“I was envious of those who had siblings when I was younger, I thought that their lives were richer,” anime director Mamoru Hosoda admits to MyM Buzz, as he explains how he came to create the story for his latest film Mirai. A sweet, heart-warming family film about four-year-old Kun, who struggles to accept the arrival of…
Category: Asian Cinema
In Conversation with Teo Yoo – Viktor Tsoy in Kirill Serebrennikov’s ‘Leto’
It has been almost three years since we last spoke to Teo Yoo, and looking at his fast-growing list of projects, he has kept himself very busy. Among his most recent projects that the audience was able to enjoy was his phenomenal portrayal of Viktor Tsoy (one of the Soviet rock pioneers) in Leto (Summer) by…
3rd London East Asia Film Festival: The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion Review
After the rather minor success, accompanied by mostly unfavourable critiques of his 2017 feature V.I.P, a film where mediocre imagination ruled the depictions of cruel treatment of women, which turned it into a prosaic, occasionally sickening narrative, Park Hoon-jung, who penned The Unjust (2010) and I Saw the Devil (2010), has finally made a proper…
3rd London East Asia Film Festival: In Conversation with Park Hoon-jung and Kim Da-mi of ‘The Witch – Part 1. The Subversion’
Thanks to his distinctive and thoughtful writing style Park Hoon-jung has attracted a vast number of international and domestic fans for his work on Kim Jee-woon’s I Saw the Devil and Ryoo Seung-wan’s The Unjust. He then traded in his writing skills for directing, and in 2013 he made New World, an intriguing film that is arguably one of the most…
3rd London East Asia Film Festival: Miss Baek Review
Child abuse is a serious problem in South Korea, where the Western trend of permissive education and upbringing never made an entirely successful landing, and where (light) corporal punishment will still hardly draw the attention of authorities, which has lead to horrific numbers of child abuse cases that have been growing at an alarming rate….
3rd London East Asia Film Festival: In Conversation with Han Ji-min of ‘Miss Baek’
Han Ji-min is a South Korean actress who first gained mainstream attention with her performance in 2005 Korean TV series Ressurection. She continued a successful TV career, starring in some of the K-drama world favourites – Yi San, Padam Padam, Rooftop Prince, and Hyde Jekyll, Me. At the same time, she started building a successful…
3rd London East Asia Film Festival: Shoplifters Review
A gentle and emotionally intelligent look at the meaning of family in contemporary Japan. Empathetic, quiet and in-tune with human fragility, this year’s Palme d’Or winner Shoplifters explores the humane need for belonging and connection. Wondering if you can ‘choose’ your family, Hirokazu Koreeda once again perfects the art of drawing genuine heartbreak from an…
3rd London East Asia Film Festival: Tropical Fish Review
Chen Yu-Hsun dishes up a lively and lovable comedy-drama with this New Taiwanese Cinema classic. Originally released in 1995, Tropical Fish encapsulates an authentic and personal look at Taiwanese approaches to family-living and the nation’s harsh school system. Mocking how concerned families are with school exams and how ludicrous the studying regime for adolescents can…
3rd London East Asia Film Festival: Dear Ex Review
When Song Zhengyuan dies, he leaves everything he has to the most important person in his life: his gay lover Jay (Roy Chiu). To his wife Liu Sanlian (Ying-Shiuan Hsieh) this comes as a shock, as it leaves nothing for her and their teenage son Chengxi (Joseph Huang). She’s livid, and jumps at the chance to…
3rd London East Asia Film Festival: In Conversation with Kim Ji-young, Director of ‘Intention’
Kim Ji-young attracted audiences’ attention when he directed two documentaries: Fraser Report – Who Made South Korea Economics Grows Rapidly and Hundred Years’ War in Korea: Two-Face of Syngman Rhyee in 2012. A few years later, along with the help from investigative journalist Oh Hee-jung, he tackled the subject of the Sewol Ferry Disaster. Researched mostly in secret…
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