griggs's - 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die List

In 19th century Canton, Wong Fei-hung (Jet Li) battles ruthless imperialist forces determined to subjugate his country and enslave his people, leading to a climactic fight sequence still regarded as one of the best ever filmed.

Songlian (Gong Li) is the fourth and newest wife to a master who already supports three wives. Each has her own house within the closed world of the family compound, where every evening a red lantern is lit in front of the door of the wife with whom the master chooses to sleep. Let the rivalries begin!

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"Center Stage" transports viewers to China's silent film era, chronicling the extraordinary life and career of legendary actress Ruan Ling-yu.

Maggie Cheung delivers a poignant performance that brought Ruan's story to global audiences, earning her the Best Actress award at the 42nd Berlin International Film Festival.

Upon examining the Warren Commission report on President Kennedy's assassination, New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner) suspects that there is more to the story than the public is being told.

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Quentin Tarantino rocked the film world with this powerful and controversial debut movie.

Set mainly in a warehouse in the aftermath of a bungled robbery the story gradually unfolds to introduce the colour-coded gangsters and the planning of the crime step by step, through Tarantino's trademark flashbacks. Four have survived after a police ambush - betrayed. What went wrong and who is the betrayer?

aka A Tale of Winter

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Hando (Russell Crowe), the psychotic leader of a gang of marauding neo-Nazi teenagers, begins a relationship with the epileptic Gabrielle (Jacqueline McKenzie), but though they at first make a good team the courtship soon turns abusive.

Though Gabrielle has designs to take Hando away from his Life of crime and destruction, his indoctrination into a racist world viewpoint seems all-consuming. Hard-hitting and at times cruel, this sadistic drama bleeds with unpalatable truths and difficult to face up to notions of culture, identity and working-class disintegration.

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When callous movie studio executive Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins) starts receiving anonymous death threats from a rejected screenwriter, his already shaky career begins to crumble. Finally, his desperation drives him to kill...

but did he rub out the wrong writer? Relentlessly hounded by a street-wise detective (Whoopi Goldberg), Griffin falls in love with the dead man's girlfriend (Greta Scacchi). Then the mysterious threats begin again - and Griffin is plunged into a plot more outrageous than any movie.

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Scott Hastings (Paul Mercurio) is a talented ballroom dancing champion who longs to dance his own steps. This results in being dumped by his partner and chastened by all those around him, except two people.

One is Fran, the ugly duckling of the school who persuades him to let her dance with him, and eventually steals his heart. The other is his father, a quiet man dominated by his bejewelled wife. Scott knows in his heart he must follow his dreams, but some are determined to see him fail. The film climaxes at the Australian Championship in a superbly choreographed and heart-warming finale.

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Man Bites Dog is a spoof documentary about an amiable but seriously warped mass murderer, who kills all types of people, but has a particular fondness for postmen.

The movie charts the increasingly close relationship between the killer and a film crew making a documentary about his exploits, who get implicated in his horrendous deeds.

Eastwood and Morgan Freeman play retired outlaws who pick up their guns one last time to collect a bounty. Richard Harris is an ill-fated killer-for-hire. And Hackman is a lawman of sly charm...and chilling brutality

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A group of real-estate salesmen-cum-con artists live on the edge. All the time. Life is good for only one. For the rest, life hangs in the balance. There is no room for losers. The name of the game is simple: A-B-C. A-Always. B-Be. C-Closing. Always be closing. Sell or go under. Right under.

Deep rock bottom under. That's the name of the game. It's simple.

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Fergus (Stephen Rea) is an IRA "volunteer" who reluctantly takes part in the kidnapping of a black British soldier, Jody (Forest Whitaker), stationed in Northern Ireland.

When the kidnapping goes terribly wrong, Fergus escapes to London and tracks down Jody's glamorous girlfriend Dil (Jaye Davidson), spurred on by a promise made to his former hostage. Tailing Fergus are two fiercely loyal IRA operatives.

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Based on the best-selling novel by Lilian Lee, "Farewell My Concubine" is an epic exploration of art, friendship and betrayal.

Set against the tumultuous backdrop of more than fifty years of Chinese history, the film charts the relationship between Cheng (Leslie Cheung) and Duan (Zhang Fengyi), two stars in the Peking Opera troupe, and the woman who comes between them. Chen Kaige's sumptuous and moving epic holds an important place in the history of Chinese-language cinema.

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Bill Murray is at his wisecracking best in this riotous romantic comedy about a weatherman caught in a personal time warp on the worst day of his life! Teamed with a relentlessly cheery producer (Annie MacDowell) and a smart-aleck cameraman, TV weatherman Phil Connors (Bill Murray) is sent to

Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania to cover the annual Groundhog Day festivities. On his way out of town, Phil is caught in a giant blizzard - which he himself actually failed to predict - and finds himself stuck in a small town hell. Just when things couldn't get worse... they do! Phil wakes the next morning to find that it's Groundhog Day all over again... and again... and again.