Sean Gilman

A film critic in Tacoma, Washington. Bylines at The Criterion Collection, the Mubi Notebook, Frame.land, InReview Online, Seattle Screen Scene and more.

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Fei Mu

Blood on Wolf Mountain (Fei Mu, 1936)

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Contemporary Chinese (Streaming) Cinema

The MIYA Memo: Shell Girl (Wang Xia, 2024) and Female Special Police Officer (Zhang Zhen, 2022)

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Ram Gopal Varma

Enter the Girl Dragon (Ram Gopal Varma, 2022)

Rithy Panh

Rendez-vous avec Pol Pot (Rithy Panh, 2024)

A slightly different version of this was originally published at InReview Online as part of their coverage of the 2025 Rendez-vous with French Cinema series. It’s been over a decade now since I caught Rithy Panh’s The Missing Picture at the Vancouver Film Festival. His chronicle of his

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Contemporary Chinese (Streaming) Cinema

More Condors, More Heroes: The Dragon Tamer (Diao Yu and Zhu Lingfeng, 2021) and What is love (Lin Zhenzhao, 2025)

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Tsui Hark

Legends of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants (Tsui Hark, 2025)

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Kitano Takeshi

Broken Rage (Kitano Takeshi, 2024)

Miike Takashi

Blue Fight (aka Blazing Fists) (Miike Takashi, 2025)

A slightly different version of this was originally published at InReview Online as part of their coverage of the 2025 International Film Festival Rotterdam. I watched two films for this year’s IFFR. One was the smash hit Hong Kong family melodrama set in the world of funerals The Last

Anselm Chan

The Last Dance (Anselm Chan, 2024)

A slightly different version of this was originally published at InReview Online as part of their coverage of the 2025 International Film Festival Rotterdam. It may be somewhat surprising to learn that The Last Dance in 2024 became the highest-grossing (domestic) film in Hong Kong history, if only because we’

Devils on the Doorstep

Yamada Naoko

Reviews: Liz and the Blue Bird (2018) – November 14, 2018 The Heike Story (2021) – November 22, 2024 Capsule Reviews: K-On! The Movie (2011) – August 13, 2019 A Silent Voice (2016) – November 9, 2019 Liz and the Blue Bird (2018) – August 1, 2019 Yamada Naoko Movies

Yamada Naoko

Yamada Naoko Capsule Reviews

K-On! The Movie (2011) – August 13, 2019 Basically just a long couple of episodes of the show, but since the show is one of the greatest things ever, that’s perfectly swell.  Was a bit unsure when I started this series. Coming off of Sound! Euphonium, this is much sillier,

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Kuei Chih-hung

Killer Constable (Kuei Chih-hung, 1980)

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Contemporary Chinese (Streaming) Cinema

The Raquel Report: iQIYI's Queen of Triads, Snipers, and Wild Agents

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Kung Fu Cult Masters

A Martial Arts Triple-Feature at the Grand Illusion in Seattle

Donnie Yen

The Prosecutor (Donnie Yen, 2024)

A Donnie Yen courtroom drama may seem like an ominous way to kick off the year in film 2025, but this is the world we’ve made for ourselves and we must go to where the movies are. Probably inspired by recent films like A Guilty Conscience and The Sparring

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Tsai Ming-liang

Abiding Nowhere (Tsai Ming-liang, 2024)

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Yamada Naoko

The Heike Story (Yamada Naoko, 2021)

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Qin Pengfei

The Bodyguard and Blade of Fury (Qin Pengfei, 2024)

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Yuen Woo-ping

Movie Magic: The Yuen Clan's Magic Movies

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Hong Sangsoo

A Traveler's Needs and By the Stream (Hong Sangsoo, 2024)

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Strange Tales

Contemporary Chinese (Streaming) Cinema

Strange Tales

2024 Festival Compilation

As I've done for the last couple of years, here is a collection of the reviews I wrote this year for InReview Online's coverage of various film festivals from around the world (Rotterdam, Cannes, the New York Asian Film Festival, Venice, Toronto, and the New York

Ryoo Seungwan

Veteran 2: I, the Executioner (Ryoo Seungwan, 2024)

I couple days ago, I wrote about the upcoming film The Shadow Strays and introduced it by hyping up all the incredible action movies we’ve seen coming from around the world over the last several years. It was by no means meant to be an exhaustive list, but in

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Jason Yu

Sleep (Jason Yu, 2023)

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Corey Yuen

The Bodyguard from Beijing (Corey Yuen, 1994)