Blog Archives

Trishna (2011)

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Posted on May 8, 2012 by Justin

Trishna opens nationwide on May 10, 2012 — check your local cinema for details.

Trishna is a contemporary adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s novel Tess of the d’Urbervilles from English director Michael Winterbottom, with quite a change of scenery. It transplants the story to India, swapping industrial England for rural Rajasthan and urban Mumbai as India modernises.

Freida Pinto (who made her film debut in Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire) plays Trishna, a young woman living in with her family in … (read more)

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Still Walking (2008)

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Posted on December 2, 2009 by James

Koreeda must be among the gentlest of modern filmmakers and Still Walking the almost perfect inverse to the so-called extremism driving populist interest in Asian cinema.

Why gentle? Koreeda takes a melodramatic premise here (concerned with the devastation that a tragic death wrecks upon surviving family members and one person connected with the incident), pads his story with bitter males and eccentric females, fiddles with a basic array of conflicts (young vs old, husband vs wife, city vs country, life … (read more)

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Tezuka: The Experimental Films (2007)

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Posted on May 2, 2009 by Ching Yee

Rare indeed as most of these short films were destined for film festivals. Having had the pleasure and luck to have seen a handful at the Hong Kong International Film Festival a few years back, I longed to see them again. Now my wait is over as a selective 13 of these experimental films have been put together in this DVD with some choice extras.

Tezuka’s legacy in modern animation is staggering, having left behind a large body of work … (read more)

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Maadadayo (1993)

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Posted on June 13, 2008 by James

Here we have a sentimental Kurosawa picture about an elderly teacher who, courtesy of his wise (and somewhat cracking) observations of life and times, has gained the veneration of his doting students. The problem for me with this picture was that I didn’t find my old chap particularly likeable. He seemed to me more an idling opportunist with a high opinion of himself than an erudite poet-philosopher worthy of adoration.

The experience of watching Maadadayo will probably be far more … (read more)

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The Bad Sleep Well (1960)

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Posted on November 4, 2007 by Greg

Few would argue that Akira Kurosawa is one of the greatest directors the world has ever seen. The number of masterpieces he produced is simply staggering. If you look back at the catalogue of his works, you notice that at the heart of many of these great films are partnerships with other extremely talented individuals. His long collaboration with Toshiro Mifune, for example, is usually regarded as one of the greatest director/actor partnerships in the history of cinema. Kurosawa’s work … (read more)

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The Quiet Duel (1949)

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Posted on August 17, 2007 by James

It’s not every day you get to see a film focusing on the medical response to syphilis and the emotional torment of one of the disease’s sufferers.

I can’t say this particular absence in my film viewing habits to date particularly irks me. There’s only so much a spectator can tolerate when submitted to endless studies of a pent-up and remorseful Toshiro Mifune (infected with syphilis) pining in sexual frustration over his (spotless, timid, frail, i.e. stereotyped) wife to never … (read more)

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Ashes of Time (1994)

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Posted on June 17, 2007 by John Snadden

As I see it, there have only been two rolled gold masterpieces of the Cantonese cinema since the late 1980s: John Woo’s bloodstained Vietnam odyssey Bullet in the Head and Wong Ka-Wai’s Ashes of Time. Both were produced within three years of each other and are poles apart in content and style, but they remain shining examples of a film industry at its peak.

Ashes of Time is based on a popular Chinese martial arts novel The Eagle Shooting … (read more)

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Dolls (2002)

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Posted on April 29, 2007 by Alison

It seems that every time I mentioned that I’d seen Kitano Takeshi’s latest effort and liked it, someone said “You must be the only one!” I’d then have to point out that no, I wasn’t the only one, and if they’d seen it themselves they’d be able to offer an informed opinion. ‘Twas an education for me in how rumours get started.

So let’s deal with my impression of Dolls. Tearing into the bad stuff first, it did drag … (read more)

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