January 2, 2012

Don’t Go Breaking My Heart (Johnny To and Wai Ka-fai, 2011)

Johnny To and Wai Ka-fai are two of the best Hong Kong directors of their generation (and To is one of the world’s best) and their production company, Milky Way, is a prominent example of industrial filmmaking without sacrificing quality and creativity. Don’t Go Breaking My Heart is an example of Milky Way’s effective filmmaking formula, and both filmmakers love […]
November 28, 2010

Accident (Pou-soi Cheang, 2009)

Accident devolves into a too simplistic whodunit, where the director tries to dazzle us with his technical mastery and film knowledge.
September 7, 2011

Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (Tsui Hark, 2010)

Although Hark makes good use of his limited budget, Dectective Dee’s script feels convoluted, while the actors perform as if they’re in a campy picture.
March 28, 2013

Sunny (Hyeong-Cheol Kang, 2011)

Sunny is at once a coming-of-age film, with detective elements, feminine-pop aesthetics, fleshed-out characters and intricate narrative elements.
December 5, 2010

The Housemaid (Ki-young Kim, 1960; Sang-soo Im, 2010)

The Housemaid (Ki-young Kim, 1960) is one of the oldest films known to have survived South Korea’s evolution from Third-World country to G20 powerhouse. The print shown at Fantasia this year was restored by Martin Scorsese’s World film Restoration Foundation in tandem with the South Korean government and follows The Housemaid (Sang-soo Im, 2010) remake’s stellar performance this year at […]