Two films by renowned Korean directors, Park Chan-wook’s “Oldboy” and Kim Ki-duk’s “Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter ... and Spring,” have been included in BBC’s top 100 films of the 21st century released Tuesday.
Park’s neo-noir mystery thriller ranked 30th place, while Kim’s tale of a secluded Buddhist monastery came in at 66th place. Both films were released locally in 2003 and later distributed internationally.
The list, created by the British public service broadcaster, surveyed 177 film critics from every continent except Antarctica, BBC said. It included films from 2000, though 2001 is technically the start of the 21st century.
“Oldboy” has been celebrated on the international stage, winning the Grand Prize at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival and earning high praise from director Quentin Tarantino. In 2008, CNN named it one of the 10 best Asian films ever made. American director Spike Lee remade the film under the same title in 2013.
Actor Choi Min-sik stars in “Oldboy.” (Show East, CJ Entertainment)
The BBC list’s top three films are: American filmmaker David Lynch’s crime mystery “Mulholland Drive” (2001), featuring Laura Elena Harring as a post-accident amnesiac; Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-wai’s sweltering romance “In the Mood for Love” (2000), which traces the tantalizing attraction between characters played by Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung; and American filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson’s epic drama “There Will Be Blood” (2007), a turn-of-the-century story of family, religion, hatred, oil and madness starring Daniel Day Lewis and Paul Dano.
Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki’s “Spirited Away” followed at No. 4, while Richard Linklater’s “Boyhood” came in at No. 5. No. 6 was Michel Gondry’s “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.”
Notable entries included George Miller’s “Mad Max: Fury Road” at No. 19, Sofia Coppola’s “Lost in Translation” at No. 22, Todd Haynes’ “Carol” at No. 69 and Spike Jonze’s “Her” at No. 84.
A still from “Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter ... and Spring” (Korea Pictures)
Other films by Asian directors were “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and “Brokeback Mountain” by Taiwanese-born American Ang Lee. Two Taiwanese directors, Hou Hsiao-hsien with “The Assassin” and Edward Yang with “Yi Yi: A One and a Two,” also made the list.
Directors who had multiple films that made the list included Christopher Nolan with “The Dark Knight,” “Memento” and “Inception”; and Joel and Ethan Coen with “A Serious Man,” “Inside Llewyn Davis” and “No Country for Old Men.” Wes Anderson also had three of his films listed -- “The Royal Tenebaums,” “The Grand Budapest Hotel” and “Moonrise Kingdom.”
“We believe that the new classics on this list are destined to become old classics,” BBC said in an article. “Filmmaking today, whether massively expensive or made with tiny budgets ... is thriving artistically as much as it ever has,” the broadcaster said, referring to the list’s diversity.
“Cinema isn’t dying, it’s evolving,” it added.
By Rumy Doo (doo@heraldcorp.com)
