Violent aesthetics film recommendations
# Ichi the Killer
Year: 2001 | Country: Japan
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Synopsis
As sadomasochistic yakuza enforcer Kakihara searches for his missing boss he comes across Ichi, a repressed and psychotic killer who may be able to inflict levels of pain that Kakihara has only dreame
# Mad Max: Fury Road
Year: 2015 | Country: AU
Director: George Miller
Cast: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Josh Helman
Synopsis
An apocalyptic story set in the furthest reaches of our planet, in a stark desert landscape where humanity is broken, and most everyone is crazed fighting for the necessities of life. Within this world exist two rebels on the run who just might be able to restore order.
# Sin City
Year: 2005 | Country: US
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Cast: Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba, Clive Owen, Mickey Rourke, Rutger Hauer
Synopsis
Welcome to Sin City. This town beckons to the tough, the corrupt, the brokenhearted. Some call it dark… Hard-boiled. Then there are those who call it home — Crooked cops, sexy dames, desperate vigilantes. Some are seeking revenge, others lust after redemption, and then there are those hoping for a little of both. A universe of unlikely and reluctant heroes still trying to do the right thing in a city that refuses to care.
# Oldboy
Year: 2003 | Country: South Korea
Director: Park Chan-wook
Cast: Choi Min-sik, Yoo Ji-tae, Kang Hye-jung, Kim Byeong-ok, Oh Dal-su
Synopsis
With no clue how he came to be imprisoned, drugged and tortured for 15 years, a desperate businessman seeks revenge on his captors.
# The Godfather
Year: 1972 | Country: United States of America
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Synopsis
Spanning the years 1945 to 1955, a chronicle of the fictional Italian-American Corleone crime family. When organized crime family patriarch, Vito Corleone barely survives an attempt on his life, his y
# City of God
Year: 2002 | Country: BR
Director: Fernando Meirelles
Cast: Alexandre Rodrigues, Leandro Firmino, Phellipe Haagensen, Douglas Silva, Jonathan Haagensen
Synopsis
In the poverty-stricken favelas of Rio de Janeiro in the 1970s, two young men choose different paths. Rocket is a budding photographer who documents the increasing drug-related violence of his neighborhood, while José “Zé” Pequeno is an ambitious drug dealer diving into a dangerous life of crime.
# Scarface
Year: 1983 | Country: United States of America
Director: Brian De Palma
Cast: Al Pacino, Steven Bauer, Michelle Pfeiffer, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Robert Loggia
Synopsis
After getting a green card in exchange for assassinating a Cuban government official, Tony Montana stakes a claim on the drug trade in Miami. Viciously murdering anyone who stands in his way, Tony eve
# Joker
Year: 2019 | Country: Canada, United States of America
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Synopsis
During the 1980s, a failed stand-up comedian is driven insane and turns to a life of crime and chaos in Gotham City while becoming an infamous psychopathic crime figure.
# A Clockwork Orange
Year: 1971 | Country: GB
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Cast: Malcolm McDowell, Patrick Magee, Carl Duering, Michael Bates, Warren Clarke
Synopsis
In a near-future Britain, young Alexander DeLarge and his pals get their kicks beating and raping anyone they please. When not destroying the lives of others, Alex swoons to the music of Beethoven. The state, eager to crack down on juvenile crime, gives an incarcerated Alex the option to undergo an invasive procedure that'll rob him of all personal agency. In a time when conscience is a commodity, can Alex change his tune?
# Bonnie and Clyde
Year: 1967 | Country: US
Director: Arthur Penn
Cast: Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Michael J. Pollard, Gene Hackman, Estelle Parsons
Synopsis
In the 1930s, bored waitress Bonnie Parker falls in love with an ex-con named Clyde Barrow and together they start a violent crime spree through the country, stealing cars and robbing banks.
# Taxi Driver
Year: 1976 | Country: United States of America
Director: Martin Scorsese
Cast: Robert De Niro, Cybill Shepherd, Harvey Keitel, Jodie Foster, Peter Boyle
Synopsis
A mentally unstable Vietnam War veteran works as a night-time taxi driver in New York City where the perceived decadence and sleaze feed his urge for violent action.
# Once a Thief
Year: 1991 | Country: China
Director: John Woo
Cast: Chow Yun-Fat , Leslie Cheung Kwok-Wing , Cherie Chung Cho-Hung , Paul Chu Kong , Kenneth Tsang
Synopsis
Three orphans grow up to become art thieves under the tutelage of a crime boss. Romance complicates matters when the trio are double-crossed.
# The Killer
Year: 2024 | Country: CA
Director: John Woo
Cast: Nathalie Emmanuel, Omar Sy, Sam Worthington, Diana Silvers, Saïd Taghmaoui
Synopsis
Zee is a feared contract killer known as "the Queen of the Dead," but when she refuses to murder a young blind woman, she finds herself hunted both by criminal colleagues and a determined police detective.
# A Better Tomorrow
Year: 1986 | Country: China
Director: John Woo
Cast: Ti Lung , Chow Yun-Fat , Leslie Cheung Kwok-Wing , Emily Chu Bo-Yee , Waise Lee Chi-Hung
Synopsis
A reforming ex-gangster tries to reconcile with his estranged policeman brother, but the ties to his former gang are difficult to break.
# The Hateful Eight
Year: 2015 | Country: US
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Demián Bichir
Synopsis
Bounty hunters seek shelter from a raging blizzard and get caught up in a plot of betrayal and deception.
# Inglourious Basterds
Year: 2009 | Country: France, Germany, United States of America
Director:
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Synopsis
In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as "The Basterds" are chosen specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally kill
# Pulp Fiction
Year: 1994 | Country: United States of America
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Cast: John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis, Ving Rhames
Synopsis
A burger-loving hit man, his philosophical partner, a drug-addled gangster's moll and a washed-up boxer converge in this sprawling, comedic crime caper. Their adventures unfurl in three stories that i
# Django Unchained
Year: 2012 | Country: United States of America
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Cast: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, Samuel L. Jackson
Synopsis
With the help of a German bounty hunter, a freed slave sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner.