57 Films of Ale: Southeast Asia
Top 26 in order of preference, then chronological. Favorite films from the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Singapore. Yes, Lav Diaz is the man as far as I'm concerned - though I am far from an expert in this region. I've yet to see much, let alone anything I love from Cambodia or Malaysia or some of the smaller territories or states in this region, but I'll be updating this list until I do! List is currently ordered.
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- DirectorLav DiazStarsElryan de VeraAngie FerroPen MedinaThe collapse and the struggle of a poor farming clan in Philippines.
- DirectorLav DiazStarsYul ServoJoel TorreGloria DiazA Filipino teenager is shot to death on a New Jersey, USA sidewalk: an investigation starts and his family and friends are interviewed. Along the way, more about him is revealed and so is more about the Filipino community in America in general, including the destructive effect of the drug "shabu" on its youth. The detective who handles the case also has his own personal demons to settle with his violent past.
- DirectorLav DiazStarsAngeli BayaniPerry DizonRoeder CamanagThree people engage in a strange therapy to get away from their agonies.
- DirectorLav DiazStarsPerry DizonRoeder CamanagHazel OrencioThe Philippines, 1972. Mysterious things are happening in a remote barrio. Wails are heard from the forest, cows are hacked to death, a man is found bleeding to death at the crossroad and houses are burned. Ferdinand E. Marcos announces Proclamation No. 1081 putting the entire country under Martial Law.
- DirectorLino BrockaStarsHilda KoronelMona LisaRez CortezThe life of a young girl living with her mother in the slums of Manila becomes unbearable when her mother's young boyfriend moves in with them.
- DirectorLino BrockaStarsHilda KoronelBembol RocoLou Salvador Jr.Júlio Madiaga, a 'provinciano', arrives in Manila to search for his beloved, Ligaya.
- DirectorLav DiazStarsSid LuceroAngeli BayaniArchie AlemaniaAn embittered law student commits a brutal double murder; a family man takes the fall and is forced into a harsh prison sentence; a mother and her two children wander the countryside looking for some kind of redemption.
- DirectorPeque GallagaStarsCherie GilSandy AndolongLiza LorenaTwo affluent families struggle and learn to survive during the Japanese occupation in the Philippines.
- DirectorRaya MartinStarsNess RoqueAdriana AgcaoiliVia Antonio
- DirectorMike De LeonStarsMark GilSandy AndolongWard LuarcaThe lives of seven neophytes as they strive to enter a Greek letter fraternity through a difficult hazing process. The entire experience is seen through the eyes of Sid Lucero, one of the neophytes.
- DirectorNawapol ThamrongrattanaritStarsThanapob LeeratanakachornChonnikan NetjuiPatcha PoonpiriyaMary is in her last course of school. She'll confront sudden changes in her life, loving relatins and friendship. Based on some tweets of an anonymous girl.
- DirectorLav DiazStarsJoel LamanganPiolo PascualShaina MagdayaoMadmen control Manila in 2034 after massive volcanic eruptions have plunged Southeast Asia into darkness.
- DirectorVan Thong NguyenVu TranStarsLan NgocVinh ThúyUyen ToLittle Nga and her father earn their living by fishing on a riverbank. He father also carries a secret duty of transporting revolutionary cadres across the river to do their mission. Little Nga also helps her father with that secret duty. French troops have suspected little Nga's family for a long time of coordinating with people of the resistance war. When hearing that there will be a group of cadres crossing the river, the French tied little Nga's father and forced her to pretend doing her daily routine in order to trick the cadres. However, little Nga used her cleverness, wisdom, and bravery to rush to the riverbank to alert the cadres of the French troops. While doing that, she was shot down. Just before her last breath, little Nga releases a passerine bird - a dear friend of hers - whom she has been taking care of.
- DirectorLino BrockaStarsLolita RodriguezLilia DizonEddie GarciaThis landmark film is considered by many to be one of the most important in Philippine cinema. The son of a wealthy man, Junior has everything he could possibly want. But the emptiness of his extravagant lifestyle and the hypocrisy of the town's so-called leading citizens weigh heavily on him, pushing him to reach out to the village outcasts.
- DirectorMike De LeonStarsRicky DavaoJoel TorreCris VillanuevaPart-investigative documentary, part-satire and shot entirely in black-and-white, the film tackles the mystery that surrounds the life and death of the Filipino hero, Jose Rizal.
- DirectorRaya MartinStarsLowell ConalesMix-mastering history, the paranoid thriller, the documentary and the landscape film, pic tells of very different fates for two sets of brothers in oppressive Philippine settings.
- DirectorKhavnStarsTadanobu AsanoNathalia AcevedoElena KazanWhen violence is the only life you know, will love save you or just unravel everything?
- DirectorGareth EvansStarsIko UwaisYayan RuhianArifin PutraOnly a short time after the first raid, Rama goes undercover with the thugs of Jakarta and plans to bring down the syndicate and uncover the corruption within his police force.
- DirectorMike De LeonStarsCharo Santos-ConcioJay IlaganVic SilayanA crime-drama-suspense genre film not often seen in Philippine cinema. A controlling patriarch loses it over his daughter's marriage and her attempts to escape from their incestuous household.
- DirectorMario O'HaraStarsNora AunorChristopher De LeonBembol RocoA woman falls in love with a Japanese soldier during the Japanese Occupation in the Philippines; the whole town turns against her.
- DirectorApichatpong WeerasethakulStarsDuangjai HiransriKome Kongkiat KomesiriSaisiri XoomsaiA film crew documents a folk story-exquisite corpse combination by random Thai people; the story is reenacted.
- DirectorSiew Hua YeoStarsPeter YuXiaoyi LiuYue GuoA lonely construction worker from China goes missing at a Singapore land reclamation site, and a sleepless police investigator must put himself in the mind of the migrant to uncover the truth beneath all that sand.
- DirectorKidlat TahimikStarsKidlat TahimikMang FelyDolores SantamariaA Filipino jeepney driver (Kidlat Tahimik) who idolizes America's space program comes to reject the rapid encroachment of technology.
- DirectorPen-Ek RatanaruangTom Pen-Ek RatanaruangStarsTasanawalai OngartittichaiBlack PhomtongLalita PanyopasA woman, fired from a financial coorporation during the Asia crisis, returns home with no money. However, she finds a box with a fortune in front of her door, and decides to keep it. However, the people that left it there soon want it back.
- DirectorApichatpong WeerasethakulStarsBanlop LomnoiSakda KaewbuadeeHuai DessomA romance between a soldier and a country boy, wrapped around a Thai folk-tale involving a shaman with shape-shifting abilities.
- DirectorApichatpong WeerasethakulStarsThanapat SaisaymarJenjira PongpasSakda KaewbuadeeDying of kidney disease, a man spends his last, somber days with family, including the ghost of his wife and a forest spirit who used to be his son, on a rural northern Thailand farm.
- DirectorGerardo de LeonStarsJose Padilla Jr.Lilia DizonDanilo MontesIn a remote fishing village, a wealthy landowner calls on the Snake Devil to protect his priceless family treasures, but this isn't enough to stop the bandit Sanda Wong from attempting the raid when he learns about the treasure.
- DirectorLamberto V. AvellanaStarsRosa RosalTony SantosJoseph De CordovaA war hero meets a prostitute in the postwar ruins of Manila.
- DirectorGerardo de LeonEddie RomeroStarsFrancis LedererGreta ThyssenRichard DerrA mad scientist transforms a panther into a man-like creature that escapes and goes on a murderous rampage.
- DirectorEddie RomeroStarsJohn AshleyMary Charlotte WilcoxLeopoldo SalcedoSatan saves a man from death on condition he become his disciple (and, as it turns out, a hairy murderous beast).
- DirectorMike De LeonStarsTommy AbuelMario MontenegroMona LisaDuring a return to his provincial home, a young man gets involved with a woman who is ultimately possessed by her sister's spirit, paving the way to revealing the painful truth about her unsolved disappearance.
- DirectorIshmael BernalStarsCharito SolisAlma MorenoLorna TolentinoThe hidden nightlife of ordinary people living in Manila unveils. Lovers and families' conflicts are radically pitted against each other as they live in the night streets rampant with drugs and prostitution. The outstanding narrative explicitly unravels the various characters and episodes. This landmark film of Ishmael Bernal depicts the darkness of city life so vividly that it was once prohibited to use the word 'Manila' on its title.
- DirectorH. Tjut DjalilStarsIlona Agathe BastianYos SantoSofia W.D.A woman researches a book that takes her to the black magic cult of Leák in Bali. She meets an evil witch who promises to train her dark arts. But she is tricked and turned into a flying vampire with internal organs hanging from her neck.
- DirectorLiliek SudjioStarsSuzzannaW.D. MochtarTeddy PurbaA woman is accused of being a witch and thrown to her death over a cliff. A strange man rescues her, nurses her back to health, and is told that she must master black magic in order to exact vengeance on her tormentors.
- DirectorRaymond RedStarsBoy CanlasJon Red
- DirectorIshmael BernalStarsNora AunorSpanky ManikanGigi DueñasElsa saw the blessed Virgin Mary who had changed her life and caused a hysteria in a poor isolated village.
- DirectorDang Nhat MinhStarsVân LêLuu Viet Bao DangYen HoangDuyen faces a daily struggle to care for her young son and her weakened father-in-law, while keeping secret the fact that her husband died in a battle during the war.
- DirectorAnh Hung TranStarsNu Yên-Khê TranMan San LuThi Loc TruongA Vietnamese servant girl, Mui, observes lives within two different Saigon families: the first, a woman textile seller with three boys and a frequently absent husband; the second, a handsome young pianist with his fiancée.
- DirectorAnh Hung TranStarsLe Van LocTony Leung Chiu-waiNu Yên-Khê TranWhen a poor bicycle-taxi driver has his cyclo stolen, he is forced into a life of crime. Meanwhile, his sister becomes a sex worker.
- DirectorSari Raissa Lluch DalenaStarsMyra BeltranHayuma Habulan
- DirectorLav DiazStarsRaymond BagatsingTonton GutierrezAngel AquinoA man appears to a female reporter and claims that he is the famous kidnapper who has the world astir and promises to turn himself in if she listens to his story. Though she is suspicious of him, she starts to fall more and more into his story.
- DirectorLav DiazStarsKlaudia KoronelJoel TorreElizabeth OropesaA priest estranged from the holy vows marries Clara and starts raising a family. After several incidents, he becomes wracked with melancholia and wanders aimlessly, unable to come to terms with his personal truths.
- DirectorApichatpong WeerasethakulA depiction of the landscape, both metaphorically and realistically, of Panyi island.
- DirectorWisit SasanatiengStarsChartchai NgamsanStella MalucchiSupakorn KitsuwonWith its loud acting style, exuberant sets and stunning shots in pastel colours, this Thai cult film is as much a parody as an homage to the Western and the romantic tearjerker.
- DirectorMario O'HaraStarsHilda KoronelAnita LindaMatet De LeonA story about young lovers, rich girl Nena and Jose, a poor boy who works in the fishponds owned by Nena's family. The film traces their relationship as it develops, from prosperity into recession, from a time of peace into a time of political turmoil.
- DirectorLav DiazStarsMark Anthony FernandezDonita RoseJoel LamanganHesus Mariano is caught in a deadly match between his mentor Rebel Leader Miguel Reynante and military Colonel Arnold Simon. Drawing inspiration from his childhood sweetheart Hilda, Hesus decides to change the rules and take control of the game.
- DirectorPrachya PinkaewStarsTony JaaPhetthai VongkumlaoPumwaree YodkamolWhen the head of a statue sacred to a village is stolen, a young martial artist goes to the big city and finds himself taking on the underworld to retrieve it.
- DirectorPrachya PinkaewStarsJeeJa YaninHiroshi AbePongpat WachirabunjongAn autistic girl with powerful martial art skills looks to settle her ailing mother's debts by seeking out the ruthless gangs that owe her family money.
- DirectorPepe DioknoStarsCelso Ad. CastilloFelix RocoDaniel Medrana"Engwkentro" follows two teenage brothers attempting to escape an unnamed city controlled by an iron-fisted mayor. They must first break away from the cycle of crime, while trying to run from rival gang leaders and the state's murderous vigilantes.
- DirectorJoe MorfordAnimated story of compassion in poverty.
- DirectorGareth EvansStarsIko UwaisAnanda GeorgeRay SahetapyA S.W.A.T. team becomes trapped in a tenement run by a ruthless mobster and his army of killers and thugs.
- DirectorMattie DoStarsAmphaiphun PhommapunyaDouangmany SoliphanhSoukchinda DuangkhamchanA sickly young woman experiences visions of her dead mother. She struggles to determine if the apparition is simply a side effect of her daily medication, or her mother actually reaching out to her from beyond the grave.
- DirectorSean EllisStarsJake MacapagalJohn ArcillaAlthea VegaThis riveting crime thriller follows Oscar, a recent emigrant to Manila who gets pulled into a harrowing world of corruption and violence when he takes a job as an armored car driver to support his family (in Tagalog w/ English subtitles).
- DirectorLav DiazStarsWilly FernandezNoel MirallesHazel OrencioIn the year 2050, the Philippines braces for the coming of the fiercest storm ever to hit the country. And as wind and waters start to rage, poets wander the streets.
- DirectorRaya MartinStarsNoel Comia Jr.Agot IsidroMoi MarcampoIn the early 1990s, a teenager and his gang of friends enjoy their summer playing games as they grow up.
- DirectorLav DiazStarsNanding JosefBart GuingonaDon Melvin BoongalingA look at how much human beings are like animals.