I don’t hear anybody talking about how the decade is coming to a close. When it was 1999, mad people were freaking out over the Y2K. But even in 1989, going into the 90s was a big deal. And I’m sure it was the same in 1979. But people aren’t tripping over 2009 becoming 2010. Is it because nobody knows what to call the decades? I heard people using ‘The Aughts’ – but I’m cool with ‘The Zeroes’ because, ther’es no confusion over it right?

OK, my top ten movies of the Zeroes.

10. Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)
My wife and I thought this was a kids movie when we snuck in. I guess we are idiots because it is not at all apprpriate for children. But it is an amazing flick. Taking place after the Spanish Civil War, a girl escapes her fascist – in multiple ways – stepfather by imagining (?) a fantasy world in which she is actually a long lost princess who will eventually be reunited with her parents – king and queen of the underworld.

All children create alternate realities to some extent, and dwell in them for various amounts of time, depending on how emotionally healthy they are. This film is heartbreaking because Ofelia is forced to live most of her day in her fantasy world because the reality of her life is so rough. Her stepfather eventually kills her before he’s assassinated by rebels in bittersweet justice. And of course, the special effects are crazy ass.

9. Brokeback Mountain (2005)
After seeing this flick, I went to the bookstore to read the short story it’s based on and was shocked to finish it in about 15 minutes. To actually read the source material makes it all the more impressive that such well developed characters and such an emotionally-affecting story was built off a short story of about 30 pages. But most of all, the movie is made by Jake Gyllenhall and Heath Ledger’s performances. I don’t think I’ve ever seen two characters in an American movie more convincingly in love.

8. My Sassy Girl (2001)
My favorite thing about this movie is that it is based on a true story. I know, right?

Of course Ji-hyun Jun (aka Gianna Jun?) is the undisputed star, but I feel Tae-hyun Cha actually holds his own. If you haven’t seen it, don’t watch it without your ride-or-die, because even though the premise – silly dude meets drunk girl on subway, she subsequently ruins his life as they fall in love – sounds kinda throwaway, it really helps remind a viewer what it means to be in love. Korean movies have a weird penchant for being mad deep even when they don’t seem it; it’s the han.

7. Synecdoche, New York (2008)
I don’t know if I’ll ever see another movie that does this to me. I can’t say I liked it in the traditional sense of liking stuff, but I loved how sad it made me. Does that sounds weird?

6. Oldboy (2003)
If ever there was a movie for aspiring Buddhists, this is the one – forget that Brad Pitt joint. Every single character is proof that life is suffering, and that the only way to achieve enlightenment is to accept that fact. The dude who played the lead character – Min-sik Choi – probably gives one of the 5 greatest performances in the history of film. Yeah, I said it. You wanna fight about it? Speaking of fight, the fight scenes lack anything resembling excitement or adrenaline, they are all sloggingly disastrous. The whole thing is a collection of sadness and hurt…just like life I guess.

Most depressing movie evar! (It’s that han yo.)

5. Shaolin Soccer (2001)
I have been a Stephen Chow fan since like the 80s. And he always did creative isht in his movies, and he always blended genres, and he always knew how to make a moderately funny line hilarious by inflection. But with this movie he took a huge leap from talented trickster to genre-defining auteur. There’s no going back bro.

4. Dave Chappelle’s Block Party (2005)
The feeling I got from this movie was as genuine as the feeling I got after the best performances of my career. It’s just pure love and admiration between everyone who particiapted in making it happen, and watching it in the movie felt like being there.

It also has one of my favorite lines from any movie ever. When Michel gondry asks Jill Scott if she’s intimidated to go on after Erykah Badu, and Jill smirks and the camera and asks “…have you seen me perform?”

3. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
DAMN. Love means mothing if you never understand what life is like without it.

2. In the Mood for Love (2001)
Two of the greatest movie actors of the past 30 years – Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung – are basically the only characters. Their spouses are having an affair, and so they use each other for emotional support – and never anything more than that. It helps us understand that there is no universal blueprint for love.

Sometimes you just want someone to need you.

1. Infernal Affairs (2002)
The American version – “The Departed” – is just about good vs evil and that’s pretty much it. But this movie – and its sequels – are based on the idea that those two don’t exist in polarity, that life is constant struggle to balance good and evil, and that there is no state of being truly one or the other.

Moreover, Tony Leung (once again) and Andy Lau give maybe the best performances of their careers – and that’s saying a lot for both of them. And the main supporting roles – Anthony Wong and Eric Tsang – are filled by amazing Hong Kong character actors.

The scene where Anthony Wong dies – the look on Tony Leung’s face…DAMN. Just. Damn.

Tags: movies

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