Recently I was talking to a fellow film buff about our favorite films and directors, and it reminded me of a Facebook chain post several years ago on identifying our top 10 films. As I reflect on my list, I notice that my favorites change each decade (just like the Sight and Sound list, discussed below), and act as a faithful proxy to my then-current life conditions.
In my teens, I had a lot of big questions to ask about life. Naturally, I seek answers in philosophy books (Plato, Nietzsche, Fromm, etc.), and films that are bold in exploring the ultimate questions (is there a God? What are the most essential things in life? How should one live? What is justice?). My favorite directors at that time were Krzysztof Kieslowski and Ingmar Bergman. The questions they raised in their films are thought provoking. It is like going to a college seminar (like the modern day TED) and learning from their thinking process. Especially for Bergman whose visual and dialogues were so stark and powerful, it left a huge imprint on me.
As my interest in Japan grew, I dived into the classic (1930-60) films and found a mix of directors who fit the whole spectrum: Yasujiro Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi, Akira Kurosawa, Mikio Naruse, Masaki Kobayashi, Hiroshi Shimizu, Keisuke Kinoshita, Kon Ichikawa, etc. Each of them carried their own style and core theme: some very flamboyant and dramatic in storytelling, some heavy with a strong social message to deliver, some very reserved in their film language, while some observed the rapid societal change with grace and a humanistic eye.
As I age, after experiencing more personal turmoil and trauma, I began to appreciate directors who took a more observer view. Someone who is a little bit less blunt in their delivery, but look at everyday life and people around with less judgment and more compassion. Someone who acknowledges the suffering and injustice in this world, but never gave up hope in humanity. Perhaps being less emotional dramatic, but more like a transcriber/recorder of the time they are in. Ozu, Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Abbas Kiarostami and Sayajit Ray became my favorites.
My greatest gratitude is to the directors, crews and casts who worked so hard to deliver all these eternal works to us, to be so kind to share their life stories, world views and perspectives so we can expand what we know beyond where we are. It’s also thanks to modern distributors/restorers such as the Criterion Collection that made all these gems available to film lovers around the world. Finally, curators such as the Sight and Sound Top 10 has been a great guide in helping me to navigate the vast ocean of world cinema. It was through their decennial lists that I was able to find the industry’s pinnnacles for both artistic achievements and cultural influence.
To be honest, for each I named below, there are so many films and directors that I love and miss - Visconti, Angelopoulos, Dreyer, Tarkovsky, Fassbinder, Keaton, Ophüls, Rohmer, Lamorisse, etc. Each of them has taught me so much about life, and what humans are capable of doing when placed at the extremities (for better or worse).
Here’s my top 10 films in the 2020s:
Tokyo Story by Yasujiro Ozu (1953)
Taste of Cherry by Abbas Kiarostami (1997)
Apu Trilogy by Sayajit Ray (1955-59)
The Seventh Seal by Ingmar Bergman (1957)
Three Colors by Krzysztof Kieslowski (1993-94)
Sound of the Mountain by Mikio Naruse (1954)
L’avventura by Michelangelo Antonioni (1960)
Ugetsu by Kenji Mizoguchi (1953)
Dust in the wind by Hou Hsiao-Hsien (1986)
Paths of Glory by Stanley Kubrick (1957)