Introducing Family to Foreign Cinema
 

So tomorrow, for the first time in history, my family has agreed to watching a foriegn film which does not feature a dubbed track. We watched High tension when it came to DVD over here, and they loved it - until the end - but couldn't keep up with the subtitles, so we opted for the english track. My fear is that they won't be able to keep up with the subtitles this time, either. But anyways, the real question I have here is... what film would YOU use to introduce someone into foriegn cinema? My family loves mystery, drama, and twists. So my thoughts were showing them one of the following;

Old Boy
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
Sympathy for Lady Vengeance

Mr. Vengeance is a slow film, but the story is very compelling. My fear is that my family will shut their brains off before even getting 10 minutes into the story, from sheer boredom. It might not be there kind of film.

Personally, I used Amelie & The City of Lost Children. To each his own, though.

im showin' my dad Riki-Oh as soon as i ge the chance.

Oldboy would be my choice.
First one I got my step dad to sit through was Battlefield Baseball... go figure.

I love both of those flicks. Both good suggestions for intro to foreign too.

Here's a few I've seen and liked...different countries and genres.

Les Visiteurs (hilarious, french, jean reno...)
Battle Royale
Mister Vampire (korean?)
Versus
Haute Tension
Azumi
Brotherhood of the Wolf
Shaolin Soccer
Kal Ho Naa Ho (hindi, funny, sad, modern...good movie)
Anatomie
The Returner
Microcosmos (there's no words...but it's "foreign")
Kung Fu Hustle

...hope that helps.

hong kong.

if it doesnt have to be horror .. check out thie films of the french new wave ..
might seem dated to a younger person but i love these films ..

do an imdb on these directors :

Jean-Luc Godard
François Truffaut

Deep Red!

If you get the uncut version, it's half subtitled and half dubbed, so they'll get some breather moments. And it's mostly a mystery, though it does have horror elements to it.

I know I rave about this movie far too much, but it's so awesome.

http://www.m-w.com/mw/art/moat.gif???

Some of the best films I've ever seen. Italian Neo-realism has some amazing films too.

....oh yeh and Deep Red isn't THAT cool. One of the flicks that put me right off Argento's wankerey.

I like

Elling
Kolya
Luna Papa
Pinchcliffe Grand prix
The Three Colours trilogy
Tuvalu

Absolutely.

absolutely wonderful movie.

everyone should see this film.

that's funny - this was my first thought when i saw this thread (maybe A Very Long Engagement)

Mr. Hulot's Holiday
Jean Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast

I think I'm going to watch Tae Guk Gi with my brother in law who likes war movies. It's an amazingly powerful war movie.

"7 Zwerge" (AKA - 7 Dwarves) is something that my gf's brother keeps raving about...it kinda gives fairy-tales the big piss-take, apparently it's really funny.

Curry and Pepper - A fun, stupid action film.

Uzumaki - Prepare to be officially weirded out.


I remember hearing good things about an Asterix film too...

Probably my favourite Asian horror, nice choice.

If this is a first time with foriegn, I'd go with an action film - action is action the world around.

I'd hate to see your family turned off foriegn cinema due to viewing something too extreme or bizarre. As much as I love Park Chan Wook, I'd wait until the family has developed a taste for the foriegn before presenting them with such challenging material.

Das Boot is gripping, tense and easy to follow

Anything by Jean Pierre Junet (especially Amile)

Nightwatch is fun action horror

House of Flying Daggers, Hero, & Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon always please

Farewell My Concubine and Raise the Red Lantern are great drama

and my favorite Chinese drama - King of Masks is a touching family tale that is beautifully wrought without a touch of sentimentality.

hope this helps

Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles looks really good...haven't seen it though.

no dialogue ! :p