March 11, 2013
Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale is an epic tale about the indigenous people of Taiwan before the encroachment of the Japanese.
December 16, 2013
The Lady Assassin, a martial arts blockbuster, is my first Vietnamese film. A light Sunday night screening at this year’s Fantasia Festival, it was attended by a notable number of people from Montreal’s Vietnamese community. Billed as a Vietnamese wu xia, in the film, a princess sold in marriage is taken in by a team of high-flying, ass—kicking, thieving assassins […]
October 17, 2013
Shield of Straw My first film at Fantasia in 2013 was Takashi Miike’s Shield of Straw, one of the director’s contribution to the festival. Miike is a known workhorse, directing sometimes three films per year, in a myriad of genres and styles. Yet, there seems to be a connecting thread through his films, which feels harder to ascertain for me […]
November 24, 2010
The Naked Kitchen is disappointing, even with the presence of Ji-hun Ju (Kim from last year’s Antique) and its appealing premise. It does everything wrong.
November 28, 2010
Legend goes that The Devils was considered so extreme in its time that it was banned in North America and never distributed on home video here.