Obscure films: anyone seen these?

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At the IMDb boards, it's hard to discuss about certain films, since it seems no one's ever seen them. I wonder if this would be a better place to share your opinions on obscure (well, at least obscure in the USA/UK) films. So, has anyone seen any of these films:

Human Resources (France)
Peppermint Candy (South Korea)
25 Watts (Uruguay)
Coronation (Chile)
Shady Grove (Japan)
Barking Dogs Never Bite (South Korea)
Seventeen Years (China)
The Waiting List (Cuba)
Swallowtail (Japan)
Killer (Kazakhstan)
Moonlight Whispers (Japan)

These are all great flicks that deserve to be better known.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Friday, 16 May 2003 10:55 (twenty-two years ago)

I've seen Swallowtail. From what I remember it had a bunch of good ideas that somehow wouldn't fit together. Also it was a bit too proud of its style, that movie, smug as Aronofsky.

― Frühlingsmute (Wintermute), Friday, 16 May 2003 11:56 (twenty-two years ago)

I thought it was incoherent too, until I saw it the second time, and then all the pieces did fit. It is a stylistic film, true, but it's style was very original and fascinating, and in the end it was still more about the human characters than style, so this didn't disturb me.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Friday, 16 May 2003 14:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, I've seen 25 Watts. Thought it was fun, but not really super super.

Speaking of somewhat obscure films: anyone seen Yi Yi (Taiwanese)? It's really really fantastic. Oh, and Kikujiro No Natsu (Japanese) as well, now that I think about it.

― Orange, Friday, 16 May 2003 18:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Yi Yi (yeah, Taiwanese) was a major art house hit in the US (in France too) so I don't think it qualifies as obscure by the High Standards of ILF.

funny though that no word has come down on Edward Yang's next project nor has his INCREDIBLE ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE FULL STOP film Brighter Summer Day been any easier to see than it had been through all of the '90s.

Kikujio ruled. I think though that American audiences, to the extent that they're familiar with Kitano at all, have pegged him as this existential hyperviolent gangster dude so Kikujiro and Scene at the Sea (you NEED TO SEE THIS) didn't get much attention. Then again, I don't think Brother did much better (gosh that was a bad movie).

― amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 16 May 2003 18:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh, and also very very moving was Shower (Chinese, I forgot the original title). Excellent.

― Orange, Friday, 16 May 2003 18:33 (twenty-two years ago)

I really thought Kikujiro was great too. Seems like not many people knew quite what to make of it though.

― slutsky (slutsky), Friday, 16 May 2003 18:44 (twenty-two years ago)

I thought it dragged just a bit, but then Kitano is fond of repetition. Slutsky have you seen A Scene at the Sea?

― amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 16 May 2003 20:14 (twenty-two years ago)

I liked the repetition (I thought it made the punchlines that much funnier), but I know what you mean. Haven't seen A Scene though. Do you know if it's available for home viewing?

― slutsky (slutsky), Friday, 16 May 2003 20:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, you can get a Region 0 DVD from Panorama off of Ebay for about $7. I'm told it looks nice. The film itself is extremely gentle.

― amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 16 May 2003 20:36 (twenty-two years ago)

I wouldn't call a Takeshi Kitano Film obscure. I saw Yi Yi too, and liked it very much. But how about South Korean films? I think it's perhaps the most interesting of the "new" film-making countries. Even popular films like Joint Security Area or Attack the Gas Station have strange quality in them. Also, despite being somewhat repetitious, Kim Ki-duk (the director of Birdcage Inn, The Isle and Adress Unknown) is one of them most powerful directors to emerge in the last ten years.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Monday, 19 May 2003 07:21 (twenty-two years ago)

South Korean films are starting to get more distribution in the UK. We just had Shiri and we're getting a few more distributed by Tartan. Shiri wasn't all that good but was interesting to see a really populist film rather than the usual arthouse gubbins to compare.

― Pete (Pete), Monday, 19 May 2003 09:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Shiri was shown here a few years ago, but I missed it since I don't like action flicks. For some reason, even though Finland is a small and a distant country, we've had a mini-boom of South Korean films during the last few years. Most of the films have been imported by our only major art house distributor, but even the big cinemas have screened a couple of films, for example Joint Security Area.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Monday, 19 May 2003 13:29 (twenty-two years ago)

I've started a thread for new Korean films, since it's an interesting subject in its own right:

The "new" Korean cinema.

― amateurist (amateurist), Monday, 19 May 2003 14:14 (twenty-two years ago)

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