Heo Myeong-haeng The Roundup: Punishment (Heo Myeong-haeng, 2024) The man with the cinder block fists is back, and this time he’s learning what the internet is. For the last three years, Ma Dong-seok (aka Don Lee) has been making sequels to his hit 2017 film The Outlaws, in which he plays a large cop working his way
Liu Jian Art College 1994 (Liu Jian, 2023) I wrote about Liu Jian’s Have a Nice Day back when it played the Seattle International Film Festival in 2017. Thanks to SIFF’s arcane embargo policies, I was limited to exactly 75 words. Here they are: The second feature from director Liu Jian is an animated network-noir that
Ward Serrill Dancing with the Dead: Red Pine and the Art of Translation (Ward Serrill, 2023) Eliot Weinberger’s seminal study, 19 Ways of Looking at Wang Wei, takes for its subject a single poem and looks at a number (19 plus several more in later editions) of different translations of that poem over the course of the 20th century. The approach allows Weinberger, in only
Xu Haofeng 100 Yards (Xu Haofeng & Xu Junfeng, 2023) The following is a re-edited and slightly-modified version of the review I wrote for InReview Online's coverage of the Toronto International Film Festival in the fall of 2023. Xu Haofeng makes movies for people who enjoy and understand the finer points of martial arts choreography. His best-known film
Patrick Tam My Heart is That Eternal Rose (Patrick Tam, 1989) The following is a re-edited and slightly-modified version of the review I wrote for InReview Online's coverage of the Fantasia International Film Festival in the summer of 2023. One or two festivals ago, I can’t remember which—this time of year they all blend together, I wrote
Patrick Tam Nomad (Patrick Tam, 1982) The following is a re-edited and slightly-modified version of the review I wrote for InReview Online's coverage of the New York Asian Film Festival in the summer of 2023. One of the finest films of the Hong Kong New Wave, Patrick Tam’s Nomad plays at this year’
Strange Tales 2023 Fall Festival Compilation As I put together in 2022 and again for last Spring, here is a collection of the reviews I wrote for InReview Online's coverage of various film festivals from around the world. For publication here, the reviews have been re-edited and occasionally expanded. Check out the rest of
Herman Yau Death Notice (Herman Yau, 2023) The fourth 2023 Herman Yau film to come across my digital transom (I’m still searching for the fifth film he released last year, Customs Frontline) is the one most like an actual movie. While The White Storm 3 was a depressing rehash of undercover cop movie tropes (before exploding
Paid-members only Ching Siu-tung The Heroic Trio and Executioners (Johnnie To & Ching Siu-tung, 1993)
Kimi Takesue Onlookers (Kimi Takesue, 2023) Onlookers is an observational documentary by American filmmaker Kimi Takesue. Over a quick 72 minutes in a series of static shots almost entirely lacking in dialogue, she paints a portrait of a small Laotian village, one whose gorgeous riverside landscapes and picturesque monasteries serve to attract tourists from around the
Jason Kwan I Did It My Way (Jason Kwan, 2023) I didn’t see the Andy Lau crime movie with a title borrowed from a hit 1960s American pop song that came out a couple of weeks ago, but I did see the one that comes out this week. I skipped The Goldfinger, despite the promise of an Andy Lau-Tony
Sammo Hung Glory to the Fat Dragon! Since today is Sammo Hung's birthday, I figure it's a good time to repost this look at his career, originally posted on the now-defunct website Frame.land back in the summer of 2017. There were originally several video clips interspersed throughout the essay, but they seem
The Odd One Dies The Shaolin Cinematic Universe This was originally commissioned by the Vulgar Cinema website in July 2014, and was published in December 2015. Then, after that site disappeared, it was revised and republished at Frame.land in May 2019. Now that site too appears to be defunct, so I'm posting it once again
John Woo Silent Night (John Woo, 2023) It’s been a rough decade for John Woo. After his triumphant return to Chinese language cinema in 2008 with the excellent two-part war epic Red Cliff, he spent years attempting another big historical film. The first part of The Crossing was released in 2014 and, despite the fact that
