Hungarian filmmaker Ildikó Enyedi’s Silent Friend traces three distinct eras – 1908, 1972, and 2020 – through the enduring presence of a single ancient ginkgo tree, connecting lives and histories across time. The film traces how humans have tried to understand the natural world under the witness of an ancient ginkgo tree in the botanic…
Tag: Asian Cinema
82nd Venice Film Festival: In Conversation with Anuparna Roy, Director of “Songs of Forgotten Trees”
At the 82nd Venice Film Festival, Anuparna Roy’s Songs of Forgotten Trees was a rare kind of debut, one that challanges the ways Indian cinema has historically positioned women: not as symbols or accessories to a male narrative, but as living, breathing individuals. Her film places women firmly at the centre and lets them be…
82nd Venice Film Festival: “Songs of Forgotten Trees” Review
In Indian cinema, women have long been denied the role of true protagonists. Too often, they are framed as satellites orbiting male narratives, often instrumentalised rather than fully realised characters. Screened in the Orizzonti section at the Venice Film Festival, Songs of Forgotten Trees, directed by Anuparna Roy, challenges that legacy by placing women at…
“I’m The Most Beautiful Count”: A Thai BL Drama of Queer Love and Palace Secrets – Review of the First Two Episodes
From its first flashy frame, Thai series I’m The Most Beautiful Count – adapted from the webtoon Chan Ni Lae Than Khun Thi Suai Thi Sut Nai Siam by Yuen Kin Pakka Thi Than Phra – brims with a sense of intrigue. Dropping us into the glamorous world of our protagonist, superstar Prince (Nut Supanut…
JIB DREAM FANMEET – Rome Gears Up for Triple Thai BL Fanmeet
This autumn, the heart of Rome will be filled with excitement as JIB Dream Fanmeet returns with not one, but three spectacular Thai Boys’ Love (BL) events – between August 2025 and August 2026. Hosted at the Hilton Rome Airport Hotel in Fiumicino, these gatherings are not only about the stars, but also about the…
78th Locarno Film Festival: In Conversation with Park Syeyoung, Director of “The Fin”
Seoul-based Syeyoung Park is an interesting independent filmmaker. A graduate of the Korea National University of Arts, with a BFA in Film and an MFA in Video Arts, Park made his feature debut with The Fifth Thoracic Vertebra, which earned him awards at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, Seoul Independent Film Festival, and Fantasia,…
78th Locarno Film Festival: “The Fin” Review
Korean cinema continues to prove its global dominance not just through streaming platforms, but through visionary films that challenge and expand the very language of cinema. With The Fin, director Park Syeyoung delivers a haunting work, an unsettling look at control and survival in the aftermath of ideology. Set in a post-unification, ecologically devastated Korea,…
30th Busan International Film Festival: Special Program in Focus – Defining Moments of Asian Cinema
Marking its 30th milestone, the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) presents the third edition of Asian Cinema 100 under the theme Defining Moments of Asian Cinema. Curated in collaboration with the Pusan National University Film Institute and the Korean Film Archive, the program revisits the artistry and history of Asian filmmaking through landmark works, each…
Park Chan-wook Returns with “No Other Choice”, Opening the 30th Busan International Film Festival
Three years after his critically acclaimed Decision to Leave (2022), director Park Chan-wook makes a powerful return to the screen with No Other Choice, a gripping drama centered on a man’s desperate fight to protect everything he holds dear. The story follows Man-su (Lee Byung Hun), a once-proud man whose stable life is suddenly upended…
Hyper Japan 2025 – Ai Higuchi on Unfinished Journeys, Global Voices, and the Songs That Move Us – Exclusive Interview
Ai Higuchi’s journey into music began with classical piano at just two years old, but her artistic evolution has been far from traditional. Over the years, she added violin, drums, guitar, and vocals to her toolkit, building a rich, multi-instrumental foundation. “Since my roots are in classical piano, I think my sense of tempo is…
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