Friday, January 2, 2015

A by-the-numbers look at my 2014 movie viewing year

Hong Kong filmmaking doyen Ann Hui On Wah,
one of whose films I viewed in 2013, 
at ease during a photography session :)

Filming taking place in the waters off Tap Mun on Easter Sunday
last year -- for a film that I don't think I've seen yet!

For those who are regular blog readers, you know the drill!  For those who don't, check out my by-the-numbers blog posts for 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007 and 2006 to get a better idea of what I'm going for here... ;b

1 -- The number of films starring my favorite actress of all time, the now 60-year-old Brigitte Lin Ching-Hsia, that I saw on a big screen in 2014 (and for the record, it was the wonderful Dragon Inn (1992), which I recently found out is better known in Hong Kong as New Dragon Gate Inn

1 -- The number of feature films I viewed online (legally!) last year

3 -- The number of movies I viewed on board a plane last year

5 -- The number of movies I viewed at preview screenings in 2014 that only will open in Hong Kong cinemas in 2015

8 -- The number of films I viewed for the first time last year that were at least partly animated 

11 -- The number of documentary features I viewed in 2014

15 -- The number of films I viewed for the first time last year that were based on or adapted from books or internet novels

16 -- The number of films I viewed at last year's Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF) and afilliated events

25 -- The number of non-documentary features I viewed for the first time in 2014 that were bio-pics, featured real-life characters and/or based on real life events (including Belle (Britain, 2013), Amma Asante's costume drama about Dido Elizabeth Belle; John Rabe (Germany-China-France, 2009), which tells the story of the man dubbed the Oskar Schindler of China; and Ann Hui's The Golden Era (Mainland China-Hong Kong, 2014), about 20th century Chinese novelist Xiao Hong)

30 -- The number of Japanese films I viewed for the first time in 2014 (including four directed by the great Yasujiro Ozu!)

32 --  The number of different territories whose films I viewed last year (And for the record, they are, in alphabetical order: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Britain, Cambodia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Italy, Hong Kong, Japan, Mainland China, Norway, Palestine, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, The Netherlands, The Philippines, Turkey, UAE, and the USA)

33 -- The number of 2014 Hong Kong movies (including co-productions with Mainland China, etc.) that I viewed last year

46 -- The number of films I viewed for the first time in 2014 that I'd rate as an 8.5 or higher on the brns.com scale (with these being: 12 Years a Slave (USA-Britain, 2013), A Hard Day (South Korea, 2014), A Most Wanted Man (Britain-USA-Germany, 2014), An Autumn Afternoon (Japan, 1962), Aberdeen (Hong Kong, 2014), Bald-Headed Betty (Hong Kong, 1973), Barber's Tales (The Philippines, 2013), Beijing Love Story (Mainland China-Hong Kong, 2014), Big Hero 6 (USA, 2014), Bitter Sweet (Hong Kong, 1963), Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (USA, 2014), Dot 2 Dot (Hong Kong, 2014), Draft Day (USA, 2014), Equinox Flower (Japan, 1958), Gangster Pay Day (Hong Kong, 2014), Giant (USA, 1956), Her (USA, 2013), Hot Young Bloods (South Korea, 2014), Isoroku (aka Admiral Yamamoto) (Japan, 2011), Kungfu Jungle (Hong Kong-Mainland China, 2014), Late Autumn (Japan, 1960), Kano (Taiwan, 2014), Late Spring (Japan, 1949), Kingdom of Dreams and Madness (Japan, 2013), Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (Britain-USA-France, 2013), My Voice, My Life (Hong Kong, 2014), Nebraska (USA, 2013), Paradise in Service (Taiwan, 2014), Paths of Glory (USA, 1957), Philomena (Britain-USA-France, 2013), Queen (India, 2014), Rise of the Legend (Hong Kong-Mainland China-Taiwan, 2014), RoboCop (USA, 2014), The Attorney (South Korea, 2014), The Grand Budapest Hotel (USA, 2014), The Last Metro (France, 1980), The Lego Movie (USA-Denmark-Australia, 2014), The Missing Picture (Cambodia-France, 2014), The Railway Man (Britain-Australia, 2013), The Snow White Murder Case (Japan, 2014), The Tale of Princess Kaguya (Japan, 2013), The Theory of Everything (Britain, 2014), The Wind Rises (Japan, 2013), What Maisee Knew (USA, 2013), Whiplash (USA, 2014), and Women Who Flirt (Mainland China-Hong Kong-Taiwan, 2014))

47 -- The number of Hong Kong films (including co-productions with Mainland China, etc.) that I viewed for the first time in 2014

60 -- The number of American films I viewed for the first time last year

100+ -- The number of naked penises I saw on screen in Lars von Trier's Nymphomaniac (and probably that in Volume I alone!)! :O

157 -- The number of non-Hong Kong films I viewed for the first time in 2014

204 -- The number of feature films I viewed for the first time in 2014

1938 -- The original year of release of Scenes of Ya'nan (aka On the Northwest Line), Lam Tsong and Tsui Tin Cheung's documentary short that's the oldest Hong Kong film I viewed in 2014

1941 -- The original year of release of Mikio Naruse's Hideko, the Bus Conductor, starring Hideko Takamine -- the oldest non-Hong Kong movie I viewed in 2014

4 comments:

Gattina said...

I can't even remember when I went to the cinema last time ! So my knowledges about movies are very limited !

YTSL said...

Hi Gattina --

I just got back from the Hong Kong Film Archive, where I saw my first film of 2015... and my film viewing schedule for next week scares even me! ;b

Anonymous said...

wow that's a really intensive media consumption! also, lol re naked penis haha. So basically it goes to almost one film/documentary per day, every day, for the whole year!

YTSL said...

Hi fallingstones --

Yes, it is -- and especially since I also spend so much time in front of computers, I think that when viewed in this context, you can understand better why I don't want a smart phone or tablet, etc.!

Glad you found the naked penis reference amusing. But no, it's not (yet?!) one film (including documentary ones) a day -- though I also have been known to view more than one film in a day... ;b