something that starts soon and looks good

scenes from the movies 18+

[theersatzcowboy]

Eat Drink Man Woman / 飲食男女 (1994)

Ang Lee's essential melodrama about three lovesick modern women and their old-fashioned chef father uniquely captures the experience of sitting down expecting to enjoy a delicious meal and immediately hearing upsetting news. One of the all-time great movies about the power of preparing food (and serving others).

Director: Ang Lee

Cinematographer: Jong Lin

Production Designer: Fu-Hsiung Lee

Starring: Sihung Lung, Yang Kuei-mei, Jacklyn Wu Chien-lien, Wang Yu-wen, Winston Chao, Gua Ah-Leh, and Sylvia Chang.

[theersatzcowboy]

The Remains of the Day (1993)

This achingly beautiful Merchant Ivory adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's  Nobel Prize-winning novel of about the class, British national identity, and the measure of one's life sports career-best turns from Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson as servants trapped in rigid roles on a deceptively idyllic estate owned by deceptively "great" British aristocrat.

Director: James Ivory

Cinematographer: Tony Pierce-Roberts

Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, James Fox, Christopher Reeve, Peter Vaughan, Hugh Grant, Michael Lonsdale, an Tim Pigott-Smith

[theersatzcowboy]

Howards End (1992)

One of the best (if not the outright best) Merchant Ivory literary adaptations, this beautiful rendering of E. M. Forster's classic English novel about shifting attitudes and values (and gender roles) at the turn-of-the-century balances a terrific cast with a beautiful visual style that underscores the beauty of the natural world in a rapidly modernizing era.

Director: James Ivory

Cinematographer: Tony Pierce-Roberts

Production Designer: Luciana Arrighi

Costume Designers: Jenny Beavan and John Bright

Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Vanessa Redgrave, Helena Bonham Carter, Emma Thompson, James Wilby, Samuel West, Jemma Redgrave, and Prunella Scales

[theersatzcowboy]

Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion / Joshū Nana-maru-ichi Gō / Sasori (1972)

The first of four Female Prisoner films that would turn Meiko Kaji into an international cult icon, this tough-as-nails, stylish revenge thriller stars the legendary sex symbol as a near-silent avenging angel hellbent on evening the scales against the many people who have wronged her, including her evil boyfriend.

Director: Shunya Itō

Cinematographer: Hanjiro Nakazawa

Starring: Meiko Kaji, Isao Natsuyagi, Fumio Watanabe, and Hiroko Ogi

[theersatzcowboy]

Curse of the Golden Flower / 满城尽带黄金甲 (2006)

Visionary Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou reunites with his former muse/partner, Gong Li, for this Tang Dynasty-set wuxia period piece / familial melodrama, the most expensive film of its era, which consciously employs an over-the-top aesthetic of opulence and excess as class critique.

Director: Zhang Yimou

Cinematographer: Zhao Xiaoding

Costume Designers: Jessie Dai and Chung-Man Yee

Production Designer: Tingxiao Huo

Starring: Chow Yun-fat, Gong Li, Jay Chou, Liu Ye, Qin Junjie, Ni Dahong, Chen Jin, Li Man

[theersatzcowboy]

Shall We Dance? / Shall we ダンス? (1996)

This crowd-pleasing, absolutely lovely Japanese film follows several men — led by superstar Kōji Yakusho — who find respite from their staid lives through ballroom dance; bottled delight.

Director: Masayuki Suo

Cinematographer: Naoki Kayano

Starring: Kōji Yakusho, Tamiyo Kusakari, Naoto Takenaka, Eriko Watanabe, Akira Emoto, Yu Tokui, and Reiko Kusamura.

[theersatzcowboy]

Lust, Caution 色，戒 (2007)

Ang Lee's beautiful, unflinching adaptation of Eileen Chang's period novel—loosely based on real-life Chinese spy Zheng Pingru—tells a macabre honey trap story of duty, desire, idealism, and sacrifice against the backdrop of Japanese war with/occupation of China in the 1930s/40s. Fearlessly led by Tang Wei—blacklisted in China for years for her appearance in the film—and a devastating Tony Leung (Chiu-wai), this film deftly weaves story and sex, fashion and intrigue, and love and despair.

Director: Ang Lee

Cinematographer: Rodrigo Prieto

Costume Designer: Pan Lai

Production Designers: Pan Lai and Sai-Wan Lau

Starring: Tang Wei, Tony Leung, Joan Chen, Wang Leehom, Tou Chung-hua, and Chin Kar-lok.

[theersatzcowboy]

All the Colors of the Dark / Tutti i colori del buio (1972)

A successful giallo needs little more than Edwige Fenech to be worth the price of administration, but genre maestro Sergio Martino brings his signature style and panache to this mostly forgettable tale of a witchcraft cult that ensnares the gorgeous, gorgeous girl at the center of it all.

Director: Sergio Martino

Cinematographers: Giancarlo Ferrando and Miguel Fernández Mila

Starring: Edwige Fenech, George Hilton, Ivan Rassimov, Marina Malfatti, George Rigaud, Susan Scott, and Julian Ugarte.

[theersatzcowboy]

Crazed Fruit / Kurutta kajitsu (1956)

This surprisingly steamy classic embodies the "Sun Tribe" (taiyo zoku) subculture—Japan's version of Rebel Without a Cause-style youthful posturing—through a kaleidoscope of sun, sex, and stylish fits that exemplify the existential crisis wrought by the westernization of postwar Japan.

Director: Kō Nakahira

Cinematographer: Shigeyoshi Mine

Starring: Masahiko Tsugawa, Yujiro Ishihara, Mie Kitahara, Masumi Okada, Shintaro Ishihara, and Harold Conway.

[theersatzcowboy]

Tears of the Black Tiger / Fa Thalai Chon (2000)

Blame Harvey Weinstein and Miramax for the botched, years-delayed rollout of this Thai cult film stateside (he tried to shelve it), which thwarted its rightful legacy as a maximalist arthouse classic. This beautifully-rendered, heavily saturated Spaghetti Western — a pastiche of Thai action films and melodramas of the 1950s and 1960s — is as much a heart-wrenching love story as a Looney Tunes-esque riot of cartoonish ultraviolence. Plus: some very, very pretty men.

Director: Wisit Sasanatieng

Cinematographer: Nattawut Kittikhun

Production Designer: Ek Iemchuen

Costume Designer: Chaiwichit Somoboon

Starring: Chartchai Ngamsan, Stella Malucchi, Supakorn Kitsuwon, Sombat Metanee, and Arawat Ruangvuth

[theersatzcowboy]

Valley Girl (1983)

Queen Martha Coolidge's delightful, quietly brilliant (and subversively feminist) spin on Romeo and Juliet is a swoonworthy romp through early 80s Los Angeles, which feels like one of the few teen comedies that seems to accurately capture the sweetness and banality of falling in love when you're young. Stars real-life lovers Deborah Foreman and Nicolas Cage (his first film under his now-famous stage name) and set to a never-topped alt pop soundtrack. When that iconic "I'll Stop the World and Melt With You" needle drop hits, it tugs directly on your heart strings.

Director: Martha Coolidge

Cinematographer: Frederick Elmes

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Deborah Foreman, Elizabeth Daily, Cameron Dye, Michael Bowen, Michelle Meyrink, Lee Purcell, Richard Sanders, Colleen Camp, and Frederic Forrest

[theersatzcowboy]

An Autumn's Tale 秋天的童話 (1987)

This undeniably sweet New York Love Story from Hong Kong New Wave filmmaker Mabel Cheung (who studied film at New York University) stars a particularly adorable Chow Yun-fat as a streetwise guy who comes to care for his (distant) cousin (a beautiful Cherie Chung) after she moves to New York City for school and struggles to adjust to her new environs. Their romance unfurls against a texturally rich city landscape, making it a true love letter to the Big Apple from an outsider's perspective.

Director: Mabel Cheung

Cinematographers: David Chung and James Hayman

Starring: Chow Yun-fat, Cherie Chung, and Danny Chan

[theersatzcowboy]

PTU (2003)

Just how ACAB is this movie? A police officer literally slips on a banana peel, promptly losing his service weapon, and sending several officers on a wild goose chase to recover it in Johnnie To's taut riff on Akira Kurosawa's Stray Dog (1949), shot on the neon-lit streets of Hong Kong.

Director: Johnnie To

Cinematographer: Cheng Siu-Keung

Starring: Simon Yam, Maggie Shiu, Lam Suet, Ruby Wong, Raymond Wong Ho-yin, Eddy Ko, Lo Hoi-pang, and Kenneth Cheung

[theersatzcowboy]

The Long Good Friday (1980)

This electrifying British gangster classic stages a messy, blood-soaked international power play against a complex backdrop of political corruption, IRA activity, and redevelopment of London's docks, capturing an empire in decline.

Director: John Mackenzie

Cinematographer: Phil Meheux

Starring: Bob Hoskins, Helen Mirren, Eddie Constantine, Dave King, Bryan Marshall, Derek Thompson, Paul Freeman, Alan Ford, and Pierce Brosnan.

[theersatzcowboy]

Splendor (1999)

Gregg Araki’s undeniably sweet, truly hilarious, and candy-colored late 90s bisexual romantic comedy is one of the few movies to positively depict a throuple, approaching the mwm ménage à trois with a sense of humor that manages to avoid cheap stereotypes or judgement. No one’s really been able to improve upon it in the (many) years since!

Director: Gregg Araki

Cinematographer: Jim Fealy

Production Designer: Patti Podesta

Costume Designer: Susanna Puisto

Starring: Kathleen Robertson, Johnathon Schaech, Matt Keeslar, Kelly Macdonald, Eric Mabius, and Mink Stole.

[theersatzcowboy]

A Bittersweet Life / Dalkomhan insaeng (2005)

This gorgeously rendered, badass cult gangster classic from Korean heavy Kim Jee-woon borrows from only the coolest genres to tell the sobering (and sometimes darkly funny) story of a doggedly loyal, prideful underling (a never better Lee Byung-hun) who just can't obey the orders of his beloved boss when it comes to punishing the man's beautiful, cheating girlfriend...to disastrous, bloody ends.

Director: Kim Jee-woon

Cinematographer: Kim Ji-yong

Production Designer: Ryu Seong-hie

Starring: Lee Byung-hun, Shin Min-a, Kim Yeong-cheol, Hwang Jung-min, Kim Roi-ha, Eric Mun, Lee Ki-young, and Oh Dal-su.

[theersatzcowboy]

Christmas Evil / You Better Watch Out (1980)

For my money, the best (and most underrated) of the Christmas-based slashers (and one of the infamous "video nasties," banned in the UK for its conflation of a wholesome holiday with dark, gruesome themes). A man witnesses (what he thinks is) Santa hooking up with his mom on Christmas Eve and becomes pathologically obsessed with becoming Santa Claus, down to the look, ride, and list of good and bad children...terrorizing his New York community in the process. Stylish. Weird. Unforgettable!

Director: Lewis Jackson

Cinematographer: Ricardo Aronovich

Starring: Brandon Maggart, Jeffrey DeMunn, Dianne Hull, Andy Fenwick, and Peter Friedman.