31. The Gangster The Cop The Devil (Lee Won-tae, 2019, S. Korea)
Nevertheless, Lee's script notably deviates from the thriller formula. As you can see from the title, the figure of the gangster, portrayed by Don Lee as a brawny, cunning man used to giving orders behind the curtain of his clan's hierarchy, is also part of the equation. In a world of “prey and predators” as he calls it quite fittingly at one point, the concepts of law and order, or those ideas protecting others, have been suspended. Because the system has been corroded by forces like his organization, it has allowed for monsters to appear who will not conform to any logic or order.
32. The Stoneman Murders (Manish Gupta, 2009, India)
Writer-director Manish Gupta does a good job in telling the story, which has a very realistic touch, but I'll put that credit mostly to the actors rather than the screenplay. Despite being a murder mystery, Gupta avoids gore and bloodshed, and that is not much appealing to me. Gore is important when the story itself is gory. Gore can be an aesthetic if handled aesthetically. The cinematography of the movie is quite good. Glimpses of urban study can be seen. How an area turns creepy under the shady gloom of sodium vapour lamp can be seen in the movie. Cinematographer turned Mumbai and its alleys sinister, to boast some high-tension night time moments.
33. The Untold Story (Herman Yau, 1993, Hong Kong)
Director Herman Yau's “The Untold Story” is outrageous, disgusting, vile, gruesome, demented and repulsive at times, but a lot of that is due to the fact that the real-life events and person that it is based on are all of that, and more. Yau, no stranger to Cat III filmmaking, presents these most horrifying real-life events in the most unflinching manner, his camera rarely shying away from the gruesome details of the crimes of Wong Chi-hang, demanding a strong stomach from its viewers and fully earning the Cat III classification.
34. Vengeance is Mine (Shohei Imamura, 1979, Japan)
Shohei Imamura directs a film that manages to focus on a single individual for 140 minutes, without analyzing him or giving a reason for his hideous actions. His purpose is to show the extremes humans can reach, even without knowing the reasons themselves. Ken Ogata is magnificent in the protagonist role, portraying a true sociopath who stops at nothing to achieve his goals. (Panos Kotzathanasis)
35. The Witness (Jo Kyu-jang, 2018, S.Korea)
Director Jo Kyu-jang and script-writer Lee Young-jong are two men on a mission. Apparently inspired by a real-life incident in New York, the two men pull no punches in calling modern society out for its selfishness and self-centeredness. The fact that the seemingly preposterous-sounding scenarios actually feel genuine and believable, makes the story even more potent. Considering that the value of their real estate might come down if associated with such an incident, not only do none of the residents come forward to actively help the victim when she's attacked or the police in their investigation, they also pass a notice for all the residents of the apartment complex to not help the police in their investigation, since the victim was not a resident of the complex. The film is at its sharpest when criticising today's society, with a scene in which Sang-hoon's wife Soo-jin helps a fellow neighbour who is looking for his missing wife, even as a crowd of other residents is ostracising him for doing so, standing out. (Rhythm Zaveri)
