Infernal Affairs (Hong Kong, 2004)

Chan Wing Yan, a young police officer, has been sent undercover as a mole in the local mafia. Lau Kin Ming, a young mafia member, infiltrates the police force. Years later, their older counterparts, Chen Wing Yan and Inspector Lau Kin Ming, respectively, race against time to expose the mole within their midst.

Infernal Affairs is widely regarded as a landmark in the Hong Kong thriller genre. It's a slick, perfectly paced cat-and-mouse game and never looses your interest. A huge classic.

Genre: Crime/Thriller

Eureka (Japan, 2000)

Eureka tells the story of the lasting effects of a violent experience on three people, a teenage brother and sister, Naoki and Kozue, and a bus driver, Makoto Sawai. These three are the sole survivors when a bus is hijacked by a deranged killer. Naoki and Kozue looses their parents and do not return to school. The two children continue to live alone in the family home. Meanwhile Makoto is finding it impossible to carry on normal life, and short thereafter, Makoto moves in with Naoki and Kozue.

A great drama in many ways. Eureka follows a group of people who've experienced something horrible, and are trying to live again. Cinematography and acting are all fantastic. It should be said that it's quite a long film, clocking in at 3h40m, but it's an investment you definitely won't regret.

Genre: Drama  

Wolf Children (Japan, 2012)

Nineteen-year-old college student Hana meets a young man who sneaks into her classes for lessons and falls in love with him immediately. They soon start dating. One day, the man reveals his identity to Hana; he is a Wolfman and the only surviving descendant of the extinct Japanese wolf. Undeterred by this fact, Hana invites him to live with her. A year later, when Hana becomes pregnant, she decides not to visit a hospital out of fear that her child would be a wolf. Their daughter, Yuki, is thus born at home on a snowy day, along with her brother, Ame, who is born a year after her.

Wolf Children is one of the best anime films to be released in a long time. It's directed by the man who also made Summer Wars (2009) and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006), so your expectations runs high from the get-go. A rememberable and emotional journey full of heart. 

Genre: Animation/Drama/Fantasy

Dolls (Japan, 2002)

A young man rejects his engagement to his fiancée to marry the daughter of his company's president. When his former fiancée attempts suicide and ends up in a semi-vegetative state, he takes her out of the hospital and they run away. Another young man is obsessed with the pop-star Haruna; he blinds himself when she is involved in a disfiguring car accident. An aged yakuza, who tries to meet a girlfriend from his youth.

Dolls is made up of three stories about undying love. Directed by  filmmaker/actor Takeshi Kitano (Battle Royale), it's visually a feast for the eyes and Kitano proves to be incredibly artistic in how present his story. The explosion of colors and the excellent screenplay is what I reflected upon the most. The story involving the couple bound together by a rope is inspired by one of Kitano's memories where two people were known as "the bound beggars". A unique film with a somewhat slow tempo, but great as heck.

Genre: Drama/Romance. 1h 54min.

April Snow (South Korea, 2005)

In-soo and Seo-young, who are both married, meet in a hospital after their respective partners are involved in a car accident. This leads them to discover that their spouses had been having an affair and they begin one of their own. Their relationship grows as they approach each other for consolation.

April Snow is Korean melodrama done right, and one of the best drama films I've seen in a long time. It tackles an awkward subject when it's revealed two spouses are having an affair and their partners are left to deal with both their loss and infidelity. The melancholy lays over every scene like a thin sheet, and the sorrowful music plays on your heartstrings. Highly recommended.

Genre: Drama/Romance. 1h 47min.

Christmas In August (South Korea, 1998)

The plot follows a portrait photographer, Jung-won and his developing romance with a parking agent, Da-rim. However, the romance never gets a chance to develop into intimacy. Jung-won soon finds out he is suffering from an unnamed illness and has to come to terms with his impending death. He sets out to continue living as usual, going out with his friends and spending time with his family in the small town he has lived for decades.

To create this excellent screenplay, the director purposely shot the film with slow movements and still camera work to capture the feel of photography, which is a huge part of the plot. A beautiful melodrama with an emotional impact on the viewer, Christmas in August is sure to break down your defenses and make you feel something real.

Genre: Drama/Romance

One Fine Spring Day (South Korea, 2001)

Sound engineer Sang-woo meets local DJ Eun-soo on a recording trip in the quest for nature's voice. They succeed in capturing various sensual sounds as well as each other's tenderness. Their love flourishes as spring comes along, but Sang-woo's ever intensifying passion often reminds Eun-soo of her tragic past. She knows only too well how passion can vanish like a sound: how love always surrenders to its expiry...

A delicate romance with superb actors. Director Hur Jin-ho is famous for his movies which almost all share a common theme: love. He can perfectly portray the subtle changes in a relationship and visualize the beginning and the end of two peoples love. 

Genre: Drama/Romance 

After the Rain (Japan, 1999)

Ihei Misawa and his wife Tayo, stranded by rains at a country inn, bring a great deal of happiness to the other residents of the inn by means of Ihei's generosity and good spirit. Ihei is a masterless samurai and fencing expert. Ihei comes to the attention of Lord Shigeaki, who hires him as fencing instructor for Lord Shigeaki's men. But Ihei's expertise causes friction and jealousy in Shigeaki's castle and his future there comes into doubt.

After the Rain is based on the last script ever written by Akira Kurosawa, and with this one he chose to tell a simple story about a ronin and his wife and how they cope with being poor. A type of feel-good movie, not many bad guys, not exactly a plot with twists and turns, but nonetheless a film that deserves your time.

Genre: Drama

Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx (Japan, 1972)

In the second film of the Lone Wolf and Cub series, Ogami Itto battles a group of female ninja in the employ of the Yagyu clan and must assassinate a traitor who plans to sell his clan's secrets to the Shogunate.

'The Baby Cart films brought that little something. Especially the second episode. Because suddenly, the genre entered into a new era, where history and reality were of no importance. Based on a popular manga, everything became possible. The film reflects that artistic liberty, it’s both entertaining and surprising. Bringing fresh ideas to the genre, for instance, a desert in Japan? Done. Crazy weapons? Done. All of that, with massive bloody fight scenes, and charismatic characters.'

Source: http://www.wildgrounds.com/

Genre: Action/Drama

Monday (Japan, 2000)

A salaryman wakes up in a posh hotel room, totally clueless about how he got there. Slowly, he recalls what happened a day before - attending a funeral, annoying his girlfriend, getting drunk in a pub and getting to know a yakuza and his beautiful mistress, and last but not least, there's a used rifle right next to him...

Monday is a brilliant film about what happens when a white-collar worker drinks to much booze and gets a hold of a shotgun. Highly entertaining as it is equally funny and thrilling. 

Genre: Comedy/Crime

Tell Me Something (South Korea, 1999)

In Seoul, parts not matching of severed copses of three men are found in cars and bags left in public spaces. Detective Cho, who is under investigation of the Internal Affairs, is assigned to lead the investigation with his team. When the identities of the men are discovered, the police finds that the artist Su-Yeon Chae, who lives with her friend Seungmin Oh, had been involved with all of the victims.

Tell Me Something is just as gruesome and full of suspense as you hope it to be. Koreans are born to make these kind of detective mysteries and always seems to play their cards right when it comes to telling a frightful story with compelling characters. 

Genre: Thriller/Horror/Crime

My Sassy Girl (South Korea, 2001)

Based on a series of true stories posted by Ho-sik Kim on the Internet describing his relationship with his girlfriend. These were later transformed into a best-selling book and the movie follows the book closely. It describes the meeting of Kyun-woo and an unnamed girl. Kyun-woo is shamed into assisting the girl because the other passengers mistakenly think she is his girlfriend. Once he helps her, Kyun-woo develops a deep sense of responsibility for her which enables him to tolerate (somehow) the girls abuses.

One of the highest grossing films of all time in South Korea, and also a blockbuster in all of Asia, My Sassy Girl won millions of people over with its mix of comedy, drama and romance. Recommended to everyone who wants a movie full of heart and joy, but also one that takes itself seriously and shows every step and every up and down of a relationship.

Genre: Comedy/Drama

Ashes of Time (Hong Kong, 1994)

Ou-yang Feng lives in the middle of a desert, where he acts as a middle man to various swordsmen in ancient China. One of those swordsmen is Huang Yao-shi, who has found some magic wine that causes one to forget the past. At another time, Huang met Mu-rong Yin and under the influence of drink, promised to marry Mu-rong's sister Mu-rong Yang. Huang jilts her, and Mu-rong Yin hires Ou-yang to kill Huang. But then Mu-rong Yang hires Ou-yang to protect Huang. 

Directed by one of my favorites, Wong kar-Wai, Ashes of Time is a complex story about swordsmen in a desolate world.  Very stylish, yet it's been deemed somewhat underappreciated due to its limited success. 

A fun fact is that during its long and exhausting editing process, the director took a break and shot Chungking Express and Fallen Angels to 'clear his head', which today are regarded as two of his best films.

Genre: Drama/Action

Rurouni Kenshin (Japan, 2012)

In 1868, after the end of the Bakumatsu war, the former assassin Kenshin Himura promises to defend those who need without killing and wanders through Japan with a sword with inverted blade during the transition of the samurai age to the New Age. When Kenshin helps the idealistic Kaoru Kamiya from the gangsters of the powerful opium drug lord Kanryuu Takeda that wants her school for his production of opium, Kaoru invites Kenshin to stay in the school. But the drug chemist Megumi escapes from Kanryuu and seeks shelter in the school. Meanwhile the killer Battosai is murdering police officers and leaving messages attached to their bodies. 

Rurouni Kenshin is based on the manga of the same name, so already there's a huge fanbase that's both hyped and worried about this film. However, there's no need to worry any longer, due to how excellent this film is. Thankfully it's made by a proper director who were actually aiming to make a great samurai action film, and not just a shallow adaption of its manga counterpart. 

Genre: Action/Drama/History

House (Japan, 1977)

Gorgeous is excited about spending summer vacation with her father, until she finds out that his beautiful, freakishly serene girlfriend Ryouko would be going as well. Gorgeous decides she will be going to her aunt's house in the country instead. She brings with her her friends from school - Fantasy, Kung Fu, Prof, Sweet, Mac, and Melody. However, the girls are unaware that Gorgeous's aunt is actually dead and the house is actually haunted. When they arrive at the house, crazy events take place and the girls disappear one by one while slowly discovering the secret behind all the madness.

A super weird and insane classic, House manages to make you raise your eyebrows every other minute or so. Bizarre music ques, unconventional editing and a surprisingly catchy soundtrack. This is a film that MUST be seen at least once in your life.

Genre: Comedy/Horror