A Touch of Zen
Kung-fu movies came to the West via the grunting charisma of Bruce Lee. But his were standard revenge thrillers, showcases for the acrobatics of machismo. For a marriage of martial and cinematic art, King Hu was the man. And A Touch of Zen, the first Chinese action movie to win a prize at the Cannes Film Festival, is his masterpiece. In this three-hr. epic, a modest scholar (Shih Jun) hooks up with a resolute girl (Hsu Feng) to challenge a vicious warlord. Influenced, like so many major Hong Kong action directors of the period, by the samurai epics of Akira Kurosawa and other Japanese directors, Hu brought a unique buoyancy to the action genre. His performers literally bounced (on unseen trampolines) through forests and over hills, and — because Hu’s camera has a muscular grace as well — the viewer soars with them. Leading the acrobatic procession is Hsu Feng. Just 18 when the film was made, she remains the screen’s gravest, most ravishing woman warrior.
A - C
- Aguirre: The Wrath of God
- The Apu Trilogy
- The Awful Truth
- Baby Face
- Bande à part
- Barry Lyndon
- Berlin Alexanderplatz
- Blade Runner
- Bonnie and Clyde
- Brazil
- Bride of Frankenstein
- Camille
- Casablanca
- Charade
- Children of Paradise
- Chinatown
- Chungking Express
- Citizen Kane
- City Lights
- City of God
- Closely Watched Trains
- The Crime of Monsieur Lange
- The Crowd
D - F
- Day for Night
- The Decalogue
- Detour
- The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
- Dodsworth (1936)
- Double Indemnity
- Dr. Strangelove: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
- Drunken Master II
- E.T. The Extra Terrestrial
- 8 1/2
- The 400 Blows
- Farewell My Concubine
- Finding Nemo
- The Fly
G - J
- The Godfather, Parts I and II
- The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
- Goodfellas (1990)
- A Hard Day's Night
- His Girl Friday
- Ikiru
- In A Lonely Place
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers
- It's A Gift
- It's a Wonderful Life
K - M
- Kandahar
- Kind Hearts and Coronets
- King Kong
- The Lady Eve
- The Last Command
- Lawrence of Arabia
- Léolo
- The Lord of the Rings
- The Man with a Movie Camera
- The Manchurian Candidate
- Meet Me in St. Louis
- Metropolis
- Miller's Crossing
- Mon oncle d'Amérique
- Mouchette
N - P
Q - S
- Raging Bull
- Schindler's List
- The Searchers
- Sherlock, Jr.
- The Shop Around the Corner
- Singin' in the Rain
- The Singing Detective
- Smiles of a Summer Night
- Some Like It Hot
- Star Wars
- A Streetcar Named Desire
- Sunrise
- Sweet Smell of Success
- Swing Time
T - Z
- Taxi Driver
- Tokyo Story
- A Touch of Zen
- Ugetsu
- Talk to Her
- Ulysses' Gaze
- Umberto D
- Unforgiven
- White Heat
- Wings of Desire
- Yojimbo
Behind the List
Great Performances
- Marlon Brando, On the Waterfront
- James Cagney, White Heat
- Faye Dunaway, Chinatown
- Cary Grant, Notorious
- Barbara Stanwyck, Double Indemnity
- Jean Renoir, The Rules of the Game
- Raj Kapoor, Awara
- Judy Holliday, Bells Are Ringing
- Bill Murray, Groundhog Day
- Brigitte Lin, Swordsman II
Guilty Pleasures
- Gone With the Wind, 1939, Victor Fleming, U.S.
- Tenth Avenue Angel, 1949, Roy Rowland, U.S.
- Sailor Beware, 1951, Hal Walker, U.S.
- Diabolique (Les Diaboliques), 1955, Henri-Georges Clouzot, France
- School Girl, 1971, David Reberg, U.S
- There's Something About Mary,1998, Bobby and Peter Farrelly, U.S.
- Anatomy of a Murder, 1959, Otto Preminger, U.S.
- Gun Crazy, 1949, Joseph H. Lewis, U.S.
- The Incredible Shrinking Man, 1957, Jack Arnold, U.S.
- Joe Versus the Volcano, 1990, John Patrick Shanley, U.S.
10 Best Soundtracks
- The Adventures of Robin Hood
- Citizen Kane
- The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
- Laura
- On the Waterfront
- Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers at RKO
- The Man With the Golden Arm
- Jules et Jim
- South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
- Roja
