One big difference between the US bracket and the Far East bracket is going to be dealing with the limited availability of some of the titles. To date, we've compiled a list of 267 titles for consideration for the bracket, all of which appear to be available in some form or another. Only about half are available on Netflix; for the rest, we looked to libraries, better video stores, and, maybe most importantly,
the internet.
The bad news is that there are another 125 strongly regarded titles that we probably can't even consider for the ballot because they'd be too hard to track down. For example, Martin Scorsese cited Nien-Jen Wu's
A Borrowed Life as one of the ten best films of the 1990s, but, as things stand, we can't include it in the bracket because it doesn't seem to be available
anywhere. Other films are at least available in a handful of university libraries, but still not enough to be feasible for our purposes.
The list of these 125 seemingly
unavailable titles is below. Please look through it and let us know if you've seen any of these films and, if so, where. Or just if you know any of these movies to be on hand at your video store, your library, the internet, or in your own personal collection.
ChinaAfter Separation (Gang Xia, 1993)
Be There or Be Square (Feng Xiaogang, 1997) —
AvailableBeijing Bastards (Zhang Yuan, 1993) —
AvailableBell of Purity Temple (Jin Xie, 1992)
Bloody Morning (Shaohong Li, 1992)
The Days (Wang Xiaoshuai, 1993) —
AvailableDon't Cry, Nanking (Wu Ziniu, 1995) —
Available?Dream Factory (Feng Xiaogang, 1997) —
AvailableFor Fun (Ning Ying , 1992)
In Expectation (Zhang Ming, 1996) —
AvailableKeep Cool (Zhang Yimou, 1997) —
AvailableLi Lianying: The Imperial Eunuch (Tian Zhuangzhuang, 1991)
Lunar Eclipse (Wang Quanan, 1999)
Mama (Zhang Yuan, 1992)
Mr. Zhao (Lu Yue, 1998) —
AvailableMy Rice Noodle Shop (Yang Xie, 1998) —
AvailableThe Opium War (Jin Xie, 1997) —
AvailableRipples Across Stagnant Water (Zifeng Ling, 1991) —
AvailableShanghai Fever (Guoli Li, 1994) —
AvailableSomething About Secret (Jianxin Huang, 1999) —
AvailableSons (Zhang Yuan, 1996)
Spicy Love Soup (Zhang Yang, 1997)
Weekend Lover (Hou Ye, 1995)
Women from the Lake of Scented Souls (Fei Xie, 1993)
Hong KongAlan and Eric Between Hello and Goodbye (Peter Chan, 1991) —
AvailableCageman (Chi Leung 'Jacob' Cheung, 1992) —
AvailableDeja Vu (Cho Kin-Nam, 1999) —
AvailableFamily Happiness (Clifton Ko, 1992)
Full Moon in New York (Stanley Kwan, 1990) —
AvailableHe Ain't Heavy, He's My Father (Peter Chan, 1993)
Kitchen (Ho Yim, 1997) —
AvailableThe Mad Phoenix (Clifton Ko, 1997)
My Dear Sister-in-Law (Alfred Cheung, 1991)
Ordinary Heroes (Ann Hui, 1999) —
AvailableThe Pigeon Egg Strategy (Max Makowski, 1998)
Red Dust (Yim Ho, 1990) —
AvailableStage Door (Kei Shu, 1996) —
AvailableSummer Snow (Ann Hui, 1995) —
AvailableSweet Smell of Death (Wong Ying Git, 1994)
To Live (Evans Chan, 1992) —
AvailableIndonesiaBulan Tertusuk Ilalang (Garin Nugroho, 1995)
Daun di Atas Bantal (Garin Nugroho, 1998)
Letter to an Angel (Garin Nugroho, 1994)
JapanAbout Love, Tokyo (Mitsuo Yanagimachi, 1992)
All Under the Moon (Yoichi Sai, 1993) —
AvailableBang! (Sadaaki Haginiwa, 1991)
Begging For Love (Hideyuki Hirayama, 1998)
Bo no kanashimi (Tatsumi Kumashiro, 1994)
Chizuko's Younger Sister (Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1991) —
AvailableA Class To Remember (Yoji Yamada, 1993) —
AvailableThe Diary of Anne Frank (Akinori Nagaoka, 1995)
Down the Drain (Shinobu Yaguchi, 1993) —
AvailableDying at a Hospital (Jun Ichikawa, 1993)
The E.Y.E.S. of Mars (Iku Suzuki, 1993)
Future Memories: Last Christmas (Yoshimitsu Morita, 1992)
Gentle 12 (Shun Nakahara, 1991)
Great Conquest: The Romance of 3 Kingdoms (Masahara Okuwaki, 1992)
It's a Summer Vacation Everyday (Shusuke Kaneko, 1994)
Jubaku: Spellbound (Masato Harada, 1999) —
AvailableKagerô (Hideo Gosha, 1991) —
AvailableThe Last Dance (Juzo Itami, 1993) —
AvailableLast Song (Shigemichi Sugita, 1993)
Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Overture to a New War (Noboru Ishiguro & Keizo Shimizu, 1993) —
AvailableM/Other (Nobuhiro Suwa, 1999) —
AvailableMade in Japan (Yojiro Takita, 1993)
Many Happy Returns (Toshihiro Tenma, 1993)
Monkeys in Paradise (Kenchi Iwamoto, 1993)
Moving (Shinji Sômai, 1993)
A Night in Nude (Takashi Ishii, 1993)
Dangan Runner (Hiroyuki Tanaka, 1996) —
AvailableThe Operating Room (Tamasaburo Bando, 1992)
Original Sin (Takashi Ishii, 1992)
Painted Desert (Masato Harada, 1993)
A Paucity of Flying Dreams (Eizo Sugawa, 1990)
The Rocking Horsemen (Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1992)
Sharaku (Masahiro Shinoda, 1995)
Shiny Moss (Kei Kumai, 1992)
Sleeping Man (Kôhei Oguri, 1996) —
AvailableSquareworld (Kenji Oonishi, 1995)
The Strange Tale of Oyuki (Kaneto Shindo, 1992) —
AvailableStrawberry Road (Koreyoshi Kurahara, 1991)
Suicide Bus (Hiroshi Shimizu, 1998) —
AvailableSumo Do, Sumo Don't (Masayuki Suo, 1992) —
AvailableThis Window is Yours (Tomoyuki Furumaya, 1994)
Tokarev (Junji Sakamoto, 1994)
Tokyo biyori (Naoto Takenaka, 1997) —
Available2 Duo (Nobuhiro Suwa, 1997)
Yellow Fangs (Sonny Chiba, 1990) —
AvailableMongoliaState of Dogs (Peter Brosens / Dorjkhandyn Turmunkh, 1998)South KoreaAbsolute Love (Sang-wook Yu, 1994)
Audition (Gyeong-min Lee, 1997)
Beyond the Mountain (Ji-yeong Jeong, 1991)
City of the Rising Sun (Sung-su Kim, 1998) —
AvailableThe Contact (Chang Yoon-Hyun, 1997) —
AvailableEternal Empire (Park Chong-won, 1995) —
AvailableFirst Love (Myung-se Lee, 1993)
Fly High Run Far (Im Kwon-taek, 1991)
A Hot Roof (Lee Min-Yong, 1995)
Jungle Story (Hong-Joon Kim, 1996)
Lovers in Woomuk-Baemi (Jang Sun-Woo, 1990)
The Murmuring (Byun Young-Joo, 1995)
Our Twisted Hero (Chong-won Park, 1992)
The People in White (Yong-Kyun Bae, 1995)
A Promise (Yu-jin Kim, 1998)
Push! Push! (Park Cheol-su, 1997)
A Single Spark (Kwang-su Park, 1995) —
AvailableSpring in my Home Town (Lee Kwangmo, 1998) —
AvailableStairway of Heaven (Chang-ho Bae, 1992)
Three Friends (Soonrye Yim, 1996)
TaiwanA Borrowed Life (Wu Nien-Jen, 1994)
Buddha Bless America (Wu Nien-Jen, 1996) —
PendingFive Girls and a Rope (Hung-Wei Yeh, 1991)
Lan Yue (Ko I-Chen, 1997)
Lonely Hearts Club (Chin-yen Yee, 1994)
Love Go Go (Chen Yu-Hsun, 1997)
Murmur of Youth (Lin Cheng-sheng, 1997)
Peach Blossom Land (Stan Lai, 1992) —
AvailableThe Peony Pavilion (Kuo-fu Chen, 1995) —
AvailableThe Puppetmaster (Hou Hsiao-Hsien, 1993) —
PendingThe Red Lotus Society (Stan Lai, 1994)
Super Citizen Ko (Wan Jen, 1995)
Tropical Fish (Chen Yu-Hsun, 1995)
ThailandDang Bireley's and Young Gangsters (Nonzee Nimibutr, 1997) —
AvailableRomantic Blue (Rashane Limtrakul, 1995)
VietnamMisfortune's End (Vu Xuan Hung, 1996)
Nostalgia for Countryland (Nhat Minh Dang, 1995) —
AvailableAnd so it begins.
By the way, no need to start listing additional titles yet. There's a 95% chance they're already covered on our not-yet-posted listed of
available titles.
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