Sean is joined by Scarecrow Video's Matt Lynch and the Alamo Drafthouse's Laird Jimenez to talk about famed Hong Kong action auteur John Woo. They cover the length of Woo's 40+ year career including his early studio days (Last Hurrah for Chivalry), his explosive peak years (Bullet in the Head), his mixed results working in the American studio system (Face/Off) and his return to Hong Kong in recent years (Red Cliff).

Hibernating perhaps but not quite dead, we are finally back after a long hiatus and hopefully back to a more regular schedule. In this episode of They Shot Pictures, Sean and Seema are joined once again by past guest Nathan Rogers-Hancock to discuss the films of Preston Sturges. For six Thursdays in a row since July 8th, the Seattle Art Museum has been showing Preston Sturges films in 35mm with the last two (Miracle at Morgan's Creek and Hail the Conquering Hero) coming up. It seemed like a good time to rewatch and reconsider Preston Sturges's all too short career. We start off discussing his career in screenplay writing prior to directing his own films with a discussion of The Good Fairy and follow that up with a discussion of Christmas in July and end by talking about Unfaithfully Yours. Ed note: Apologies in advance for the technical issues that caused us to cut short our discussion of Unfaithfully Yours.

In Part 2 of our Year End Roundup, we discuss our favorites (and not so favorites) from the year in a few more categories and finally countdown our overall Top 5 Films of the Year.Most/Best Depressing Movie of the Year 00:56Best cinematic moment or scene 08:45Hayao Miyazaki or Isao Takahata 18:12Best Music 24:00TSP Guest Top 5 from CJ Roy 30:33Best Lead Performances 32:33Best Supporting Performances 41:39Worst Movie of the Year 51:35TSP Guest Top 5 from Annie 57:13Best Script 59:01Best Director 1:03:48Honorable Mentions 1:11:27TSP Guest Top 5 from Matt Lynch 1:17:22Top 5 Films of the Year Countdown 1:20:09

On this two-part episode Sean, Seema, Jhon and Lance discuss some of our favorite films from 2014. We start off by explaining our eligibility criteria or lack thereof and then move on to declaring our favorites in a bunch of categories. Interspersed are Top 5 lists from all of the nice people that guested on TSP in 2014. On this installment we cover the following categories:

Film We Haven’t Seen Yet That We Think Would’ve Made Our List 01:58Best Debut Feature 06:34Favorite Animated Film 12:00Best Documentary or Nonfiction Film 14:14TSP Guest Top 5 from Nathan Rogers Hancock 18:32Favorite Science Fiction Movie 19:30Favorite Romantic Comedy 24:33Favorite Horror Film 29:12Favorite Musical 37:29TSP Guest Top 5 from Mike 43:24Favorite Hollywood Movie 45:33Favorite Bollywood Movie 51:16Film We Like that (almost) No One Else Has Seen 58:59Unpopular Pick / Film You liked that No One Else Liked 1:13:36TSP Guest Top 5 from Kaj van Zoelen 1:20:12

On this episode of They Shot Pictures, Sean and Seema are joined by Nathan Rogers-Hancock to discuss the films of Chinese filmmaker King Hu, best known for his legendary and influential wuxia films. They focus in particular on the films, Come Drink With Me (1966), The Fate of Lee Khan (1973) and Legend of the Mountain (1971). Sean writes about all things film on this here blog and is also on twitter @TheEndofCinema.Seema is attempting to chronicle her film viewing on letterboxd and is also on twitter @wormatwork.Nathan is on letterboxd and also on twitter @nrogershancock.

Seema is joined by her friend, Kaj van Zoelen to discuss the films of Douglas Sirk, best known from his Hollywood melodramas from the 50s but whose career was prolific and transcended countries and genres. In a strange (somewhat) unplanned twist, we end up ignoring the colorful melodramas he's best known for (although they do come up) and instead focus on three of his relatively underseen films. We discuss the films, Das Mädchen von Moorhof (1935), Shockproof (1949) and There's Always Tomorrow (1956).

Sean is joined by Matt Lynch and CJ Roy to talk about Hong Kong

director Lau Kar-leung, the man behind many of the greatest kung fu

films of the Shaw Brothers era. They cover pretty much his whole career,

with many digressions on martial arts cinema in general, but focus

especially on three of his best films: Dirty Ho (1976), My Young Auntie (1981) and

Eight-Diagram Pole Fighter (1983). Sean writes about all things film on this here blog and is also on twitter @TheEndofCinema. Matt can be found at Scarecrow Video in Seattle and on twitter @colonelmortimer.CJ can be found in Canada and on twitter @CJRoy89.

On part 1 of this multi-part episode of They Shot Pictures, Seema is joined by her friend Annie to discuss the melodramas of Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Specifically, they discuss the films Martha (1967), The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979) and In a Year With 13 Moons (1978). Seema and Annie first met on this here film forum where they continue to discuss all things cinema. Seema is also on twitter as @wormatwork. Show Notes:- Opening Music: Serenade Out of Tune from Lola by Peer Raben- Closing Music: Each Man Kills the Thing He Loves from Querelle Vocals by Jeanne Moreau, Music by Peer Raben

On part 1 of this two-parter, Jhon, Sean and Seema discuss the lush

musicals of Vincente Minnelli. We center our discussion around the films

The Pirate (1948), The Band Wagon (1953) and Gigi (1958). We have one rather exhausted and drowsy host and if you're lucky the editing still left in some of Sean's singing!On a follow-up to this episode, we will be discussing Minnelli's melodramas.

On this episode of They Shot Pictures, Jhon and Sean are joined by guest

Mike and the three of them discuss the magical world of Hayao Miyazaki

and more broadly, Studio Ghibli. Over the course of nearly 3 hours, they

discuss in detail the films Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984), Kiki's Delivery Service (1989), Only Yesterday (1991) and Miyazaki's latest film, The Wind Rises (2013). Show Notes:- Mike's Review of Kiki's Delivery Service- Sean's Review of The Castle of Cagliostro- Jhon's Studio Ghibli Rankings on Letterboxd- Noel Vera on Only Yesterday- Mike D'Angelo on Grave of the Fireflies