Top30 Favorite Film Discoveries of 2014

5. Cow (斗牛)

After watching The Actor, The Chef, The Scoundrel, I watched Guan Hu’s Cow and became an instant fan of his and Huang Bo’s. In Cow (yes, COW), a country bumpkin Huang Bo and a “foreign” cow are the only survivors after a Japanese airstrike. That the story manages to be both hilarious and heartbreaking is a plus, but the biggest surprise of this Mainland China gem is that I had never EVER seen a cow perform like that [1].

It’s a FREAKING real cow as well! YesAsia’s YumCha! had an interview with him and director Guan Hu where they talked about the difficult process of getting the cow to do stuff on film.

4. The Way We Are (天水圍的日與夜)

I don’t think Ann Hui has as varied a filmography as Ang Lee, but I can always trust her taste as a filmmaker when it comes to storytelling. In The Way We Are, she follows a single mother with an adolescent son, her family drama and her newly found friendship with the neighborhood aunty.

3. Golden Chicken (金雞)

I can’t. I can’t~ Even the teaser trailer is hilarious:

Hey mister, Kum’s my name and I can speak eight languages. English: A, B, C, D. Mandarin: Bo, Po, Mo, Fo. Japanese: A, I, U, E, O. French: A, B, C, D. German: *#$%^#$%*. But with you, I only speak one language…

Alongside Roxana Avalos and Rosalind Russell, I think Sandra Ng is one of the funniest actresses. They also give me the same vibe.

In Golden Chicken, we don’t only get to see Sandra Ng play a street-smart prostitute in Hong Kong and her story, the city also becomes a character when we see it during the 90s financial crisis and the eventual Chinese handover. The series (yes, there’s a sex comedy series) spun the nearly equally hilarious Golden Chicken 2 (金雞2) — where they talk about the SARS outbreak — and 2014’s Golden Chickensss (金雞SSS), which isn’t as funny… but it’s worth a few laughs and another glimpse at the current Hong Kong standing.

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As you can see~ I had a bit of a love affair with Chinese films this year, despite my on-going relationship with Indian cinema. But what films topped my favorite discoveries this time around?