I'm a bit down.

[kandrathe]

What about Equilibrium, El Mariachi (and sequels) or Big Trouble in Little China?

Big Trouble In Little China is on my guilty pleasures list, although everyone else I know seems to hate it. But, I have other John Carpenter films on my guilty pleasures list as well (Escape from New York, The Thing, Christine). I don't think people understand him very well.

Then again, I go on jags where I need to see the best of Frankenheimer films, then contrast with a similar selection from Akira Kurosawa.

Frankenheimer
Ronin
Andersonville
The Manchurian Candidate
Birdman of Alcatraz
French Connection II
Grand Prix

Kurosawa
Kagemusha
Ran
Yojimbo
Rashomon
Tengoku to jigoku
Shichinin no samurai (The Seven Samurai)

If you like good stories and breathtaking cinematography, the works of Yimou Zhang blow me away.

Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia (The Curse of the Golden Flower)
Shi mian mai fu (House of Flying Daggers)
Ying xiong (Hero)


Then, if you are in a lighter mood, I'd recommend "Kung Fu Hustle" made by Stephen Chow (who also directed CJ7 mentioned earlier).

And, there is no need to say that if you haven't seen "Wo hu cang long" (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), then you should see that one. That movie, along with "Yin shi nan nu" (Eat Drink Man Woman) brought Ang Lee to the inner circle of great directors. Too bad Hollywood has him though.

As long as I'm listing some of my foreign film favorites, I might as well mention Pedro Almodavar. I was introduced to him by the film "¡Átame!", but then I checked out his other work and found it quirky, interesting, and unique.