Thirst (South Korea, 2009)
When the news that Park Chan-wook would be making a vampire movie first started traveling around the film community, there was understandably much excitement. Viewers...
Steal It If You Can (South Korea, 2002)
There’s a reason foreign comedies don’t often make it into theaters or onto DVD, and that’s because comedy doesn’t translate well. Think about it: the...
The Coast Guard (South Korea, 2002)
‘The Korean peninsula is the only divided country on Earth. After the Korean War, the South Korean coastline was enclosed in barbed wire to block...
Late Autumn (South Korea, 2010)
“What makes this movie so ambitious is the love story. If it doesn’t work, if you don’t believe it, then the whole thing is a...
Tales of the Underworld: The Big Boss (Japan, 1959)
Kihachi Okamoto (1924-2005) was a Japanese filmmaker who spent an entire career demolishing the widely accepted viewpoint that there was any honor in violence. Although...
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Thailand, 2010)
Prior to Cannes, critical consensus was more or less that Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives could be dismissed as another trip down...
Desperado Outpost (Japan, 1959)
Kihachi Okamoto (1924-2005) was a Japanese filmmaker who spent an entire career demolishing the widely accepted viewpoint that there was any honor in violence. Although...
Still Life (China, 2006) and Up the Yangtze (China, 2008)
My current research project as Lecturer in Film Studies at Nanjing University is a study of the cinema of Lou Ye, the Sixth Generation Chinese...
So Close to Paradise (China, 1998)
My current research project as Lecturer in Film Studies at Nanjing University is a study of the cinema of Lou Ye, the Sixth Generation Chinese...
Outrage (Japan, 2010)
Calling your comeback yakuza film Outrage, made after a widely panned trilogy of “difficult” (read: terrible) comedies, is pretty ballsy. It’s like handing a pre-written...