I’ve been customizing the presentation jellyfin library, and this caused me to notice that the only brown faces visible on any of the thumbnails is on Berry Gordy’s The Last Dragon. I probably should be more cultured than this. What movies about non-white characters do y’all think I should add to my collection?
BTW, if you haven’t watched The Last Dragon, go watch it right now. It’s like if Kung Fu Panda took place in Harlem; sure, our protagonist Leeroy “Bruce Leeroy” Green starts the movie at a level of kung-fu mastery that Po doesnt achieve until Kung Fu Panda 3, but the plotline is pretty similar to the 1st movie in that Leeroy is sent on a quest to find a wise master known as Sum Dum Guy so he can reach the final level. Leeroy also is a fucking weeb and never stops being a socially inept dorky loser to the end of the film. I will warn you, though, that the martial arts is very Shaolin from the start and only gets crazier from there, in case that’s a dealbreaker for you. Either way it’s my favorite movie.
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- Boyz n the Hood (1991)
- Do the Right Thing (1989)
- Rashomon (1950)
- Seven Samurai (1954)
- They Cloned Tyrone (2023)
- Yojimbo (1963)
There are a lot of films on other commenter’s lists that I would wholeheartedly recommend too.
Sorry to Bother You
- Blazing Saddles
- I’m Gonna Get You Sucka
- Friday (and sequals)
- Get Out, Us, Nope
- Sinners
- Crouching Tiger
- Everything Everywhere All At Once
- Old Boy
- Soul
- Coco
- Encanto
- Book of Life
Ooh, I forgot about Crouching Tiger and Encanto, love both of those :-)
The Woman King
Blade (I enjoyed all 3, but it helps to be high for them)
Everything Everywhere All At Once
Parasite
Sinners
RRR
Honourable mention because it’s my favourite, for a bit of LGBT diversity - Love Lies Bleeding
Sinners is such a good movie. Not just for the music and overall quality, but because it tackles the topic of whiteness and who counts in the in-group. It’s a very successful film about race.
For similar reasons is why I’m not 100% on The Woman King, which is an interesting parallel to Sinners in a way. Sinners is a work of fiction that isn’t meant to depict real events, but feels like it is coming from a real place. The Woman King is an ostensibly historical story, but it performs a good bit of revisionism to the nation of Dahomey, which was a key participant in the transatlantic slave trade. The story of the film is one which would be nice to believe, but doesn’t feel genuine and leaves a bit of a bad aftertaste when held against real events.
That’s a fair commentary, though a vast number of movies based vaguely on reality suffer from the same issue … from my list above RRR would be a good example, too, for instance. Or just about any American film about a real war.
Edit to add (that nobody else has mentioned) - Big Hero 6
Black Dynamite
Oh shit how have I gone my whole life without watching that movie
Kung Fu Hustle, Shaolin Soccer, Rush Hour, Shaft, Life (1999), Attack the Block, Black Klansman, Beverly Hills Cop, Life of Pi, The Man from Nowhere (2010), Parasite, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, Heat of the Night (anything Sidney Poitier really), Coming to America, Bad Boys, Old Boy, Django Unchained, Train to Busan, Shutter, Slumdog Millionaire, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Unleashed/Hero/The One (Jet Li had some bangers).
I hope this list is colorful enough for you to start and I appreciate you for reaching out of your comfort zone.
Kung Fu Hustle, Attack the Block … that’s two more I haven’t thought of in ages that are really good too!
I actually have a lot of wuxia in my collection. I don’t plan on adding Hero to it thought because it’s really effective propaganda and I dont want to expose my future kids to stuff like that until they have learned how to analyze a text. Not denying that the movie is awesome, it’s like a religious experience. But the core message is that the best way to world peace is to let one strong man conquer the world to unite it, and most importantly that this truth is so self-evident and persuasive that every enlightened character in the movie switches from opposing the emperor’s conquest to being a supporter or at minimum exits the conflict as best they can. Seriously, go watch it again, you’ll notice that pretty much every line of dialogue is building this thesis. But it’s not like Detective Dee and the Phantom Flame or Crouching Tiger; you can’t just enjoy the beautiful fight scenes, your critical analysis cap has to be on for the whole movie.
Second this. It’s very Indian.
Favourite bit is the dance-off, which is something all action films should have!
I just watched “they will kill you” which is 90 minutes of Zazie Beetz killing mfs, recommended
moonlight and tenet are both really good
I enjoyed Tenet the first time, but it didn’t stand up to a rewatch for me … too much of a “vibes” movie I guess
