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…
Smooth Like Butter: Boys Just Want to Have Fun – BTS’ “Butter” Single Review
Butter is BTS’ second English language single, following their 2020 smash hit Dynamite. It is written by Jenna Andrews (who is also credited on Dynamite), Alex Bilowitz, Sebastian Garcia, Rob Grimaldi, Stephen Kirk, Ron Perry (the chairman of Columbia Records) and RM. Vocal production is by Jenna Andrews and Stephen Kirk, while vocal arrangement is…
“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…
“Surge” Review
From Howard Beale in Network decrying everything that’s wrong with America after breaking down on air, to Michael Douglas’ William Foster finding himself railing against his place in the food chain in Falling Down, there’s been a long history of cinema depicting seemingly normal men cracking at the seams, unable to stay sane when faced…
“I Want to Renew My Resolve and View the Present as My Second Beginning” – In Conversation with Singer-Songwriter Kim Yeong Geun
2016 was a turning point for Kim Young Geun when he won the talent show Superstar K [an equivalent of Britain’s Got Talent and American Idol]. The singer impressed the judges with his cover of Sam Smith’s Lay Me Down, which later led to more exciting performances on the show. A year after winning the…
“Censor” Review
The relationship between British filmmakers and the state censor, the BBFC, is an odd and fascinating one. In recent years, several directors have gone on the record to speak about how they show screenplays to the BBFC during their writing process, while the classification board itself even runs a podcast aiming to rehabilitate its image…
“Promising Young Woman” Review
Cassie (Carey Mulligan) lays sprawled across her seat at a local dive bar – lulling her head and slurring her words. She’s blistering drunk, all alone, and attracting the stares of a group of guys. ‘That is just asking for it’ one of them huffs, another one decides to go over to Cassie and offer…
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