So fundamentally, this is a movie about disaffected yutes who get up to no good, joining street gangs that get in fights that are alternately juvenile and deadly adult; and a protagonist who starts off as just a bad scholar and gets more deeply involved with the gangs until he ends the movie as a vicious misogynistic murderer, stabbing his once-girlfriend about three seconds after telling her how she needs him because he’s the only guy who really loves her.

Bleah, right. That could be another Martin Scorsese shitfest, from that outline.

But it’s not, because… well, for one thing, because this is a Taiwanese movie, and it’s set in Taiwan in 1961, so a lot of the movie is about that time and place. And then, kinda related, it’s not entirely a movie about that one character, it’s a sprawling (four hour long) ensemble piece where almost every character gets a story — rival gang leaders, friends, even parents (there’s an involved subplot with the secret police arresting the protagonist’s father).

It’s atmospheric and absorbing, beautifully shot, all around quality movie. Also, this is one of the newer movies on the list, and it’s particularly new in the US — it wasn’t released here theatrically until 2011, and wasn’t available for home viewing until 2016. Which is kind of a weird multi-decade delay for an acclaimed movie from a director who enjoyed a lot of success in the US with later films (notably Yi Yi, which (spoiler alert) will be coming up before we’re done with this list).