(Photo: Courtes of Criterion, IFC)

4. Seven Samurai (NR; $49.95) and Three Times (NR; $24.95)
Once again, Criterion produced the year’s best restoration: Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai gets a digital transfer that makes it look reborn, with commentary you’ll actually want to hear from Donald Richie and Stephen Price. Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s period-jumping romance Three Times represents the state of the art in contemporary Asian cinema, with a star-making performance by Hsien’s Millennium Mambo muse, Shu Qi.