Livre d'Or

We got stalled on our world film project for a while, only managing two films in 2021 and then I forgot to write about the second. But we restarted this weekend with a Vietnamese rom com, so let me tell you about them.

( Review of The Yacoubian Building. CN: mentions sexual violence, terrorism and torture )

In contrast, How to fight in six inch heels (2013, Ham Tran) is frothy nonsense that made for an excellent low-brain date night movie.

( detailed review )

Next up: we are still missing Ethiopia, and next on our list is DR Congo. I expect both countries to be difficult, so would especially welcome any recs. Ideally we would like a feature film from the current millennium, actually made in the country rather than set there. But maybe we'll settle for a short or documentary or something.

Thank you to everybody who made recommendations of live-action Japanese films. I almost want to pause on Japan and watch several of them! We ended up picking Shoplifters (2018, dir Hirokazu Koreeda). It is a really lovely piece, though sad, and I'm extremely glad I watched it.

( detailed review; mentions child abuse )

Next: Ethiopia. Anyone have a favourite Ethiopian film? The 12th to 22nd biggest countries are really quite an interesting mix, so I'm looking forward to the next stage of our quest!

We were a bit spoiled for choice with Russian films, but jack had heard good things about I am dragon (2015, dir Indar Dzhendubaev). Basically, it's a fairly standard subverted fairy tale where a princess is kidnapped by a dragon and decides she prefers the dragon to the knight who is supposed to rescue her.

The film is absolutely unbelievably gorgeous visually. Lovely landscapes, amazing use of colour, drool-worthy (though implausible) costumes. And the shadow puppets for the framing story are so pretty. Also very pretty music.

The developing relationship between Mira and Arman is rather charming, if you suspend disbelief and accept fairy-tale logic. It's not very sexually explicit, there's a lot of nudity but not much actual sex beyond soft-focus snogging, but it has something of the feel of soft porn somehow. It's very much in the genre of all those paranormal romances where the male love interest is a horrible monster but is also the perfect fantasy man. I thought it did quite an interesting job of addressing the tension inherent to falling in love with a powerful supernatural being. But also had plenty of hurt/comfort and smouldering angst and all the elements that make that kind of ravishment fantasy appealing.

Anyway, not exactly a work of genius, but very pleasant for a somewhat tired date night.

Next up: Mexico and then Japan, which I imagine should give us plenty of options. Does anyone have a recommendation for a Mexican film, ideally 21^st century and not too violent or depressing?

Nobody had any recs for Nigeria, so we poked around a bunch of internet best of lists and came up with Lionheart, (2018, dir Genevieve Nnaji), which turned out to be a great choice.

( detailed review )

Any recs for Bangladeshi films? We are most excited about 21^st century films not primarily about violence or depressing real-world history.

So I ran into one of my most film-buff friends, ewan_m, at a party. And he reassured me that there are Indonesian films available on Netflix, it's just hard to search Netflix. Knowing that there was something to find we had a more thorough look, and found Sokola Rimba [Jungle School] (2013, directed Riri Riza), which nou had recommended.

( detailed review )

Next up: Pakistan. Any recommendations welcome! We would ideally like a film from the 21^st century, not primarily focused on violence or depressing real-world history. But if there's a Pakistani film you really love that doesn't fit those constraints please go ahead and recommend it anyway. Shortlist so far:
Bol
Zinda Bhaag
Dukhtar

So having said we only watch half a dozen films a year, a mix of enthusiasm for the project and three consecutive weeks when we've been exhausted by Friday evening has meant that we've watched three of our 200 films already.

For India we went for Chak De! India (2007, directed by Shimit Amin) as recommended by lilacsigil and several others. It was the most perfect of perfect sports films. It hits all the classic sports films beats where an unlikely team with a good coach achieves an amazing victory. But it's also about how hockey stars from different parts of India learn to overcome their ethnic and cultural and religious differences and work together. So if we were going to watch a single film from the second biggest country in the world, it was a good one to pick since it's specifically about the diversity of different regions in India.

It was tense and had just the right level of interpersonal drama. The message is a little bit the simplistic, girls-can-do-anything style of feminism, but it also has some really interesting back story about coach Kabir's experience as a Muslim minority. There was an extended metaphor about bearing a cross which surprised me a bit; I don't know if that was added by the translators, or if it would be emotionally resonant to an Indian audience.

Also I have a leftover fondness for field hockey so it's quite nice to see hockey take the role of the underrated obscure sport. I didn't really get to play in junior school because I'm a girl, or in senior school because I'm fat, and unlike the girls in the film, I didn't keep fighting in spite of the odds or anything, I just drifted away. It was never a passion, it was just something I would have liked to do as a form of exercise, so I didn't have the drive to overcome barriers. So anyway, that was a lot of fun.

Last night I was feeling miserably sick with a cold, which at least had the grace to show up in the few days between Yom Kippur and (hopefully) starting a new job. So jack cooked single-handed and we collapsed in front of the TV. Our choice for USA was On the basis of sex (2018, directed by Mimi Leder), the biopic of supreme court judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg's landmark sex discrimination case. Given we're already reasonably familiar with American cinema, we liked the idea of picking something that is actually about the USA and its culture and history, rather than just happening to be made there.

We were definitely pleased with the choice. OtBoS really made the most of the drama of a small but significant court case. It was a good choice to focus on RBG's early career and her struggles to be accepted at all, taking as read the later half of her career when she was already successful. Another element I really liked was that the film portrays a long-standing and mutually supportive marriage between Ruth and her husband, as opposed to the early, high drama stages of getting together.

Next up: Indonesia. Recommendations so far:

The Raid

Lovely man

Marlina the murderer

Anyone else have any favourite Indonesian films? Preferably 21^st century and preferably not focusing too much on violence