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Nameless Gangster (South Korea, 2012) [NYAFF 2012]
Written and directed by Yoon Jong-bin, Nameless Gangster tells a story of crime and incidents of corruption in Busan, South Korea that were so widespread the government declared war in the early...
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Exodus (Hong Kong, 2007)
It is apparent from the opening sequence of Pang Ho-Cheung’s Hong Kong police procedural Exodus that this will be an odd experience: starting with a close-up of a picture of Queen Elizabeth II,...
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In the Realm of the Senses (Japan, 1976)
Is it or isn’t it? It’s almost not even worth having this argument anymore. Oshima Nagisa’s controversial 1976 film, In the Realm of the Senses, has sparked plenty of debate in its many years of...
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A Simple Life (Hong Kong, 2011)
Winner of four awards at the 68th Venice International Film Festival and with lead actress Deanie Ip breaking new ground for Asian cinema by being the first Hong Kong woman to take home the prestigious...
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Cold Bloom (Japan, 2012) [BIFF 2012]
Tohoku. Fukushima. 3/11. Before the earthquake and tsunami that occurred last year, these places and this date would have had no meaning to a majority of the people around the world. After the disaster...
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Starfish Hotel (Japan, 2006)
The literary fiction of the celebrated Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami presents a strangely intoxicating world in which characters wander around the urban environments of major cities, or the rural...
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Donzumari Benki (Japan, 2012)
Donzumari Benki opens in a high school storage room reminiscent of If… a secret places where a personal rebellion unfolds. Narumi-chan’s with a boy. She pulls her panties up as he begins the patter of...
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The Woodsman and the Rain (Japan, 2011)
Shuichi Okita’s delightful comedy-drama The Woodsman and the Rain begins with its titular 60-year-old lumberjack Katsuhiko (Koji Yakusho) cutting down a tree in the wilderness that surrounds his...
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Vampire (Canada/Japan, 2011)
Since the early 2000s, a number of Japanese directors have attempted to make the transition to English-language filmmaking, with Hideo Nakata, Ryuhei Kitamura, Takeshi Kitano and Takashi Shimizu...
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Heaven’s Door (Japan, 2009)
Two frustrated youths meet by chance. He steals a car and comes into possession of a gun, prompting them to take a road trip with the authorities in pursuit that will potentially lead to a tragic...
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Blind Shaft (China, 2003)
Li Yang’s feature debut Blind Shaft was one of the breakthrough independent films from mainland China in the early-200s in terms of receiving art-house theatrical exposure beyond the festival circuit...
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The Animals (Philippines, 2012) [NYAFF FILM REVIEW]
The teenagers in Gino M. Santos’ The Animals belong to the 1% of the Philippine social stratosphere, living an American dream that most Americans would envy. They drink, smoke, pop pills, erupt into...
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Mystery (China, 2012) [NYAFF FILM REVIEW]
It’s a cliché to state that China’s social landscape is constantly changing, but based on the milieu of Mystery, a few years away from home for the Sixth Generation filmmaker Lou Ye seems to have made...
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[JAPAN CUTS FILM REVIEW] I’M FLASH! (Japan, 2012)
Written and directed by maverick filmmaker Toshiaki Toyoda, who brought us Monsters Club (2011), a unique vision of the story of the Unabomber, I’M FLASH! is a quasi-gangster film involving a religious...
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In the Realm of the Senses (Japan, 1976)
Is it or isn’t it? It’s almost not even worth having this argument anymore. Oshima Nagisa’s controversial 1976 film, In the Realm of the Senses, has sparked plenty of debate in its many years of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Simple Life (Hong Kong, 2011)
Winner of four awards at the 68th Venice International Film Festival and with lead actress Deanie Ip breaking new ground for Asian cinema by being the first Hong Kong woman to take home the prestigious...
View Article
