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Short Film Review: Neon (2019) by Sakshi Gulati
“Fish lose their color when they’re scared.” As part of the short film program of this year’s Indian Film Festival in Los Angeles, Sakshi Gulati’s thesis film for the Film and Television Institute of...
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Film Review: Nailed (2018) by Ha Yoon-jae
Lingering between the black comedy and the social drama, “Nailed” is an interesting debut from Ha Yoon-jae, whose credits include mostly works as producer, in films like “Scarlet Letter”. Let us see...
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Film Review: Close-knit (2017) by Naoko Ogigami
“Close-knit” (2017) is an emotional drama that deals with the issues of gender, identity and sexuality. Director Naoko Ogigami wished to draw attention to LGBTQ communities in a Japan society that is...
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Anime Review: Cocolors (2017) by Toshihisa Yokoshima
“Cocolors” won the Satoshi Kon Award for Excellence in Animation at the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal. This short film is an excellent example of a simple idea that has been shaped...
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Short Film Review: Autumn Days (2015) by Tsai Ming-liang
Arthouse director Tsai Ming-liang sits down with Nogami Teruyo, who used to be a screenwriter for Akira Kurosawa for nearly half a century, to talk about poetry, films, and society. Although “Autumn...
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Film Review: Take Me to the Moon (2017) by Hsieh Chun-yi
In the world of film buffs, (teen) rom coms are considered among the films with the lowest quality as a genre, since they are usually tear-jerkers that aim at benefitting from their protagonists’...
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Film Review: Newton (2017) by Amit V Masurkar
“Newton” had its world premiere at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival in the Forum section and went on to win the International Federation of Art Cinemas (CICAE) award. “Newton” has been...
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Short Film Review: Tungrus (2019) by Rishi Chandna
“Now he’s a full-blown terror in the house …” If we think of the idea of having an animal as a pet, we normally have images of cats and dogs in our mind. Surely, there might be the occasional snake,...
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Short Film Review: Snapshots of Tokyo (2019) by Jaim Cleeland
Cleeland continues his visual trips to the iconoclastic world of the extreme, through another short/video that this time combines noise music with various images of Tokyo and drawings. In that...
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Documentary Review: Small Talk (2016) by Huang Hui-chen
LGBT films seem to spur from every corner of SE Asia during the latest years (not in bulk, do not be upset Bastian) with films like “Close-Knit” (Japan), “Our Love Story” (S. Korea) and “Fathers”...
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Film Review: Goodbye Dragon Inn (2004) by Tsai Ming-liang
Watching “Goodbye Dragon Inn” by director Tsai Ming-liang brought me back to my childhood Saturday afternoons, in big damp cinemas where punters smoked, noisily ate pumpkin seeds and gelatos, cruised...
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Documentary Review: Fermented (2017) by Jonathan Cianfrani
Documentaries about the culinary have been one of the most favorite film categories since… forever one could say, with a number of entries that provide entertainment and raise appetites at the same...
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Film Review: 12 Storeys (1997) by Eric Khoo
The first film from Singapore to screen at Cannes (in the Un Certain Regard section, in 1997) and mentioned by the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs as “widely regarded to have contributed to the...
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Film Review: Claire’s Camera (2017) by Hong Sang-soo
If there was one director working today that can be said to have a distinctive style, then it would be Hong Sang-soo. The writer-director has a distinct flare for the drunken conversation, playful...
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Film Review: The Samurai Vagabonds (1960) by Tsutomu Tamura
“If you’re too nice to pests they increase.” In general, Tsutomu Tamura is mostly known for his fruitful collaborations with one of the greatest icons of the Japanese New Wave, director Nagisa Oshima....
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Film Review: Shinjuku Swan II (2017) by Sion Sono
After the commercial success of Sion Sono’s manga adaptation “Shinjuku swan” was – racking in 1.33 billion yen, it should not come as a surprise that a sequel would follow. But this time, besides Sion...
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Film Review: Kiko Boksingero (2017) by Thop Nazareno
Diday serves Kiko hot dog. But Kiko takes a spoon full of veggies and starts eating. The smile blooms on Diday’s face. Kiko combs his hairs, tightens his shoe laces and leaves for school. Kiko has...
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Short Film Review: No No Sleep (2015) by Tsai Ming-liang
“No No Sleep” is another entry in Tsai Ming-liang’s “Walker”-series, in which he portrays a monk walking slowly and silent through various locations. This time the monk, who is always played by Lee...
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Documentary Review: Abacus: Small Enough to Jail (2016) by Steve James
After the 2008 financial crisis, which started in the US and sent shockwaves all over the world, the federal government pressed criminal charges for mortgage fraud against only one bank, Abacus...
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Documentary Review: Resistance at Tule Lake (2017) by Konrad Aderer
Over 110,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated in ten camps from 1942 to 1945, in the largest mass imprisonment of citizens in U.S. history. 12,000 of them resisted the U.S. government’s program of...
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