International: Asia Reviews
IN FLAMES Review: The Supernatural Meets Patriarchal Conditioning
The term 'gaslighting' is now quite ubiquitous, and one which still remains scoffed at by many (usually those who hold power). But if you're a member of a marginalized group, that gaslighting could come not just from one person, but...
SXSW 2024 Review: SMUGGLERS, Korea's King of Action Ryoo Seung-Wan Delivers A '70s Set Crowd-Pleaser
Two women’s lives transform when their diving careers move from harvesting shellfish to high stakes smuggling in Ryoo Seung-n’s ‘70s set comedic action thriller, Smugglers. After a healthy theatrical run in South Korea and a North American premiere at TIFF,...
Berlinale 2024 Review: A TRAVELER'S NEEDS, Hong Sangsoo's Minimalist Odyssey of Connection and Wonder
Hong Sangsoo and Isabelle Huppert reunite to explore themes of existential wanderlust and the complexity of human connections.
EXHUMA Review: Digs Up Ghoulish Thrills in Spades
In the smash hit Exhuma, four people dig a hole. Things don't turn out well - digging up corpses can do that - so they keep digging themselves in deeper. Unsurprisingly, things go from bad to worse. A rich Korean...
Rotterdam 2024 Review: 13 BOMBS Brings Fire And Noise
The International Film Festival Rotterdam is know for its slant towards new talent, often featuring low-budget arthouse cinema from all over the world. But the festival sometimes also shows the big-budget blockbusters from countries of which the output almost never...
Rotterdam 2024 Review: LA LUNA, Naughty In The Nicest Way
This year, the International Film Festival Rotterdam started with the fairly inoffensive comedy-drama Head South (reviewed here), and it closed with an equally inoffensive film: M. Raihan Halim's Singaporean small-town comedy La Luna. In it, we see the daily life...
THE HEROIC TRIO / EXECUTIONERS 4K Review: Hong Kong Action Symphony in Two Movements
Maggie Cheung, Anita Mui and Michelle Yeoh star; Johnnie To and Ching Siu-tung direct. Now in 4K from the Criterion Collection.
HOUSE OF NINJAS Review: Shinobi Stealth Success
Kento Kaku, Yosuke Eguchi, Tae Kimura, Kengo Kora, Aju Makita, and Nobuko Miyamoto star in Dave Boyle's Japanese-language action series.
Rotterdam 2024 Review: BLUE GIANT Hits All Notes
The Japanese anime director Tachikawa Yuzuru isn't quite a household name yet, despite having directed the stylish Death Parade series and the totally (and tonally) bonkers series Mob Psycho 100. But his film adaptation of Ishizuka Shinichi's famous manga Blue...
Rotterdam 2024 Review: KISS WAGON Proves That Liking A Movie Isn't All Black And White
Kiss Wagon, by director Midhun Murali is an epic, 3 hour shadow play animation, that is at the same time both minimalist and maximalist. It is also, somehow, undercooked and overbaked, too convoluted and holding the viewers hand too much;...
Rotterdam 2024 Review: TENEMENT, A Haunted House With A Weak Foundation
Tenement proves that a good ghost story can't get by on visuals alone. This Cambodian genre film by Inrasothythep Neth and Sokyou Chea deserves some praise because it is the rare horror effort out of that country. But when...
Rotterdam 2024 Review: HUNGRY GHOST DINER Offers A Feast For The Eyes And Soul
Bonnie is the sole employee of a food truck, having fallen in love with cooking after a slightly magical-realist experience she had as a child. When she meets up with her estranged uncle, lines between life and death, dream...
Rotterdam 2024 Review: STEPPENWOLF, No Country for Sane Men
Kazakh filmmaker Adilkhan Yerzhanov delivers his most nihilistic work to date.
Rotterdam 2024 Review: FULL RIVER RED Is A Million Shades Of Grey
Chinese director Zhang Yimou is a superstar and there is no mistaking that when watching his latest film Full River Red. It's an almost impossibly lush film in its production values, with money bleeding off of the screen in every...
Sundance 2024 Review: BRIEF HISTORY OF A FAMILY, Trenchant, Perceptive Character Study
The outsized demands inherent in familial expectations can weigh heavily on children. It’s all the heavier when those expectations fall on the shoulders of a child born and raised without siblings. That’s compounded even further when authoritarian governments strictly limit...
ALIENOID: RETURN TO THE FUTURE Review: A Worthy Sequel to 2022's Korean Sci-Fi Action Extravaganza
Time-traveling aliens team up with ancient sorcerers to save the planet once again in this year’s Alienoid: Return to the Future, the hotly anticipated sequel to 2022’s Korean sci-fi blockbuster Alienoid. Attempting any kind of efficient synopsis of either of...
SPACKED OUT Review: Engaging, Provocative Coming of Age in Hong Kong
Almost 25 years later, Spacked Out, a coming-of-age social drama by Lawrence Ah-Mon (My Name is Fame, Gimme Gimme, Gangs), still feels as fresh, insightful, and provocative as it did when it was released just a few years after Hong...
JACKIE CHAN: EMERGENCE OF A SUPERSTAR Review: Communist in Training
How Jackie Chan shaped his future, in six films or less, courtesy of The Criterion Collection.
ANIMAL Review: A Brutally Bloody Film About a Bloody Brute of a Man
Masculinity is equally toxic and fragile in Animal, director Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s long awaited follow up to his controversial 2017 surprise blockbuster, Arjun Reddy. That debut feature followed the chaotic descent of a man who treated women and the world...
GODZILLA MINUS ONE Review: Big G Is Back And Better Than Ever
In the immediate aftermath of Japan’s defeat in World War II, the country has a new terror to contend with, a monster unlike anything the world had ever seen, and there is no one to save them but themselves in...
