In the 2000s, international movies hit the big time, with several directors breaking through to the mainstream, more international movies hitting American theaters than ever before, and Oscar recognition regularly coming for these impressive and influential directors. It was almost a renaissance when it came to mainstream interest in world cinema.
There were new styles of action coming from Asian countries, an entirely new generation of Spanish filmmakers ready to take on Hollywood, and the continued emergence of horror cinema that changed everything Americans knew about the genre. Here is a look at 10 of the best international movies of the 2000s.
CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON (2000)
Ang Lee had proven in the ’90s that he was a man to watch when it came to creative and inventive ways of making cinema. He had already impressed the world with Sense and Sensibility, and then created the critically acclaimed The Ice Storm two years later.
In 2000, Ang Lee returned to Taiwan to create the visionary masterpiece Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. While this was co-produced by four regions, it was Taiwan that won the Oscar for this film about zen warriors who do battle, floating across trees and skimming the waters below. It was nominated for a total of 10 Oscars.
THE LIVES OF OTHERS (2006)
The 2006 Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language film was the German movie The Lives of Others. The film was about the Stasi spies, monitoring the citizens of East Berlin. This was the first German movie about the subject matter, taken seriously, since the fall of the Berlin Wall 17 years earlier.
The story follows a member of the Stasi named Weisler (played by Ulrich Muhe) and his doubts that the man he was sent to spy on, a famous playwright, was loyal to the Communist Party. When he is ordered to eliminate the playwright, Weisler faces a conflict of loyalty.
BATTLE ROYALE (2000)
Kinki Fukasaku released the groundbreaking Japanese dystopian horror-thriller Battle Royale in 2000. The movie was based on the novel by Koushun Takami, released just one year before the film. Both the film and book likely influenced the later young adult series Hunger Games, although with a brutal twist.
A group of junior high students are captured by the totalitarian government in Japan and then put on an island and forced to fight to the death. It was a shocking film at the time, banned in many countries over the world.
AMELIE (2001)
Jean-Pierre Jeunet was one of France’s brilliant auteurs when he got a chance to make a film in an American tentpole franchise with Alien: Resurrection. It was a critical failure, and he chose not to take on any further American film projects. That was best for his career, as he rebounded with Amelie in 2001.
Amelie was the polar opposite of an Alien movie. It starred Audrey Tautou as an overly optimistic girl who wants to help people around her and make their dreams come true, while she is struggling to find what makes her happy. It picked up five Oscar nominations.
LET THE RIGHT ONE IN (2008)
Based on the novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, Let the Right One In remains one of the best vampire films of the last two decades. The story follows a lonely and bullied young boy who meets a girl who moves into the flat next door, and realizes over time that she is an ancient vampire.
There are several horrific moments in the movie, but this is a tale of friendship and loyalty at its heart between the young boy and the vampire, although there is also a hint of manipulation under the veil. An American remake came a few years later with Let Me In, but the Swedish version remains a masterpiece.
SPIRITED AWAY (2001)
Easily the most celebrated animated filmmaker in Japanese history is Hayao Miyazaki, and in 2001 he created one of his masterpieces. The movie was Spirited Away, and it focused on a 10-year-old girl who enters the world of spirits after moving to a new neighborhood.
When her parents are turned into pigs, she sets out to find a way to free her and her family to return to the real world. At the time, Spirited Away was the biggest financial hit in Japanese history. It captured the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, the only hand-drawn non-English film to win the award.
PAN’S LABYRINTH (2006)
Guillermo del Toro led the charge of brilliant Spanish directors ready to take on Hollywood. Before he and his production partners started winning awards for their Hollywood work, Del Toro had some great films made in the Spanish language. While he had a fantastic horror movie in The Devil’s Backbone, it was his fantasy epic Pan’s Labyrinth that remains his masterpiece.
Set in the era of the Spanish Civil War, the film focuses on a young girl whose mother marries a Spanish military captain, putting her in the middle of the horrors of war. She then finds a world of mythical creatures, but it ends up a horrifying realm that parallels real-world dangers. It won three Oscars.
OLDBOY (2003)
Based on the Japanese comic of the same name, Park Chan-wook directed the brutal thriller Oldboy in 2003. This South Korean film focused on a man kidnapped and imprisoned in a room for 15 years without knowing why. One day, he is released, and sets out to seek vengeance on those who imprisoned him.
The movie won the Grand Prix at Cannes, with Quentin Tarantino highly praising it. In 2013, Spike Lee remade the film with Josh Brolin in the lead, but it never touched the brilliance of the original movie.
CITY OF GOD (2002)
City of God, a Brazilian crime movie based on the novel of the same name, hit theaters in 2002. The entire story from City of God was based on real events, showing the rise of organized crime in a suburb of Rio de Janeiro, the story stretching from the ’60s to the ’80s.
The basic story was the war between a drug dealer and a vigilante criminal. The film received four Oscar nominations, but surprisingly did not receive a Best Foreign Film nomination. It ended up with a spin-off television show called City of Men and a film of the same name.
IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE (2000)
In the Mood For Love was the 2000 Hong Kong drama by famed filmmaker Wong Kar-wai. The film stars Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung, two people whose spouses had an affair. The two end up getting to know each other and developing feelings of their own.
The movie is a touching drama of love and loss and earned Leung the Palme d’Or for Best Actor at Cannes, the first Hong Kong actor to capture this award. The film has a 90% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and it regularly makes appearances in the list of the greatest international movies of the 21st Century.
