Saturday, August 31, 2013

My new favourite movie of all time

When I get asked what my favourite movie of all time is, my answer is usually based on the movies I can remember - which is probably quite a small proportion of the movies I've seen and enjoyed at the time.

At various times my answers has been either "Don Juan DeMarco", "Zoolander" or "City of Lost Children" (the latter mostly for the weirdness).

It has taken multiple viewings of "Bend it like Beckham" for me to decide that - now - this is definitely my favourite movie of all time.  I saw it at the movies when it first came out and saw it again a couple of times when it was broadcast on the telly. But watching it tonight (on Maori Television)  has done it.

It's got the culture-clash theme, of which I am an extreme sucker. But there's also the impressive football skills, the larger-than-life Indian wedding spectacle, and the very, very pretty Jonathan Rhys Meyers. (And of course Parminder Nagra is just great. Since this movie I've only seen her in a handful of ER episodes. What a shame, I'd far rather watch her than Keira.) All the characters are wonderful, even the narrow-minded mums. Oh, and the music!!

It's probably the most feel-good movie ever.

As an aside, right after the movie ended the next show on Maori Television was "Monkey" - a remake of the old Japanese tv series about a Chinese myth, which used to be on tell when I was a teenager. I used to think back then how weird it was that the characters were Chinese but speaking English with Japanese accents. But the version showing tonight was dubbed over in Maori. Excellent!

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh my goodness, I LOVE Bend it Like Beckham!!!! I love everything about it - the characters, the story, the music. 2 thumbs up! It's actually been a favorite of mine for a very long time. I'm happy to see that someone else loves it too!

Anonymous said...

I like BILB too but zoo lander is still totally my favourite.

I feel like I've been taking crazy pills!

Anonymous said...

If you loved Bend it like Beckham, I think you'll love My Big Fat Greek Wedding too. They both rate equal on my rating of fav movies. :-)

Violet said...

Christy - I was even hearing the theme music in my sleep last night!

donnasoowho: zoolander is my second all time fave :-)

kiwiyarns: yes I've enjoyed Big Fat too, they have a similar cross-cultural thing going on but I guess Bend It resonates more with me. Not sure why though, because its more teenagey and I'm not.

Watson Woodworth said...

I love Monkey!