Legend of the Mountain (1979)

Director: King Hu

Notable Cast: Shih Chun, Hsu Feng, Syliva Chang, Tung Lam, Tien Feng, Chen Hui-Lou, Rainbow Hsu, Wu Jiaxiang, Ng Ming Tsui, Sun Yueh

Legend of the Mountain remains a rather unique cinematic experience for a variety of reasons. As one of the overlooked films in King Hu’s filmography, particularly compared to his famous wuxia films like Come Drink with Me, Dragon Inn, and his artistic pinnacle A Touch of Zen, it’s truly a wonder that this film finally finds itself with a proper release in the US via our friends at Kino Lorber. It’s not a film for everyone, thanks to Hu’s enigmatic narrative and almost-too-much-of-a-good-thing visual and auditory approach to the film, but for those that are seemingly up for the 3+ hour leap into realms of magic, love, and just a hint of horror, it’s a film that embraces its cinematic experience in full.

Underground (1995)

Director: Emir Kusturica

Notable Cast: Predrag "Miki" Manojlović, Lazar "Laza" Ristovski, Mirjana Joković

Winner of the Palme d'Or in 1995 at the Cannes Film Festival in France, Emir Kusturica's three hour historical satire dark comedy blew up to epic proportions in its popularity among the festival circuits at the time.  From what I understand though, there wasn't much English language coverage of the film for quite some time. Regardless, since the boom of intense film restoration for fancy quality discs for home media came about, Underground has went before the eyes of many and worked its way into the hearts of most. While I appreciate the large caliber of gags and insane camera work, I unfortunately didn't find much to latch onto whilst spending my time underground.