Category: Reviews

Emergency Declaration (South Korea, 2022)

Emergency Declaration is an action-thriller dealing with terrorism and contagion in a post-Covid world. It stars Song Kang-ho of Parasite (2019) and Lee Byung-hun of Squid Game (2021), arguably two...

Swallow (Taiwan/Japan, 2021)

One woman’s greedy pursuit of movie stardom leads to a sticky end in Swallow, a 22-minute short from Mai Nakanishi. Winner of a Special Mention at...

Karmalink (Cambodia, 2021)

Karmalink attempts to bridge science fiction speculation and religious beliefs. It presents the rather weird idea that there will be a time when science will be...

Melting Sounds (Japan, 2021) [OAFF 2022]

Melting Sounds is part of the latest wave of films associated with MOOSIC LAB, a competition wherein the titles submitted showcase up-and-coming directors who have created...

Paid in Blood (South Korea, 2021)

Paid in Blood,  the feature debut of director and screenwriter Yoon Young-bin, is a crime drama that revolves around the battle for a new casino and...

Er Dong (China, 2008)

Fatherless urban youth growing up in China’s seismic 20th century economic transformation is a common theme for many Sixth-Generation directors who started making films in the...

Summer Wedding (Japan, 2022) [OAFF 2022]

Azusa Hieda’s profound short film Summer Wedding uses the Covid-19 pandemic as a prompt for the self-reflection and change in its main character. The titular summer wedding...

Guidance (China, 2021)

Can love exist without honesty? Can it exist without deception? “Above all, to thine own self be true” says Polonius to Laertes, but even he...

Dawning (USA, 2022) [CAAMFest 2022]

A mix of drama, thriller, and horror, Dawning is an examination of trauma how some people cope by writer-director Young Min Kim. Haejin Park (Kim...