Top10 #52FilmsByWomen 2016

5. Les Innocents dir. Anne Fontaine

One of the audiences’ favorite this past year, which follows a gutsy French Red Cross doctor who tends to the Polish nuns of a convent stranded in the middle of war, when the Soviet Red Army had pushed Nazi German forces from the country.

Here’s my review.

4. An: Sweet Bean (あん) dir. Naomi Kawase (河瀨直美)

An” is the Japanese word of the red bean paste, that in Cantonese (so also down here in Peru) is known as “Dau Saa” (or peruanized in some places as “tausa“) that is used as filling of buns with bean paste. It’s a dessert. It’s delicious. It’s the most wonderful thing in the world with ice cream, believe it or not.

The bean paste in Japan is also part of a dessert known as Dorayaki (どら焼き). And this is all important because the core of Kawase’s An centers on the making of dorayakis and the perfect red bean paste.

One of my picks for last year’s APEC meeting. xD

3. Moon & Cherry (月とチェリー) dir. Yuki Tanada (タナダユキ)

I know there’s way too many crossovers with my Top30 Discovery list, but can’t be helped~

Noriko Eguchi plays a savage erotic writer (love her!) who takes on a virgin young man named Tadokoro (Tasuku Nagaoka), who has joined the ero-writing club headed by Akira Emoto. As inspiration for her newest story, Tadokoro is pushed and pulled from situation to extreme situation, giving this moving sex rom-com a fresh twist.

2. The Day I Became a Woman (روزی که زن شدم) dir. Marzieh Meshkini (مرضیه مشکین)

More crossovers.

This is a wonderful short film trilogy by Iranian filmmaker and cinematographer Marzieh Meshkini, her debut. It follows the lives of three women— a girl named Hava, who’s turning a year older and thus becoming a woman, even though all she wants to do is drop everything and play with Hassan. Her grandma tells her she can’t because she’s now a woman, though Hava insists that she won’t be a woman until midday when she was actually born.

The second short follows Ahoo (Shabnam Tolouei), a young woman on a bike race that’s being pursued by her husband and the males in her husband’s family because they want her to stop racing. And the third follows Hoora, an older woman who’s just inherited a lot of money, and hires two boys to help her buy all the things she couldn’t have when she was married.

1. Manjadikuru (മഞ്ചാടിക്കുരു) dir. Anjali Menon

The crossover continues~

Manjadikuru is the name of the red seeds commonly known as, well, “Red Lucky Seeds” lol which remind me of Peruvian Huayruro, which are also “red lucky seeds,” but sport a black section on them. The film is about identity and tradition, following the life of a boy who returns to Kerala for his grandfather’s funeral, where he meets his cousins and the girl that works for their family.


So, that’s it~ Here’s the complete list of everything I saw last year!

Which were your favorite from the ones you saw?

amy

YAM Magazine editor, photographer, blogger, translator and part-time web designer. Film junkie, music junkie… and lately series (a.k.a. TV) junkie.

7 Responses

  1. This year, I sort of petered out on watching films by the end of the year. Sherpa, a documentary about Everest guides, was probably the best female-directed film I watched. I did finally get around to Eve’s Bayou and I see why it’s considered a classic. Finally got around to Sakuran too, which could have been improved by at least a better sound mixer but was still engaging. About 111 Girls (Darbare 111 dokhtar, 111 Girls) was also good. I watched a few others that were okay. The Falling was satisfying overall but had the potential to be really great imo.

    My most-watched performer was a lady, though – Meiko Kaji, in six films!

    • amy says:

      Six films! I’m still waiting if Letterboxd will be sending me my End of the Year email.

      • re: six Meiko Kaji films: I got a free Mubi trial when they had the Stray Cat Rock films on there, and I had already borrowed Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter from the library and saw Lady Snowblood 2 on Hulu before Criterion left them.

        Sherpa was free on National Geographic Channel/OnDemand for a while here too.

        • Amy says:

          Yeah, I meant I needed that email because I couldn’t count how many films of one person I’ve seen. xD My watching is so random. lol

          What are you mostly using for streaming nowadays? I’ve found a brand new site for Indian streaming, Einthusan. I asked, and it’s available down here, but haven’t been lucky with streaming speed with no account, so I haven’t tested a full movie yet. There’s a couple of good titles there~

        • Amy says:

          FYI, Bangalore Days is available on that site (by Anjali Menon), and not related to this list— Sairat is also available. Good movie, left me depressed LOL

  1. January 12, 2017

    […] The movie-watching also got very influenced with the #52FilmsByWomen project [1][2][3]. […]

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