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FEBRUARY 2007  The best Asia-related films released this past year were Water and Crossing the Line.  Water, is a brilliant film (nominated for Best Foreign Language film) which comes from Deepa Mehta about an ashram for widows in 1938 set in her native India (although filmed in Sri Lanka).  Crossing the Line is an extraordinary documentary film, which premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, from Daniel Gorden and Nicholas Bonner, a pair of British filmmakers who have scored unprecedented access inside North Korea.  We are also fond of Painted Veil which was also released in 2006.


The pan-Asian spectrum has offered cinema lovers a wide range of great films during the last two decades.  John Powers, film critic from Vogue and NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross, said in February 2006 that the best movies—“the new [Francois] Truffaut… the new [Federico] Fellini are Asian.”  


Now, we no longer need to live in a major city to see remarkable films as DVDs have enabled us to see movies from some unlikely places.  Here are a few of our favorite films portraying the richness and diversity of Asian culture and history. Check out these interpretations of the Asian experience, and then take off to experience it for yourself!

Cambodia

  • The Killing Fields (1984)

China

  • The Last Emperor (1987)
  • Raise the Red Lantern (Da Hong Deng Long Gao Gao Gua) (1991)
  • Farewell My Concubine (1993)
  • To Live (Houzhe) (1994)
  • Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Wo Hu Cang Long) (2000)
  • Hero (Ying Xiong) (2002)
  • House of Flying Daggers (Shi Mian Mai Fu) (2005)
  • Painted Veil (2006)

India

  • Gandhi (1982)
  • Passage to India (1984)
  • Salaam Bombay (1988)
  • City of Joy (1992)
  • Fire (1996)
  • Lagaan - Once Upon a Time in India (2001) 
  • Monsoon Wedding (2001)
  • Bend It Like Beckham (2002)
  • Bollywood/Hollywood (2002)
  • Water (2006)

Indonesia

  • The Year of Living Dangerously (1982)

Japan

  • Ran (1985)
  • Empire of the Sun (1987)
  • Lost in Translation (2003)
  • The Last Samurai (2003)

Korea, North

  • The Game of Their Lives (2002)
  • A State of Mind (2004)
  • Crossing the Line (2006)

Korea, South

  • The Way Home (1997)
  • Memories of Murder (2003)
  • The President's Last Bang (2004)

Mongolia

  • Johanna d'Arc of Mongolia (1989)
  • Close to Eden (Urga) (1991)
  • The Story of the Weeping Camel (2003)
  • Mongolian Ping Pong (Lü cao di) (2005)

Nepal

  • Himalaya (1999)

Tibet

  • Kundun (1997)
  • Saltmen of Tibet (1998)
  • Seven Years in Tibet (1997)
  • The Cup (VHS only) (2000)
  • Tibet: Cry of the Snow Lion (2002)
  • Windhorse (1998)

Tibetan Buddhism

  • Little Buddha (1993)
  • Kundun (1997)

Vietnam

  • Indochine (1992)
  • The Scent of Green Papayas (1993)
  • Heaven & Earth (1993)
  • Daughter from Danang (2002)
  • The Quiet American (2002)

Vietnam War

  • Apocalypse Now Redux (1979)
  • Platoon (1986)
  • Full Metal Jacket (1987)
  • Thin Red Line (1998)
  • We Were Soldiers (2002)