Recently Watched Films

As far as my personal favorite, that isn't connected to a series, I'd say Princess Mononoke. I watched it a very long time ago (as a kid, actually, though it sure isn't kid friendly, LOL) but I still remember it very well, so it obviously left a strong impression.

Another great Japanese movie. 

A very good vampire movie from Park Chan-Wook.

Quite a decent war movie.

On the other hand this was a masterpiece war movie. Peckinpah may be best known for westerns, but this is one of his best movies.

Bit different from the first Lady Snowblood movie (which I also re-watched before this one), but I still enjoyed it. 

Another one ticked off the 'films I should have seen by now' list. I loved this one. It's a very sad movie and the execution scenes are quite harrowing (I know people who say they couldn't watch this because of them), but it's brilliant and compelling despite the long length.

Pretty great samurai movie. 

I picked up on this because they've made a big deal about how it's a neo-western. It's nothing of the sort. But it is a quite decent character driven crime drama. 

Quite good. A different type of war movie and loosely based on a real event.

Very good Japanese kaidan movie. 

Spy thriller with a non-linear narrative. Quite fun.

Finally decided to give the remake a look. I mean I guess it's not technically bad because it's a near enough shot for shot remake of Hitchcock's original which is a masterpiece but it also kind of is: as good as the original was you have to judge it by 1960s standards and it is kinda dated now. This made little attempt to feel current for the 1990s in terms of film-making so anything that felt dated in the original just felt amateurish here. Also I find Vince Vaughn as Norman Bates rather unconvincing. 

Another anime. Quite a nice movie. 

BTW, I love these three films, haha

I enjoyed this a little more but I'd still say it's not a great movie by any stretch of the imagination. It's also made in that same plodding along way as Solaris. Might be better drama if in English to be honest. These are the first times subtitled movies have made me wish that. I normally don't notice once a movie gets me engrossed within it. These just left me wondering why I wasn't just reading a book. #8 movie of all time on RYM? Fuck no. And considering that this was a movie I'd been excited to see for a long time now, I'm bitterly disappointed by it. 

Is this plodding pace and little plot a Russian thing? Or just this director? I don't think I'm going to touch any of this man's work ever again after these two.