2004: Top Fourteen

Submitted by AAA on Thu, 01/13/2005 - 04:40
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  1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Gondry)
  2. Dogville (Von Trier)
  3. Spider-Man 2 (Raimi)
  4. The Incredibles (Bird)
  5. Before Sunset (Linklater)
  6. Sideways (Payne)
  7. Closer (Nichols)
  8. I <3 Huckabees (Russell)
  9. The Aviator (Scorcese)
  10. Birth (Glazer)
  11. House of Flying Daggers (Zhang)
  12. Shaun of the Dead (Wright)
  13. Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (Tarantino)
  14. Hero (Zhang)
Author Comments: 

I didn't see as many movies as I usually do this year, so this list will be updated as my viewing log improves.

dgeiser1301/13/2005

Last name Zhang.

dgeiser1301/13/2005

Birth pretty decent then? I'm sort of looking forward to it.

AAA01/14/2005

I always have trouble figuring out who is listing the names in the right order. Thanks for the heads up!

dgeiser1301/14/2005

Probably the easiest way to remember it is that Zhang Yimou and Zhang Ziyi both have the same last name. :-)

lukeprog01/14/2005

So that's just a matter of how the Chinese say and write their names, then? They put their 'last name' or 'family name' first? Are there other prominent movie-making nations that do that as well?

dgeiser1301/14/2005

Yes, that is correct. Korea might do it too. I don't know for sure.

Some Hong Kong actors do it depending on whether they use a Westernized version of their name or not. For example, Chow Yun-Fat, doesn't have a Western version of his name. His Family name is Chow. But Maggie Cheung's name is the Westernized version. If she went by her Chinese name it would be Zhang Man-Yu. I'm not an expert this is just my anecdotal observation.

Cosgrove01/14/2005

Also note that Ziyi Zhang recently Westernized her name, so that her family name now comes second. Personally, I thought her actual name was far more graceful.

AJDaGreat01/14/2005

I find it a little odd that my top three for the year are your 5, 6, and 7, and we liked the three in the same order. My #4 film is Bad Education, which I would recommend highly to you; we'll see if that falls anywhere up here.

AAA01/14/2005

I desperately want to see it, I'm an Almodovar fanatic.

What does your top ten this year look like?

AJDaGreat01/14/2005

I've only really thought about the top 5, but I can throw a top 10 together:

1. Before Sunset
2. Sideways
3. Closer
4. Bad Education
5. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
6. The Aviator
7. Kinsey
8. Team America: World Police
9. Napoleon Dynamite
10. The Incredibles

lukeprog01/14/2005

AAA, did you get my email (entitled 'Proposition')? Haven't recieved a reply yet.

AAA01/14/2005

Hmm, I never recieved the email. It probably was delivered to my junk mail and I didn't notice it. Do you think you could deliver it again?

lukeprog01/14/2005

Yeah, I figured it just got caught by a filter. I still don't use filters on my email because I know I'll miss some messages. As a result, of course, I delete a couple dozen junk mails a day.

I re-sent the email. If you need to add me to your junk mail 'accepted' list, add lukeprog@hotpop.com.