Taiwanese romantic comedies can touch one’s heart regardless of their Rotten Tomatoes rating or the narrative itself. And despite the genre, the country’s cinema has always highlighted its culture and people against the wonderful landscapes and pictorial compositions of local architecture. Although rom-coms are filled with cliches, some storylines make the audience analyse their own…
Category: Film
23rd Udine Far East Film Festival: “Keep Rolling” Review
On the set of her 2017 film Our Time Will Come, Ann Hui is slapping wet mud all across the backs of actors. Her other hand is clutching a walking cane. She stands in the pouring rain, puffing cigarettes, and yelling orders. Reaching 70 years of age – and spending the past 40 plus years…
Japan’s “Midnight Swan” Wins the 23rd Udine Far East Film Festival.
UDINE – 10 thousand participants on site in Udine and 15 thousand digital participants from 38 countries around the world: that’s the summary of the success of the Far East Film Festival 23, in its most experimental form yet. The public understood and enthusiastically supported the opening plan (which it might be more accurate to call a…
23rd Udine Far East Film Festival: “A is for Agustin” Review
Despite the importance that has been attached to education on a global scale over the years, the world still faces enormous inequalities in terms of access to education. The immediate and most telling effect of not receiving education is illiteracy. While only 3% of people in Europe are illiterate, in South America, Asia and Africa…
23rd Udine Far East Film Festival: “Money Has Four Legs” Review
Wai Bhone (Okkar Dat Khe) sits across from his producer in his office. His producer pours over Wai Bhone’s latest film script. He crosses out lines and spits out suggestions – cut out smoking scenes – they set a bad example, make the criminals more polite – we must show how polite Burmese people are,…
23rd Udine Far East Film Festival: “Shock Wave 2” Review
Good Hong Kong action cinema is like poetry – stuffed with great lead actors, grace, fantasy and pacing, it provides the audience with truly wild action. There is no denial that it has had a huge impact on Hollywood – the appearance of John Woo, Andy Lau, Donnie Yen, Aaron Kwok, Jet Li and Jackie…
23rd Udine Far East Film Festival – “Kundo: Age of the Rampant” Review
While not as stylistically apparent as Kim Jee-woon’s The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008), Kundo: Age of the Rampant by Yoon Jong-bin is the second highest budget South Korean film, made by using western conventions. The film’s plot is firmly embedded in the late Joseon period and deals with a gang of thieves called…
“Sound of Metal” Review
Before he had started to notice his hearing deteriorate Ruben (Riz Ahmed) had been clean off heroin for four years, since around the same time he started to date his girlfriend and bandmate Lou (Olivia Cooke). Ruben is the drummer of the duo’s heavy metal band, Blackgammon. The pair drive around the country together in…
“Sweat” Review
Social media has been prevalent in our lives for more than a decade, although it feels like filmmakers are only now getting the hang of telling stories about how we exist online without succumbing to cheap moralising. This may be because a new wave of filmmakers who actively use and understand different social media platforms…
Director Christopher MacBride’s Top Movie Influences on Mind-Bending Sci-Fi “Flashback”
In the intense upcoming sci-fi thriller Flashback Dylan O’Brien (Love and Monsters, The Maze Runner franchise) is a young man who must unravel a disturbing mystery which develops from his fragmented and surreal memories, particularly those involving a missing girl (Maika Monroe, It Follows) from his high school days. With his past, present and future…
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