Blog Archives

The Monkey King (2014)

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Posted on February 2, 2014 by Justin

Well, this one’s been a long time coming! News that Soi Cheang was to direct a giant, IMAX 3D adaptation of part of the classical novel Journey To The West with a major action star in the lead hit the Web in early 2010, and there’s apparently been a sales stand with a poster at HK Filmart every year since then.

Now, all is revealed! After a couple of years of delays, The Monkey King is here in cinemas in … (read more)

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Space Dandy (2014)

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Posted on January 16, 2014 by Deni
Space Dandy Promo image

Space Dandy opens with a diatribe about boobs.

I know. Classy, right? Well, I guess there’s no arguing that boobs get your attention. Just the word is kind of distracting. Boobs. You’re distracted, right? I’m using them to distract you from realising this review isn’t nearly as loftily intellectual as I’d like it to be, and Shinichiro Watanabe is possibly using them to distract you from noticing that Space Dandy isn’t nearly as instantly fantastic as his other shows were.… (read more)

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Cold Eyes (2013)

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Posted on December 19, 2013 by Yee-Yin

Cold Eyes is the Korean remake of the popular Hong Kong cops-and-robbers thriller Eye in the Sky from 2007. Although it is harsher and quicker paced, comparisons between the two versions are inevitable, as the remake offers many resemblances to the original version, with quite a few scenes reshot only slightly differently (and not to mention a Simon Yam cameo appearance).

The story follows an elite police taskforce in Seoul which uses surveillance and undercover tactics as its modus operandi … (read more)

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Firestorm (2013)

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Posted on December 16, 2013 by John Snadden

The night I saw Firestorm, I was surprised that there were no posters or advertising material on display in the theatre for this new big-budget Hong Kong film. And I was even more surprised to see at the main entrance of the Century City multiplex an over-sized poster for Feng Xiaogang’s new movie Personal Tailor – which has yet to be released! Two hours later, I had a much better understanding of why there was a lack of advertising for … (read more)

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Ilo Ilo (2013)

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Posted on December 2, 2013 by Yee-Yin

Based on the director’s own childhood memories and experiences, Ilo Ilo is a low-key and intimate look at family life in the age of modernization in Singapore, in the midst of the late 1990s’ Asian Financial Crisis. It tells the story of Terry, a domestic worker from the province Ilo Ilo in The Philippines and her adjustment to her host environs and new life as a maid in a middle class household, hired by fulltime working parents to mind their … (read more)

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Our Sunhi (2013)

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Posted on November 29, 2013 by Deni

This surprisingly entertaining offer from writer-director Hong Sang-soo (Nobody’s Daughter Hae-Won, Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors) is a little like watching a Woody Allen movie, without as much whining. Western mainstream audiences might find themselves a little torn between the gentle humour and the lack of normal narrative cues towards the end, but words like charming and quirky are definitely not just intellectual terms being bandied about at the critic’s level.

Sunhi (Jung Yu-Mi, A Bittersweet … (read more)

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Like Father, Like Son (2013)

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Posted on November 25, 2013 by Deni

Kore-eda is in my very humble opinion the most sensitive and humane filmmaker working in Japan today. His body of work is relatively small, but each film has been the product of a quiet and unassuming story-telling genius that rather than exploits people’s ugliness imbues them with the possibility of hope and redemption. He plumbs emotional depths in a way that exposes the human soul as achingly beautiful; his insight is both gentle and unflinching, and his deft, minimalist handling … (read more)

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Snowpiercer (2013)

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Posted on November 24, 2013 by Elizabeth Kerr

Making the leap beyond regional borders for Asian filmmakers is not as easy as it sounds. The road to global domination, particularly with an assist from the Hollywood marketing machine is littered with the broken, bitter careers of many an auteur. For every Ang Lee there are countless Ringo Lams and John Woos. Added to that pile in the last little while are Kim Jee-woon (A Bittersweet Life, I Saw the Devil), whose underrated The Last Stand… (read more)

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