Best foreign films and TV shows?
American here. Wife and I have seen every American film and TV show we would ever want to watch. Broadening our horizons lately.
Not a huge fan of super abstract/art house type of stuff (usually). Big fan of sci-fi and moody/dramatic stories, but I also appreciate most of the truly great stories from any genre.
So far I've seen:
Dark (German series) - Absolutely loved it.
Parasite (Korean movie) - Amazing
Squid games (Korean series) - Amazing
The Wandering Earth (Chinese movie) - Interesting and visually appealing but objectively a terrible movie. Couldn't suspend my disbelief at all.
Still Game (Scottish series) - Hilarious and comforting. Endlessly rewatchable. This show does for me what friends does for my wife.
Kim's convenience (Canadian series) - Funny and easy to watch.
Derry Girls (British/Irish series) - Love it. Hilarious. Much like the office, you have to cringe through an episode or two before you actually get it.
I left out most of the British stuff like Month Python and Black Mirror because they're pretty well-established in American culture.
What else would you all suggest?
FILMS (No particular order other than when I came across it on my IMDb and probably too many):
City of Lost Children (1995) - Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amélie), starring Ron Pearlman and an amazing child actress, Judith Vittet. "A scientist in a surrealist society kidnaps children to steal their dreams, hoping that they slow his aging process."
JSA: Joint Security Area (2000) - Directed by Park Chan-wook (Oldboy / The Handmaiden). "After a shooting incident at the North-South Korean border DMZ leaves two North Korean soldiers dead, a neutral Swiss and Swedish team investigates what actually happened."
Amores Perros (2000) - Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu (Biutiful / The Revenant / Birdman / Babel). "A horrific car accident connects three stories, each involving characters dealing with loss, regret, and life's harsh realities, all in the name of love."
3-Iron (2004) - Directed by Kim Ki-duk (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring) "A transient young man breaks into empty homes to partake of the vacationing residents' lives for a few days."
The Taste of Tea (2004) - Directed by Katsuhito Ishii. "A spell of time of a rural family's slightly surreal life."
Ondskan aka Evil (2003) - Directed by Mikael Håfström and supporting actor Gustaf Skarsgård. "A teenage boy expelled from school for fighting arrives at a boarding school where the systematic bullying of younger students is encouraged as a means to maintain discipline, and decides to fight back."
The Secret in Their Eyes (2009) - Directed by Juan José Campanella. "A retired legal counselor writes a novel hoping to find closure for one of his past unresolved homicide cases and for his unreciprocated love with his superior - both of which still haunt him decades later."
The Bothersome Man (2006) - Directed by Jens Lien. "In a strange city where every person seems content beyond reason a new man arrives in town and stirs up trouble by asking too many questions."
Infernal Affairs (2002) - Directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak. Martin Scorsese remade this as The Departed.
The Hunt (2012) - Directed by Thomas Vinterberg (Another Round / The Celebration) and starring Mads Mikkelsen. "A teacher lives a lonely life, all the while struggling over his son's custody. His life slowly gets better as he finds love and receives good news from his son, but his new luck is about to be brutally shattered by an innocent little lie."
Irréversible (2002) - Directed by Gaspar Noé (Enter the Void / Climax) and starring Monica Bellucci and Vincent Cassel. "Events over the course of one traumatic night in Paris unfold in reverse-chronological order as the beautiful Alex is brutally raped and beaten by a stranger in an underpass tunnel."
Life Is Beautiful (1997) - Directed and starring Roberto Benigni. "When an open-minded Jewish waiter and his son become victims of the Holocaust, he uses a perfect mixture of will, humor and imagination to protect his son from the dangers around their camp."
The Worst Person in the World (2021) - Directed by Joachim Trier (Reprise / Oslo, August 31st). "The chronicles of four years in the life of Julie, a young woman who navigates the troubled waters of her love life and struggles to find her career path, leading her to take a realistic look at who she really is."
Chungking Express (1994) - Directed by Kar-Wai Wong (2046 / In the Mood for Love). "Two melancholic Hong Kong policemen fall in love: one with a mysterious female underworld figure, the other with a beautiful and ethereal waitress at a late-night restaurant he frequents."
Let the Right One In (2008) - Directed by Tomas Alfredson (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and two amazing child performances. "Oskar, an overlooked and bullied boy, finds love and revenge through Eli, a beautiful but peculiar girl."
Battle Royale (2000) - Directed by Kinji Fukasaku. "In the future, the Japanese government captures a class of ninth-grade students and forces them to kill one another under the revolutionary "Battle Royale" act."
Shoplifters (2018) - Directed by Kore-eda Hirokazu (Nobody Knows / Like Father, Like Son) "On the margins of Tokyo, a dysfunctional band of outsiders are united by loyalty, a penchant for petty theft and playful grifting. When the young son is arrested, secrets are exposed that upend their tenuous, below-the-radar existence."
Lilya 4-Ever (2002) - Directed by Lukas Moodysson (Show Me Love). "Sixteen-year-old Lilja and her only friend, the young boy Volodja, live in Russia, fantasizing about a better life. One day, Lilja falls in love with Andrej, who is going to Sweden, and invites Lilja to come along and start a new life."
Open Your Eyes (1997) - Directed by Alejandro Amenábar (The Others / The Sea Inside) and starring Penélope Cruz. "A very handsome man finds the love of his life, but he suffers an accident and needs to have his face rebuilt by surgery after it is severely disfigured."
Tell No One (2006) - Directed by Guillaume Canet (Joyeux Noel). "An accidental discovery near a doctor's estate stirs up some painful memories eight years after his wife's hideous murder, and now, things are bound to take a turn for the unexpected. Does the good doctor know more than he's letting on?"
Mother (2009) - Directed by Bong Joon Ho (Parasite / Memories of Murder). "A mother desperately searches for the killer who framed her son for a girl's horrific murder."
The Devil's Backbone (2001) - Directed by Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth / The Shape of Water). "After Carlos - a 12-year-old whose father has died in the Spanish Civil War - arrives at an ominous boys' orphanage, he discovers the school is haunted and has many dark secrets which he must uncover."
Departures (2008) - Directed by Yôjirô Takita. "Soon after buying an expensive cello, Daigo learns that his orchestra is disbanding. He moves back to his hometown with his wife, where he answers an ad for what Daigo thinks is a travel agency but is, in actuality, a mortuary."
Millennium Actress (2001) - Directed by Satoshi Kon (Tokyo Godfathers / Perfect Blue / Paprika) RIP. "A TV interviewer and his cameraman meet a former actress and travel through her memories and career."
The Return (2003) - Directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev (Loveless / Leviathan). "In the Russian wilderness, two brothers face a range of new, conflicting emotions when their father - a man they know only through a single photograph - resurfaces."
Cherry Blossoms (2008) - Directed by Doris Dörrie. "After Rudi's wife Trudi suddenly dies, he travels to Japan to fulfill her dream of being a Butoh dancer."
Anything by Akira Kurosawa, Ingmar Bergman, and Hayao Miyazaki.
Great list. I’ve seen maybe 20% of it?
Just wanted to add- Irreversible was a tough watch. It opens with “one of the most gruesome killings on screen” and includes an even tougher rape scene. I saw it in a theater and it left a mark. Just wanted to offer that warning. It’s also done in that trendy-for-the-time fake-single-take style… which successfully makes it pretty relentless. No doubt a great film in that it very successfully does what’s intended- just buckle up if you’re into that kind of ride.
Definitely should have included a disclaimer for that one. Or at the very least added emphasis to the IMDb synopsis for the words traumatic and rape. Nearly two decades after watching it, the two infamous scenes still stand out as some of the most graphic (because they look so real) I've ever seen.
City of Lost Children is odd, but good. I remember thinking strongly of it when I first saw Bioshock.
I just love the secret in their eyes so much!!! Make sure to watch the Argentinian version, the other one is terrible. On that note, for the moody/creepy vive, wild tales from Argentina y also great. For drama/comedy, there's a Uruguayan movie called El baño del Papa (the Pope's toilet) which I love.
Oh wow, had no idea The Secret in Their Eyes got an American remake. I usually can't stand Julia Roberts so that will be easy to pass up. I enjoyed Wild Tales (2014) quite a bit.
I'll have to check out The Pope's Toilet (2007) based off the name alone, but it can't hurt that one of the directors was the cinematographer on City of God (2002).
Hope you enjoy it. It's an imagined situation based on a real historical event. My aunt lived there at the time and remembers it very well.
Drive My Car - Japanese emotional drama film based on the Murakami short story of the same name.
The Night Eats the World - French zombie film with a focus on a lone survivor. It has mixed reviews, but I found it to be an interesting take on the zombie genre.
Kingdom - South Korean zombie series set in 16th century Korea. Another interesting take on the zombie genre in a historical setting, highly recommended.
What Did You Eat Yesterday? - Japanese LGBTQ+ slice of life series that focuses on the relationship of a middle-aged gay couple in Tokyo. It's adapted from a manga series of the same name. It's very cute and centred around the couple making home-cooked meals for each other to show their love.
I love Drive My Car, so I'll chime in to recommend Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (TMDB, IMDb, Letterboxd) which is also directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi (and released in the same year!). It's an anthology film in three parts, a structure I wish more filmmakers played with.
Films:
Edit: Oldboy is one word
Oldboy is one word and no one seems to know it's the second film in a loose "trilogy" known as The Vengeance Trilogy.
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002)
Oldboy (2003)
Lady Vengeance (2005)
I’ve heard of the loose “trilogy” but have never watched the others. Oldboy is excellent as a standalone film. Would you say the others add to the experience in a significant way?
Midnight Diner is a Japanese slice of life series where the chef/restauranteaur is a major character, but the restaurant itself is almost a character, similar to Cheers, but very different tone.
Corner Gas is a Canadian comedy about a small town.
Giri/Haji is a Japanese crime drama set partly in the UK. I liked it a lot.
Edit, the Hunt for the Wilderpeople is set in New Zealand. I enjoyed it and the book it is based on Wild Pork and Watercress
Midnight Dinner was very enjoyable from what I watched of it. I only got through the first season iirc before life got busier and I stopped having Netflix. I'm not sure if the subsequent seasons held up but I do occasionally think about it and wonder how it developed.
I'm currently watching it a second time. It's one of my favorite shows
I quite like Peep Show (British). It's 54 episodes of 2003~2015 David Mitchell and Robert Webb with experimental POV cimematography and lots of inner monologue. I was pretty sad after I finished the last episode but it had a good run.
Embrace of the Serpent (El abrazo de la serpiente, 2015) is a great film. Fitzcarraldo (1982) is a crazy movie. Both of these films should probably be seen without looking up the details. Let the story unravel on the screen.
I just find peep show so depressing. It takes the awkward uncomfortable parts of humanity and puts them centre stage. Which is fine if there is a redemption arc… but there isn’t. Just not my cup of tea, but clearly it’s great for some!
There's a surprising bleakness to a lot of British comedy. Sean Lock's 15 stories high, or At Home with the Snails are good examples of similar bleakness. And there are lots more!!
15 Stories went on to be a tv show, and it's good, but I linked the radio series because it's earlier and you get to hear some of the ideas being worked out. At Home with the Snails features Miranda Hart before she became more famous, and Geoffrey Palmer plus Angela Thorne is fantastic casting.
Peep Show is, in my opinion, the funniest show of all time. It can be a bit tough to get into at first, especially if you're starting at S1E1, but once you figure out/get over the first person stuff it's incredible. Its basically all the funny parts of Succession with a dash of Alec Burg (Seinfeld, Silicon Valley) sitcom story arcs and Armando Iannucci quotability.
The IT Crowd - British - Comedy - Most Americans I know have never watched the show
Misfits - British - Scifi - One of the best superhero shows I’ve ever watched. Very down to Earth and not your typical end of the world scenario stuff.
Sherlock - British - You may have watched this but an amazing detective show that basically jump started Benedict Cumberbach’s career
Travelers - Canadian - Scifi Time Travel - The setting is the US, but it was made by a Canadian company. One of the best time travel shows I’ve seen and it’s sitting at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Continuum - Canadian - Sci-Fi time travel - It did eventually air on BBC Amerrics and mahbe the Syfy channel back when people still had cable?
Orphan Black - Canadian show. SciFi Cloning. This one became really popular so there may be chance you watched it. There is a new series set in this world that I haven’t watched yet.
To add to this list of Canadian Sci-fi shows:
Andromeda, Stargate, and Dark Matter are also Canadian productions, though I suspect they're popular enough that they've made it to the American market.
I love Lexx. I'd describe it as what you'd get if Farscape was made by David Cronenberg on a shoestring budget.
I love this! It’s so weirdly intriguing. The phrase that is.
I was a big fan of Dark Matter, but I didn’t mention it since it was cancelled. Don’t want to break any hearts.
The IT Crowd is hilarious! You have to like British humor, but it’s been a favorite of mine for years.
Have you tried turning it off and on again?
Since I work with computers, it’s my go to gif
Vincenzo - Netflix original, this drama is about a mafia lawyer that is Korean, had moved back mostly for gold that he had help hide, but gets drawn into a conspiracy.
Strong Girl Bong-soon - this one can be found on Viki (Asian drama streaming), this one got a spin off on Netflix. This is a Romcom drama, with the female lead having super strength that is common on the female side of her family.
Hotel del Luna - can be found on Netflix. Basically about a hotel for ghosts, with the male lead being the only human working there.
Ghost Doctor - can be found on Netflix, about two doctors, one of them being in a coma, thus becoming a coma ghost, helps the other doctor with surgeries. The doctor that went into his coma was considered to be a great doctor, but his ego got inflated because of that.
Tomorrow - Netflix original. About a group of Grim Reapers saving people from suicide.
Mystic Pop-Up Bar - Netflix original, about a pop-up street bar that helps people with their troubles.
Move to Heaven - Netflix original. About a trauma clean up company that was ran by a father and his son with Asperger's, but the father passes away, thus the father-figure replacement is the long-lost uncle.
Café Minamdang - Netflix original, about a former profiler that turned to shaman fortune telling scams to catch a criminal that had framed him for a murder.
Someone has already mentioned the Canadian Sci-Fi options, and I highly recommend them, but if you enjoyed Kim's Convenience, you may enjoy the following Canadian comedies:
Note that none of them have the same sort of multicultural aspect that Kim's Convenience did. Instead, they focus on the more rural areas of Canada, and focus on that in different ways.
Corner Gas is an odd show because I started watching it and thought "well, this is a bit corny and just run of the mill, why's it so special?" but then I got totally sucked in and really enjoyed the cosiness of it.
I really struggled to get into Schitt's Creek because I couldn't get past the first two episodes, but then I did, and I'm glad I did because it's just so lovely and funny.
Schitt's Creek is definitely one of the shows where you need to push through the crappy beginning, I'd actually group it with Parks & Rec.
Both have a very iffy beginning, but when they get going, they get GOING and you're dreading of getting to the end because there isn't any more of it.
To piggyback on this Run the Burbs was created by and stars Andrew Phung from Kim's Convenience. I just got into it and it is so adorable. It manages to touch on complicated modern issues in ways that are educational, funny, and poignant.
You may be interested in this somewhat recent thread. Several of the shows from your list were suggested there
I mentioned Casa de Papel (aka Money Heist) and Dead Set (created by black mirror creator Charlie Brooker) in that thread and they seem to apply here
I'm just going to list films below, not able to provide more details as it's 6am and am on a mobile device.
Delicatessen
A very long engagement
Joyeux Noel
Le Croix de Bois
Häxan
Czterej Pancerni I Pies
jak rospentałem drugom wojne światową (personal favorite)
I Saw the devil
Amélie
Fitzcarraldo
Das boot (the longest version available) (and personal favorite)
Aguirre the wrath of God
All quiet on the western front (1930)
Ip Man
Pigs 1-3 (aka 'Psy' a polish film)
Sami Swoi
Sexmission
Seven Samurai
Train to Busan
I may just extract all the file names from my archive and post them later.
Joyeux Noël seconded! I need to re watch it.
Second for Das Boot, Train to Busan and Ip Man.
Train to Busan is literally the only thing that I enjoyed Gong Woo in, mostly because his character actually gets something his other roles doesn't, real character development and growth.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire is to me the best movie I've ever seen.
I had no idea what it was going in, added it to my plex server on a whim and it left me crying in my apartment for a long time after finishing it. I still think of one scene in particular. I'll be out driving my forklift and that scene will come into my mind and make me emotional. I want to try and think of something else to say to persuade people to watch this movie but I really hope yall give it a chance.
For moody and dramatic, how about some of the 20th century period drama Chinese films that Gong Li starred in back in the early 90s?
To Live, for example, is my favorite of her films and follows a fairly ordinary family through several decades that cover both civil war and the cultural revolution. Those events lead to a lot of sadness, while the family is basically just trying to survive.
In Raise the Red Lantern, she plays a woman who reluctantly becomes the fourth wife of a wealthy estate owner. The drama revolves around her interactions with the other three wives. Lots of "politics", as you might imagine.
Farewell My Concubine is also quite good.
All 3 of these were beautiful films, recommended.
Attempting to add a few that I didn't see listed before.
The Lives of Others: German film about the Stassi in East Germany. This is a dark film, but very much worth watching.
Mostly Martha: German film about a woman chef having to take care of her niece. The American remake sucks big time, but this one is much better, at turns tragic and uplifting.
Korean tv shows: It's OK to not be OK. A mystery/romance with a strong willed female lead. Seo Ye Ji's performance in that role is outstanding.
Weight Lifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo. Coming of age story and romance set in a college focused on athletes. Fun, and light-hearted.
Extraordinary Attorney Woo Follows the story of the first autistic woman to become an attorney at one of the top law firms in Korea. Highly recommended.
Mentioning East Germany, Goodbye Lenin was a fantastic film
That was an amazing film!
For a film about life in communist Romania there's Tales from the Golden Age which features a collection of short stories. I found it funny.
For an absolutely not funny film about life in Romania there's 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days which is not a horror but is horrific and moving, and excellent.
High praise for this, I went in looking for something American where the autism is just a quirk and 100% a superpower - got something heartwarming and realistic.
And the one episode where the name generation thing was a plot point had me learning WAY too much about Korean names =)
The scene where she gives her friend a nickname nearly broke me.
Memories of Murder is a Korean police drama. Not art house, but a solidly made police procedural where the police are sloppy and the detectives are violent.
People have mentioned City of God (and it's a great film) so I'm going to mention City of Men which is set in Brazil. It's great.
I'll finish with Elite Squad which is a fun action movie, again set in Brazil.
Here's a trailer for Memories of Murder: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YvWR3Bds0A
The trailer for City of Men features all the stuff that isn't really the main focus, it's a little bit deceptive. It's much more about the relationship and regular life in a high crime environment. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8uHSUsfIBU
Here's the trailer for Elite Squad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb-rUfBTQ1g
I'm not finished, I think you'd enjoy the Taxi series which are fun action movies with some amazing driving sequences.
There are like 5 of these and I'm not going to say they're all great, but the first two are worth watching.
Here's the trailer for Taxi (1998) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYBNjVnbtFg
Here's the trailer for Taxi 2 (2000) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUExdpxhDCo
Seconding Memories of Murder, it's only kind of mentioned in my post since I already had Mother by the same director.
I think I liked Elite Squad's sequel Elite Squad 2: The Enemy Within slightly more.
I haven't seen any mention of Mr Inbetween. An Australian dark comedy action/drama that was critically underwatched. I can't believe it never got more popular. I'd put it in the same vein as Barry and Breaking Bad.
Taskmaster, in my opinion, is one of the best programs to ever air on television. There are 16 series free on YouTube and they are constantly putting up versions of the show from other countries. Besides the original British version I am also fond of New Zealand, Norway (Kongen Befaler), and Denmark (Stormester).
Came here to recommend the Indian film RRR on Netflix, it blew me away! I feel it's best to go into it blind, don't even look up a synopsis or watch the trailer. Just set aside 3 hours and some snacks, and enjoy the ride. It's epic action with spectacular fx and a lot of heart and grit. Enjoy!
(When I first heard about it I was like, no way do I have enough patience to sit through a 3-hour film. But the pacing is really good and I felt like the 3 hours just flew by.)
As you've liked some Korean content already, there's an absolute ton of great stuff.
If you've got Netflix, I'd just start there to try to narrow down what genres you like or not. Some rely heavily on tropes and clichés, which some like and some hate.
There are genres like:
The list goes on and on. I'd just try experimenting with the first 5-10 minutes or episode of stuff you've got available to you to narrow down what you like and what you don't like.
Right now Hulu/FX are releasing Shogun, an episode a week. It's a historical drama set in Japan where a Brit has come with his ship as the first European who isn't Portuguese.
I've only seen the first two episodes, but so far it's been excellent, but clearly R-rated for a reason.
This is only the tip of the iceberg on foreign productions. I've thoroughly enjoyed South American shows on Netflix, and stuff from all over the world with high production value.
If you become invested, there are other streaming services where you get subtitled foreign stuff, but they're much more specific to one region.
One thing from foreign stuff is just that it's high quality entertainment that's based on a different culture/values and production. You get the second layer of a lens into different modern psychologies and the issues that matter to those societies where these shows are initially broadcast.
Sairat - A Marathi movie about love across castes. This trope, love across castes/religions/wealth/social class is pretty common in Indian movies but this particular movie stayed with me for a long long time after I watched it.
Dangal - A sports drama, a pehlwani amateur wrestler trains his daughters to become India's first world-class female wrestlers. The highest-grossing Bollywood movie of all time.
Sholay - Considered to be among the greatest Bollywood movies ever made. A Bollywood-Western.
Pyaasa - Another Bollywood classic. IMDB summary: Vijay, a talented but indigent poet, struggles for love and recognition in this selfish world.
If you want more Canadian goodness, you've gotta watch Shoresy. It's about a hockey team in Sudbury Ontario. I'm not even a hockey / sports guy and I absolutely love it. Hilarious.
And give yer balls a tug.
There's also a funny Polish historical comedy called 1670 which I've been enjoying. First thing I've ever watched in Polish.
I'm not the biggest abstract/art house guy either, so this might be a stretch, but Stalker is a masterpiece. There are probably much better comparisons, but it's kind of like if Annihilation was directed by Stanly Kubrick. Give it a shot sometime.
Also, Peep Show.
Mostly because the Annihilation novel has some critics thinking that the author was influenced by or took cues from Roadside Picnic (excellent book by the way), which Stalker is based on and is written by the same brothers.
There are already a lot of great recommendations here so I only have a few to add:
Embrace of the Serpent is a fantastic Colombian film that follows the last man of an indigenous tribe as he makes the same journey at two points in his life to help a white man search for a plant important to his culture. The two journeys are told in parallel and highlight the consequences of imperialism and the importance of preserving indigenous traditions.
The Moustache is a French dark comedy/psychological thriller about a man that shaves off a moustache he had for years and no one seems to notice, as if he never had one. He starts to lose his mind in the process.
The Platform is a Spanish sci-fi horror/social commentary on capitalism/society and explores John Rawl's Veil of Ignorance. Essentially, people are in a vertical prison that gives food out once a day on a platform that starts from the top and goes to the bottom. There is enough food for all of the people, but the people at the top eat too much of the food and there is progressively less and less as you go down such that many of the people on the lower levels starve. Each month you are randomly assigned to a new floor.
Babylon Berlin is German crime noir/historical series set in the 1920s of Berlin. If you've enjoyed Boardwalk Empire they have similar vibes, but the themes are much different.
Godzilla Minus One a recent Japanese film about acknowledging the toxic mindset Japan had in the second World War and how they got out of it. Oh also, there's Godzilla in the movie.
Love Me If You Dare is a French romantic comedy/drama about two childhood friends that play an ever escalating game of dare to prove their love to one another.
I'd like to add Undercover and it's subsequent spin-off movie Ferry: the Movie and another spin-off series about Ferry's rise to notoriety Ferry: the Series.
All three are Dutch/Flemish and follow the hectic relations happening to people being (undercover) in a drugs-ring. It has a distinct Dutch flavor in both filming and acting so it might not be to your taste. All come highly recommended.
Pustina (Wasteland). A rare gem in the otherwise quite unremarkable Czech production (saying this as a Czech). A dark and gritty crime story set in a small village in the middle of nowhere, with themes of desperation, trauma, and oppression of the people by a big mining company, and some exceptional acting.
El Encargado a show from Argentina about a building manager who finds out the various owners in the apartment block are planning to get rid of him in favour of a cheaper cleaning company. So he schemes, plots, lies and maniplutes his way to staying in the building by any means.
Brazilian movies.
Some titles are in Portuguese because I'm on mobile but you'll find them all on IMDB.
Documental - Competition program featuring popular Japanese comedians with only two rules; don't laugh, and try to make each other laugh. Really one of the funniest shows I've ever seen, there's many regional variants but the orignal with subtitles is wonderful.
En man some Heter Ove / A man called Ove a Swedish film about an old grumpy man. Heartwarming and funny eventually.
Was remade as A Man Called Otto with Tom Hanks, but they Americanized the ending which sucked ass
El Conde (Chile) - Pretty weird without quite being 'arthouse', imo - the basic story is that Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet is actually a vampire. He lives in exile and, tiring of the whole eternal life thing, seeks to tie up loose ends with his family. Nothing about this movie is remotely predictable. Best appreciated if you are interested in politics, though.
The Handmaiden (South Korea) - I saw someone else recommend 'Oldboy', but imo this is Park Chan-Wook's best film. Thickly layered plot involving seduction, abuse, revenge, all in the historical era of Japanese-occupied colonial Korea. Keeps you guessing, but never arbitrary in its twists and turns.
I Saw The Devil (South Korea) - South Korea is well known for its thriller/horror films, and I feel this one to be sorely underrated. Perhaps the most extreme revenge film I've ever seen, but more than just gore and hatred, it's a pretty amazing exploration of the psychology of sociopaths and the toll of revenge on the revenge-taker.
Tokyo Godfathers (Japan) - I saw someone else recommend 'Millennium Actress', which is great, but frankly all of Satoshi Kon's films are worth a watch. Not sure how you feel about anime, but they are on the accessible end of the spectrum for sure. 'Tokyo Godfathers' is my personal favorite - in which three homeless people (an old tramp, a teenage runaway, and a transvestite/transgender drama queen) find a baby in the garbage, and resolve to return it to its mother. Hilarious but also heartwarming. A great Christmas movie.
The Promised Land (Denmark) - featuring the ever-amazing Mads Mikkelsen, this clash of hard-headed men is like if you set 'There Will Be Blood' in 18th century Denmark. Historically interesting and well-acted, with lots of eye candy if you like looking at the endless rolling heath of the Jutland.
Rare Exports (Finland) - a B-movie horror that asks - what if what we call 'Santa' were in fact a bloodthirsty creature of myth? What if he's been buried for centuries but becomes unearthed by a mining project? And finally, is Finnish stoicism up to the task of dealing with this unearthly threat? This film is not serious art but it's fun as hell.
I'm going to avoid any detailed descriptions to minimize the risk of spoilers.
Indian:
Article 15. A crime thriller set in a small, rural village.
Baahubali. Wild over the type, fantasy movie.
A Wednesday. A terrorist thriller.
Korean:
The Terror Live. A mostly single room thriller.