How to pick a foreign movie that affected you? In this case, me. Well, almost every other movie is foreign to me. So, picking out a single film was proven tougher than I first imagined. It's not that I'm snobbish; I can watch any and all movies. I can ignore, directors and casts and ratings and almost every aspect, if only the name calls out to me at that very moment. Too many times I have done that only. I have watched so many movies but I barely write about them. You can be sure, in one week I have watched at least twice more films as I wrote about. For the sake of The Contest, I decided not to pick any Hollywood or Bollywood movies.

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A hint of pickiness That is, I don't write about all the movies that I have watched, neither recently nor before. And I will definitely try my best to choose films that haven't been written by anyone before. And there's a Why attached to it. Just like I don't have any systematic way of choosing a film to watch, the same way, a movie has been deemed highly by critics and in the hall of fame, isn't necessarily going to move me.

Picking a foreign movie 101 - How to watch the movie less and constantly check subtitles for over an hour.

What!!! Hey, don't you dare deny doing it! Well, I do and then I rewatch the movie just to understand it better. Some will suggest watching the dubbed version but they seem to lose the flavor that the movie contains. And do I need to tell you how tough it is? And I would prefer less complicated ones over the complex ones, but I'll watch them both. But as of this moment, I'm having a hard time writing about it. I'm trying to choose between films that are exceptional and films that I have fond memories attached to it.

Kung Fu Hustle (2004)
The Kite Runner(2007)
Along with the Gods: The Two Worlds (2017)

With these three, however, I have very distinctive emotions attached to them. While the first two, I have memories of my younger self, the last one I can consider as a recent infatuation. Hence I thought of going along with the first one and soon after I'll be back with the second and third as I believe all of them need separate posts each.

Kung Fu Hustle (2004)

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I know I have ranted way too much beforehand to say anything now. Although, if I slightly give away about the plot and discuss the director and cast, it will be long drawn and very unattractive. So skipping that part, I would rather say you should watch the movie. Oh, it was most definitely fun to watch, and over the span of about 10 years, I have repeated it many times but the first time would always be significant to me.

It was during my early twenties when I was living nearby my college campus along with few others. Huddled with 7 flatmates on a Thursday night (Friday being the weekend) and roaring with laughter and being teary-eyed is what this movie reminds me of. During those days, we'd download movies throughout the week and save them to watch over the two days of weekends. I remember my roommate urging me to watch this one. I remember being reluctant and skipped on it for a few weeks. After talking to my other flatmates, we decided to give it a try and so I downloaded it and our weekend had begun with this particular one.

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Imagine eight people sitting on the bed, with lights out and an abundance of snacks. We were wowed at the fighting scenes, throw chips at each other, cringe when Sing (Stephen Chow) was beaten to a pulp, and laughed when his attempt to kill the landlady backfired on him; you should see the knives and snakes that got stuck on him. Those were some of the best years of my life that I had spent in college and whether we could decide where to hang out or not, movies were something that we never were indecisive about while choosing.

Now I'm sure I have painted a very vivid picture of why I picked this movie. I could pick from Bergman, Goddard, Miyazaki, Truffaut, or Tarkovsky and they have some of the most fascinating films that have ever been created, and each a phenomena in their own way. However, Kung Fu Hustle along with a few others that I have watched during those days will be preserved as fond memories.

So deciding if I want to write a film that can be regarded as a masterpiece or a movie that you're somewhat sentimental about, is never as easy as it may seem. Now, I realize, I wasn't being picky at all.