CNN Picks All Time Asian Best, Do We Agree?

hhmmmm... no?

Picking apart "best movie" lists made by anyone, methinks, is as futile as trying to ask someone why he married his wife. We all have our different reasons for loving films (or the opposite), and every human being has multiple holes in his or her body, one of which is called "opinions." What's fun about lists, though, is that they speak about the people who made them more than a photo and identikit, a list of the cars they own and how much they pay in taxes would. What happens, then, when a sacred cow (not of film criticism, mind you) like CNN picks the best Asian films of all time? More than any indication of quality, I find it peculiar in a way that goes beyond appreciation for film. It sounds a bit like a sort of Eurovision Song contest of filmmaking, being politically correct and picking some commercial favorites from all over the place, some darlings of the arthouse crowd, and some sacred cows. If you asked me, I'd probably agree only with a couple of picks, but then again, it'd probably be the same for you.

Here's the list (no particular order since they're asking netizens to pick one, so I'm listing by release year):

1952. 生きる (Ikiru) - Kurosawa Akira, Japan
1957. भारत माता (Mother India) - Mehboob Khan, India
1958. 楢山節考 (The Ballad of Narayama) - Kinoshita Keisuke, Japan (They say "It won at Cannes in 1984," so probably they meant Imamura's remake?)
1969. 俠女 (A Touch of Zen) - King Hu, Hong Kong
1981. 만다라 (Mandara) - Im Kwon-Taek, Korea
1982. Himala - Ishmael Bernal, The Philippines
1983. Utu - Geoff Murphy, New Zealand
1984. Bao giờ cho đến tháng mười (When the Tenth Month Comes) - Dang Nhat Minh, Vietnam
1994. 活着 (To Live) - Zhang Yimou, China
1996. گبه (Gabbeh) - Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Iran
1998. Shall We ダンス? (Shall we Dance?) - Suo Masayuki, Japan
1999. 洗澡 (Shower) - Yang Zhang, China
2000. 花樣年華 (In The Mood For Love) - Wong Kar-Wai, Hong Kong
2002. Whale Rider - Niki Caro, New Zealand
2002. 無間道 (Infernal Affairs) - Andrew Lau, Hong Kong
2006. 괴물 (The Host) - Bong Joon-Ho, Korea
2006. แสงศตวรรษ (Syndromes and a Century) - Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand
2006. 三峡好人 (Still Life) - Jia Zhangke, China

So... agree, disagree?

[CNN]