João Pedro Rodrigues & João Rui Guerra da Mata The Last Time I Saw Macao (João Pedro Rodrigues & João Rui Guerra da Mata, 2012) Directed by the Portuguese pair of João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata, The Last Time I Saw Macao is an enveloping blend of essay film and film noir, the film maudit Macao by Josef von Sternberg (who was fired and replaced by Nicholas Ray during shooting), and
Hong Sangsoo In Another Country (Hong Sangsoo, 2012) Hong Sangsoo continues to refine his quirky style, making it funnier, more elegant, and more subtly weird. Like Yasujiro Ozu or Eric Rohmer, Hong seems content to spend years creating endless variations of the same central subjects (in his case vacations, infidelity, drinking, and lazy filmmakers) within the same self-mirroring
Ying Liang When Night Falls (Ying Liang, 2012) Ying Liang’s When Night Falls begins as a documentary with a mother narrating what happened to her as she was detained after her son was accused of killing six police officers in Shanghai. She was held in a mental hospital under a false name for months and only released
Ching Siu-tung Swordsman and Swordsman II (Ching Siu-tung, 1990 and 1992) Swordsman II is a film I’ve known for years, having first encountered it during the Jet Li repertory boom of the late 90s (my theatre used to run HK double features all the time, this is where I first saw it, paired I think with Dr. Wai and the
Hou Hsiao-hsien Good Men, Good Women (Hou Hsiao-hsien, 1995) Part of the fun of Good Men, Good Women is piecing together the narrative as it unfolds. Hou Hsiao-hsien doesn’t exactly withhold information, but rather, like in his previous film The Puppetmaster, he tends to explain events only after they’ve gone on long enough that, if you’ve
