Justin Chang’s five buried film treasures

It’s safe to say that most great films are neglected films (like the 25 chosen in the gallery above), which is why narrowing down a personal list of five undersung favorites was such an impossible exercise. On any other day this completely random grouping might have included Hou Hsiao-hsien’s “Flight of the Red Balloon,” Béla Tarr’s “Werckmeister Harmonies,” Pascale Ferran’s “Bird People,” Richard Linklater’s “Everybody Wants Some!!” and Michael Mann’s “Blackhat.” But here’s how I’m feeling today:

1. ‘Secret Sunshine’ (2010)

This staggering achievement from the South Korean writer-director Lee Chang-dong (“Poetry”) first played at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, where Jeon Do-yeon’s magnificent performance won an acting prize, but it didn’t reach American screens until a cursory theatrical run in 2010. It’s a conflicted yet startlingly clear-eyed portrait of love, grief and the infinite mysteries of faith, a movie I carry in my soul and one that you might just wind up carrying in yours.

Jeon Do-yeon in “Secret Sunshine.” When her husband passes away in an automobile accident, Shin-ae relocates down south to her late husband’s hometown of Miryang. (IFC Films)

(/ IFC Films)

2. ‘Offside’ (2007)

Before Jafar Panahi was sentenced to a 20-year filmmaking ban by the Iranian government (one that has scarcely slowed his productivity or his ingenuity since), he directed “Offside,” a thrilling comedy that uses the backdrop of a soccer match to expose the absurd fault lines of gender oppression in his home country. It’s nervy, hilarious and endlessly compassionate, a bracing example of how to answer intolerance with an act of love.

Nazanin Sedighzadehn, left, Reza Farhadi and Golnaz Farmani star in “Offside,” a movie from filmmaker Jafar Panahi. (Offside / Sony Pictures Classics)

(Offside / Sony Pictures Classics / Sony Pictures Classics)

3. ‘35 Shots of Rum’ (2009)

The French master Claire Denis has given us bolder demonstrations of her talent (“Beau Travail”) over the past two decades, but this wistfully beautiful father-daughter love story strikes me as her most sublime achievement. It’s a stealth remake of Yasujiro Ozu’s “Late Spring,” and thus a rare example of one masterpiece begetting another.

Alex Descas in “35 Shots of Rum.” (The Cinema Guild)

(/ The Cinema Guild)

4. ‘Higher Ground’ (2011)

This first (and hopefully not only) film directed by Vera Farmiga wrecked me when I saw it at Sundance in 2011. Like “Secret Sunshine” (and yet absolutely nothing like it), the film is an outsider’s portrait of religious belief that seems to achieve greater depths of intimacy and insight than most insiders manage.

Dagmara Dominczyk, left, as Annika and Vera Farmiga as Corinne Walker in “Higher Ground.” (Molly Hawkey / Sony Pictures Classics)

(Molly Hawkey / Sony Pictures Classics)

5. ‘Mysteries of Lisbon’ (2011)

Four-and-a-half hours pass with engrossing ease in this 19th-century Portuguese epic from the late Chilean director Raúl Ruiz. It’s a dazzling conjuring trick, a labyrinth of stories-within-stories, a master class in mise-en-scène and an altogether unforgettable experience.

Léa Seydoux as Blanche de Montfort and Julien Alluguette as Benôit in the movie “Mysteries of Lisbon,” directed by Raúl Ruiz. (Music Box Films)

(Music Box Films / Music Box Films)

Full Coverage: Buried treasures of cinema »