Asian movies may have been around for a long time, but they have only recently become popular. Do you want to check out a few Asian movies over Christmas break and see for yourself? Here are the top 5 Asian movies you should watch first:
1. Musa
Musa takes place in China during 1375 and the Ming Dynasty. The Mings are still chasing the formers leaders, the Yuans across the Mongol Plains, when a group of Korean peacemakers get caught in the middle. They find themselves banished also, and must fight to get home from across the desert.
2. Koroshiya 1 or Ichi: The Killer
This movie will make you sit on the edge of your seat. It’s filled with torture, dismemberment, body horror and even a rape scene. The story itself is about a crime boss goes missing with 300 million yen, his second in command searches to find him. The slicing and dicing occurs on his trek to find his boss, unbeknownst that his boss is out slicing and dicing too.
3. Ringu or The Ring
This movie is similar to the US movie called the ring, but is much more frightening (I’m told. I don’t do scary movies!) The premise is that an unidentified caller alerts the household they have seven days to live. This turns in to an all out scale to find out who is killing and why.
4. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
This Asian film made it in to mainstream movie viewing, and won 4 Academy Awards. The story is about a highly skilled martial arts master who decides to pass his sword along to an elder. His friend and fellow warrior delivers it, but then it is stolen during the night. It turns out the thief is a woman and the rest of the movie involves chases and romantic interludes.
5. A Tale of Two Sisters
This movie is a great thriller, complete with horror, stepparents and supernatural events. Two sisters are returning home from a stint in a mental institution, only to find they may have come home to something worse! Their stepmother is evil and their father does nothing. Not to mention a ghost that is still lurking in the house. Can the sisters ever recover?
Just because an Asian movie falls under the Asian genre doesn’t mean it will have martial arts in it. Asian movies have Asian actors, story lines relative to Asia’s culture and beliefs. Asian movies of today are just as good as most American made ones are.