36 Deadly Styles (Hong Kong/Taiwan, 1982)
Written and directed by Joseph Kuo, the independent martial arts film 36 Deadly Styles mixes action with drama and comedy. The story centers on Wah-jee...
Schemes in Antiques (China, 2021)
Should you want to become an antique specialist for the Plum Blossom Five organization, you must be prepared to face dramatic double crossings, fist fights...
Gensan Punch (Philippines/Japan, 2021)
Let me cut to the chase, Gensan Punch is Brillante Mendoza’s best work to date. It seems that years of practicing an interrogative approach to...
Inside the Red Brick Wall (Hong Kong, 2020) [YIDFF 2021]
Winner of the 27th Hong Kong Film Critics Society prize for Best Film, Inside the Red Brick Wall is, along with Taking Back the Legislature,...
Wonderful Paradise (Japan, 2020) [JAPAN CUTS 2021]
It’s safe to say that Masashi Yamamoto’s Wonderful Paradise is a nod to the surrealist Luis Bunuel’s eccentricities, especially in The Discreet Charm of the...
The Blue Danube (Japan, 2020) [JAPAN CUTS 2021]
The first thing one will notice with The Blue Danube is the deadpan expression from its actors. But this isn’t the deadpan one can usually...
Double Layered Town / Making a Song to Replace Our Positions (Japan, 2020) [JAPAN CUTS 2021]
From an outsider’s perspective, the destruction inflicted by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami wiped away whole towns, cities, and lives from the landscape of...
To Sleep So as to Dream (Japan, 1986) [JAPAN CUTS 2021]
Kaizo Hayashi’s 1986 film, To Sleep So as to Dream, re-emerged like a dimly remembered fantasy onto cinema screens last year after receiving a crowd-funded...
B/B (Japan, 2020) [JAPAN CUTS 2021]
Kosuke Nakahama’s feature directing debut B|B is a short, strange, and utterly vivid concoction, one that rockets along for 77 minutes with a pace akin...
Mari and Mari (Japan, 2021) [JAPAN CUTS 2021]
With a mission to marry and unleash the creative talents of filmmakers and musicians, MOOSIC LAB has quickly established itself as one of Japan’s foremost...