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 […]
July 29, 2011
A few weeks before the 2011 Fantasia Film Festival, the programmers released a tentative list of noteworthy films to be screened at the festival. Before then, I’m a little underwhelmed about the festival this year, enthralled in activities out and about in the city. Montreal in the summer is something to experience; it’s frustrating really, choosing between all the happenings […]
November 28, 2010
Woochi starts out as a magic-driven wuxia-like set in the Joseon era in Korea, but segues into an unsophisticated popular fare.
November 28, 2010
Symbol never lives up to its potential, choosing rather to limit itself to slapstick gags, immature, dull and predictable.
April 20, 2010
Rough Cut constructs a dual history of characters, mirror images of one another, distorted through time, in a film within a film.