Amongst the 263 islands that make up Hong Kong, nestled near the Shenzhen border, sits Grass Island. Hiding away in a small fishing village on Grass Island is ex–hitman Ah Hoi (Tai-Bo). Retired from his life of crime, Ah Hoi now spends his days keeping a low profile and looking after his elderly mother, Ah…
Category: Asian Cinema
22nd Udine Far East Film Festival: Victim(s) Review
Audiovisual texts, mainly film, are a desirable tool in the axiological education of many people. Thanks to the projection-identification mechanism, we can often relate to a film character and experience various emotional states with them, self-reflect and, like pedagogues, improve our quality of life by analysing our own emotions. There is one particular subject that…
22nd Udine Far East Film Festival: The House of Us Review
Wise upon her years, 12-year-old Lee Hana (Kim Na-yeon) is the backbone of her family; acting as a peacekeeper as she tries to calm raging arguments between her parents who are going through a divorce. Constantly cooking dinners in an attempt to bring her family back together – Hana’s gastronomic displays of affection aren’t appreciated…
22nd Udine Far East Film Festival: In Conversation with Eunsoo Cho, Cinematographer of ‘Victim(s)’
Eunsoo Cho, born and raised in Seoul, Korea, has been an avid film lover since she was very young. She studied at the Korean National University of Arts, and received her M.F.A at the School of Cinematic Arts in the University of Southern California. In both schools, her focus was cinematography. Throughout the years, many…
22nd Udine Far East Film Festival – Life Finds a Way Review
Returning with his famous love for shooting in black and white and observing the mundane, Hirobumi Watanabe creates a refreshing and funny reflection on when it means to be a creative and what it means to create in his film Life Finds a Way. Starring as himself, Watanabe is spending the summer living at his…
22nd Udine Far East Film Festival – In Conversation with Layla Ji, Director of ‘Victim(s)’
Layla Ji has always been an ambitious individual. At the age of 18, she decided to move from China to the US to study a double major in Business Management and Radio/TV/Film Production. After four years, she proudly graduated with honours and later went on to study at Columbia University where she finished the MFA…
22nd Udine Far East Film Festival: Ashfall Review
Recently, filmmakers have been attracted to making disaster films more than ever. Whether they show that we would be swallowed by a tsunami, a whirlwind or fires, blown away by a comet, burnt by an erupting volcano or perished by inhaling poisonous gases, the productions have become bold, filled with endless CGI, harrowing action, but…
22nd Udine Far East Film Festival: Dance with Me Review
Shizuka Suzuki (Ayaka Miyoshi) hates musicals, or at least that’s what she claims after a traumatic incident from her childhood leads her to despise the stage. So, when she decides to take her niece to visit a fair in the park and magician Machin Ueda (Akira Takarada) hypnotises her into turning all life situations into…
22nd Udine Far East Film Festival: Exit Review
Up amongst Seoul’s rollercoaster of a skyline, Yong-nam (Jo Jung-suk) and Eui-Ju (Lim Yoona) are hurdling from building to building desperately trying to outrun and outsmart the toxic fog slowly following them across the city. Opening up this year’s London East Asia Film Festival, Lee Sang-geun’s feature debut Exit is a joyful, lively but somewhat…
22nd Udine Far East Film Festival: Vertigo Review
Life can often throw you curveballs, but a person can only endure so much while also trying to reach deeper into oneself to find what gives them a reason to live. Vertigo, written and directed by Jeon Gye-soo, depicts one of these emotional and complex life stories. Seo-young (Chun Woo-hee: The Wailing, Han Gong-ju) struggles with her existence;…
Time to Hunt Review
South Korean cinema is well-known for its perturbing thrillers such as Oldboy, Lady Vengeance, I Saw the Devil, Memories of Murder as well as the latest hit, Parasite. Although those films broke into the mainstream film market, South Korean productions are still not ‘in fashion’ like French, Scandinavian or American cinema. However, with the new…
Hanxiong Bo’s Drifting Review
Since the late ‘70s, China has implemented a strict policy enforcing that each family is only allowed to have one child in order to control China’s growing population. Although this policy was reformed in 2016, the controversial ‘one-child’ policy has had devastating and traumatic effects on families for generations. Growing up during the height of…
To Celebrate the Release of Takashi Miike’s ‘First Love’, Here are Takashi Miike’s Top 5 Yakuza Films
Super-entertaining Takashi Miike crime thriller First Love is a Tarantino-beating bonanza that opens with a decapitated head rolling into the frame and doesn’t let up for 108 minutes. The Yakuza genre is one Miike delved into early on in his career with great success, and now he’s jumped back into the world of Tokyo gangsters in…
In Conversation with Lee Sang-geun, Director of ‘Exit’
Lee Sang-geun began his career as a filmmaker in 1999 by making short films. In 2006, Lee was awarded Best Film at the Mise-en-scène Short Film Festival and, a year later, he received the Grand Prix at the Daegu Short Film Festival for Mr. Self-Portrait. In addition to directing, Lee worked as a production assistant on 2008…
