Letterboxd Top Dramas, a list by keith

8.6

/88654/

85

/1882/

84

/1144/

4.7

/199789/

100

/10/

97

/415/

85

/9/

4.0

Down-on-his-luck veteran Tsugumo Hanshirō enters the courtyard of the prosperous House of Iyi. Unemployed, and with no family, he hopes to find a place to commit seppuku—and a worthy second to deliver the coup de grâce in his suicide ritual. The senior counselor for the Iyi clan questions the ronin’s resolve and integrity, suspecting Hanshirō of seeking charity rather than an honorable end. What follows is a pair of interlocking stories which lay bare the difference between honor and respect, and promises to examine the legendary foundations of the Samurai code.

82

79

8.9

/3075/

88

/658/

85

/640/

4.6

/259301/

65

/80/

78

/2157/

An idiosyncratic FBI agent investigates the murder of a young woman in the even more idiosyncratic town of Twin Peaks. (This standalone version of the series pilot was produced for the European VHS market and has an alternate, closed ending.)

93

9.0

/968478/

88

/16278/

85

/9643/

4.6

/1304036/

100

/63/

97

/6764/

97

/18/

4.0

age 12+

The defense and the prosecution have rested and the jury is filing into the jury room to decide if a young Spanish-American is guilty or innocent of murdering his father. What begins as an open and shut case soon becomes a mini-drama of each of the jurors' prejudices and preconceptions about the trial, the accused, and each other.

89

8.6

/861535/

85

/13747/

84

/7929/

4.6

/998306/

91

/162/

97

/15604/

79

/33/

4.0

age 18+

In the poverty-stricken favelas of Rio de Janeiro in the 1970s, two young men choose different paths. Rocket is a budding photographer who documents the increasing drug-related violence of his neighborhood, while José “Zé” Pequeno is an ambitious drug dealer diving into a dangerous life of crime.

89

78

8.8

/8481/

86

/212/

84

/202/

4.6

/25705/

97

/28/

After the Japanese defeat to the Russians, Kaji leads the last remaining men through Manchuria. Intent on returning to his dear wife and his old life, Kaji faces great odds in a variety of different harrowing circumstances as he and his fellow men sneak behind enemy lines.

89

8.4

/69684/

84

/1467/

83

/1059/

4.6

/185667/

97

/70/

95

/556/

90

/17/

A Yokohama shoe executive faces a wrenching choice when kidnappers mistakenly seize his chauffeur’s son but demand the ransom anyway.

92

8.6

/398058/

84

/5714/

84

/4069/

4.6

/383477/

100

/103/

97

/6724/

98

/7/

4.0

age 13+

A samurai answers a village's request for protection after he falls on hard times. The town needs protection from bandits, so the samurai gathers six others to help him teach the people how to defend themselves, and the villagers provide the soldiers with food.

89

8.3

/119651/

82

/2946/

82

/1724/

4.6

/408767/

90

/60/

95

/929/

4.0

age 16+

The invasion of a village in Belarus by German forces sends young Florya into the forest to join the weary Resistance fighters, against his family's wishes. There he meets a girl, Glasha, who accompanies him back to his village. On returning home, Florya finds his family and fellow peasants massacred. His continued survival amidst the brutal debris of war becomes increasingly nightmarish, a battle between despair and hope.

91

9.0

/1475099/

87

/21054/

85

/13460/

4.6

/1231676/

96

/129/

97

/18705/

90

/18/

age 16+

In the continuing saga of the Corleone crime family, a young Vito Corleone grows up in Sicily and in 1910s New York. In the 1950s, Michael Corleone attempts to expand the family business into Las Vegas, Hollywood and Cuba.

89

IMDb 47

9.3

/3143286/

91

/51922/

87

/29483/

4.6

/2415769/

89

/146/

98

/53482/

82

/22/

3.5

age 15+

Imprisoned in the 1940s for the double murder of his wife and her lover, upstanding banker Andy Dufresne begins a new life at the Shawshank prison, where he puts his accounting skills to work for an amoral warden. During his long stretch in prison, Dufresne comes to be admired by the other inmates -- including an older prisoner named Red -- for his integrity and unquenchable sense of hope.

90

8.3

/100744/

82

/1704/

83

/1271/

4.5

/174362/

98

/57/

96

/1465/

92

/20/

4.0

age 11+

Kanji Watanabe is a middle-aged man who has worked in the same monotonous bureaucratic position for decades. Learning he has cancer, he starts to look for the meaning of his life.

88

8.2

/14728/

80

/533/

83

/366/

4.5

/68776/

100

/26/

94

/99/

91

/6/

A boy experiences first love, friendships and injustices growing up in 1960s Taiwan.

85

8.1

/221431/

82

/5040/

80

/4394/

4.5

/906491/

96

/73/

95

/2372/

3.0

age 16+

After a chaotic night of rioting in a marginal suburb of Paris, three young friends, Vinz, Hubert and Saïd, wander around unoccupied waiting for news about the state of health of a mutual friend who has been seriously injured when confronting the police.

86

8.2

/697596/

80

/13445/

81

/7166/

4.5

/1153051/

91

/244/

86

/36700/

93

/42/

3.5

age 16+

Ruthless silver miner, turned oil prospector, Daniel Plainview, moves to oil-rich California. Using his son to project a trustworthy, family-man image, Plainview cons local landowners into selling him their valuable properties for a pittance. However, local preacher Eli Sunday suspects Plainview's motives and intentions, starting a slow-burning feud that threatens both their lives.

93

9.0

/1567942/

88

/25430/

86

/16980/

4.5

/1253752/

98

/135/

97

/22910/

95

/30/

4.0

age 15+

The true story of how businessman Oskar Schindler saved over a thousand Jewish lives from the Nazis while they worked as slaves in his factory during World War II.

88

8.8

/881268/

85

/13572/

84

/9335/

4.5

/660478/

97

/76/

97

/11687/

90

/7/

3.0

age 15+

While the Civil War rages on between the Union and the Confederacy, three men – a quiet loner, a ruthless hitman, and a Mexican bandit – comb the American Southwest in search of a strongbox containing $200,000 in stolen gold.

93

IMDb 79

9.2

/2194209/

88

/35257/

86

/22250/

4.5

/2344268/

97

/153/

98

/41096/

100

/16/

4.0

age 16+

Spanning the years 1945 to 1955, a chronicle of the fictional Italian-American Corleone crime family. When organized crime family patriarch, Vito Corleone barely survives an attempt on his life, his youngest son, Michael steps in to take care of the would-be killers, launching a campaign of bloody revenge.

91

IMDb 95

8.5

/1133005/

85

/43852/

84

/19932/

4.5

/4795835/

99

/485/

90

/2503/

97

/56/

4.0

age 16+

All unemployed, Ki-taek's family takes peculiar interest in the wealthy and glamorous Parks for their livelihood until they get entangled in an unexpected incident.

86

80

8.5

/8673/

82

/227/

82

/211/

4.5

/23248/

94

/897/

Kaji is sent to the Japanese army labeled Red and is mistreated by the vets. Along his assignment, Kaji witnesses cruelties in the army and revolts against the abusive treatment against the recruit Obara. He also sees his friend Shinjô Ittôhei defecting to the Russian border, and he ends in the front to fight a lost battle against the Russian tanks division.

84

81

8.5

/10828/

82

/306/

81

/270/

4.5

/32508/

73

/15/

95

/56/

After handing in a report on the treatment of Chinese colonial labor, Kaji is offered the post of labor chief at a large mining operation in Manchuria, which also grants him exemption from military service. He accepts, and moves to Manchuria with his newly-wed wife Michiko, but when he tries to put his ideas of more humane treatment into practice, he finds himself at odds with scheming officials, cruel foremen, and the military police.

90

8.4

/25018/

81

/540/

82

/500/

4.5

/59770/

100

/33/

93

/343/

4.0

A vacationing entomologist suffers extreme physical and psychological trauma after being taken captive by the residents of a poor seaside village and made to live with a woman whose life task is shoveling sand for them.

88

8.5

/23015/

82

/594/

82

/538/

4.5

/47250/

95

/19/

96

/114/

Four prison inmates have been hatching a plan to literally dig out of jail when another prisoner, Claude Gaspard, is moved into their cell. They take a risk and share their plan with the newcomer. Over the course of three days, the prisoners and friends break through the concrete floor using a bed post and begin to make their way through the sewer system – yet their escape is anything but assured.

89

8.1

/74420/

78

/1175/

79

/847/

4.5

/112151/

99

/94/

95

/1191/

96

/22/

4.0

Paratrooper commander Colonel Mathieu, a former French Resistance fighter during World War II, is sent to Algeria to reinforce efforts to squelch the uprisings of the Algerian War. There he faces Ali la Pointe, a former petty criminal who, as the leader of the Algerian Front de Liberation Nationale, directs terror strategies against the colonial French government occupation. As each side resorts to ever-increasing brutality, no violent act is too unthinkable.

89

8.4

/236235/

81

/3644/

82

/3165/

4.5

/277050/

96

/77/

95

/1856/

90

/18/

4.0

age 13+

A commanding officer defends three scapegoats on trial for a failed offensive that occurred within the French Army in 1916.

87

8.1

/33027/

81

/946/

79

/631/

4.5

/158869/

97

/91/

91

/517/

94

/25/

3.5

A Taipei family faces personal and moral uncertainty as everyday events test their relationships and sense of purpose.

84

8.1

/41551/

81

/795/

80

/673/

4.5

/120450/

85

/33/

92

/358/

After a seven-year absence, Charlotte Andergast travels to Sweden to reunite with her daughter Eva. The pair have a troubled relationship: Charlotte sacrificed the responsibilities of motherhood for a career as a classical pianist. Over an emotional night, the pair reopen the wounds of the past. Charlotte gets another shock when she finds out that her mentally impaired daughter, Helena, is out of the asylum and living with Eva.

90

8.2

/149647/

80

/2532/

80

/1722/

4.5

/224656/

96

/94/

95

/2188/

97

/21/

4.0

Shakespeare's King Lear is reimagined as a singular historical epic set in sixteenth-century Japan where an aging warlord divides his kingdom between his three sons.

87

8.5

/313776/

84

/4805/

84

/4690/

4.5

/417211/

90

/84/

96

/5148/

80

/21/

3.5

age 14+

A filmmaker recalls his childhood, when he fell in love with the movies at his village's theater and formed a deep friendship with the theater's projectionist.

91

8.7

/1371221/

85

/25752/

84

/13899/

4.5

/1908257/

93

/167/

97

/29224/

92

/21/

4.0

age 18+

The true story of Henry Hill, a half-Irish, half-Sicilian Brooklyn kid who is adopted by neighbourhood gangsters at an early age and climbs the ranks of a Mafia family under the guidance of Jimmy Conway.

86

35

8.5

/1214/

76

/41/

81

/8/

4.4

/11550/

100

/9/

Andrew Scott brings multiple characters to life in Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, filmed live in West End, London. Hopes, dreams, and regrets are thrust into sharp focus in this one-man adaptation which explores the complexities of human emotions.

88

8.3

/9410/

80

/84/

75

/148/

4.4

/15236/

100

/19/

94

/114/

4.0

The love story of young Countess Natasha Rostova and Count Pierre Bezukhov is interwoven with the Great Patriotic War of 1812 against Napoleon's invading army.

89

8.3

/216273/

81

/3989/

81

/2537/

4.4

/329365/

93

/107/

94

/2385/

94

/21/

4.0

age 13+

Bud Baxter is a minor clerk in a huge New York insurance company, until he discovers a quick way to climb the corporate ladder. He lends out his apartment to the executives as a place to take their mistresses. Although he often has to deal with the aftermath of their visits, one night he's left with a major problem to solve.

86

8.3

/23066/

81

/379/

81

/392/

4.4

/29613/

73

/15/

95

/388/

90

/10/

4.0

Aspiring to an easy job as personal physician to a wealthy family, Noboru Yasumoto is disappointed when his first post after medical school takes him to a small country clinic under the gruff doctor Red Beard. Yasumoto rebels in numerous ways, but Red Beard proves a wise and patient teacher. He gradually introduces his student to the unglamorous side of the profession, ultimately assigning him to care for a prostitute rescued from a local brothel.

85

8.0

/59991/

78

/874/

79

/909/

4.4

/83069/

96

/46/

93

/674/

An expansive Russian drama, this film focuses on the life of revered religious icon painter Andrei Rublev. Drifting from place to place in a tumultuous era, the peace-seeking monk eventually gains a reputation for his art. But after Rublev witnesses a brutal battle and unintentionally becomes involved, he takes a vow of silence and spends time away from his work. As he begins to ease his troubled soul, he takes steps towards becoming a painter once again.

87

7.9

/122413/

78

/3479/

77

/1922/

4.4

/477967/

92

/150/

89

/3366/

93

/26/

4.0

age 16+

Salvatore "Sal" Fragione is the Italian owner of a pizzeria in Brooklyn. A neighborhood local, Buggin' Out, becomes upset when he sees that the pizzeria's Wall of Fame exhibits only Italian actors. Buggin' Out believes a pizzeria in a black neighborhood should showcase black actors, but Sal disagrees. The wall becomes a symbol of racism and hate to Buggin' Out and to other people in the neighborhood, and tensions rise.

85

8.0

/34813/

80

/849/

79

/603/

4.4

/98249/

92

/92/

93

/907/

88

/31/

3.5

In a small Tokyo apartment, twelve-year-old Akira must care for his younger siblings after their mother leaves them and shows no sign of returning.

90

8.4

/258545/

81

/3742/

83

/2829/

4.4

/326940/

98

/125/

95

/3486/

94

/32/

4.0

age 13+

A hack screenwriter writes a screenplay for a former silent film star who has faded into Hollywood obscurity.

86

8.3

/705928/

83

/17643/

82

/9448/

4.4

/1338604/

82

/160/

94

/11753/

78

/33/

4.0

age 17+

With no clue how he came to be imprisoned, drugged and tortured for 15 years, a desperate man seeks revenge on his captors.

88

86

8.4

/19498/

83

/345/

81

/266/

4.4

/27918/

97

/29/

95

/192/

Apu, now a jobless ex-student dreaming vaguely of a future as a writer, is invited to join an old college friend on a trip up-country to a village wedding.

85

8.4

/1750800/

83

/45542/

82

/23577/

4.4

/3114647/

89

/332/

88

/36639/

69

/36/

4.0

age 17+

In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as "The Basterds" are chosen specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis. The Basterds, lead by Lt. Aldo Raine soon cross paths with a French-Jewish teenage girl who runs a movie theater in Paris which is targeted by the soldiers.

90

8.2

/147911/

79

/2287/

81

/1642/

4.4

/132450/

99

/110/

94

/2747/

98

/15/

4.0

age 12+

From the moment she glimpses her idol at the stage door, Eve Harrington is determined to take the reins of power away from the great actress Margo Channing. Eve maneuvers her way into Margo's Broadway role, becomes a sensation and even causes turmoil in the lives of Margo's director boyfriend, her playwright and his wife. Only the cynical drama critic sees through Eve, admiring her audacity and perfect pattern of deceit.

86

83

8.2

/13833/

77

/291/

81

/289/

4.4

/35247/

100

/26/

92

/176/

Inhabitants of a small village in Hungary deal with the effects of the fall of Communism. The town's source of revenue, a factory, has closed, and the locals, who include a doctor and three couples, await a cash payment offered in the wake of the shuttering. Irimias, a villager thought to be dead, returns and, unbeknownst to the locals, is a police informant. In a scheme, he persuades the villagers to form a commune with him.

88

8.1

/198055/

82

/7794/

81

/4144/

4.4

/706360/

96

/226/

91

/449/

85

/40/

4.0

1930s Korea, in the period of Japanese occupation, a new girl, Sookee, is hired as a handmaiden to a Japanese heiress, Hideko, who lives a secluded life on a large countryside estate with her domineering Uncle Kouzuki. But the maid has a secret. She is a pickpocket recruited by a swindler posing as a Japanese Count to help him seduce the Lady to steal her fortune.

83

7.8

/9064/

78

/358/

77

/217/

4.4

/36639/

94

/51/

77

/16/

86

/16/

3.5

In the northern Chinese city of Manzhouli, they say there is an elephant that simply sits and ignores the world. Manzhouli becomes an obsession for the protagonists of this film, a longed-for escape from the downward spiral in which they find themselves.

89

8.0

/124712/

81

/4680/

81

/2833/

4.4

/994684/

97

/338/

92

/98/

95

/48/

4.0

age 15+

On an isolated island in Brittany at the end of the eighteenth century, a female painter is obliged to paint a wedding portrait of a young woman.

82

8.2

/11968/

81

/243/

78

/240/

4.4

/37795/

100

/5/

62

/5/

91

/20/

3.0

Four vignettes on the lives of the Cuban people in the pre-revolutionary era. In Havana, Maria is ashamed when a man she loves discovers how she makes a living. Pedro, an old farmer, discovers that the land he cultivates is being sold to an American company. A student sees his friends attacked by the police while they distribute leaflets supporting Fidel Castro. Finally, a peasant family is threatened by Batista's army.

85

84

8.3

/22044/

80

/440/

79

/430/

4.4

/51709/

96

/26/

93

/249/