Which are your favorite non-English movies, series etc?

Achyu@lemmy.sdf.org to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 75 points –

If not favorite, ones that touched you in some way.

I'll start by mentioning some movies from my mother tongue(Malayalam of Kerala, India):

  • Mumbai Police
    A crime thriller (Came out almost 2 decades ago n was very striking for the time)
  • KammaraSambhavam
    Political/Historic satire/drama (The main actor has some cases on him, but the movie is quite good)
  • Kathavasheshan
  • Devasuram
    Conservative sigma male upper class Kerala dude getting character development. I really liked how the transformation happened in it
  • Maheshinte Parthikaaram (Mahesh's Revenge)
    Not an action movie.

From my country, but not in my mother tongue:

  • Super Deluxe - A Tamil movie that I recently watched, quite unique
  • Enthiran (Robot), a Tamil movie
    Has over the top stuff, but is fun to watch
  • Viduthalai(Liberation), another Tamil movie
  • Agent Vinod - A Hindi spy-comedy movie

The anime that I like are Hunter x Hunter, Parasyte, Samurai Flamenco, Gintama.

92

Dark (German/Netflix)

Best show, period. I was happy that finally there is a story thought out from start to finish, is smart and does not hold your hand. I should rewatch it soon.

I dont remember another tv show where we watched 10 hours of recap/explanation/theory videos on youtube before each new season.

Amazing show and my favourite part is not even how brilliant the storyline is, but the god tier casting of different aged actors for the same characters.

I wanna add to that Who Am I

It's a movie made by the same people

If you liked the mystery of Dark and are looking for something to scratch that itch you'll love it.

Brotherhood of the Wolf Kung Fu Hustle Shaolin Soccer

Punctuation helps.

Looked fine when I posted it. It had line breaks. Weird.

Double space + linebreak
for this and double linebreak

For a paragraph.

Doesn't help that thunder seems to eat a trailing space when you linebreak.

I'm on Connect. Not sure I've noticed this before. Lol

I enjoyed Dark(German), Deutschland 83(German), and Gomorrah(Italian)

I liked the idea of Dark, I just disliked having to pull up a convoluted family tree hastily constructed from Reddit so that I could work out who was screwing who whilst visiting themselves.

City of God, (Portuguese/Brazil) One of my all time favorite movies period. Gangster/Crime lord style movie about kids running the Favelas in Rio

Elite Squad 1 and 2 also (Portuguese/Brazilian) Top notch Cop/shoot out movie really reinvigorated the Sicario and John Wick style films.

Oldboy (Korean) The WTF twist is an early stand out of what the amazing Korean producers are now famously known for.

Reminder that city of God and elite squad are based on historical facts.

Pan’s Labyrinth is a rare modern fairytale, in the old sense of the word, not the Disney sense.

Series:

  • Dark: I love this series. It's complex and smart and isn't afraid to let the viewer think and not hold our hand. I re-watch this at least once a year, sometimes more. The show runners also made another series, 1899, which I liked - but didn't love - and Netflix killed it after only one season.

  • Alta Mar/High Seas: The first season especially just captured my heart. It's a fun murder-on-a-cruise-liner scenario with absolutely lavish set dressing, costumes, etc. The cast is a delight. There are a few unnecessary twists and the subsequent seasons didn't grab me as hard, but this is one I happily come back to periodically.

  • Paranormal: This is, in some ways, only an "okay" series if I'm honest. The stories are solid, but mid-tier, the effects are pretty low grade, and the episodes didn't connect well. But why I still have a fondness for this one: This series wasn't just set in Egypt, it was an Egyptian production. So you don't have some of the baggage of Hollywood/the U.S. or even other, major media countries. It's refreshing to get a different cultural view occasionally.

  • Control-z: This was a fun, stylish mystery series set in a Mexican high-school. Not terribly deep and after the first season the quality drops pretty quickly, but it was enjoyable.

  • Squid Game: Who doesn't love a game? :)

  • Post Mortem: No One Dies in Skarnes: Not very long series but it was enjoyable if you like the possibly over used trope of someone coming back from the dead and the challenges they encounter.

  • Katla: A short Icelandic supernatural series. Creepy vibes aplenty.

  • Money Heist: Spanish bank heist series. Good, not great, but good. A little predictable in places, a little unpredictable in places. Went for several seasons and spawned a couple of spin-offs.

  • Fallet: An interestingly little series from Sweden. The premise is a stretch, but the characters were kind of endearing. I enjoyed it.

Movies:
I know I've watched a lot more foreign films recently that I liked than this, but I'm having a hard time recalling any that stand out. Here's still a few I felt like mentioning:

Classics: Pan's Labyrinth, Run Lola Run, Seven Samurai.

A few you might not have heard of:

  • Errementari: a stylish, enjoyable fable of a blacksmith and the devil
  • The Little Switzerland: A silly little comedy set in Spain. Not a lot of depth, but entertaining.

I had totally forgotten about 1899. I think it had as much potential as Dark, just didn't have a great first season. And the multiple languages was an interesting concept.

City of Lost Children, and to a slightly lesser extent, Delicatessen and Amelie, all directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet.

I've yet to see worldbuilding as effortless as it is in the first two movies.

Drop you in blind, explain nothing, get very weird, and tell a fantastic story.

Yeah, these guys are great. I love seeing some of the same faces in completely different roles)

  • Brahmayugan (2024)
  • 3 Idiots (2009)
  • Akira (1988)
  • Howl's Moving Castle (2004)
  • The Secret World of Arrietty (2010)
  • Princess Mononoke (1997)
  • Spirited Away (2001)
  • The Lunchbox (2013)
  • Newton (2017)
  • Titli (2014)

I put lunchbox in my watch list, it's the one that's pg and available where I live. I'm not up to these animations lately, though I saw Akira in the 90s and loved it.

Some great favorites of mine that I haven't seen mentioned here yet:

  • Extraordinary Attorney Woo is a Korean drama which follows Woo Young-woo, a female rookie attorney with autism, who is hired by a major law firm in Seoul.
  • Lupin is a French series about Assane Diop, a man who is inspired by the adventures of master thief Arsène Lupin.
  • Ragnarok is a Norwegian fantasy drama television series reimagining of Norse mythology. It takes place in the present-day fictional Norwegian town of Edda.
  • Tribes of Europa is a German series set in 2074, 43 years after a mysterious global technological failure caused nations to slip into anomie and fracture into dystopian warring tribal microstates.

I second Extraordinary Attorney Woo, what a wholesome and heart-warming show!!

There's no streaming service in my country with these titles except lupin 🙃

Streaming sucks, but not as much as plain old air tv 🤷‍♂️

If you have Netflix, you have access to Ragnarok too I think

Oh true, the service I used to find what service has movies doesn't cover Netflix apparently. What do you guys use?

Im Westen nichts Neues (All Quiet on the Western Front). A movie about WWI from the German perspective. While not 100% accurate, it does a great job of showing the harrowing trench warfare, the propaganda, and the out-of-touch militarism in the higher ranks. I highly recommend it.

A much older one: Le Grand Vadrouille (The Great Escape). A French WWII comedy about a few British pilots that need to escape occupied France. There is a little bit of English but it's predominantly French in language. While not all movies from that age have stood the test of time (e.g. Les Gendarmes are quite racist), this one does a decent job!

There are many good thriller/horror movies in spanish.

  • La piel que habito
  • REC
  • Los ojos de julia
  • La cara oculta (I think this one's from Colombia)

Shutter is also a great Thai horror movie.

From my country Murderess (Φόνισσα - Greek) from last year is pretty impactful.

Have you watched "Historias para no dormir"? It was series of Spanish horror movies, I think four or five. My favorite from that series was "La habitación del niño" such a good story! I am a horror buff and it is always refreshing to watch something that surprises me in a good way.

I didn't watch the rest after the first episode... It felt so... Forced.

I guess you are talking about the tv series? Because that was, indeed, kind of not so good. I watched a couple of episodes.

The movies, at least for me, were good in a general sense but La habitación del niño was great in my opinion.

RRR, this shit has everything. Great fights, cool story, great landscapes from all over India, amazing VFX and art direction. Great musical interludes too. Absolutely recommended.

Persepolis, the tragic animated story of how Iran transformes from a modern and rich country to a religious dictatorship

The Handmaiden by Park Chan-wook is fantastic for movies.

For books, Roadside Picnic by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, and the movie adaptation Stalker by Tarkovsky, are sci-fi classics.

Human Acts is another amazing book, this time from Han Kang.

I loved bron|broen (remade by Americans as the bridge, but that's bound to be lame in comparison). Great detective show set in Denmark and Sweden (? It's been ages, don't judge me). This is reasonably old tv series. Some great demonstrations of neurodivergence from (what feels like) a previous decade

Also Rain was a great Scandinavian sci-fi series (Netflix?)

+1 Bron/Broen. I am a big fan of Scandinavian series, and can also recommend:

  • Follow the Money (Bedrag/Deception)
  • The Killing (Forbrydelsen)
  • Trapped
  • Exit

RRR the movie is so good

The Good, The Bad, and the Weird (좋은 놈, 나쁜 놈, 이상한 놈) is a fantastic slapstick take on the classic western that has a lot of fun with the setting.
Trollhunter (Trolljegeren) is a great horror-mockumentary done in a found footage style.
Basically anything by Kurosawa.

For a serious drama: Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources, a shockingly good pair of French films that start when an idealistic city dweller moves out to the countryside to start farming on some valuable land that the locals would rather went to them.

Much less seriously: Le Concert. A French comedy-drama about a Russian conductor forced out of his prestigious role after a falling out with the Soviet leadership, who many years later gets an opportunity to re-form his orchestra out of a rag-tag group who haven't played in years, and travel with them to Paris to give the eponymous concert, performing the same piece that he was conducting at the moment a KGB agent stormed in to strip him of his title. There are some more layers to it that give the movie some brilliant genuine heart, in addition to the hilarious hijinks of the premise.

I'll just add an extra one that doesn't really fit, but is kinda close. Death and the Maiden, by Ariel Dorfman. Doesn't fit both because it's a play rather than a movie or TV show, and because it might be originally English (I'm honestly not sure and have seen contrary answers about it—even in my copy of the play itself it's unclear, with references to the "world premiere" in England being after it "was staged and opened in...Chile"). But regardless of the original language, it's very much not from an anglo perspective, being written by a Chilean and set in post-Pinochet Chile (technically, it's described as being potentially any country post dictatorship, but it's primarily written for Chile). It's about a husband who accidentally welcomes into their home a man whom his wife swears was her warden and rapist while she was imprisoned by the dictatorial regime, and the play is all centred around "is she right, and will her husband believe her?"

Putting the word of a stranger before his wife's..... I don't think this aged well.

I can see why you'd say that, but I don't agree. The whole point of the story is the moral ambiguity, we were never supposed to unambiguously side with the husband, but decided for ourselves who to believe. So our conclusions might change with time, but the play's relevance has only grown.

Thanks for reminding me about Manon Des Sources. I remember being totally captivated by it but can't remember any details!

cat city

What a weird and wonderful movie. Fantastic pick

dont watch the sequel (i havent either).

but yeah, it's a james bond type story set in a super weird garbled mirror image of the cold war. with mice and cats. and bats. and rats.

man i'm gonna re-watch it tonight. got myself hyped up :D

What I found especially interesting was how the movie showed a cycle of violence.

The main cat is being threatened by the boss cat to the point of needing to take anxiety medication.

The main cat then relentlessly bullies and injures his assistant.

His assistant then bullies the person lower on the social ladder than him... Aka his daughter...

His daughter then breaks the chain by not bullying the mouse who in turn doesn't bully anyone.

At the end of the movie when it's all ended and the assistant is no longer being actively harmed by his superior, we see him as a loving father again.

I loved Drive My Car. Incredible soundtrack, well paced, and incredibly moving.

Hardly a deep cut, but Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon is absolutely fantastic.

A master of mystical superhuman martial arts is trying to retire, but a suspiciously talented thief keeps making off with his unbreakable sword. The movie is sold on and remembered for its acrobatic and set-destroying fight scenes, and if you just watched those highlights, you'd have a decent time. But you'd miss the clever characterization, the gorgeous cinematography, the excellent score, and on and on and on. If you just want wire-fu then watch Iron Monkey. This is a movie about all the small moments between complex people. It opens with ten minutes of dialog on purpose. The combat is what happens when characters fail.

Pridyider, the Filipino movie about a haunted fridge. Haven't been able to find a copy of it in years unfortunately.

::: spoiler The Hunt (2012) (Movie) IMDb Summary: Lucas is a Kindergarten teacher who takes great care of his students. Unfortunately for him, young Klara has a run-away imagination and concocts a lie about her teacher. Before Lucas is even able to understand the consequences, he has become the outcast of the town. The hunt is on to prove his innocence before it's taken from him for good. :::

::: spoiler Klovn (Series) IMDb Summary: The socially awkward misadventures of Frank Hvam, his girlfriend Mia and his best friend Casper. :::

Lammbock

Back then (early to mid-2000s) it was considered the most popular German stoner movie (at least among my social group back then).

One more mention for Dark, absolutely the best thing on Netflix IMO.

Others:

  • Neuvas Rienas (9 queens) - an excellent Argentinian heist/scam film with quite a cool look. Like a mix of Ocean's Eleven (plotwise) and the Bourne films (visually).
  • Intacto - interesting Spanish movie about people who are able to steal others' luck. I could imagine Christopher Nolan doing an English language remake.
  • Le Havre - fun French film about an old man helping shelter a child who is in the country illegally. Very funny.
  • Akira - obviously
  • Ringu - original Japanese version. Terrifying.
  • Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - quite an obvious choice, but it absolutely blew me away when it came out.
  • The Killing - Danish TV show. Not seen the American remake, but the original is amazing
  • Oldboy - Korean movie, as above, remade, but I've only seen this. I suspect this one is better!
  • Godzilla Minus One - monsters! And the suffering of post WW2 Japan! Odd mix, but it works!
  • 8 Femmes - very funny French murder mystery. Recently remade (pretty well) in Italian as 7 Women and a Murder.
  • Duet for Cannibals - very strange Swedish film I saw recently about two couples and some strange living/working arrangements.
  • Rashomon - classic Japanese movie, where we see the same event from 3 different perspectives
  • Taxi - brilliant French heist/crime/driving movie, with some superb car chases

So many more, but this list is getting too long!

For Korean media:

TV shows:

  • Beyond Evil
  • Moving
  • D.P.

Movies:

  • The Handmaiden

  • Parasite

  • Decision to Leave

  • Old Boy

  • Bangkok Dangerous, the original one not with Nicage.

Not Turkish, but Hot Skull was a great watch. At the risk of speaking on behalf of Turks, I think that the premises run deep into the culture.

I found these through now defunct/gone bad sites, but Fei Ren Zai (非人哉) and All Saints Street (万圣街). Both series are animated adaptations of webcomics from the same guy.

Both have similar premises but are vastly different. Fei Ren Zai is a slice of life about mythological creatures, deities, and other such creatures from Chinese mythology living in modern day, done in short skits, pretty much being animated versions of the 4 panel comics the webcomic series is.

All Saints Street follows something similar, except for the fact that it's western creatures (vampires, devils, angels, mummies, zombies, werewolves) living in modern times and doesn't really have that 4 panel comic style Fei Ren Zai has. It follows a demon named Neil Bowman who moves from Hell (Australia if I remember correctly) to live with a vampire friend of his and ends up in the first few episodes (maybe around 10 or less if I'm not wrong?) living with a vampire, mummy, werewolf, and his landlord, an angel and eventually his younger sister. All under a single roof. It's available on Crunchyroll with a Japanese dub, but I personally don't like it. Especially since I really love the use of vocaloid for the original Chinese dub theme song and love the Chinese voices (props to the voice actors).

Also, France's Code Lyoko is an absolute favorite of mine because of how awesome I thought it was growing up and how I still think it's awesome. Mid-2000s cartoon where a group of 2D animated students at an academy must sneak off to go to a 3D CGI virtual world made possible by a radioactive material powered supercomputer that has a deadly computer virus like villainous thing housed inside the virtual world, trying to take out the kids so it can probably take over and get rid of all humans. If you don't wanna be confused on episode 1, as you're thrown in with no explanation, I recommend the episodes X.A.N.A. Awakens part 1 & 2.

When it comes to Christmas movies my most favorite ones are:

  • Joulutarina (Finnish)
  • Listy do M (Polish)

Pretty intense but I thought the Seediq Bale films were really good.

Cure (1997) is an absolutely mesmerizing film

Classic French thriller.

"Wages Of Fear." Four men, two trucks, a desert, and five tons of unstable dynamite. They need to get the explosives to a uncontrolled oil well fire. They've got nothign to lose...

The Wave (about a landslide in a fjord) is one of my favorite disaster movies.

The Quake (the sequel) is almost as good.