MOVIE RECOMMENDATIONS - 2015-2016 (Mike)

[JackieDu]

Hello everyone,

This is Jackie, a student of Mike's English Through Film class. I am also a movie fun, and that's one of important reasons why I came to Los Angeles and entered USC to continue my education after more than 10 years' work. I have dreamed of being a playwrite in the future, and even getting my own drama stories shot. Actually I like all kinds of movies, especially drama, historical movie and love story.

Here is my recommendation list:
Brave heart
Revolutionary Road
American Beauty
Forest Gump
Gravity
Inception
Gone with the wind

Nice having meeting everyone in class!

Jackie

[Junyilyu]

Hi Mike!

This is Junyi. I love watching movies because I think since we cannot live for a hundred times, probably watching movies is the best way to experience different lives. My favorite genres are adventure movies and love stories. Here are three movies in different genres that I like most--The Fault in Our Stars, Into the Wild and Coherence. On your list, there are also some movies that I have watched before and loved a lot, they are
--Black Swan
--The Great Gatsby
--Hunger Game
--Life of Pi
--Rain Man
--A beautiful mind

Also Harry Potter means a lot to me. Thank you for playing that on the first class and let's continue the fantabulous journey of movies.

Best regards,
Junyi

[reneeliu]

Hi this is renee.I am so glad that I have chance to study in this class. For me, watching movie is like experiencing unlimited lives in a limited time. We can travel to the future or go back to the past time just by sitting in front of the screen, taking the boat of imagination or being astound by the visual impact of advanced film-shooting and post-production technology. Also, a good film will inspire you with a brand-new perspective by skillfully describing a story. I enjoying the feeling of being led up to meaningful afterthoughts.

1.About time.
I have watched it for several times and honestly everytime I watched it I cannot help crying in the end. We always ignore the great love in normal life.

2.Interstellar
A long movie though but not boring at all. People need beliefs,but can technology replace the position of godness? Can love conquer any troubles in our lives? If not, should we still trust its power?

3.The Prestige
Reality is cruel. Maybe that is the reason why people is easier to accept the miracle and magic than the miserable truth. Sometimes it is not we are fooled by others but we choose to be a fool.

4.The Dark Knight
I have to say I am a big fan of Christopher Nolan.
The light and the darkness actually are the two faces of the same people.

5.Flipped
Compared with those fight scenes, I perfer sweet story .
"Some of us get dipped in flat, some in satin, some in gloss. But every once in a while you find someone who's iridescent, and when you do, nothing will ever compare."

[Huanlin]

Hi

My name is Huan and I'm an International Academy student from Taiwan. I love watching movies because anything could happen in movies. The creativeness of the writer and the director always surprises me. Also there are often serious issues being pointed out through movies so we can discuss and learn from these topics after we watch these movies. Third, we will be able to embrace different culture and experiences through movies. It's really exciting for me to have the opportunity to learn English from movies right now. I have been watching Disney movies since I was little so I would actually recommend all Disney movies. The music and story lines of Disney movies are always fantastic and touching. Aside from Disney, I watch many different kinds of movies. Here are the movies from Mike's list that I will recommend:

- 21
It's a really interesting story. People can be amused by the intelligence of the lead, but also watch the effect of gambling through the movie. When one starts to get greedy, things could get complicated.

- Black Swan
It's one of my favorites. While trying to reach perfectness, the great pressure drove the lead role mad. I like the way the director shows the lead's delusion and hinted her schizophrenia symptoms through mirrors.

- The Devil wears Prada
It shows the lead struggling between life and work, pretty much the issue we will all face after graduating. The fashion issue is also really entertaining.

- School of Rock
Since I was in a rock band before, I love this movie. The students all have clear-cut personality and have their role in a band, which is really cool.

- Life of PI
Though the movie is kind of long, I like the fact that people come into different conclusions after watching the movie. We all decode the hints differently and it's always fun to discuss them.

-Inception
When I watched this movie for the first time, I was surprised by their introduction and explanation to dreams. They were so true but yet we never think about them. One would also need to think a lot in order to understand the meaning of the movie. I enjoyed it every much.

These are my recommendations and introduction. Also, I love Harry Potter so much that I have already read all the books and watched all the movies for many times. I even have a Pottermore account, where J.K. Rowling will post side stories of Harry Potter there. So thank you so much for playing Harry Potter today.

Best regards,
Huan

[wenhuizhu]

Hello, Mike,
I'm a student of Film Elective. My name is Zhu. I love watching movies and my undergraduate program has something to do with films. Therefore, the passion for film and the requirement of my program make me more willing to get touch with this field.
I've watched a lot movies, including action movies, romantic movies,literay movies and documentaries. Here are some movies I want to recommend:
-Yokomichi Yonisuke
-Raise The Red Lantern
-Blind Massage
-Summer Palace
-Shanghai Dreams
-Still Life
-The Last Emperor
-Kundun
-Pulp Fiction
-The Wedding Banquet

Actually, Kundun is a political film which is banned in China because its theme and stand, but I think the art of the film is awesome and fantastic.

[Gus]

Hello, My name is Gustavo.
There are so many films that i like for different reasons. But i really like action movies and movies that we learn something in general. So after watching some films of Mike's list, this is my list:
1. Avatar
2. Cars
3. Super Size Me
4. Jurassic Park
5. Rush
6. Toy Story 3

[Taro]

Hi Mike, I am Taro. I am crazy about directing micro-movies in my university in China. I am a big fan of movies as well. However, the class not only helps me extend my horizon, but also helps me improve my English expression. In other words, I like the class.

The movies I recommended are as follows:
1. The Devil Wears PRADA
2. Life of Pie
3. Kung Fu Panda 2
4. Iron Man
5. The Great GATSBY
6. SAW (1 to 6) (My favorite)

Thank you!

[chenyuer1118]

Hello,my name is YUER CHEN (Jessica). I like wayching movies very much. During my undergraduate degree, I have shot a 5-minutes documentary called The Rocker with my friends. The documentary mainly introduces a local heavy metal band. I have a personal interest in action films and comedy. I think watching films is a great way to learn and practice english because through watching films, you can learn good oral english. Also, it is a good way to learn and practice your english.

I do have some preferred fimls as recommendations:
1. Fast and Furious (Love the soundtrack and the story)
2. Black Hawk Down (It is for sure a very classic film)
3. The Devil Wears Prada (I think it is a good movie for all the women)
4. Gone Girl (I really like the story of this film. It is very exiciting and I think what makes this film attractive is that it makes you think about it even when the film ends.)
5. Interstellar (Also, the story of this film is very attractive but I do admit that it is hard to understand all the technical words in the film.)

[1993iris]

Hello, everyone. My name is Siying Li, but you can call me Iris. I'm a student from Mile's Film Elective class. I personally love watching movies which is the reason I chose this class. Action movies, animations and comedies are my favorite, especially movies made by hollywood, so I think I come to the right place to study. The purpose of this class is to learn English while watching movies which I think is a great tactic. We can know how native speakers react to certain situation. And the movies I recommend are as follows:

1. A Beautiful Mind
2. American Beauty
3. Avatar
4. Jurassic Park
5. Inception
6. Wall. E
7. The Dark Night

I don't want to be a spoiler, so I didn't say much about these movies. However, these are all good movies. I think everyone should watch them.
Have a nice day!
Iris

[Yuqing sun]

Hi everyone,
This is Yuqing from the English Through Film class in this summer. Personally I love movies so much no matter what genres they are in. Here I want to share a specific movies type, the biographical film. From this sort of film we can not only get to know the the specific historical period but also the character's personalities and virtue. I am always touched by subtle feeling presented in biographical movies and that feeling can linger in my mind for a long time.
Here goes my several recommendations:
- The Iron Lady
- The Legend of 1990
- A Beautiful Mind
- Shakespeare in Love
- Immortal Bloved