Compilation of the Best Asian Coming-of-Age Stories Garnering Global Attention in 2024 This program brings together films that have been acclaimed at major international film festivals over the past two years, highlighting the growing global interest in Asian coming-of-age stories. Notable films in the lineup include Tiger Stripes (2023), winner of the Grand Prix Prize…
Category: Asian Cinema
The 29th BIFF Announces Selections for ‘Korean Cinema Today – “Special Premiere” & “On Screen”
The 29th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) has announced its lineup for the ‘Korean Cinema Today – Special Premiere’ section, featuring five films, and the ‘On Screen’ section, which includes six drama series. The ‘Korean Cinema Today – Special Premiere’ section highlights and debuts the newest and most significant contemporary Korean commercial films, recognized for…
Inside China: How Two Emerging Talents Are Getting Their Movies Made – Interview with Lu Dan and Fan Zhang
Lu Dan says she entered the film industry to find an outlet for her emotions, and the Chinese filmmaker’s debut feature certainly feels deeply personal. The director was born in the northwest Chinese province of Xinjiang, and in The Absent, she returns there to explore notions of family and home. “I like to tell stories…
“Rewriting the Rules: Pioneering Indian Cinema after 1970” – Thu 3 Oct – Thu 12 Dec 2024 at the Barbican Cinema (UK)
Explore the impact of Indian Parallel Cinema, a groundbreaking post-colonial film movement, in Rewriting the Rules: Pioneering Indian Cinema after 1970. This three-month cinema season presents innovative films from the 1970s to the 1990s, known for their social and political commitment. The season is part of the Barbican’s major exhibition The Imaginary Institution of India:…
“Sleep” Review: A Sleepless Thriller That Thrives on Paranoia and Friction
There’s one thing that everybody who snores has in common: the belief that their snoring is nowhere near as bad as what other people make it out to be, if they can admit to themselves they snore at all. It causes friction on a nightly basis in millions of relationships, and as a result, makes…
Herman Yau on His Latest Work, “Customs Frontline”, and Filmmaking
Herman Yau’s latest film, Customs Frontline, premiered globally at the FEFF 26 in Udine this past May and is set for its Asian premiere in Hong Kong this July. A maverick director known for his prolific output, Yau was born in China in 1961 and studied Film at Hong Kong Baptist University. Over a remarkable…
“Bushido”: Exploring Humanity Through the Lens of a Fallen Samurai – An Insight with Director Kazuya Shiraishi
“Any movie that I make, I always think: ‘What is a human being?’” director Kazuya Shiraishi shares as he reflects on his latest project Bushido. The samurai period drama, or jidaigeki, tells the story of ronin Yanagida Kakunoshin (Tsuyoshi Kuanagi) who has fallen into poverty but has found peace in a humble living with his…
Discussing “Alienoid: Return to the Future” with Director Choi Dong-hoon and Producer Ahn Soo-hyun – Exclusive Interview
I first interviewed Choi Dong-hoon, one of South Korea’s leading directors and screenwriters, in 2015 at the BFI London Film Festival, where he was promoting his espionage action film Assassination. Choi, renowned for his consistent box-office success, spent several years developing the script for Alienoid, a sci-fi fantasy action film. After premiering Alienoid at the…
77th Cannes Film Festival: “Locust” Review
Every generation has its angry young men, rebelling against the cultural conformity of the era. From James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause and Marlon Brando in The Wild One pushing back against the stifling conservatism of the Eisenhower age, to the various turn-of-the-century studies of disaffected adults stilted by middle-class life, these are snapshots…
77th Cannes Film Festival: “Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In” Review
Kowloon Walled City, a military fort turned ungovernable residential area in Hong Kong that was demolished in 1993, feels like the product of a screenwriter’s imagination run wild. As depicted in Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In, the city’s self-sustaining ecosystem is almost entirely shut off from the real world, its 35,000+ residents living and…
VIEW OF THE ARTS 