Glad to see you joining the party, YA. 

I have seen all but 4 on your list and enjoyed most of them. The two on topic films I have not are in my rental queue. I'm thrilled that you finally got to see Millions. I knew you'd love it.

I have added the logo of your favorite DVD distribution service to those films in my list that it now carries. Of the three additional films this makes available to you, I'm going to guess Saint Ralph will end up being your favorite.

I can't do a 2005 list yet because I haven't seen enough of the movies that deserve being seen so here's my highest 20 rated boy movies of the last five years (2001-2005) as my worthless contribution  

You're My Hero (2003)
Song for a Raggy Boy (2003)
Nobody Knows (2004)
Abandoned (2001)
Where Eskimos Live (2002)
Scars (2002)
Machuca (2004)
Unfair Competition (2001)
Together (2002)
Swing (2002)
My Teacher Mr Kim (2003)
Les Choristes (2004)
Peter Pan (2003)
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001)  
Malabar Princess (2004)
Devil's Backbone, The (2001)
Hard Goodbyes: My Father (2002)
Finding Neverland (2004)
Pure (2002)
Clément (2001)

Maybe we should get Bijou to create a "Worthless Shit" recommendation for the movie profiles 

Quote:


They played a retrospective of his work at the Cinémathèque Québécoise in Montreal and I went to see all of them except the one that I had previously seen (The Hole). After that experience of seeing his complete work in a couple of weeks, he instantly became one of my favourite directors. What an impressive body of work!

As far as I know, All the Corners of the World and Boys (aka Youngsters) are not available on DVD or VHS, unfortunately. Since they were made for TV, it seems unlikely that they ever will become available. I hope you get a chance to see them, somehow. Both are worth a look. It's fascinating that Lee Kang-sheng was only about 12 in the first film they made together - and he's been in every single one of his films since! They must have a really close relationship to have collaborated like this on the entire span of both their careers.

Yeah, that's him. I was flabbergasted when I realized it was the same actor. Based on interviews and articles I've read, it's clear that Tsai has real admiration and affection for him.

Lee's importance in Tsai's work cannot be underestimated. I can't think of any other director who has been so fixated on a single actor throughout his entire career. Many others have had their fetish actors (Truffaut and Jean-Pierre Léaud immediately comes to mind), but as far as I know Tsai is the only one who has spent his entire carreer obsessing over it! Aside from some very early television work, he has never made a film without Lee.

Even his style is to some extent a result of Lee's personality. He says that when he first started working with him, he noticed how slow his reactions were and kept asking him to try to act more quickly, but Lee was very stubborn and eventually Tsai came to accept his way of acting and integrate it into his filmmaking style. It's very impressive that an actor so young could have made such an impression on a filmmaker.

Thanks for your contribution zhizhi. I have seen all but Jump Boys and Mysterious Skin from your list and could recommend all that I have seen.

Tell me more about Jump! Boys. I have read  summaries of it in film festival programs, but I don't think the film has gotten out of Asia much if at all.

oh darn... maybe the photos could be re-attached to this thread?