Why We Should All Watch More World Cinema

Hollywood is great and all, but don't we know everything about it? We know because we live it. If you haven't watched any or many foreign language films, you might not know the beauty that is depicted in them and what they can teach us. I am going to give you an insight into what you can get out of watching more foreign films.

World cinema offers all kinds of visual surroundings!

They can open your eyes to the beauty of other countries. If you haven't travelled much, then you may not know what some places look like. Fortunately for us, foreign films can take us all over the world. At a time where only 46% of Americans own a passport, this is more important than ever. Needless to say, some films make you really want to make a visit, because some shots make it look beautiful.

Landscapes are absolutely breathtaking in New Zealand. It is a place that offers some of the most beautiful scenery ever, which I'm sure fans of Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit will know all too well. However, if you watch more New Zealand films, then you'll also get to see more beautiful landscapes across the country.

Heavenly Creatures was shot in New Zealand and features some lovely shots. If a film is going to be made in New Zealand, then why shouldn't they use the scenery because it makes it visually pleasing.

Of course, New Zealand is just one of many countries that has beautiful surroundings. Other countries like Korea and Brazil also have beautiful, and yet totally different, surroundings. This is something that we don't always get with Hollywood films, because of a focus on cities such as New York and Los Angeles. They're unique and should be admired by a worldwide audience, including us.

Exploring Other Ways of Life at the Movies

Chungking Express, shot in Hong Kong, is a film that delves into their busy lives and it features lots of fast food restaurants. This shows the lifestyle of the people living in this area of Hong Kong and audiences get an idea of how they go about their everyday lives.

Countries have different ways of living, different cultures and watching foreign films teaches you all about it. Watching films based in the slums in Brazil can teach you all about how they live and what type of life people lead there. Hong Kong cinema portrays a lot of martial arts, so if you watch enough, you will start to pick up on a lot of facts on that subject.

This clip from the Brazilian film City Of God shows what type of violence takes place in the slums of Rio de Janeiro and what it's like to live there. The start of the clip show how narrow the streets are and the condition of their homes. This clip teaches us a lot about their lifestyle.

Watching films from other countries can teach you about their traditions, laws, industries and struggles. They will open your eyes to new things.

Realism and Relatability in World Cinema

Foreign films focus on humans and their feelings and emotions as they go through drama in their life. The films feel more raw and realistic because they never have a huge budget so they're never fancy and full of technology. They focus on the real-life surrounding them and drama that effects us in our every day lives. They capture human emotion in the most realistic way and hardly ever full of CGI. If you want to watch a true drama film then going to another language to watch it can be fully satisfying.

Chungking Express explores love and loss, something which people will relate to. Most foreign films explore subjects that are close to people's hearts because their budgets are a lot lower than Hollywood films. It's usually cheaper to make real stories rather than extreme fantasy ones. They know that people are going to relate and most likely see themselves in some of the characters they create in their films.

This image shows some of the violence that took place in the New Zealand film Once Were Warriors. Foreign films focus on believability and will show as much as they want in order to make a scene as real as possible. They're not afraid to be explicit and that doesn't mean just sex scenes. They're not afraid to show abuse and even rape scenes. They can also be quite graphic. It makes it an unforgettable experience because they play on the audience's emotions and show scenes that will make you want to look away.

Unpredictable

As they have a smaller budget than Hollywood films, it's not essential for these films to make a lot of money. This means that producers and directors have more freedom when it comes to creating the film because they don't have to focus on pleasing an audience with let's say a traditional beginning, middle and end structure where the characters live happily ever after. They set out to create meaningful experiences and they don't always follow the traditional way of storytelling. The films can end in a completely different way than you expected.

It's true, you can learn a lot from world cinema, if you're trying to learn a new language, watching a film from that specific country could assist you in your studies as you can listen to the sounds and the way they pronounce words. Foreign films are very important and offer things that Hollywood doesn't always offer us.