TEHRAN – Iran placed second on the new list of the best Asian films of all time released by the organizers of the Busan International Film Festival in South Korea with 19 films following Japan with 26.

South Korea is ranked third with 15 films, and the oldest film chosen was “I Was Born, But…” directed by Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu in 1932.

The 20th anniversary of the Busan International Film Festival in South Korea marked its milestone with a poll of noted Asian filmmakers and international critics of Asian cinema, all of whom were asked for their top ten.

Festival organizers said they had created the list of the region’s greatest films to widen the world’s knowledge about its cinematic history, AFP reported on Sunday.

The poll also rated Asia’s top directors of all time with Ozu coming out ahead of Hsiao-Hsien Hou from Taiwan, and Abbas Kiarostami, whose highest-ranked film was 1994’s “Close Up”.

The top five films in the “Asian Cinema 100” are “Tokyo Story” (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953), “Rashomon” (Akira Kurosawa, 1950), “In the Mood For Love” (Wong Kar Wai, 2000), “The Apu Trilogy” (Satyajit Ray, 1955) and “A City Of Sadness” (Hsiao-Hsien Hou, 1989).

Asia’s most successful film in terms of global box office receipts is the Oscar-winning Ang Lee-directed martial arts epic “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (2000) from Taiwan which collected an estimated US$128 million.

RM/YAW
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