There’s nothing groundbreaking in the idea that, rather than bringing us closer together, technology has left us more divided and isolated than ever before. There have been several films in recent years that have criticised the dehumanisation of the digital age, and almost all of them have invited immediate parody (most notably, Jason Reitman’s Men,…
Tag: Asian Cinema
6th London East Asia Film Festival: “Not Out” Review
Hear the chants, hear the screams… Baseball is one of the most popular sports in South Korea. With an incredible atmosphere in the stadium during every game, baseball has become more than just a sport. Although what we see on the pitch is exciting, what happens behind closed doors is another story. The journey of…
6th London East Asia 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 working in film…
23rd Udine Far East Film Festival: “My Missing Valentine” Review
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…
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: “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 – “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…
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 – 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…
21st Udine Far East Film Festival: Birthday Review
In the early hours of the morning on April 16th 2014, followed by heart-wrenching days of rescue, the hearts of the South Korean nation broke as one as the ferry MV Sewol sank and claimed the lives of 304 passengers and crew members. The tragedy was made worse as 250 of the victims were juniors…
In Conversation with Steven Yeun of ‘Burning’
Steven Yeun greets me with a big smile and a warm handshake as we meet at the Mayfair hotel in London on a cold October morning. We sit down and chat about what it means to be a Korean-American, his latest production Burning, and working with Lee Chang-dong. Born in Seoul, South Korea and raised…
Lee Chang-dong’s Burning
The attempts to translate Haruki Murakami‘s prose into the cinematic language have so far mostly ended in spectacular disasters, or – in the best case – garnered mixed reviews, probably due to the specific style of the writer. But the fates have changed when Lee Chang-dong, the director of Poetry and Peppermint Candy, returned after 6 years of…
