Today, I’m resurrecting my International Movie Highlights series with a special speedy edition through five movies I want to say a few words on and hopefully convince you to check them out. I’ve been watching more and more non-English productions and every experience has been completely dissimilar from the other.
There is an inherent, hard-to-explain sensation that you feel when you realize how different a South Korean movie is from a French movie, and how both of them are different from an Iranian or an American movie. Cultural movie-making inputs are quite noticeable and to those accustomed to one specific style, it can be very refreshing to experience how foreign film makers tackle every aspect of the production, from storytelling, to camerawork, to sound design, to acting.
Without further ado, here are five distinct non-English movies I urge for you to check out if you want to go for something different. Honestly, for me, you can’t go wrong with anyone of them, regardless of genre or country of origin.
#1 – Norway – The Worst Person in the World
To start the list, we have the most recent of our selection of five, Norway’s The Worst Person in the World. Directed by Joachim Trier and released in 2021, this movie explores the expectations that modern societies impose on young people, especially women, to settle on a well-defined life path in a world of endless possibilities where it can take some time to figure out who you are, who you want to be and what makes you happy.
Julie, the protagonist, changes careers in drastic ways, falls in love and later out of love, she meets people who seem to have life way more figured out than she, and others who have settled into a path she hopes to stay well clear of. This keeps her unsure, but that indecision casts a shadow of judgement over her from family, friends and the world as a whole that can make one feel like the worst person in the world for not living up to expectations.
Truly, being unsure is no crime, it’s actually quite human, but rejecting a path sometimes means rejecting someone or disappointing someone, which causes pain, unintentional pain perhaps, but pain, nonetheless. Julie does not want to hurt anyone, of course, and that is her struggle, a highly relatable one. That is the key strength of this movie, I think. It’s unapologetically frank and sincere. It holds up a non-judgmental mirror in front of the audience and tells them “You might be a Julie, or know a Julie, and you might be judged for behaving like her, or judge her behavior in turn, but look at her, she’s not the worst, she’s normal, she’s human. How can you be absolutely sure that you want to be a doctor for the rest of your life when you’re 20? Or stay forever with a person you’ve been dating for just a while? Would you force yourself or another person into a determined path just for the sake of not hurting someone or letting them down?”.
The realness of the movie is also derived from how emotionally subdued it is. These characters do not shout or yell or collapse from emotional frustration. They talk, they get annoyed, angry and confused, of course, but none of that is dramatized. The most impactful moments of the movie are often the quieter ones, because they hit closest to how we, the audience, know things to actually be like in the real world.
There is more to say on this movie, which I could go into, but I’ll leave those deliberations for you, when or if you watch. This a personal favorite of mine, and gave me plenty to think about, which I think is the sign of a well-made piece of fiction. If you are interested, give it a watch.
#2 – South Korea – I Saw the Devil
Let’s jump into high gear and talk about a great edge-of-your-seat thriller. South Korea’s I Saw the Devil was directed by Kim Jee-woon and released in 2010. It tells the story of police officer Kim Soo-hyun who goes on a journey of revenge when is fiancée is murdered by a twisted serial killer named Jang Kyung-chul. What follows in an intricate, brutal game of cat and mouse filled with twists and turns that will keep you hooked all the way through.
South Korean crime thrillers are well-known for being engaging and providing compelling narratives that keep the audience guessing and interested, and I Saw the Devil is no exception. This movie employs a great balance of both suspense and dramatic irony. The latter is felt throughout as the script places the viewer in a position where they know more than the characters do. Sometimes you know what Soo-hyun does but Kyung-chul doesn’t, and other times, the reverse. This makes it so that there is a constant sense of wondering what will happen when these pieces of information come to light for both parties.
At the same time, the audience is not above the script itself which holds some twists that change the game entirely, maintaining the suspense levels high. It’s a clever triple threat of narrative techniques that never gives you a moment’s rest. It helps of course that the cinematography and lighting really dramatize this tense game between the protagonists. Fights pack tons of weight in how physical and brutal they are, and the actors are absolutely committed to their performances, blending in totally with the characters they play. Choi Min-sik, famous for his work in Oldboy, plays Kyung-chul here and is so perfectly despicable and menacing, that even in moments where his character is at a disadvantage and about to lose, he manages to instill dread and fear with just his presence.
This is another example of South Korean cinema at its best. I’m all for American crime thrillers, some are among the best ever made, but this is a craft that the South Koreans have indeed mastered, and thankfully, we can all enjoy it. For a blood-pumping, suspenseful and clever story of murder and revenge definitely check this one out.
#3 – Russia – Come and See
I’ve always found Russian cinema to particularly hard to grasp. Despite the brilliance of their best work, I find it to be an antitheses to the type of storytelling based on exposition and dialogue. Russian movies that I’ve seen, few as they are, heavily employ the rule of ‘showing, not telling’, and rely a lot on visual and abstract storytelling, which can be a barrier of entry for many viewers. Having said that, 1985’s Come and See, directed by Elem Klimov, which is truly a Soviet movie, not Russian, is for me the best example of how this style of film making can say so much more than could ever be put in words.
Come and See tells the story of a teenage boy called Flyora, living in Belarus in 1943, who, after finding an abandoned rifle, joins the Belarusian resistance against the ongoing Nazi occupation against his mother’s wishes. What follows might just be the most harrowing and disturbing depiction of the atrocities committed in World War 2 ever put to screen. The movie goes on a journey of hyper-realism and at points almost surrealism as the subsequent horrors that Flyora witnesses quickly cause his psyche to spiral downwards towards the deepest despair, misery and detachment from reality.
It’s kind of hard to put into words what the film communicates, which I suppose is the point of the mostly silent script. It is about pain, horror, trauma and how war inflicts wounds that never heal, but none of these descriptions truly match how Come and See makes one feel. It’s without a doubt one of the most brutal movies I’ve ever seen, and it reinforced my conviction that war is never a worthwhile or righteous endeavor, regardless of circumstance or justification.
I do whole-heartedly recommend it, but fair warning, it is a tough watch. You’ll truly thank yourself for having seen it, but you might not want to check it out again anytime soon.
#4 – France – La Haine
The fourth movie on our list is a stellar example of inventive economic film making, which leverages a tight script, a reduced cast of characters and a small-scale story to explore broad class dynamics in French society and craft an insightful story about, well, hatred.
La Haine was released in 1995 and was directed by Mathieu Kassovitz. The film tells the story of three young men, Vinz, Hubert and Said, in the aftermath of an urban riot in the outskirts of Paris during which a friend of theirs was brutally injured while in police custody. The following 20 hours depicted on screen serves as deep dive into themes of marginalization, what it does to individuals and communities affected by them, how different ethnicities are affected by these events, the role of police brutality in poorer neighborhoods, and ultimately, how these cycles of resentment, violence and revenge are incredibly difficult to break or escape from.
La Haine is shot in black and white, and there are several obvious reasons for this, all of which elevate the end-product in numerous ways. The monochromatic scheme instantly makes the subject matter more serious, and less romanticized (which is even more appropriate given how romanticized Paris usually is in people’s minds). It also illustrates how our lead characters see the world. Their neighborhood is not a colorful, bright environment which feels homely, it’s bleak and uninviting.
Likewise, the color scheme illustrates how the characters are placed in opposition with the world around them. For people in the projects, there is a constant notion of ‘us vs. them’, with the ‘them’ in question being the French society as a whole, which does not have a place in it for these marginalized groups. The police serve as the embodiment of this rejection and oppression, but it’s not the only example in the film, with the people in an art gallery being put-off by the presence of the three leads, due to their attitude and appearance. After being rejected by two women, the young men resort to aggressive insults and outbursts because this is how they know to react and have no notion of how to engage with individuals outside their own class and environment.
That isn’t to say the characters are idiots. Far from it, they’re actually quite self-aware, aware of their place in the world, of how things work for them because of who they are, and in the case of Hubert, of how perpetuating the cycle of hatred will only make things worse. The evils of the movie really come down to prejudice, hatred, negligence and circumstance, and they call upon the viewer to wonder how things could be improved if we as a whole came to really think about others in these situations, refrained from judgement, listened to their worries and attempted to ameliorate their circumstances.
Definitely a movie to think and talk about with others, La Haine is one of the best social dramas of its kind. It is proficient and well-crafted on a visual level alone, and its thematic explorations are packed with nuance and subtlety, while at the same time delivering hard truths about the real consequences of violence and hatred, and how we should not be indifferent to them, even in movies.
#5 – Hong Kong – In the Mood for Love
Our last movie to briefly look into is Wong Kar-Wai’s In the Mood for Love. Released in 2000 this movie is considered one the director’s best works. It’s also one you might be familiar with, as it’s a fairly well known feature of asian cinema, and specifically Hong Kong cinema.
In the Mood for Love tells the story of a man and a woman who become connected by the discovery that their spouses are cheating on them with each other. This discovery forms a bond between them and as time passes, they grow closer and closer. As deeper feelings develop between the two they try to avoid succumbing to the emerging feelings that are slowly developing, so as not to incur in the same infidelity as their spouses. Of course this entanglement leads to heartbreak, emotional frustration, estrangement and unrequited passions, but at the same time, this movie is without a doubt, one of the most romantic movies I’ve ever seen.
Wong Kar-Wai’s movies are known for his unique aesthetic and ambience, and that component is key in developing this movie’s tone of romance, but of loss at the same time. Mood lighting and lingering shots are executed so beautifully that they stay with the viewer long after the movie ends, making it no wonder that so many moments of the movie function as wallpapers, posters, even paintings.
There is a sense of mutual understanding that Kar-Wai manages to develop with his two leads, Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung, through which their performances perfectly match his tone and the world of romance this movie creates. There is a constant mutual feeling of melancholy that both lead characters experience and that the actors manage to pull off in perfect tandem with the director. Lines are spoken slowly, with heavy hearts and low tones, meticulously thought of and felt.
Out of all five movies on this list, In the Mood for Love is the one I would most heartedly recommend from an artistic standpoint. Not just visual artistry, but artistry in all cinematic aspects. These sounds, these shots, these actors, these emotions, they are all beautiful to watch, and that is the movie’s greatest strength, and the reason for its status as an iconic feature film.
So those were my highlights for this article. What do you think of the movies I brought up? Do you like them? Have you seen them? Will you see them? What movies should I highlight in the future? Leave your thoughts in the comments below and as always, thank you for reading.