Wednesday, January 2, 2019

A by-the-numbers look at my 2018 movie viewing year

I viewed a number of movies starring my favorite actress 
in the whole wide world on a big screen in 2018! :)

I also viewed quite a few films at the Hong Kong 
International Film Festival last year :b

Three days ago, I brought my 2018 film viewing to a close after attending a screening of Yuen Wo Ping's Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy.  Today, I began my 2019 movie viewing account with a screening of Lee Chang Dong's Burning and already have got a ticket for my second film screening of the new year.  (For those who're wondering, it's for Alfonso Cuaron's Roma.)  

So I figure I had better go ahead this evening and take my now annual by-the-numbers look at my past movie viewing year; one which saw my love for movies get rekindled, as evidenced by an increase in the number of films I enjoyed viewing even more so than the increase in the number of films I viewed from the previous year (even while still not quite being at the level of the likes of 2016, 2015, 2014 (over the course of which I viewed 204 films for the first time!), 2013 (during which I viewed 211 feature films for the first time!!), 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007 and all the way back to 2006 even if one were to include repeat viewings I made, including of that perfect 10 of a film for me that is Hirokazu Kore-eda's Our Little Sister)...  

0 -- The number of 3D films I viewed last year (Remember when this was supposed to become the norm?!)

2 -- The total number of films from Malaysia (including co-productions) that I viewed last year

4 -- The number of movies starring Brigitte Lin Ching Hsia I viewed in 2018, all of them viewed on a big screen (For the record, they were Cloud of Romance, Peking Opera Blues, Swordsman II and Red Dust, and I had viewed all of them before -- in some cases, more than 50 times ;S)

4 too -- The number of animated feature films I viewed last year

6 -- The total number of films from the UK (including co-productions) that I viewed for the first time last year

7 -- The total number of feature films directed by a woman that I viewed last year (including three from Hong Kong; and this despite Ann Hui not having made a film in 2018!)

7 as well -- The number of movies I viewed on a plane last year

11-- The number of documentary features I viewed in 2018

16 -- The total number of films from Japan that I viewed for the first time in 2018

19 -- The number of 2018 Hong Kong movies I viewed in 2018

21 -- The total number of different territories whose films I viewed in 2018 (i.e., Afghanistan, Brazil, Canada, Congo, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, Mainland China, Malaysia, Palestine, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, UK and the USA) 

21 too -- The total number of films from the USA (including co-productions) that I viewed for the first time last year

22 -- The number of Hong Kong movies I viewed for the first time in 2018 

22 too -- The total number of films I viewed at last year's Hong Kong International Film Festival

29 -- The total number of films I viewed for the first time in 2018 that I'd rate as an 8.5 or above on the brns.com scale (with these being 12 Angry Men (USA, 1957), 89 (UK, 2017), 1987: When the Day Comes (South Korea, 2017), A Beautiful Moment (Hong Kong, 2018), A Story of Chikamatsu (Japan, 1954), A Family Tour (Hong Kong-Taiwan-Malaysia-Singapore, 2018), After Life (Japan, 1998), Aguirre, the Wrath of God (Germany, 1972), The Ballad of Narayama (Japan, 1958), Black Panther (USA, 2018), Bohemian Rhapsody (UK-USA, 2018), The Bold, the Corrupt and the Beautiful (Taiwan, 2017), The China Hustle (USA, 2017), Coco (USA, 2017), Crazy Rich Asians (USA, 2018), Distinction (Hong Kong, 2018), The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (Japan, 1987), Fargo (USA, 1996), In the Heat of the Night (USA, 1967), Into the Fade (Germany, 2017), My Neighbors, The Yamadas (Japan, 1999), Paddington 2 (UK-France-USA, 2017), The Post (USA, 2017), Searching (USA, 2018), The Shape of Water (USA, 2017), Shoplifters (Japan, 2018), The Spy Gone North (South Korea, 2018), Still Human (Hong Kong, 2018), and Struggling (Mainland China, 1932))

53 -- The number of non-Hong Kong movies I viewed for the first time in 2018

67 -- The number of feature films I viewed for the first time on a big screen last year

75 -- The total number of feature films I viewed for the first time in 2018

1932 -- The original year of release of Struggling, the oldest non-Hong Kong film I viewed last year

1987 -- The original year of release of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World!, the oldest Hong Kong film I viewed last year

2 comments:

Samson said...

Hi YTSL,

So judging by your figures and scores, it was a pretty good year for Hong Kong films after all.

Of the nineteen 2018 films that you saw last year, you rated four above 8.5 and (from memory) about eight of them 7, 7.5 or 8.

Do you agree that it was a good year for HK cinema, and do you think that 2019 will be even better (which I do)?

YTSL said...

Hi Samson --

There are some who don't think 2018 was a good year for Hong Kong cinema since the total number of films made last year remained at 53 like 2017 and there wasn't a single Hong Kong film in the local box office top ten. But it's also true that I viewed and enjoyed more Hong Kong movies in 2018 than I did the previous year, and I am hopeful that 2019 will be a good year since there already are a few 2019 releases announced that I'm interested in checking out, including Chinese New Year movies directed by Pang Ho Cheung and Stephen Chow. :)