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Hollywood movies these days seem too cookie-cutterish with too much emphasis on action and special effects, and not enough emphasis on emotion, acting, or culturality , yet you're looking forold movies with Jet-Li or Jackie Chan ?
Jesus, please, talk about cultural bias 
So be it, dawg. I herd you like oriental emotion, acting, and culturality so I put chick flicks in your chinks so you can check dem cheeky chink chicks while you try to be chic.
 After Life (Japan, 1998): The movie is set in a structure resembling a decrepit travel lodge or social services institution. A group of people who have just died check in at the beginning of each week, and the "social workers" resident in the lodge explain to each guest their situation. The newly-dead have until Wednesday to decide what the single happiest or most significant memory from their life is, and then for the rest of the week the workers make short movies to recreate each person's chosen memory.
At the end of the week, the movies are shown in the screening room. As soon as each person sees his or her own memory, he or she vanishes to whatever unknown state of existence lies beyond and takes only that single memory with them into eternity.
The story revolves around two of the counselors, Takashi (Arata) and Shiori (Oda). Takashi has been assigned to help an old man, Ichiro (played by Naito Taketoshi), select his memory. Takashi reviews videotape of Ichiro's life and learns that Ichiro had married Takashi's former fiancée after Takashi had been killed during World War II. Takashi has Ichiro assigned to another counselor, but is still troubled by his memories, causing both him and his quasi-romantic interest Shiori to re-examine their (after-) lives.
Lira's Review: It's hard not to relate to any of the characters. I was pensive for weeks after watching this film, meditating on how I was living my own life.
 Not One Less (China, 1999): It centers on a 13 year-old substitute school teacher, Wei Minzhi (played by the actress of the same name), in the Chinese countryside who is placed in charge of the school after the previous teacher leaves temporarily for a month. Minzhi is told not to lose any students, and when one of the boys, Zhang Huike (played by Zhang Huike) takes off in search of work in the big city, she goes looking for him to bring him home.
The film depicts rural poverty and illiteracy and is filmed in a neorealist/documentary style using a troupe of non-professional actors; Zhang often uses the actors' real names as their character names, effectively blurring the boundaries between drama and life.
Lira's Review: Nice film, annoyingly cute soundtrack. It's a quite interesting piece of non-fiction, and my heart was shattered when I found out the leading character grew up and became a not-so-attractive woman 
 Joint Security Area (S. Korea, 2000): The film begins when two North Korean soldiers are killed in the DMZ at a North Korean border house. Alarms sound on both sides, and North and South Korean soldiers are quickly deployed at the scene, resulting in an exchange of gunfire. Sgt. Lee Soo-hyeok (Lee Byung-Hun) despite an injured leg runs from the North Korean side and attempts to reach the South Korean side. He is shortly rescued while the gunfire continues.
Two days later, the fragile relationship between the two Koreas now relies on a special investigation conducted by Swedish and Swiss investigators from the NNSC to ensure that this incident does not erupt into a serious conflict. The mission is led by Major Sophie (Lee Young Ae), her mother being from Switzerland and her father Korean; however, this is her first time in Korea.
As Sgt. Lee Soo-hyeok (a South Korean soldier on border duties) has confessed to the shootings, it is up to Sophie to investigate why the two Koreas have contradicting accounts of events. Sophie proceeds to read the story of Soo-hyeok's experience which tell of him being knocked out and kidnapped while defecating. He then wakes up tied up in the North Korean border house, before proceeding to secretly free himself and shoot three North Korean soldiers, leaving two dead. However, Soo-hyeok is totally unresponsive to Sophie and will not answer any of her questions. On asking Soo-hyeok's comrades about him, she receives stories praising his courage defusing a mine he stepped on, or of throwing rocks at the North Korean house; however this gets her nowhere. Sophie then visits North Korea whose sole survivor of the shooting Sgt. Oh Kyeong-pil (Song Kang-ho) tells a different story: one in which Soo-Hyeok barges into the border house and shoots everyone before retreating when the wounded Kyeong-pil fights back.
The autopsy report shows that one soldier was shot first in the chest and then in the head, while the other, Jeong Woo-jin, was shot eight times repeatedly, more indicative of a grudge than an attempt at escape. The events that led to the killing of two North Korean soldiers are then shown throughout the film in a series of flashbacks. First, the depositions of each surviving soldier are shown, providing conflicting versions on that night's events. Major Sophie looks further into the case and discovers that things are not quite as they seem.
Lira's Review: Whatever you do, do not watch it this week (or the next). It'll just ruin your Christmas... but, apart from that, this film is wonderful.
Go (Japan, 2001): It tells the story of a Japanese boy of Korean origins (Kubozuka) and his love story with a Japanese girl (Shibasaki). The central theme of the movie is the integration problems of a zainichi boy in Japanese society.
Lira's Review: My favourite film, along with Fucking Åmål.
Outstanding film! 
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