Photo by Denise Jans on Unsplash
2023 will undoubtedly be a year of recovery for the film industry. According to the preliminary statistics of the National Film Funding Office, as of November 13, 2023, the total box office (including pre-sale) of mainland films in 2023 exceeded 50 billion, and Chinese films accounted for 83.4% of the box office. The data shows that it will take 317 days for the total box office of movies to exceed 50 billion in 2023, surpassing 2017 (324 days) and second only to 2018 (277 days) and 2019 (276 days). In addition, in 2023, the total number of moviegoers in the film market will reach 1.178 billion, with a total of 113 million screenings and an average ticket price of 42.4 yuan.
When the audience has more films to choose from, the audience will be more careful about choosing the movies they watch. In addition, expectations and requirements will become even higher. In 2023, the author has watched more than 100 films, mainly new films. I would like to take this opportunity to recommend to you the 2023 foreign language films in my mind.
《过往人生》（Past Lives）
导演：席琳·宋 Celine Song
How to make an ordinary story extraordinary? "Past Life" illustrates this. Although this is director Celine Song's debut film, her rich experience in drama and stage play has undoubtedly laid a certain foundation for this. The film tells the story of Nora and her childhood sweetheart Hailing reuniting in the United States after many years of separation, and their peaceful life is followed by emotional ripples. seems to be a simple story, but the director can grasp every emotion and shoot a more sublimated theme.
"Past Life" is like condensing the "Love In" trilogy into a movie. However, this love story abandons drama almost entirely and is more inclined to dig into some of the more unspeakable truths about how people relate to each other. In addition, the director gave the film a deeper emotional resonance, making the film not only a love story of the male and female protagonists, but also a change in the life of sighs.
Incidentally, the distribution company for the film "Past Life" is A24, an independent film production and distribution company from New York. At the 2023 Oscars, A24 swept six major units and won a total of seven statuettes with the phenomenal work "Everything Everywhere All at Once" and "The Whale" (The Whale), which helped Brendan Fraser win the Best Actor Award. Previous hits such as "Moonlight" and "Ex Machina" were also produced here. A24 has become the most aggressive non-mainstream force in Hollywood.
《芭比》（Barbie）
导演:格蕾塔·葛韦格(Greta Gerwig)
Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer" and Greta Gerwig's "Barbie" were released on the same day in North America, and the two very different films have created a craze on the Internet. About "Oppenheimer" was written separately in the last issue, here is a brief talk about "Barbie".
"Barbie" tells the story of Barbie, a doll who has been living in the dream Barbie land, in a witty and humorous way, who suddenly finds that her body has a malfunction, and she is no longer the perfect self as before, so she is forced to go to the real world to find answers, which produces a shock and awakening at the level of consciousness. Under the shell of joy, the film starts from the female vision, satirically explores the social prejudices and practical problems of the sexes. Under the imaginative plot setting, one of the most important themes is about self. But "Barbie" still lacks a little depth in terms of women's issues, but this has not affected director Greta Gerwig from becoming the highest-grossing all-female film in history with this work!
《小行星城》（Asteroid City）
Director: Wes Anderson
About Wes Anderson, there was an article dedicated to it before. His grotesque imagination and unique aesthetics have always been willful. "Asteroid City" is full of novelty and imagination, and it is still a carnival for Anderson fans. But this time it was not very friendly to the general audience, and not everyone could accept his increasingly bold creations.
The film is actually a fusion of the two viewing experiences of a stage play and a screen movie in one film. The black and white part is the behind-the-scenes of the "Asteroid City" drama, the writer's creation, the protagonist's performance, the director's direction, etc., while the color part is the "Asteroid City" drama that is being staged. The film is set up very simply, with a rental house, a restaurant, and a pothole. Director Wes Anderson once again uses bold colors to give the audience a taste of the heyday of New York theater and a revisit to the dramatic characteristics of black-and-white films.
《花月杀手》（Killers of the Flower Moon）
导演:马丁·斯科塞斯(Martin Scorsese)
"Killer of the Flower Moon" is Martin Scorsese's sixth collaboration with Leonardo DiCaprio after "Shutter Island" and "The Wolf of Wall Street." Back in his 20s, director Martin developed a keen interest in Native American culture. So when Scorsese read David Gunn's "The Killer of the Flower Moon," based on the murder of the Osage Indians, he knew he had to make a movie.
Osage was a tribe of Native American Indians. In the 19th century, the U.S. government continued to expand white settlements and continued to expel Native American Indians to "reservations" where there was no grass. The Osage were forced to move to the barren and rocky eastern part of Oklahoma. But after the discovery of oil in the area, the whites began to covet the land of the Osage. Ernest, a World War I veteran, travels here to make a living and joins his already famous uncle, William Hale. William has a close relationship with the aborigines, black and white, but beneath his kind exterior lies a greedy femme fatale. He implies that Ernest pursues Molly, a wealthy Indian woman, and that what he really covets is the wealth that their family possesses. In just a few years, dozens of Indians died unexpectedly......
This is how the film blends the style and highlights of a Scorsese crime film imaginable. It's over three hours long, but the turbulent backdrop and gripping plot will give you a sense of exploration in this Martin-style film. Reverence for culture is the principle that every artistic creator needs, and the 81-year-old director Martin has always carried this awe to each of his works. "Killer of the Flower Moon" was selected as the first place on the 2023 50 best complete list by the famous British film magazine "Sight and Sound".
What kind of life do you want to live?
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
This is director Hayao Miyazaki's twelfth feature-length animated film, and a gift from him to his grandson as a grandfather. After the filming of the film started, Miyazaki found that his health was getting worse and worse, and the film dragged on and on. His old friend Toshio Suzuki joked about what if he could have died after completing the storyboard, while Miyazaki said he was ready to die in the middle of making the animated film. This could be the legendary director's last film.
The film is based on John Connolly's fantasy novel The Book of Lost Things. It follows a young shepherd who lost his mother after World War II, and uses his adventures to show the audience complex and profound social issues such as friendship, wealth and poverty, discrimination, bullying and courage. Makimasin has always longed to be reunited with his late mother, and under the guidance of a heron, he bravely steps into the border between life and death, where he understands that the end of life is actually another beginning!
The above are my favorite foreign language movies in 2023, which movies have you watched in 2023?Which foreign language movies do you want to recommend to other fans?In the next issue, let's take a look at the best Chinese movies in 2023.