Thursday, January 6, 2011

A by-the-numbers look at my 2010 movie viewing year


Life in Movie Mecca means being able to dine
in restaurants with movie associations
(in this case, In the Mood for Love and 2046)...

...and it not being an accident that one can
recognize locales when viewing movies
(like Soi Cheang's Accident) as well as
getting to watch lots of movies in theaters :)

Time, now that we're almost a week into a new year, for the latest edition of a now annual series on this blog... (The first, second, third and fourth of which were for calendar years 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 respectively.) And yes, I do hope that you get something out of reading the list the way I get something out of creating it! :b

1 -- The number of films I viewed in 3D last year (and even so True Legend (Hong Kong, 2010) is not real 3-D)

1 also -- The number of movies starring puppets I viewed in 2010 (and for the record, that would be Princess Hibiscus (Mainland China, 1957), which further has a distinction of being a puppet Chinese opera film!)

1 and 1/3 -- The number of Malaysian films I viewed last year (1 1/3 because Memories of a Burning Tree is a Malaysian-Singaporean-Tanzanian co-production)

2 -- The number of films starring Brigitte Lin Ching-Hsia that I rewatched (both times on a big screen) this year in 2010 (And for those who wonder, they were Patrick Tam's Love Massacre and Tsui Hark's Zu: Warriors of the Magic Mountain)

3 -- The number of animation/anime movies I viewed for the first time in 2010

5 -- The number of films viewed for the first time in 2010 that I viewed on a small screen (either on home video or on board a plane)

9 -- The number of Hong Kong movies viewed for the first time that I'd rate as an 8.5 or higher on the brns.com scale (Bruce Lee, My Brother (2010), Dream Home (2010), Gallants (2010), La Comedie Humaine (2010), Mimi Private Eye (1965), Once a Gangster (2010), The Stool Pigeon (2010), The Story of Woo Viet (1981), Yesterday Today Tomorrow (1970))

10 -- The number of Japanese movies I viewed last year

11 -- The number of Mainland Chinese films (not counting co-productions with Hong Kong) that I viewed in 2010

11 too -- The number of documentary films I viewed last year (none of which were Hong Kong films)

16 -- The number of black-and-white films I viewed last year (including The White Ribbon (Germany-Austria, 2009))

17 -- The number of movies from the USA I viewed last year

23 -- The number of territories I viewed films from in 2010 (For the record, these are: Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cameroon, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Iran, Italy, Japan, Mainland China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Romania, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand and USA)

24 -- The number of non-Hong Kong movies seen for the first time in 2010 that I'd rate at 8.5 or above on the brns.com scale (A Prophet (France, 2010), About Her Brother (Japan, 2010), Aftershock (Mainland China, 2010), Apart Together (Mainland China, 2010), Dust in the Wind (Taiwan, 1986), Have You Heard from Johannesburg? (Program 3) (USA-South Africa, 2006), Invictus (USA, 2009), Karigurashi no Arietty (Japan, 2010), Lights of Asakusa (Japan, 1937), Monga (Taiwan, 2010), Night and Fog (France, 1955), Nights of Cabiria (Italy, 1957), Oxhide II (Mainland China, 2009), Princess Hibiscus (Mainland China, 1957), See What I'm Saying (USA, 2010), Spring in a Small Town (Mainland China, 1948), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Sweden, 2009), The Human Condition I -- No Greater Love (Japan, 1959), The Human Condition II -- Road to Eternity (1959), The Hurt Locker (USA, 2009), The Life of Oharu (Japan, 1952), The Secret in Their Eyes (Argentina, 2009), The Time to Live and the Time to Die (Taiwan, 1985) and Up in the Air (USA, 2009))

32 -- The number of 2010 Hong Kong movies I viewed in 2010

50 -- The number of Hong Kong films I viewed for the first time last year

67 -- The number of non-Hong Kong feature films I viewed for the first time in 2010

117 -- The number of feature films viewed for the first time in 2010

1934 -- The original year of release of The Goddess (Mainland China), the oldest non-Hong Kong movie I viewed last year

1953 -- The original year of release of The Dawn of China's Revolution (AKA Blood Stained Flowers), the oldest Hong Kong movie I viewed in 2010

8 comments:

baroness radon said...

I love this list! (I may use your idea myself, wouldja mind?)

So seeing Vincent Zhao in 3-D was no big deal?

Anonymous said...

Once again, your list makes me extremely envious that I don't live in HK and also reminds me what a good idea it is to keep track of movies watched. I'm curious how my own film diet would break down into numbers.

I hope that your 2011 is just as movie-filled as was 2010. :)

eliza bennet said...

Thank you for sharing.

I like the idea of keeping track of what I watched (and read) in a year - and I sort of do but in a rather haphazard manner :)

The suprising entry for me was The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo. I too liked the film and rate it high also as an adaptation (although the book, as usual, is much better) but never really thought you would. That'll show me not to underestimate your eclectic taste (still recovering from the shock of you mentioning In The Realm of the Senses) :)

Would it be too much to ask a review of it?

eliza bennet said...

It being "The Girl With the Dragon Tatto!"

YTSL said...

Hi baroness radon --

Glad you love the list and you're welcome to turn it into a meme. If you do though, would appreciate your linking back to me. Maybe some people might be inspired by our lists to write their own! :)

And yeah, sorry, seeing Vincent Zhao in 3D was no big deal... ;S

Hi duriandave --

I actually thought 2010 wasn't movie-filled enough and in retrospect, think I got absorbed going to classical music concerts and other live performances at the expense of some movies. But am thinking I might head back to watching more movies in 2011... ;b

Hi "eliza bennet" --

Hmmm... don't feel qualified to write a review of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" -- especially since I haven't read the book! Will say though that I liked how unconventional it was -- and felt that "The Girl who Played with Fire" was more conventional and predictable and thus not as good. Still, am definitely looking forward to viewing "The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Next" -- coming out in Hong Kong cinemas next week. :)

sarah bailey knight said...

Hi ytsl,

You really have taken advantage of Hong Kong as movie mecca land! Wow, I'm impressed with your extensive list of movies you've seen this past year and not just from Hong Kong but all over the world.

Kingwho? said...

What a wonderful idea, YTSL. I wish I thought of it! Who doesn't love a list? =)

Great post. So much fun to read and try to relate to. I also keep track of the HK films I watch and collect.

I hope you wouldn't mind if I tried out a similar list in he future? I will most definitely link to your blog. I love it =)

YTSL said...

Hi sbk --

Yeah, I expected I'd get to see a lot of Hong Kong movies in Hong Kong that don't get shown elsewhere in the world but the bonus has been getting to see lots of movies from elsewhere too. For while the HK International Film Festival is the biggie, there really are lots of international/foreign film programs throughout the year here.

Now if only the Hong Kong Film Archive had English subtitles for more of their older films, my joy would really be overwhelming. :)

Hi Kingwho? --

I'd be interested in seeing your own list along these lines. So compile away! :)