German actress Nastassja Kinski, center, Busan International Film Festival co-Directors Kang Soo-yeon and Lee Yong-kwan, left, show Kinski’s hand print and autograph in a hand printing ceremony during the Busan festival in Busan, South Korea, Sunday.

A new list of the best Asian films of all time was published this week, as the region’s increasingly vibrant cinema scene celebrated another bonanza in Busan.

The 20th anniversary of the Busan International Film Festival, in South Korea, marked its milestone with a poll of noted Asian filmmakers and international critics of Asian film, who were all asked for their top ten.

Oscar front-runner Hou Hsiao-Hsien said the release of the “Asian Cinema 100” was a reminder to fellow filmmakers of their obligation to “seek the truth.”

“Sometimes as a filmmaker you have to show things that people don’t want to see,” said the Taiwanese director.

Hou’s breakthrough work “A City Of Sadness” was ranked fifth-best of all time on a list that was topped by Japanese master auteur Yasujiro Ozu’s seminal family drama “Tokyo Story” from 1953.

Hou’s new film, atmospheric martial arts epic “The Assassin,” which he has brought to Busan, is among the early critics’ favorites for this year’s Best Foreign Film Oscar after last week picking up 11 nominations for the Golden Horse Awards, the most prestigious given to Chinese-language films.

But its mood and mysticism are a far cry from the harsh realities of Taiwanese history portrayed in “A City Of Sadness,” which follows the destruction of a family under the “White Terror” campaign instigated when martial law was imposed across the island in the late 1940s.

The poll also rated Asia’s top directors of all time with Japan’s Ozu coming out ahead of Hou, and Iran’s Abbas Kiarostami, whose highest-ranked film was 1994’s “Close Up,” coming tied 10th with the highest-ranked Korean film, Kim Ki-young’s sexually charged drama “The Housemaid” (1960).

Asia’s most successful film in terms of global box office, the Oscar-winning Ang Lee-directed martial arts epic “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (2000) from Taiwan which collected an estimated $128 million, was voted in joint 18th position.

Japan accounted for 26 films on the list, followed by Iran (19) and Korea (15). The oldest film chosen was Ozu’s “I Was Born, But…” from 1932, which was ranked 48th of all time

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