It’s true: I did in fact manage to land one virtual film festival gig this year. Continue reading
Tagged with chinese films …
“On The Distinct Humanism Of Zhang Yimou’s Monochrome ‘Shadow'”
What’s a Zhang Yimou movie without lots of color? Well…it’s “Shadow.” Continue reading
Review: Have a Nice Day, 2018, dir. Liu Jian
File Have a Nice Day under the “movies that I wish I liked more” tab in the file cabinet containing every review I’ve ever written. (Note: I don’t actually have a file cabinet. It’s a metaphor. Work with me here.) Honestly, if this film’s animation scheme actually embraced movement and didn’t feel so fucking stiff, I’d … Continue reading
Review: Angels Wear White, 2017, dir. Vivian Qu
We turn to movies, more often than not, for escape and distraction, for the promise of having our woes assuaged, if only for a couple of hours, in the calming glow of the silver screen (whether in large or small formats). Occasionally, though, the movies deny us, as in Angels Wear White, the new film by … Continue reading
Review: Old Stone, 2016, dir. Johnny Ma
What a crazy world we live in, where a person can do the right thing and get their ass kicked for it by bureaucracy. That’s what Johnny Ma’s debut film, Old Stone, is all about. It’s a lean, harsh bit of work, maybe a bit too off the rails in its final moments (and certainly too … Continue reading
Review: The Mermaid, 2016, dir. Stephen Chow
I love Stephen Chow, and have since Shaolin Soccer helped boost his visibility and his reputation on an international scale. (Maybe that’s how you first got to know Chow as a director and as an actor, too, though if you have not already, I strongly suggest going back through his pre-Soccer filmography, as it is loaded … Continue reading
Review: Three, 2016, dir. Johnnie To
When you’re a master, you can get away with making “minor” movies because your status turns “minor” movies into “major” movies. Three isn’t the best To we’ve gotten in the last few years – that would be 2013’s stunning Drug War – but it’s still outstanding, an eighty or so minute masterclass in what a seasoned director … Continue reading
Review: Kill Zone 2, 2016, dir. Cheang Pou-soi
You don’t normally buy a ticket to an action movie for well-realized human sentiment or melodramatic storylines involving terminally ill (and terminally adorable) children. That’s certainly not why you might go in on Kill Zone 2, aka SPL II: A Time for Consequences, the sequel to Wilson Yip’s 2005 film SPL: Sha Po Lang. And yet it’s the maudlin … Continue reading
Review: Rebels of the Neon God, 1992, dir. Tsai Ming-liang
“If Tsai Ming-liang hadn’t beaten Nicolas Winding Refn’s career to the punch by several years, Rebels of the Neon God would have been a killer moniker for one of the great Dane’s as-yet-unimagined future projects. Even in that alternate timeline, though, Tsai’s debut feature comes from such a culturally specific place that only he could … Continue reading
WTH Just Happened?: ‘Where is Mama’s Boy?’
“Ever blind-watched a movie just because you recognized its supporting cast? Have you ever thought to yourself, “Hey, I know this person from the secondary roles they’ve played in internationally prominent films!” and used that as justification to check out the random, obscure titles they spend most of their timing slumming it in? If so, … Continue reading
Review: Kung Fu Hustle, 2004, dir. Stephen Chow
Vanity, they name is Stephen Chow. Perhaps nothing more true and at the same time more false can be said about the dashing, roguish Chinese director in regards to 2004’s Kung Fu Hustle, a film where Chow both runs the show and stars as the out-of-sight protagonist. The contradiction between placing greater emphasis on the … Continue reading
A Constant Visual Feast 