Halcyon Realms – anime|photography|film

Total tally for films watched in 2008 stands at 17 in theatres and 92 on dvds/blu-ray, making that a total 109, averaging out to about 2 films per week. You can see the entire list here.

I love watching movies on the big screen, but a movie ticket at the cinemas here in Tokyo costs a whopping 1800 yen ( 29 singapore dollars by today’s exchange rate ), which explains why I haven’t been to the theatres that often. As if that wasn’t bad enough, film releases in Japan are almost always slower than the rest of the world ( by about 4-6 months ), so I seldom get to watch the latest films when they come out.  ( At the time of writing this post Hellboy II has yet to hit theatres here, when I’ve already seen it on blu-ray more a month back. ) The only consolation is that the video rental stores here ( Tsutaya, GEO ) stock quite a lot of titles.

With that, here are my 10 favourite films of 2008, in no particular order :

崖の上のポニョ (Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, Miyazaki Hayao)

Kungfu Panda ( Mark Osborne/John Stevenson )

Atonement ( Joe Wright )

No Country for Old Men ( Coen Brothers )

Life in Cold Blood ( Documentary, David Attenborough )

Perfume ( Tom Tykwer )

Eastern Promises ( David Cronenberg )

Iron Man ( Jon Favreau )

Sakuran さくらん　( Ninagawa Mika )

Horton Hears a Who! ( Jimmy Hayward/Steve Martino )

Perhaps I’ve been watching far too many mainstream films again this year – I’ve been lazy and more often than not opted for the easier to digest popcorn flicks rather than the more arthouse and independent films. Another reason is that foreign language films in Japan come with only Japanese subtitles, and its just not as easy to understand (as compared to english subs), so I usually end up overlooking them completely.

Outside the ten that listed above I also enjoyed Across the Universe and Fur : An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus, both of which were most handsomely photographed, and Jumper, Beowulf and Hellboy II for their amazing visuals effects and CG. I must be one of the few people out there who aren’t crazy about The Dark Knight or Wall E, excellent movies as they are.

Some rather distasteful films I saw this year were 88 Minutes, Shaolin Girl, and The Fountain. ( I liked Aronofsky’s Requiem For a Dream, but The Fountain was just too abstract for me. )

I hope to catch up on more foreign films this year, ( especially Korean films, for which I watched none this year ) to begin with I’m going to hit my stash of Sight and Sound magazines and make a list of all the films I want to catch.

What about you folks ? I’ll love to hear what good/bad films you guys have caught this year. Recommendations are more than welcome.

My top 10 fav in 2007
My top 10 fav in 2006