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.
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 26, 2010
The only showing of the Singapore film, Sell Out, is, oddly enough, sold out. It’s my first Singaporean film, a musical sporting a peculiar premise, so I’m excited about it. A young Singaporean engineer, working for a multinational conglomerate, designs a terrific new product (a tofu processor) but discovers that his invention (and any kind of innovation) isn’t welcomed at […]
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.
December 10, 2010
In Boys on the Run, Tanishi, a toy representative, spends his evenings engaging in phone sex with strangers and masturbating to hard-core porn.