7. Happiness
Director: SABU
Country: Japan | Language: Japanese | Runtime: 1h 30min
Unlike what the title suggests, Japanese cult filmmaker Sabu’s “Happiness” is probably the saddest film of the year. A non-resilient, sadistic and often heart-wrenching film about memories and their truly uplifting and destructive nature. A carefully constructed film that doesn’t just base itself on the narrative surprises and explores why some memories – both happy and sad, eventually make us what we become.
Read The Complete Review Here.
6. Wajib
Director: Annemarie Jacir
Country: Palestine | Language: Arabic | Runtime: 1h 36min
Annemarie Jacir’s “Wajib” is a road-movie that builds upon the familial indifference between the absolutely charming father-son duo (both onscreen & offscreen). With earthy dialogue, relatable and familiar emotional tension and truly beautiful setup to ride-along, Jacir’s film never doubts the viewers into understanding why these two people from the same family have a different point of view about the world they live in. By doing so, she prods into the indifference and the subtle affection between the two with charismatic results.
Read The Complete Review Here.
5. A Quiet Dream
Director: Lu Zhang
Country: South Korea | Language: Korean | Runtime: 1h 41min
Focusing on a whimsical, almost-dead pan rom-com narrative, Zhang Lu’s “A Quiet Dream” investigates the quotidian lives of a group of people living in the poorer suburbs of Seoul. Shot in black-and-white and occasionally boosting a melancholic undertone, the film follows people who had to cope up with their social and geographical displacement only to live a life that doesn’t echo with their dreams. With minimalist visual motifs, realistic humor and an ideal social comment that doesn’t consume the characters into exaggerated self-pity, the film becomes a lyrical ode to the everyday people. This ponderous comedy about misfits resonates deeply when you are willing to consider dreams as part of reality and reality as part of dreams.
Read The Complete Review Here.
4. By the Time it Gets Dark
Director: Anocha Suwichakornpong
Country: Thailand | Language: Thai | Runtime: 1h 45min
We have seen the very fabric of reality being turned upside down in films. Anocha Suwichakornpong’s “By the Time it Gets Dark” turns the reality in the film into a mystical, magical and meditative contemplation of film-making itself. With visual nods to well known contemporary Asian filmmakers like Wong Kar-wai & most importantly to Thai master filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Anocha’s film questions if it’s possible to make a historical film about a place that doesn’t have any history, whilst also providing a trippy, bewildering answer with her creation itself.
Also Read: The 20 Best Women-Directed Films Of 2017
3. Hotel Salvation
Director: Shubhashish Bhutiani
Country: India | Language: Hindi | Runtime: 1h 42min
The film sheds spiritual light on the seemingly dark path to inevitable oblivion. Subhashish Bhutiani presents such a vivid sense of love, regrets, understanding and leaving things behind that, without much ado, you shed your soulless being and instantly lighten up. The film doesn’t just provide you with salvation, it gives your life and possible death a new meaning. A meaning that should be left to the understanding of the conscience and nothing more than that. “Hotel Salvation” is an instant classic that will remain in my mind till I find myself in my own weary days. Mukti Bhawan featured in our list of The 20 best Bollywood movies on Netflix.
Read The Complete Review Here.
2. White Sun
Director: Deepak Rauniyar
Country: Nepal | Language: Nepali | Runtime: 1h 29min
Satirizing the traditions and beliefs where the old are set against the new, “White Sun” observes the dilemma of well-rounded characters and their baggage with each other through death and change. It also observes the guilt, transformations, and freedom that something as stark as war can bring into some people’s life. With a light touch and absurd comic situations, Rauniyar’s film slowly and assuredly becomes an important piece of cinema which gives us an opportunity to look into the world we live in or should know about.
Read The Complete Review Here.
1. On the Beach at Night Alone
Director: Hong Sang-soo
Country: South Korea | Language: Korean | Runtime: 1h 41min
What’s really interesting about most Sang-Soo films is their meta nature of documenting and fixing what he possibly couldn’t fix in his own life. Which not only enhances the personal touch of the narrative but also make it a universally connective tissue for anyone who has gone through the ups and downs and the beginnings and ends of a relationship. With “On The Beach At Night Alone,” Sang-Soo makes us go through the most terrible heartbreak and leaves us with the feeling of being lost and found at the same time.
