Best Foreign Films From Asia

By Author: Ivan Cuxeva Jr
Total Articles: 782
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Asian film productions tend to be extremely original due to the vast history and traditions which makes their culture. The Asian continent is often thought to be a different world due to their language, ideology and massive amount of people which counts for one third of the world's population, so there is a lot of tales and stories yet waiting to be told.

To mention the best Asian films we will use different categories such as action, horror and animation. This last genre has become extremely popular due to the artwork quality as well as the original and interesting story lines.
Animation is often thought to be a "child-aimed" genre which is true in the American market but when it comes to Asian productions, animation goes a long way and diversifies from "child-aimed" productions to psychological movies and series which are aimed to an young-adult/mature audience, for instance: Monster (series), Death Note (series-movie), etc.

Asian movies have yet another strong characteristic, most of them feature great opening and ending songs (OP & ED) and the soundtracks are great as well. Some examples of terrific Asian films which were introduced to the market recently are:

- So Close (2003): This is an action movie and perhaps one of the best foreign productions which can be compared to "Charlie's Angels" without actually copying a single fact. The fighting sequences and female action were beautifully performed by Shu Qi, Zhao Wei and Karen Mok. The ending song which is also featured in part of the film is called "Close to You" which was originally performed by the Carpenters, however, the remake was flawless.

- Ringu (1998): Asian productions also include several bone-chilling movies which are mostly focused on the story and suspense rather than visual effects and gore; that is the main difference between American Films and Asian horror films. This is a 2 part film which quickly became the favorite film of many horror movie aficionados. The story line revolves around a mysterious film which kills its viewers 7 days after they saw it and the past of Sadako.

- Ghost in The Shell: This is truly an animation masterpiece, GITS Innocence as well as the two parts series revolves around a future where cybernetics and humans are combined through fully prosthetic bodies which brings up the theory of 'ghosts living inside a shell'. The plot lines are very complicated and require moderate analysis by the viewers for the situations to be completely understood which attracts intelligent adult viewers who love sci-fi psychological thrillers.

Asian movies would make a great addition to foreign movies fans due to their diversity and interesting stories.