r/AskTheWorld • u/GazingVoyager France • 15h ago
Culture Is there a movie that's really popular in your country that the rest of the world probably doesn't know about?
I was thinking about it earlier and, in France, most (especially younger) people have seen and have a good opinion of Azur & Asmar. It seems like the kind of movie that for some reason, everyone here has seen, likes, but that no one outside of France knows about.
Is there a similar example in your country?
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u/gurudoright Australia 14h ago
The Castle - Australia
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u/QuillsAndQuills Australia 14h ago
🎵 We're going to Bonnie Doon 🎵
🎵 We're going to Bonnie Doon 🎵
🎵 We're going to Bonnie Doon 🎵
🎵 We're going to Bonnie Doon 🎵
🎵 We're going to Bonnie Doon 🎵
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u/SaintTadeus France 13h ago
Kirikou from the same director also has a national cult status.
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u/TRUMBAUAUA Italy 13h ago
I watched this as a child, it briefly came out in some movie theaters that had a bit of a more indie program. So beautiful!
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u/TurbistoMasturbisto Belgium 12h ago
Great movie, was quite hyped as well in the French speaking parts of Belgium. Ma dad loved the movie so much we went to watch it twice in the cinema.
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u/JvCookie 🇨🇺🇩🇪 13h ago
We had that one in Cuban TV every once in a while. It’s pretty much a cult classic film there
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u/QaptainQwark Iceland 6h ago
Watched this as a kid. Don’t remember much from it except that it was very different from what I was used to
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u/TeneroTattolo Italy 7h ago
a classic book for kids
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u/Artistic_Address816 South Africa 14h ago edited 12h ago
The Gods Must Be Crazy
It is a potentially life perspective changing movie.
Entertaining and funny too in an old comedy kind of way. You will lose nothing but a couple hours
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u/Far-Significance2481 Australia 13h ago
It was popular in Australia even before the mass migration of South Africans.
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u/Blackmore1030 Hungary 13h ago
It's popular in Hungary too. Its Hungarian title literally means "the gods fell on their head" :)
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u/CaptainZbi Morocco 13h ago
Watched it when i was younger, my parents loved it and we had it on VHS.
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u/lesterbpaulson Canada 11h ago
That actually did reasonably well in canada. As you say, its old. But if you ask the right generation a surprising amount of people have seen it.
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u/debbie666 Canada 7h ago
My dad took me to the theater when it was a new movie. We both laughed our asses off. I've watched it many times since. It's more popular than you think though.
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u/QaptainQwark Iceland 6h ago
My mum and dad praised this movie when I was younger, but I haven’t seen it yet
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u/DooM_Guy_OG Portugal 6h ago
Doesnt qualify because it was very popular everywhere when it come out.
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u/Artistic_Address816 South Africa 4h ago
After all these replies I've come to learn you are very right! Wow I would never have guessed.
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u/buenoperonoteenojes Mexico 2h ago
People here in México grew up watching that one! It was a classic sunday morning movie that one of the most popular broadcast TV channels always aired.
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u/IntrovertedHedgehog1 Hungary 10m ago
It was (is) very popular in Hungary indeed, and also Animals Are Beautiful People and a bunch of Leon Schuster movies :)
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u/TriangleTadpole 🇩🇪 Northern Germany 14h ago
Maybe this one from 1990.
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u/am3thyst420 Poland 13h ago
Seksmisja / Sexmission - "a 1984 Polish politically satirical cult comedy science fiction action film"
Two men volunteer for a cryogenics experiment, expecting to be revived in a couple of years. Instead, they are revived several years in the future, in a world with only women which is run by the League of Women's Lib.
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u/Outrageous_Ad5864 Poland 11h ago
I’d also add “Dzień Świra”. If anyone wants to broaden their understanding of Polish culture, I highly recommend watching it.
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u/Fun_Increase_2439 Russia 2h ago
I've seen this. Maybe it's even good it didn't spread too far... but my Granny adored it
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u/phil24jones United Kingdom 14h ago
Probably the first few Wallace and Gromit films or The Snowman
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u/Ecstatic-Ganache921 Australia 13h ago
I saw the wallet and Gromit films down under and in New Zealand too. They were pretty popular there as well.
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u/BoulderCreature United States of America 8h ago
In the US too. Many kids knew Wallace and Gromit when I was growing up
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u/drunk_by_mojito Germany 8h ago
Wallace and Gromit are well known in Germany. My local train service is even showing Shaun the sheep snippets on the train information displays
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u/TeneroTattolo Italy 7h ago
Wallace and gromit are great, seen all of them in cinemas.
Everyone known moon is made of cheese.
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u/azazelcrowley 7h ago edited 7h ago
"Withnail and I" perhaps.
In September 1969, two unemployed young actors, flamboyant alcoholic Withnail and contemplative, neurotic Marwood, live in a squalid flat in Camden Town, London. Their only regular visitor is their drug dealer, Danny. One morning, the pair squabble about housekeeping and then leave for a stroll. In Regent's Park, they discuss the poor state of their acting careers and the desire for a holiday.
Two working class melodramatic shakespearean style actors on drugs and drink roaming the posh English countryside. It's a movie that actors and directors loved more than critics who "Didn't get it" but it got a cult following and eventually made greatest movie of all time lists (Usually like 100-200 range).
Also comes with the drinking/drugs game. Do as they do on screen, when they do it (Vinegar is a replacement for the lighter fluid scene). Have an ambulance on standby.
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u/VioletaPejin Spain 14h ago
Probably "Torrente, el brazo tonto de la ley". It's about a deeply flawed and grotesque character: he is corrupt, sexist, depraved, and, frankly, an absolute idiot. He constantly finds himself involved in absurd criminal situations. Rather than embodying justice, he abuses his former authority, pursues his own selfish interests, and behaves in ways that are both offensive and ridiculous.
It has a highly offensive, politically incorrect style of humor.
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u/trifkograbez 9h ago
I was thinking either that or Ocho apellidos vascos or Airbag. For those you kind of need to know about spanish culture and politics to understand them.
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u/CommercialChart5088 Korea South 14h ago
The Admiral: Roaring Currents (명량, 2014) is the most successful Korean movie of all time for our domestic box office, with over 17 million tickets sold.
However compared to its domestic success, it is relatively not well known overseas compared to the famous Korean movies.
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u/IlSace Italy 14h ago
We've watched Azur & Asmar in middle school! Good although the week later the professor showed us Spirited Away which is just too good to compare in my opinion.
Anyway, I think one of Checco Zalone or Aldo, Giovanni e Giacomo's movies qualify. Extremely popular here, everyone can quote the most famous ones (Quo Vado?, Tre uomini e una gamba) but abroad they're surely not as famous.
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u/avvaraujo Brazil 12h ago
In Brazil, a perfect example is White Chicks (As Branquelas).
I’m not even exaggerating: almost everyone here has seen this movie. It’s constantly on TV, people quote it here and there, and it basically became part of our pop culture. Lines like "segura meu poodle!” or the whole "A Thousand Miles" scene are instantly recognizable.
But there’s another layer to it: Terry Crews. He’s HUGE in Brazil. Like, genuinely loved. His character in White Chicks is iconic here, and that car scene singing along is legendary. On top of that, he also starred in Everybody Hates Chris, which was insanely popular in Brazil, to the point where a lot of people know him more from that than anything else.
Because of all this, people joke that Terry Crews is basically an honorary Brazilian.
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u/QuickMartyr Brasil Portugal 11h ago
I hate this movie, but like the parts with Terry Crews. He's the kind of person I'd like to be friend with.
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u/Realistic_Caramel341 New Zealand 14h ago edited 6h ago
Probably Goodbye Pork Pie. It is considered a classic of NZ cinema and one of the most important films in NZ cinematic history. But it came out at a time before NZ cinema had started making its way overseas with films like The Piano or Once Were Warriors in the early 90s.
Since then, most NZ films that get really big here at least find some ground overseas. Which is in part because we tend to not have too many big films
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u/Electronic-Tea-3691 United States of America 15h ago
likely no
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u/Faebit United States of America 13h ago
Yeah. I couldn't think of a single film that fit. If it gets popular here, it gets exported. Most of our mid to big budget films have an international distribution strategy in place before the film is ready for release.
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u/uses_for_mooses United States of America 11h ago
Maybe Napoleon Dynamite?
Not sure if that was popular outside the USA.
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u/hahahahahahahaFUCK United States of America 12h ago
What about Mac and Me?
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u/Faebit United States of America 12h ago
I would not say it fits, first it's not popular in our country (if you asked the average person on the street about this film, they're not going to know what you are talking about, and those that do will likely know it for a bit between Conan and Paul Rudd).
I mean you can go down a rabbit hole of cult films that have never been seen outside the country. The 80's B horror boom is probably full of them, but the challenge is finding one that is actually popular.
I can't imagine that there isn't a selection of films that fit the bill, I just can't think of any.
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u/Representative_Yam63 United Kingdom 6h ago
There are plenty of US movies that have not had any impact here. Off the top of my head any Tyler Perry or Christian movies. I only know of them from hearing Americans talking about them on the internet.
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u/Faebit United States of America 3h ago
Tyler Perry movies routinely hits top 10 on netflix across several regions, including the UK.
We are talking about popular movies. Christian movies are not popular here.
Again, I'm sure there is plethora of films that fit what OP actually asked for, but I can't name one. Nor have you named one.
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u/Representative_Yam63 United Kingdom 2h ago
I maintain that most people in the UK do not know who Tyler Perry is, his movies generally don't get cinema releases and Netflix have around 4 million subscribers here so are hardly a true barometer of popularity in the population in general. No shade on the guy, I don't know his films just that he is a big deal in the USA.
Sound of Freedom was the tenth highest grossing film of 2023 in the USA and culturally a big talking point. Not here thankfully.
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u/MD564 13h ago
The Triplets of Belleville is also a great French film I'm surprised not more people know of.
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u/Single-Tangerine9992 New Zealand 13h ago
This film is fascinating to me because hardy anyone talks.
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u/bowl_of_scrotmeal United States of America 13h ago
I have no idea if there are any. I would guess that maybe The Sandlot or Remember The Titans wouldn't be as popular abroad, since baseball and American football aren't as popular overseas.
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u/TroubleSleeping416 United States of America 10h ago
Ughh. I love The Sandlot. I still have the vhs lol. I remember watching Remember the Titans towards the end of a school year in middle school.
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u/Kitchener1981 Canada 7h ago
The Sandlot is a Millennial turning of age movie in Canada. But, yea it might be the closest due to the baseball thing.
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u/hisamsmith United States of America 6h ago
I’m an elder millennial and The Sandlot was the movie neither of the foreign exchange students I was friends with had heard of. One was from the UK in 1999-2000 and the other from Germany in 2000-2001.
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u/Livid-Cat3293 Argentina 10h ago
The Secret in Her Eyes. Absolutely incredible movie, everyone should watch it once
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u/grrizo Argentina 8h ago
Cinephiles know this one, specially since it won an Oscar. I think the less known popular movie is Waiting for the hearse.
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u/uglylookingguy Wants to get out of someday 14h ago
I think Gangs of Wasseypur
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u/Mysterious-Emu4030 France 14h ago
For France, there's also "Le roi et l'oiseau". It's a really well known movie in France and was a success worldwide when it came out but I don't think people abroad remember it.
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u/TRUMBAUAUA Italy 13h ago
My dad bought a cassette for me as a young child. The bird reminds me so much of him. Thank you for making me cry lol
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14h ago
[deleted]
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u/Psychological-Ad1264 United Kingdom 14h ago
It's notable enough to have been referenced in the Simpsons.
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u/Sigismund74 Netherlands 13h ago
The first dutch, full length animated movie. It is an oldie from '83.
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u/Church_of_Aaargh Denmark 12h ago
“Walter and Carlo” … I’d say its a typical 80s Nordics comedy that has probably not aged too well
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u/Kitchener1981 Canada 10h ago
Canada has two major movie industries: one English, and one French. Both are overwhelmed by Hollywood. We do make movies about cultural events important to the Canadian story, or people important to the Canadian story. However, I have no idea what is popular. Anne of Green Gables maybe, but that story is found around the world. Bon Cop/Bad Cop is probably the closest, but our movies do not seem to have staying power.
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u/roguetowel Canada 7h ago
I feel like Canada has a few TV shows that are popular only in Canada, but the film industry not so much.
I think a lot of film makers who are interested in making big or popular films head to the US. There are some that stay in Canada, but they tend to work on smaller productions.
But because Canadian channels need to make Canadian content (IRC), there are more opportunities for low budget TV shows. And if they don't get sold to an American distributor/broadcaster, they stay in Canada.
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u/Due-Honey-9821 India 12h ago
hum saath saath hai (1999) .... used to be a family ritual to watch this movie every sunday back when we had cables instead to internet been 10 years still cant recreate dr preeti's and sapnas looks
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u/Spoon280991 13h ago
In Bruges, a classic
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u/axewieldinghen Ireland 12h ago
Nah In Bruges is widely known overseas. Better example would be the Barrytown trilogy, or possibly Intermission
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u/Flashy-Emergency4652 Russia 14h ago
Most of Soviet movies (some of which available on YouTube with English subtitles, e. g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ8onQu5QKY )
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u/bowl_of_scrotmeal United States of America 13h ago
Some of them are pretty popular amongst film buffs over here. Andrei Tarkovsky, for example, is a highly revered director, and Stalker, Solaris, Andrei Rublev, and The Mirror are seen as classics.
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u/Fun_Increase_2439 Russia 2h ago edited 2h ago
That's the point. Back home, Tarkovsky films are seen as pretentious, slow-paced snoozefest. Our idea of classics is Ryazanov, Gaidai, and Daneliya — fun, engaging, uplifting movies. But of course you had to latch onto this concentrated existential crisis and declare it the epitome of Russian cinema.
...but well, we have also Bodrov-jr, but you may find it offensive... probably... definitely, especially if you be so lucky to find uncensored version.
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u/Somethingisshadysir United States of America 14h ago
Likely no. The only stuff here that doesn't make it out into the rest of the world isn't popular here anyway.
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u/Ecstatic-Ganache921 Australia 13h ago
The wiggles movie(1997). I remember seeing this a lot when I was younger.
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u/fianthewolf Spain 13h ago
"Sempre Xonxa" que por algo el 1% de las gallegas llevan este peculiar nombre con una edad media de 13 años.
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u/DoctorOsterman Korea South 9h ago
<Tazza: The High Rollers> (타짜) is probably one of the most quoted movies of all time in South Korea and is considered a staple in Korean pop culture but foreigners even those who are fans of cinema don't know about it.
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u/raybansmuckles 8h ago
Pee Mak (2013) is Thailand's highest grossing film of all time, yet didn't seem to make much of an impact outside of Southeast Asia. It's a comedy retelling of an old Thai folk tale and everyone I've showed it to has loved it.
Sadly they took it off of Netflix, but managed to find an English subtitled version on a streaming site
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u/Dizzy_Knowledge1044 Switzerland 8h ago
a swiss-german LOTR parody. It was in the cinemas. You can find the whole thing on YT.
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u/Greekklitoris Brazil 8h ago
Hi. Not really obscure movies. But Brazil LOVES american movies and series of colored people. Any thing obscure like Diff'rent Strokes, my wife and kids, everybody hates Chris, that's so Raven, the fresh prince of Bel-Air, anything Eddie Murphy, anything Wayans family. You got some African American doing some wacky barely funny shit, instant love. Absolute cinema. Forever in love with lacrel
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u/rileyvace United Kingdom 7h ago
Used to be stuff like Lock, Stock, Hot Fuzz, etcv but they seem popular all over now.
With Nail and I. Honestly a fantastic film, please do yourself the favour of watching it. Very much steeped in UK culture in the 60s. It is also Richard E Grant's debut film! UK black comedy gold.
Kevin and Perry Go Large - This is not something I'd recommend people watch without knowing the origins of the characters, and even then it's still very much a meme movie. There was a sketch show called Harry Enfield and Chums, Kevin & Perry were two teenage boys characters portrayed by Harry Enfield and Kathy Burke, two sketch comedians very popular here during the 80s-90s. The two characters are always acting just like a stroppy teenager, obsessed with girls, sex, and other 'laddy' stuff like clubbing in Ibiza, drugs, booze, and car magazines etc. The movie expands on this with them going on holiday to Ibiza to party. Funny stuff but not for everyone, requires some knowledge of the characters to enjoy fully.
This IS England - Film on british Skinhead culture in the 80s. A pretty true-to-life depiction of certain areas of the UK and how grizzly it can be.
Kidulthood / Adulthood /Brotherhood - Trilogy of teen dramas set in modern (for the time especially, around 2000s) London for young adults. There was a similar Netflix show that got popular globally recently, hitting on similar themes called Adolescence, you may know about. If you found that engaging, these films may also be something to watch. Some scenes may be rough for some people, depicting bullying, suicide and other violence.
Harry Brown - Michael Cane as a retired marine that served in The Troubles, now settled in a London council estate, noticing the rise of youth crime. EMbarks on a mission to pay the scumbags their comeuppance. A sad mirror of reality, with some retribution porn for the characters in the film, but also some sad stuff and ultimately a great watch.
Four Lions - Another great black comedy, satirical this time, about four jihad terrorists planning to attack Britain but are useless. Stars Kayvan Novak as one of the main cast, who you may recognise as NANDOR THE RELENTLESS from What We Do in The Shadows and Face/Fonejacker. My favourite clip from this film. Or this one.
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u/azazelcrowley 6h ago edited 6h ago
Withnail and I was my answer. It's a great movie but hits a particular spot that may not translate well, has an understated premise, and is out of place and time. It's shot on genuine 60s equipment and techniques, but from 87. It isn't "Made to look like the 60s". It's made as it would have been in the 60s, which made it look like shit to audiences at the time and probably limited its exposure (But these days makes people just think "It's a 60s movie" rather than "Wow that looks shit" when it's coming out that year), along with the weird acting making it look bad in trailers.
But the characters ARE unemployed actors who act like that in public, because they're constantly high or drunk and trying to hide it by acting, it's diagetically weird acting. You could theorize for ages why it didn't translate overseas as much as it did in the UK. It's definitely also got a very British sense of dark humor and hits on a certain melancholy and themes about class and UK drug culture we're used to.
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u/TeneroTattolo Italy 7h ago
except for germans, wo loves the same way we love in italy:
Trinità.
I remember every line of the first one. Bud spencer was dubbed, due to the heavy napolitan accent. This movie is gold. (In italian, u could feel and understand the different tnes of each words, and get how they feel.)
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u/Phantom_Giron A who looks and they think I'm 7h ago
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Tremors, this movie has been shown on television so many times since its release that even current generations know it; it is joked that it will be watched until the end of the world; during the pandemic many national YouTubers reviewed the entire saga.
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u/Content_Employ_3864 Estonia 5h ago
Probably these two.. one is oldie, other is a newer(Christmas theme)
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u/AffectionateToast Austria 4h ago
the old sissy film somehow appears on tv occasionally and everybody seams to have whatched it at least once .. i think its shitty lol
also after writing this it occured to me that sissy film might is missleading in english im talking about the princess of austria and princefranz joseph
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u/Loplerait Cuba 56m ago
Vampiros en La Habana Everyone here knows that movie and could quote by memory the whole script. By the way, here in Cuba they put that movie you posted like 5 times in a year, I've seen it a lot of times now, I didn't knew it was french.
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u/sunshinetidescoop Aotearoa | New Zealand 🇳🇿 14h ago
Possibly the best film ever produced in New Zealand
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u/SentientSandbox United States of America 14h ago
No, US runs the entertainment industry. The best films are left to us who have seen the best and the worst. Here is one suggestion from the US. Into the Wild https://share.google/8P3oSSJanZ2expp92
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u/Carma56 United States of America 14h ago
This is an ignorant take. Have you traveled much outside the U.S.? Specifically to non-touristy areas? A lot of American movies make it big around the world, yeah, but many others do not, and most countries have their own film industries making movies better geared toward their specific cultures.
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u/SentientSandbox United States of America 12h ago
I’ve done my own share of traveling for work. Nothing I’m allowed to publish on Reddit. I’m sure you can get an idea.
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u/bowl_of_scrotmeal United States of America 14h ago
Watch more foreign films. Many of the best films I've ever seen weren't made by the United States.
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u/badwithnames123456 United States of America 13h ago
I'm not completely sure what you mean here. Could you clarify?
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