Bryan Lee
I must say that this year is the year I fell in love with Foreign films and I find myself asking “why the heck haven’t I been watching foreign films earlier than this. What makes it so crazy is that I lived in Germany for four years and only watched on Germany film, can’t recall the name but I do remember that it was a scary movie and supposed to be a classic. Try googling “classic scary Germany movie and let me know what you find and I’ll probably remember from the choices. With foreign films I find them to be more compassionate and complex than American films. I feel that American films play it safe and lack creativity and Foreign Films tend to expose a social injustice and allow you the viewer to render your own opinion. Now maybe it’s a cultural thing but a lot of the foreign films aren’t as vulgar the American ones and I’ve maybe watched about 10 of them and maybe saw a sex scene in one of them. Maybe it’s a cultural thing with a lot of them or maybe they want to be able to have everyone watch the movie and not just one specific demographic. One thing I noticed with a lot of foreign films is that they love attacking social injustices.
One of my favorite foreign films is MY NAME IS KHAN and it is about a Muslim with Asbergers syndrome who has to deal with a lot of prejudice after 9/11 happened. He decides to take a journey to meet Barak Obama to let him know he isn’t a terrorist and what prompts him to make this journey is the fact that his son is beaten to death by kids upset by the tragedy of September 11th. This movie was a love story(they show him falling in love with a woman who doesn’t mind that he has asbergers syndrome), this movie shows tragedy(their son is killed in a hate crime), also shows injustice (while in the airport Khan is searched by Customs agents because someone hears him saying a Muslim prayer while waiting online to go through Airport screening and they think he is a terrorist and contact the authorities. One thing he says while being questioned by the TSA agents is that he is not a terrorist, which is a poignant statement. What he is simply saying is “just because I’m a Muslim doesn’t make me a terrorist”. This movie was heartwarming from beginning to end and quickly became one of my favorite movies of any genres. I truly think that foreign films have better story lines and aren’t one dimensional like a lot of the American movies. Foreign movies seem to touch on every human emotion and you feel fulfilled after you watch them. Now don’t get me wrong, there are crappy movies in foreign cinema just like there are crappy movies in American cinema. I just feel that if there was a contest then creativity award goes to foreign films because their characters you find yourself relating to their characters more or at least feel you know someone who reminds you of one of characters.
We also have to take into account that a lot of foreign movies have been adapted into American movies; some of the main ones are The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I’ll tell you this now, the Swedish version of the movie is much better. When I went to Sweden, my friends out there were pretty upset with the American version and felt that it didn’t do the European version or the books it was based on any justice. Movies such as The Grudge and The Ring were adapted from Japanese films of the same name. Believe me; the Japanese version of The Grudge and The Ring are definitely much scarier. One night while at home with my girlfriend, she asks if Netflix has the movie SHUTTER starring Joshua Jackson. Now they didn’t have the one starring Johua Jackson but they did have the original Shutter which has done an all Thai cast. Check out the American Version and then the Thai version and leave me a comment to let me know which one was scarier. As we started watching it my girlfriend and I realized there was something about this movie that lead you to believe it was much scarier than the American version and within the first 5 minutes a dead woman popped out of a picture and we both screamed soprano style and that’s when we realized that we would be turning that movie off and watching a comedy for the remainder of the night.
One thing about American films I don’t like is they want you to believe everything in the world is fine and there is no injustice and if there happens to be injustice then one tough man can solve it and right all wrongs. Foreign films tend to be more realistic, they show the disparities between class, they show that unity can help you get through adversity and they show that anyone can be the hero regardless of skin color or religion. Right now I’m really into Bollywood films, I love how in certain scenes of the movie they will break out into a song and dance routine which is always expertly coordinated. That’s something you only see in Musicals and there aren’t too many musicals in American films. Indian films take the cake because the actors have to know how to dance as well as act, just imagine Denzel Washington having to sing and dance in everyone of his movies.
One interesting fact is that the first film ever made was Eadweard Muybridge’s Horse in Motion in 1878, and he was an English photographer that immigrated to the United States. Now ask yourself, if the director of the first film immigrated from England could this be classified as a foreign film since he is a foreign director? Hmmmm. I’ll let you think about that one, but while you’re doing this, check out Horse in Motion, its actually better than some movies I’ve seen most notably the new Resident Evil movie which was truly disappointing. Oh and while you’re watching the first film ever made you will notice that the first actor is Black, now how about them apples 🙂
5 responses so far ↓
yl146984 // Sep 19th 2012 at 10:51 am
I agree, foreign films do rock. Not only do you get a sense of their culture but the way films are created are much more created and original. They take a film genre and put a spin on it rather than just do the bare minimum and focus on the story.
I have a theory why Japanese people make their horror films particularly scary. When watching scary movies, do you ever feel cold or have a chill up your spine feeling? I think in their culture they watch scary movies to cool themselves off during the summer. I don’t know, it’s a theory.
ra125058 // Sep 19th 2012 at 2:59 pm
My Name Is Khan is undoubtedly a good Hindi movie that has a theme and a message for the society. The movie did a good job of showing that being a Muslim is neither being a terrorist nor a traitor. In my opinion, religion is and should be a personal believe for everyone. It should not be effect negatively in someone’s life. And since 9/11, I do not know if there any famous Hollywood director is attempted to make a movie on the same theme as My Name Is Khan has.
Harlem Kat // Sep 26th 2012 at 8:53 pm
@Rumi, I truly doubt that any Hollywood director would try to make a statement like MY NAME IS KHAN because then they would be forced to admit that they way American society is does not reflect the “land of the free” image they put out to the rest of the world. The only movie I can think of that actually tried to hit a nerve and speak of insensitivity since 9/11 was the movie towel head but they really just kept making the point of showing that people thought they were Arabic and they kept having to tell them they were Lebanese. So truly no movie has tried to show that there is extreme hate for a religion without any true knowledge of the religion. It’s really sad.
Harlem Kat // Sep 26th 2012 at 8:55 pm
@yl146984, That has to be the most original explanation as to why Japanese movies are so much more scarier,lol.
ay083951 // Dec 17th 2012 at 1:42 am
You bring up some good points about foreign films that I’ve been feeling for quite awhile now, that there’s too much of a confinement of style with most American movies by comparison. I’ve been trying to explore my options in this regard, digging into my roots and checking out a few Asian movies now, and broaden my horizons a bit.
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