Best Asian Films of the 2000s

This last decade has seen the Asian explosion. The Hong Kong kung fu wave of the 70’s has reincarnated itself as pan-Chinese wuxia epics. Japanese anime movies have made leaps and bounds in their ravishing imagery. Newly blossoming nations like Thailand and Vietnam have found their stride with new waves of independent filmmaking. Here is an incomplete, always-shifting list of the best Asian films I’ve seen from the past decade.

Two notes to make. First, the list is incomplete — most notably, my number 9 and 10 films “You Shoot, I Shoot” (Pang Ho-cheung, 2001) and “Naked Weapon” (Tony Ching,...