’m Still Here

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain
Yura Borisov, Anora
Edward Norton, A Complete Unknown
Guy Pearce, The Brutalist
Jeremy Strong, The Apprentice

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Zoe Saldaña, Emilia Pérez
Monica Barbaro, A Complete Unknown
Ariana Grande, Wicked
Felicity Jones, The Brutalist
Isabella Rossellini, Conclave

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Anora
The Brutalist
A Real Pain
September 5
The Substance

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Conclave
A Complete Unknown
Emilia Pérez
Nickel Boys
Sing Sing

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

The Brutalist
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Pérez
Maria
Nosferatu

BEST FILM EDITING

Conclave
Anora
The Brutalist
Emilia Pérez
Wicked

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Dune: Part Two
Alien: Romulus
Better Man
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Wicked

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

Wicked
The Brutalist
Conclave
Dune: Part Two
Nosferatu

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Wicked
A Complete Unknown
Conclave
Gladiator II
Nosferatu

BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING

The Substance
A Different Man
Emilia Pérez
Nosferatu
Wicked

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

The Brutalist
Conclave
Emilia Pérez
Wicked
The Wild Robot

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

“El Mal” from Emilia Pérez
“The Journey” from The Six Triple Eight
“Like a Bird” from Sing Sing
“Mi Camino” from Emilia Pérez
“Never Too Late” from Elton John: Never Too Late

BEST SOUND

A Complete Unknown
Dune: Part Two
Emilia Pérez
Wicked
The Wild Robot

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

Flow
Inside Out 2
Memoir of a Snail
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
The Wild Robot

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

No Other Land
Black Box Diaries
Porcelain War
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
Sugarcane

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM

I’m Still Here
The Girl With the Needle
Emilia Pérez
The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Flow

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT

Incident
Death by Numbers
I Am Ready, Warden
Instruments of a Beating Heart
The Only Girl in the Orchestra

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT

Anuja
A Lien
I’m Not a Robot
The Last Ranger
The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent

BEST ANIMATED SHORT

Yuck!
Beautiful Men
In the Shadow of the Cypress
Magic Candies
Wander to Wonder

 

2024 Endy Awards

These are the 2024 Endy Awards, wherein I pretend to give out maneki-neko statues to the best movies, performances, etc of this year in film. Awards for many other years can be found in the Rankings & Awards Index. Eligibility is determined by imdb date and by whether or not I’ve seen the movie in question. Films are presented in alphabetical order, and the winners are bolded. As always, the winners and nominees are subject to change as I watch more movies. And the Endy goes to. . .


Best Picture:

1. Baby Assassins: Nice Days
2. Broken Rage
3. Eephus
4. Furiosa
5. Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter One
6. Juror #2
7. Megalopolis
8. The Shadow Strays
9. A Traveler’s Needs
10. Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In

Best Director:

1. George Miller, Furiosa
2. Kevin Costner, Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter One
3. Clint Eastwood, Juror #2
4. Francis Ford Coppola, Megalopolis
5. Soi Cheang, Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In

Best Actor:

1. Eddie Peng, Black Dog
2. Kitano Takeshi, Broken Rage
3. Adrien Brody, The Brutalist
4. Kwon Haehyo, By the Stream
5. Yoshioko Mutsuo, Chime
6. Suda Masaki, Cloud
7. Timothee Chalamet, A Complete Unknown
8. Ralph Fiennes, Conclave
9. Ryan Gosling, The Fall Guy
10. Justice Smith, I Saw the TV Glow
11. Nicholas Hoult, Juror #2
12. Adam Driver, Megalopolis
13. Josh Hartnett, Trap

Best Actress:

1. Mikey Madison, Anora
2. Akari Takaishi, Baby Assassins: Nice Days
3. Izawa Saori, Baby Assassins: Nice Days
4. Kim Minhee, By the Stream
5. Zhao Tao, Caught by the Tides
6. Zendaya, Challengers
7. Sylvia Chang, Daughter’s Daughter
8. Margaret Qualley, Drive-Away Dolls
9. Anya Taylor-Joy, Furiosa
10. Sienna Miller, Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter One
11. Brigette Lundy-Paine, I Saw the TV Glow
12. Aurora Ribero, The Shadow Strays
13. Isabelle Huppert, A Traveler’s Needs

Supporting Actor:

1. David Jonsson, Alien: Romulus
2. Guy Pearce, The Brutalist
3. Mike Faist, Challengers
4. Philip Ng, Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In
5. Edward Norton, A Complete Unknown
6. Sergio Castellitto, Conclave
7. Stanley Tucci, Conclave
8. Chris Hemsworth, Furiosa
9. Sam Worthington, Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter One
10. Louis Koo, Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In

Supporting Actress:

1. Monica Barbaro, A Complete Unknown
2. Isabella Rossellini, Conclave
3. Charlee Fraser, Furiosa
4. Jena Malone, Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter One
5. Toni Collette, Juror #2
6. Aubrey Plaza, Megalopolis
7. Yang Mi, Nothing Can’t Be Undone By a Hotpot
8. Yuen Qiu, Second Life
9. Hana Malasan, The Shadow Strays
10. Lee Hyeyoung, A Traveler’s Needs


Original Screenplay:

1. Eephus
2. Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter One
3. Juror #2
4. Megalopolis
5. A Traveler’s Needs

Adapted Screenplay:

1. Baby Assassins: Nice Days
2. Furiosa
3. The Killer
4. Look Back
5. Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In

English Language Film:

1. Eephus (Carson Lund)
2. Furiosa (George Miller)
3. Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter One (Kevin Costner)
4. Juror #2 (Clint Eastwood)
5. Megalopolis (Francis Ford Coppola)

Non-English Language Film:

1. Baby Assassins: Nice Days (Sakamoto Yugo)
2. Broken Rage (Kitano Takeshi)
3. The Shadow Strays (Timo Tjahjanto)
4. A Traveler’s Needs (Hong Sangsoo)
5. Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In (Soi Cheang)

Non-Fiction Feature Film:

1. Dahomey (Mati Diop)
2. The Kadarius Toney Fan Club (Jon Bois)
3. Made in England (David Hinton)
4. Reform! (Jon Bois)
5. The Spectacular Failure of the Star Wars Hotel (Jenny Nicholson)

Animated Feature Film:

1. The Colors Within (Yamada Naoko)
2. Look Back (Oshiyama Kiyotaka)
3. Vengeance Most Fowl (Merlin Crossingham & Nick Park)

Unseen Film:

1. Amar Singh Chamkila (Imtiaz Ali)
2. Ghost Killer (Sonomura Kensuke)
3. Grand Tour (Miguel Gomes)
4. Malaikottai Vaaliban (Lijo Jose Pellissery)
5. The Shrouds (David Cronenberg)


Film Editing:

1. Caught by the Tides
2. Furiosa
3. Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter One
4. Megalopolis
5. The Shadow Strays

Cinematography:

1. Black Dog
2. Escape from the 21st Century
3. Furiosa
4. Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter One
5. The Shadow Strays

Art Direction:

1. Furiosa
2. Here
3. Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter One
4. Megalopolis
5. Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In

Costume Design:

1. Dead Talents Society
2. Furiosa
3. Here
4. Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter One
5. Megalopolis

Make-Up and Hair:

1. Dead Talents Society
2. Furiosa
3. Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter One
4. The Shadow Strays
5. Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In


Original Score:

1. Challengers
2. The Colors Within
3. I Saw the TV Glow

Adapted Score:

1. Black Dog
2. A Complete Unknown
3. The Fall Guy

Choreography:

1. Baby Assassins: Nice Days
2. The Bodyguard
3. Second Life
4. The Shadow Strays
5. Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In

Sound:

1. Caught by the Tides
2. Challengers
3. Chime
4. Eephus
5. I Saw the TV Glow

Sound Editing:

1. Furiosa
2. Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter One
3. One More Shot
4. The Shadow Strays
5. Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In

Visual Effects:

1. Dead Talents Society
2. Escape from the 21st Century
3. Furiosa
4. Megalopolis
5. Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In

The Best Older Movies I Saw in 2024 (For the First Time)

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 this year. Previous years include: 2023, 2022, 2021,  2020,  2019,  2018,  2017,  2016,  2015,  2014,  2013,  2012,  2011,  2010,  2009,  2008,  2007, and 2006. I watched just over 230 films this year, but only a fifth or so of them qualified for this list. Here are 40 of my favorites.

1. The Heike Story (Yamada Naoko, 2021)
2. Beijing Watermelon (Obayashi Nobuhiko, 1989)
3. Moving (Somai Shinji, 1993)
4. Typhoon Club (Somai Shinji, 1985)
5. Les sièges de l’Alcazar (Luc Moullet, 1989)
6. Golden Eighties (Chantal Akerman, 1986)
7. Visible Secret (Ann Hui, 2001)
8. Ode to the Goose (Zhang Lü, 2018)
9. Sailor Suit and Machine Gun (Somai Shinji, 1981)
10. Mermaid Legend (Ikeda Toshiharu, 1984)


11. A Quiet Dream (Zhang Lü, 2016)
12. The Little Girl Who Conquered Time (Obayashi Nobuhiko, 1983)
13. Veteran (Ryoo Seungwan, 2015)
14. July Rhapsody (Ann Hui, 2002)
15. The Fall of Ako Castle (Fukasaku Kinji, 1978)
16. Gyeongju (Zhang Lü, 2014)
17. The Night Comes for Us (Timo Tjahjanto, 2018)
18. Fukuowa (Zhang Lü, 2019)
19. Chu Lien (Lai Cheng-ying, 1979)
20. The Intern (Nancy Meyers, 2015)

21. Beach of the War Gods (Jimmy Wang Yu, 1973)
22. Harry in Your Pocket (Bruce Geller, 1973)
23. Fantasy Mission Force (Kevin Chu Yen-Ping, 1983)
24. August in the Water (Ishii Gakuryu, 1995)
25. Topkapi (Jules Dassin, 1964)
26. Ocean’s Twelve (Steven Soderbergh, 2004)
27. The World of Suzie Wong (Richard Quine, 1960)
28. The Italian Job (Peter Collinson, 1969)
29. The Taming of the Shrew (Franco Zeffirelli, 1967)
30. Yanagawa (Zhang Lü, 2021)

31. When Cinema Reflects the Times: Hou Hsiao-hsien & Edward Yang (Kore-eda Hirokazu, 1993)
32. Sideways (Alexander Payne, 2004)
33. Lover on the Wave (Chen Kun-hou, 1978)
34. Let the Wind Carry Me (Kwan Pung-Leung & Chiang Hsiu-Chiung, 2009)
35. Ocean’s Thirteen (Steven Soderbergh, 2007)
36. Shaolin Drunkard (Yuen Woo-ping, 1983)
37. The Raid (Tsui Hark & Ching Siu-tung, 1991)
38. Red Eye (Wes Craven, 2005)
39. Cloud of Romance (Chen Hung-lieh, 1977)
40. Once a Thief (John Woo, 1996)

Books of 2024

These are the books I finished reading this year.

1. The Last Samurai – Helen DeWitt
2. Against the Day – Thomas Pynchon
3. Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
4. The Novel: An Alternate History – Steven Moore
5. The Life of Tu Fu – Eliot Weinberger
6. Reading Genesis – Marilynne Robinson
7. 84 Charing Cross Road – Helene Hanff
8. The Shakespeare Wars – Ron Rosenbaum
9. Either/Or – Elif Batuman
10. Quantum Criminals – Alex Pappademas
11. The Secret History – Donna Tartt
12. Will in the World – Stephen Greenblatt
13. Unspooled – Rob Drew
14. The Arabian Nights: A Companion – Robert Irwin
15. A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599 – James Shapiro
16. The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street – Helene Hanff
17. The Church of Baseball – Ron Shelton
18. There Was Nothing You Could Do – Steven Hyden
19. Blood Sweat & Chrome – Kyle Buchanon
20. Long Road – Steven Hyden
21. When the Clock Broke – John Ganz
22. God Only Knows – David Leaf

And these are the books I read but did not finish in 2024.

1. The Path to Power – Robert Caro
2. Remembrance of Things Past – Marcel Proust
3. Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
4. Paradise Lost – John Milton
5. Winesburg, Ohio – Sherwood Anderson
6. The Tale of the Heike – Royall Tyler (trans.)
7. Orientalism – Edward Said
8. The Valmiki Ramayana – trans. Bibek Debroy
9. Mariners, Renegades, and Castaways – CLR James
10. James – Percival Everett
11. The Penguin Classics Book – Henry Eliot
12. Rabbit, Run – John Updike
13. Count Magnus & Other Ghost Stories — M.R. James
14. Reckless Daughter – David Yaffe

This Week in Rankings

Since the last update, it was announced that I’ve written another liner notes essay. This time, it’s for the Chameleon Films release of Johnnie To’s Sparrow and it’s available for preorder right now. Over at InReview Online, I contributed write-ups of George Miller’s Furiosa and Soi Cheang’s Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In to their Best of the Year countdown.

At The Chinese Cinema, I wrote about Hong Sangsoo’s A Traveler’s Needs and By the Stream, the Yuen Clan’s Magic Movies (Miracle Fighters, Shaolin Drunkard, Taoism Drunkard, Young Taoism Fighter), Qin Pengfei’s The Bodyguard and Blade of Fury, Yamada Naoko’s The Heike Story, and Tsai Ming-liang’s Abiding Nowhere.

You can get all those reviews and much much more by subscribing to The Chinese Cinema today for the low price of only $1/month or $10/year.

These are the movies I’ve watched and rewatched over the last few months, and where they place on my year-by-year rankings.


A Charlie Brown Christmas (Bill Melendez) – 3, 1965
It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (Bill Melendez) – 1, 1966
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (Chuck Jones) – 15, 1966
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (Bill Melendez & Phil Roman) – 40, 1973

The Miracle Fighters (Yuen Woo-ping) – 4, 1982
Shaolin Drunkard (Yuen Woo-ping) – 41, 1983
Taoism Drunkard (Yuen Cheung-yan) – 51, 1984
The Young Taoism Fighter (Chen Chi-hwa) – 62, 1986
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (Kevin Reynolds) – 54, 1991

The Heike Story (Yamada Naoko) – 1, 2021
Hundreds of Beavers (Mike Cheslik) – 5, 2022
Woman of the Hour (Anna Kendrick) – 34, 2023

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (George Miller) – 1, 2024
Juror #2 (Clint Eastwood) – 6, 2024
A Traveler’s Needs (Hong Sangsoo) – 7, 2024
The Colors Within (Yamada Naoko) – 8, 2024
By the Stream (Hong Sangsoo) – 14, 2024

God Hates a Coward (Jon Bois) – 15, 2024
Abiding Nowhere (Tsai Ming-liang) – 17, 2024
Look Back (Oshiyama Kiyotaka) – 18, 2024
Here (Robert Zemeckis) – 21, 2024
Vengeance Most Fowl (Merlin Crossingham & Nick Park) – 23, 2024

Anora (Sean Baker) – 25, 2024
Trap (M. Night Shyamalan) – 26, 2024
Crisis Negotiators (Herman Yau) – 30, 2024
Dahomey (Mati Diop) – 32, 2024
Drive-Away Dolls (Ethan Coen) – 33, 2024

The Fall Guy (David Leitch) – 34, 2024
The Bodyguard (Qin Pengfei) – 37, 2024
Blade of Fury (Qin Pengfei) – 38, 2024
Made in England (David Hinton) – 39, 2024
Challengers (Luca Guadagnino) – 43, 2024

Conclave (Edward Berger) – 49, 2024
Would You Like to Buy a Mattress (Jon Bois) – 50, 2024
A Complete Unknown (James Mangold) – 51, 2024
Alien: Romulus (Fede Álvarez) – 52, 2024
The Brutalist (Brady Corbet) – 53, 2024

Rainier: A Beer Odyssey (Isaac Olsen) – 57, 2024
Yacht Rock: A DOCKumentary (Garret Price) – 58, 2024
Nosferatu (Robert Eggers) – 59, 2024
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (Tim Burton) – 60, 2024
Treasure Hunting (Qin Pengfei) – 64, 2024

Civil War (Alex Garland) – 65, 2024
Deadpool & Wolverine (Shawn Levy) – 66, 2024
Madame Web (SJ Clarkson) – 69, 2024
SWAT Angels in Mission (Liu Meng & Xue Wen Hua) – 70, 2024

This Week in Rankings

Since the last update it was announced that I’ve written another liner notes essay for a Criterion Collection release. This one is for Sammo Hung’s Eastern Condors, and it’s available for pre-order right now. I’ve continued on the festival beat over at InReview Online, where I reviewed Kurosawa Kiyoshi’s Cloud, Yang Li’s Escape from the 21st Century, Huang Xi’s Daughter’s Daughter, John Hsu’s Dead Talents Society, Jia Zhangke’s Caught by the Tides, and Timo Tjahjanto’s The Shadow Strays.

I’ve compiled all my InRO Festival Reviews from this year into one convenient spot over at The Chinese Cinema, where I’ve also recently reviewed Soi Cheang’s Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In, John Woo’s remake of his own The Killer, the documentary about cinematographer Mark Lee Ping-ping Let the Wind Carry Me, Corey Yuen’s The Bodyguard from Beijing, Jason Yu’s Sleep, Ryoo Seungwan’s Veteran 2: I, the Executioner, and a handful of movies that are streaming on the iQIYI channel (Fight Against Evil 2, Black Storm, Drunken Prodigy, Second Life, An Arrow through the Heart).

You can get all those reviews and much much more by subscribing to The Chinese Cinema today for the low price of only $1/month or $10/year.

These are the movies I’ve watched and rewatched over the last few months, and where they place on my year-by-year rankings.

The Gold Rush (Charles Chaplin) – 1, 1925
The Untouchables (Brian De Palma) – 28, 1987
The Bodyguard from Beijing (Corey Yuen) – 79, 1994
Bad Boys (Michael Bay) – 66, 1995
The Waterboy (Frank Coraci) – 72, 1998

Let the Wind Carry Me (Kwan Pung-Leung & Chiang Hsiu-Chiung) – 48, 2009
Prometheus (Ridley Scott) – 65, 2012
Veteran (Ryoo Seungwan) – 37, 2015
Alien: Covenant (Ridley Scott) – 144, 2017
The Night Comes for Us (Timo Tjahjanto) – 64, 2018

Dune (Denis Villeneuve) – 35, 2021
Fight Against Evil (Qin Pengfei) – 56, 2021
Hundreds of Beavers (Mike Cheslik) – 23, 2022
Sleep (Jason Yu) – 27, 2023
Fight Against Evil 2 (Qin Pengfei) – 78, 2023
Anyone But You (Will Gluck) – 82, 2023

Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 (Kevin Costner) – 2, 2024
Eephus (Carson Lund) – 3, 2024
Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In (Soi Cheang) – 4, 2024
Megalopolis (Francis Ford Coppola) – 6, 2024
Caught by the Tides (Jia Zhangke) – 8, 2024

Chime (Kurosawa Kiyoshi) – 9, 2024
The Shadow Strays (Timo Tjahjanto) – 10, 2024
Cloud (Kurosawa Kiyoshi) – 13, 2024
The Kadarius Toney Fan Club (Jon Bois) – 14, 2024
The Killer (John Woo) – 15, 2024

Escape from the 21st Century (Yang Li) – 16, 2024
Second Life (Chris Huo) – 18, 2024
Dead Talents Society (John Hsu) – 22, 2024
Veteran 2: I, the Executioner (Ryoo Seungwan) – 24, 2024
Dune 2 (Denis Villeneuve) – 25, 2024

Daughter’s Daughter (Huang Xi) – 26, 2024
Drunken Prodigy (Ashton Chen) – 29, 2024
Black Storm (Qin Pengfei) – 32, 2024
An Arrow through the Heart (Guo Yubo) – 37, 2024

This Week in Rankings

Since the last update I wrote the liner notes essay for Vinegar Syndrome’s release of Johnnie To’s Lifeline. I’ve got a couple of other essays in the works, expected announcements for those in the next couple of months. In the meantime, I’ve been covering film festivals. At InReview Online, I wrote about Guan Yu’s Black Dog, which played Cannes, and for the New York Asian Film festival I covered Baby Assassins: Nice Days, Customs Frontline, and The Lyricist Wannabe. I covered Japan Cuts over at my own site, with reviews of Shin Godzilla: Orthochromatic, Kubi, Kyrie, Between the White Key and the Black Key, Sayonara Girls, Shadow of Fire, Mermaid Legend, August in the Water, and Moving.

Also over at The Chinese Cinema, I wrote about Only the River Flows, Beijing Watermelon, July Rhapsody, Nothing Can’t Be Undone by a Hotpot, The Valiant Ones, and three movies called Once a Thief.

You can get all those reviews and much much more by subscribing for the low price of only $1/month or $10/year.

These are the movies I’ve watched and rewatched over the last few months, and where they place on my year-by-year rankings.

Baseball Bugs (Friz Freleng) – 10, 1946
Pickpocket (Robert Bresson) – 7, 1959
The World of Suzie Wong (Richard Quine) – 21, 1960
Topkapi (Jules Dassin) – 21, 1964

Once a Thief (Ralph Nelson) – 32, 1965
Le Samouraï (Jean-Pierre Melville) – 5, 1967
The Thomas Crown Affair (Norman Jewison) – 16, 1968
Le cercle rouge (Jean-Pierre Melville) – 5, 1970

Harry in Your Pocket (Bruce Geller) – 31, 1973
The Valiant Ones (King Hu) – 7, 1975
Carry On Pickpocket (Sammo Hung) – 22, 1982
Fantasy Mission Force (Kevin Chu Yen-ping) – 34, 1983

Mermaid Legend (Ikeda Toshiharu) – 16, 1984
The Killing Fields (Roland Joffé) – 38, 1984
Beverly Hills Cop (Martin Brest) – 48, 1984
Typhoon Club (Somai Shinji) – 6, 1985
Rambo: First Blood Part II (George P. Cosmatos) – 45, 1985

Golden Eighties (Chantal Akerman) – 14, 1986
Eastern Condors (Sammo Hung) – 10, 1987
Beverly Hills Cops II (Tony Scott) – 51, 1987
Beijing Watermelon (Obayashi Nobuhiko) – 6, 1989
Field of Dreams (Phil Alden Robinson) – 23, 1989

She Shoots Straight (Corey Yuen) – 36, 1990
Once a Thief (John Woo) – 26, 1991
The Raid (Tsui Hark) – 43, 1991
Moving (Somai Shinji) – 4, 1993
August in the Water (Ishii Gakuryu) – 40, 1995

Once a Thief (John Woo) – 90, 1996
Can’t Hardly Wait (Deborah Kaplan & Harry Elfont) – 69, 1998
Go (Doug Limon) – 56, 1999
July Rhapsody (Ann Hui) – 18, 2002

Yesterday Once More (Johnnie To) – 17, 2004
Sparrow (Johnnie To) – 2, 2008
Linger (Johnnie To) – 41, 2008
Open City (Lee Sang-gi) – 81, 2008

Shin Godzilla (Anno Hideaki & Higuchi Shinji) – 8, 2016
Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold (Griffin Dunne) – 121, 2017
Destination Wedding (Victor Levin) – 79, 2018
The Booksellers (DW Young) – 100, 2019

Sayonara, Girls. (Shun Nakagawa) – 25, 2022
Kubi (Kitano Takeshi) – 2, 2023
Kyrie (Iwai Shunji) – 14, 2023
Only the River Flows (Wei Shujun) – 24, 2023

Hit Man (Richard Linklater) – 39, 2023
The Lyricist Wannabe (Norris Wong) – 45, 2023
Shadow of Fire (Tsukamoto Shin’ya) – 59, 2023
Between the White Key and the Black Key (Tominaga Masanori) – 76, 2023

Furiosa (George Miller) – 1, 2024
Baby Assassins: Nice Days (Sakamoto Yugo) – 2, 2024
Black Dog (Guan Hu) – 3, 2024
I Saw the TV Glow (Jane Schoenbrun) – 4, 2024
The Spectacular Failure of the Star Wars Hotel (Jenny Nicholson) – 5, 2024
Reform! (Jon Bois) – 6, 2024
That’s Not Entirely Accurate (Jon Bois) – 7, 2024
Nothing Can’t Be Undone by a Hotpot (Ding Sheng) – 10, 2024

The History of Slipping on Banana Peels (Jon Bois) – 11, 2024
Twisters (Lee Isaac Chung) – 12, 2024
Customs Frontline (Herman Yau) – 13, 2024
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (Mark Molloy) – 15, 2024
Jim Henson Idea Man (Ron Howard) – 17, 2024
Brats (Andrew McCarthy) – 18, 2024