Harvard Sensory Ethnography Lab Yumen (JP Sniadecki, Xu Ruotao & Huang Xiang, 2013) The Harvard Sensory Ethnography Lab is apparently bent on domination of the documentary world, or at least its cutting edge. While Lucien Castaing-Taylor has taken the film world by storm with his Sweetgrass and now Leviathan (co-directed with Verena Paravel), films about sheep-herding and fishing, respectively, that have become minor
Tsai Ming-liang Stray Dogs (Tsai Ming-liang, 2013) The latest film from Tsai Ming-liang finds his hero, played as always by the axiomatic Lee Kang-sheng, in precarious circumstances. When last we saw him (not counting last VIFF’s terrific short Walker, in which Lee was a slow-moving monk just trying to get a McMuffin) was in Visage, where
Chai Chunya Four Ways to Die in My Hometown (Chai Chunya, 2013) In the early 20th century, a number of intrepid researchers delved deep into rural America, looking to record the last vestiges of our-preindustrial past — folk songs, Scotch-Irish ballads, itinerant blues musicians, backwoods gospel preachers and singers. One collection of these recordings, compiled by Harry Smith and released in 1952, The
Flora Lau Bends (Flora Lau, 2013) Veteran Hong Kong actress Carina Lau in a starring role (she’s outstanding in supporting performances in movie like Days of Being Wild or He’s a Woman, She’s a Man) was the main reason I chose to see this film, and on that front at least, it did
Johnnie To Blind Detective (Johnnie To, 2013) The big draw in Blind Detective is the reunion of Andy Lau and Sammi Cheng. Pop stars and cultural icons, it was the series of romantic comedies they made with To in the early 2000s that essentially saved his Milkyway Image company from collapse. The first few years of the
Hong Sangsoo Nobody’s Daughter Haewon (Hong Sangsoo, 2013) Continuing a recent trend, one that denotes a sharp break with his pre-2008 work, Nobody’s Daughter Haewon focuses on a female protagonist, though one who isn’t any more heroic than Hong’s usual cast of drunken, lecherous filmmaker/professors. Haewon is a pretty girl who is constantly told
Ann Hui Boat People (Ann Hui, 1982) Revolution is war is hell. Something in the air with the Hong Kong New Wave and Japanese leftists in 1982. Patrick Tam’s Nomad envisions the United Red Army as psychotic dead-enders while Ann Hui here depicts an idealistic photojournalist who sees past the Potemkin images provided for him by
Patrick Tam My Heart is that Eternal Rose (Patrick Tam, 1989) A Triad love story movie that stars Kenny Bee, Joey Wong, Tony Leung, Gordon Liu, and Ng Man-tat. Directed by Patrick Tam and (partially) shot by Christopher Doyle and produced by John Sham (one of Sammo Hung's Lucky Stars). If only one of Chang Cheh’s stars like
Ang Lee Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee, 2000) I still think this is a pretty great movie, almost 15 years after it proved to be a surprise hit, thanks in no small part to Sony Pictures releasing it uncut in its intended form (ahem, Harvey Weinstein). That it lost Best Picture to Gladiator is one of the underrated
Wong Kar-wai Ashes of Time (Redux) (Wong Kar-wai, 1994) As with My Blueberry Nights and 2046, a person trying to escape their own past romantic disappointments becomes witness to the stories of other people, and thus learns to cope with their own issues. Like Chow Mo-wan in In the Mood for Love, Ouyang Feng (Leslie Cheung) has lost the
Patrick Tam Nomad (Patrick Tam, 1982) This Patrick Tam film defies easy genre labeling. For much of its run, its feels like a slice of life teenage film, not unlike American Graffiti or Dazed and Confused or Metropolitan, but more in the style of later Taiwanese directors like Edward Yang or Hou Hsiao-hsien (though without their
Wong Kar-wai Days of Being Wild (Wong Kar-wai, 1990) Wong Kar-wai’s second feature is, I think, one of the great films about the post-war generation and the lingering effects the war had on their psyches and their visions of the world. Set in 1960, the main characters would have all been born in the mid to late 30s,
Chang Cheh The Heroic Ones (Chang Cheh, 1970) A lavish Chang Cheh fable set in the Tang Dynasty (in the late 9th Century) and based more or less on actual historical events. The Empire is in turmoil as an upstart general has rebelled and captured the imperial capital at Chang’an. The Emperor and his advisors call on
Chang Cheh Vengeance! (Chang Cheh, 1970) This Chang Cheh thriller provided star-making performances for Ti Lung and David Chiang, actors who had played small supporting roles in some prior Chang films (you can spot them clearly in 1969’s Return of the One-Armed Swordsman) but who Chang gave a big push to in 1970, where Chiang
Chang Cheh Return of the One-Armed Swordsman (Chang Cheh, 1969) Chang Cheh’s sequel to his hit 1967 superhero movie finds Jimmy Wang Yu’s hero happily retired to a farm life when he’s asked to join a competition. It seems the top eight local bandits have gathered under one leader and are holding a contest to see who
Chor Yuen Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre, Parts I & II (Chor Yuen, 1978) It took me way too long to realize this was an adaptation of the same material as Kung Fu Cult Master (aka Lord of the Wu Tang), a crazy Jet Li wuxia film from 1993 directed by Wong Jing, one that I’ve seen three or four times. The problem
Chang Cheh Five Shaolin Masters and Shaolin Temple (Chang Cheh, 1974 and 1976) Five Shaolin Masters circles back and starts at the beginning of another 1974 Chang Cheh film, Heroes Two, with the destruction of the Shaolin Temple, but then goes off in the other direction. A narrator helpfully informs us that the Chen Kuan-tai character in that film went south and met
Chor Yuen The Sentimental Swordsman (Chor Yuen, 1977) An exceptionally well-written wuxia film, one in which the characters are motivated by psychology rather than fulfilling roles as mere mythological character types, where the tsunami of exposition that swamps so many other films in the genre is distilled into action with the expeditious use of a MacGuffin (a mysterious
Pan Anzi For a Few Bullets (Pan Anzi, 2016) Opening yesterday here in Seattle after debuting a week ago in China, For a Few Bullets is a goofy adventure film, a mishmash of references as haphazardly assembled as its not-quite-Leone title. Set in 1940, it’s a treasure hunt chase movie, with a con man enlisted by a Chinese
Chang Cheh Heroes Two (Chang Cheh, 1974) Chang Cheh’s take on the Fong Sai-yuk character has Alexander Fu Sheng playing him as a good-hearted but dim-witted boob who is quite easily gulled into capturing one of the few survivors of the destruction of the Shaolin Temple, Chen Kuan-tai’s Hung Hsi-kuan, and handing him over to
King Hu Dragon Gate Inn (King Hu, 1967) I keep saying The 36th Chamber of Shaolin is the Stagecoach of martial arts movies, but that’s wrong, this is. Or rather, they both are, but they represent two perfect forms of distinct subgenres of the martial arts film. 36th Chamber is the kung fu training film, where the
Chor Yuen Heroes Shed No Tears (Chor Yuen, 1980) I’ve only seen a few Chor Yuen films, so I don’t know how much this is a signature of his, but with this movie he seems to be exploring what would have happened had Josef von Sternberg made a wuxia film. Or at least Von Sternberg’s set
Lau Kar-leung The Spiritual Boxer (Lau Kar-leung, 1975) The most interesting thing about this, Lau Kar-leung’s first film as a director after a distinguished career as action choreographer and stunt man, is the prologue, which takes a sidelong glance at the Boxer Rebellion, in which groups of disaffected Chinese men, apparently convinced that through rigorous kung fu
Chang Cheh The One-Armed Swordsman (Chang Cheh, 1967) Probably not the first superhero origin story movie, or even the first great one, but it’s the earliest one I can think of and it remains one of the best in that now ubiquitous genre. After a bloody prologue, in which a man is killed protecting his master from
King Hu Come Drink With Me (King Hu, 1966) There’s the ending, and then the ending after the ending. And then there’s the ending after the ending that undermines the other two endings by trying to play the moral of the film both ways by espousing the rejection of bloody vengeance, but giving the audience the violent
