300 is so gay. All those half-naked men with body-waxes and sculpted physiques running around and flexing during the entire movie. Totally gay. Which cracks me up considering the target demographic for the movie is males teenage and 18-30, most of whom would swear off the movie if they realized what was staring them in the face. My 18-year old nephew who is gung-ho to join the marines after graduation almost suffered a head implosion when the imagery was pointed out to him.
I do watch a lot of asian movies - South Korea has had an amazing renaissance over the last decade (I attribute it to finally achieving true democracy in the mid-80s or so). My favorite movie of all time, is the Korean
Oasis which is probably the most powerful love story that I've seen (although Lars Von Trier's
Breaking the Waves is more intense, but ends without any opportunity for hope, unlike Oasis which I saw as a very hopeful film). A total 180 from either of those is the super-fun romantic comedy that just about everybody in Asia has seen or at least heard of
My Sassy Girl. Also
Spy Girl which is hilarious and does a good job (intentional or not) of showing how South Korea is like America (McDonalds and mega-malls) and how it is not like America (particularly how the north-south division affects
everything at some level or another) - plus the female lead is one of the most gorgeous women I have ever seen.
I really liked Kamikaze Girls - partly because the colors were all super-saturated and it just looked fantastic on my 100" wide screen. I am a sucker for pretty pictures. A much quieter and less visually in your face movie from Japan that is vaguely similar, but I thought funnier, is
Hana and Alice about two girls with a crush on one guy, when one of the girls sees the guy hit his head and pass out, she pretends she is his girlfriend and that he must have amnesia since he does not remember. Both girls go through some elaborate efforts to keep up the charade.
I liked "Last Life in the Universe" - I think Thailand has some real cinematic potential, although that specific director went to film school in NYC. He did a really funny action-murder-comedy called
6ixtynin9 the story is all about a woman who lives in apartment 6, but the number on the door keeps falling over to look like a 9 causing her to be mistaken for someone from the local mafia.
Some other fun Thai films are
Citizen Dog which is about a country bumpkin who goes to live in Bangkok and has a bunch of surreal experiences in his quest for love and his place in life, very colorful.
Bangkok Loco is about a drummer in a local rock band who has to fight the forces of evil, it is sort of a Thai "Kung-Fu Hustle" but 10x more surreal, also very colorful and the (region-3) DVD looks almost like hi-def. A good horror movie that has made it to the US and I think is even getting a US remake is
Shutter - about a photographer who accidentally (or maybe not) gets ghosts showing up in the pictures he takes. Then there is the hilarious zombie movie
SARS Wars.
And just to round this post out with a non-asian film, check out the French
Atomik Circus which stars Jonny Depp's wife - Vanessa Paradis. It is an alien invasion movie sort of on the level of Slither, but with its own hyper-kinetic craziness.