Deconstructing the machinery of cinema.
A run-down Taipei cinema screens its final movie: King Hu's legendary wuxia film Dragon Inn. While the film plays the cinema's disabled cashier (Chen Shiang-chyi) slowly goes about her work, young gay men awkwardly use the theatre as a place to hook up, and the cinema itself may be populated by ghosts. Goodbye, Dragon Inn is ...
Regular readers of this website will likely be aware of my love for director Takashi Miike. He is one of Japan's most versatile directors, jumping from genre to genre pretty much on a film by film basis. He seems as comfortable making a drama as he is a comedy, or a horror film, or a ...
A young woman goes to see her grandfather in hospital. He is suffering deeply from depression, and clearly some additional mental illnesses because he is soon chasing a cleaning lady around the ward with a knife. Before long that sequence is broken as a gaffer interrupts the shoot - we are actually watching a film ...
Always push your viewing habits. I am not demanding that you do so constantly, but always make sure you push a little on your comfort zones. If you only ever watch science fiction, go watch a straight drama. If you only watch Hollywood, go watch an independent film. If you watch a lot of films ...
"Mother" (Jennifer Lawrence) wakes up in an isolated house in the country, where she lives with "Him" (Javier Bardem) her poet husband who suffers terribly from writer's block. When a stranger (Ed Harris) unexpectedly arrives with a not-entirely-truthful story, closely followed by his wife (Michelle Pfieffer) it propels mother onto an increasingly threatening emotional journey. ...
Five uncontrollable teenage boys commit a terrible crime. As punishment they are handed over to an anonymous sea captain, who takes them as his captive crew on a sea voyage to a distant island. There they encounter strange, hazardous wildlife, as they struggle to evade the captain's clutches and find a way to escape back ...
The following synopsis is going to severely under-sell Kaili Blues, but here goes: Chen (Yongzhong Chen) is a reformed ex-con living in China's Guizhou province. He operates a small medical clinic with an elderly colleague, although of late he has become concerned about how his disreputable brother is treating his nephew Weiwei (Feiyang Luo). When he learns ...
