Deconstructing the machinery of cinema.
On 19 July this year, the Dutch actor Rutger Hauer died. He had been one of my favourite actors for much of my life, ever since being entranced by his performance as the runaway fugitive Roy Batty in Ridley Scott's 1982 film Blade Runner. Tributes and obituaries all cited Blade Runner as one of his most noted performances, as ...
Eunhee (Park Ji-hu) is a 14 year-old Korean girl living in a troubled household. Her parents fight too much, and her brother keeps violently bullying her. Soon it seems as if her only hope comes from the Chinese teacher from whom she is receiving special lessons. So far, so feel good. In truth, light plot ...
Written by Travis Johnson Capitalism ruins everything – that’s the message I took away from this Taiwanese slice-of-life drama from first time feature director, Chan Ching-lin*. It’s a message that seems to have resonated with the home crowd and the critical community of Taiwan; the TV movie, picking up five wins from 11 nominations at ...
Luo Hongwu (Huang Jue) returns home to the Chinese city of Kaili, 10 years after he abandoned Kaizhen (Tang Wei). His return reminds him of his late friend Wildcat, and inspires him to find Kaizhen once more. Bi Gan made a big impact back in 2016 with his artful debut feature Kaili Blues. He returns to the ...
Four high school students in Kita-Kyushu decide to travel by bicycle to Tokyo - a journey of 1,000 kilometres - to see their favourite pop group Creephyp in concert. Their adventures takes them by bike, bus and car, taking in Hiroshima, Okayama and Kobe along the way. Our Huff and Puff Journey is not a great ...
In the Chinese town of Fuyang, an extended family of four brothers go about their day-to-day lives. Over the course of four seasons, they face challenges of work, the pressures of making ends meet, and the declining health of their much-loved and elderly mother. Gu Xioagang's debut feature as writer and director is a deliberately ...
Jonas Nightengale (Steve Martin) and his road train carry a combination of preaching and faith healing from one small American town to the next. It is all a fraudulent simulation, of course, with Nightengale's charismatic preaching driving credulous locals to donate him thousands of dollars a night in the name of the Lord. When his ...
