Festivals: HKAFF Reviews
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Review: THE EMPTY HANDS Sees Chapman To and Stephy Tang Reborn
Chapman To writes, directs and stars in this Hong Kong-based karate drama that transforms Stephy Tang from a frivolous starlet into a legitimate martial arts performer. Tang plays the half-Chinese, half-Japanese daughter of a karate master, who discovers upon her...
HK Asian 2013 Review: THE WHITE STORM Is Bloated, Unwieldy, Yet Still Entertaining
Benny Chan cranks it up to 11 in his latest high-stakes crime thriller, but with the action, intrigue and melodrama all hitting fever pitch, The White Storm proves an entertaining, yet exhausting and unintentionally amusing affair.Three childhood friends, Tin (Lau...
HKAFF Review: CAUGHT IN THE WEB Chooses Love Over China's Netizens
After the critical and commercial success of his excellent period thriller, Sacrifice, in 2010, which marked a perceived comeback for the Farewell My Concubine director, Chen Kaige turns his attention once again to the lives of modern Chinese citizens and...
Counterpoint Review: COLD WAR Brings a Spark to the Boardroom
After its world premiere in Korea at last month's Busan International Film Festival, Longman Leung and Sunny Luk's much-touted directorial debut Cold War finally opens on home turf. Originally slated for a summer release, before being pushed back to mid-October...
NYAFF 2012 Review: YOU ARE THE APPLE OF MY EYE, A Crisp Coming-of-age Comedy
With its North American premiere at the 2012 New York Asian Film Festival, we now revisit James Marsh's review from last November. For his directorial debut, prolific youth author Giddens Ko has adapted one of his own autobiographical novels,...
HKAFF 2011: THE KILLER WHO NEVER KILLS Review
Following on from the colossal success in 2008 of Wei Te-Sheng's CAPE NO.7, the Taiwanese film industry has been invigorated into a newfound surge of populist filmmaking on a scale never-before-seen on the island. Wei has since gone on to...
HKAFF 2011: LET'S GO! Review
Whenever Hong Kong director Wong Ching Po releases a new film, I invariably find myself approaching it with newfound excitement and lofty expectations, despite the fact that to-date they have never fully been met. While Wong's films are always beautifully...
HKAFF 2011: YOU ARE THE APPLE OF MY EYE Review
For his directorial debut, prolific youth author Giddens Ko has adapted one of his own autobiographical novels, and in the process delivered a lewd, crude coming-of-age story that is also a moving and heartfelt romance. Set in 1990s Taiwan, YOU...
HKAFF 2011: BLOODY FIGHT IN IRON-ROCK VALLEY Review
[As Ji Ha Jean's award-winning film is screening as part of this year's HKAFF, I'm giving this earlier review a bump.]As its title might suggest, BLOODY FIGHT IN IRON-ROCK VALLEY is a stripped-down, low budget Korean revenge thriller that resembles...
HKAFF 2011: STARRY STARRY NIGHT Review
Writer-director Tom Lin conjures up a visual feast in his sophomore effort, STARRY STARRY NIGHT, a big screen adaptation of Jimmy Liao's popular children's book. Young Josie Xu (familiar to many from Stephen Chow's CJ7) is maturing incredibly well as...
HKAFF 2011: BLOWFISH Review
The central analogy in Lee Chi Yuarn's BLOWFISH is an obvious one - our heroine Xiao Zhun (newcomer Vicci Pan) is a prisoner in an urban aquarium of her own making, as isolated and vulnerable as the exotic fish her...
HKAFF 2011: TOKYO KOEN Review
Japanese writer/director Shinji Aoyama takes a break from the serious dramas upon which he made his name for this gentle and even lighthearted drama about the plight of Koji (Haruma Miura), an aspiring young photographer as he attempts to juggle...
HKAFF 2011: LIFE WITHOUT PRINCIPLE Review
[Giving this review a bump as Johnnie To's latest opens the 2011 Hong Kong Asian Film Festival tonight.]Hong Kong is a city driven by greed and the desire for wealth. While power and riches may be a universal goal, nowhere...
Fantastic Fest 2011: INVASION OF ALIEN BIKINI Review
[With Invasion of Alien Bikini now screening at Fantastic Fest we revisit our earlier review.]The trailer for Oh Young Doo's difficult second feature, INVASION OF ALIEN BIKINI has already been something of a hit on these pages after we posted...
FANTASTIC FEST 2011: THE YELLOW SEA Review
Director Na Hong Jin has been credited by some with rekindling the Korean Wave with his 2009 debut THE CHASER. Following the global success of works from the likes of Park Chan Wook and Kim Ji Woon, the industry had...
