Recent Reviews
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- Asian Cinema at the Sydney Film Festival 2013
- This week in cinemas: 'Miracle in Cell No. 7' (South Korea)
- Giveaway: 'Tai Chi 0' on DVD and Blu-Ray (Closed)
- This week in cinemas: ‘Drug War’ (China/HK)
- Mountains and monsters @ GoMA QLD
- Melbourne: Asian Cinema at the MQFF
- QLD news - GCFF and Supanova on again!
- This week in cinemas: 'Journey to the West' (China, 3D)
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Author Archives: Justin
This Girl is Badass (2011)
Retitled from Jukkalan, after its lead character, to the rather more bombastic This Girl is Badass, this film is omnipresent Thai comedian Petchai Wongkumlao’s (a.k.a Mum Jokmok) seventh movie as director, writer and actor. We don’t get all that much Thai cinema here in Oz, but even casual viewers of the nation’s output — like me — will recognise him as Tony Jaa’s offsider in the modern martial arts classic Ong Bak, open-faced, wide-eyed and occasionally very … (read more)
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SBS: 16 Chinese/HK films on TV over February
SBS TWO have scheduled a treat for us over the next month, starting tomorrow: sixteen films spanning modern Chinese film history, from King Hu’s wuxia film for Shaw Brothers Come Drink With Me in the late sixties to Benny Chan’s Shaolin from 2011.
It’s a big plate of crowd-pleasing mostly action films, with a large helping of Jackie Chan and Jet Li films, but that suits us at HC just fine — we’ve seen and loved all of these over … (read more)
Smuggler (2011)
Failed — or at least distracted — actor Kinuta (Satoshi Tsumabuki) spends his days dismally holed up in front of a slot machine, a poster child for what we in Australia would call pokies addiction. Quiet and vulnerable, he is manipulated into taking a job he can’t turn down and joins a team of smugglers for the Yakuza: moving a truck full of things that need to pass unnoticed, often things that are suspiciously man-shaped.… (read more)
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This week in cinemas: ‘The Guillotines’ (China, 3D)
If Poppy Hill sounds like it doesn’t have enough grimy warriors in armour and, well, decapitation for you, then there’s another Asian film in cinemas this week that ticks those particular boxes.
HK director Andrew Lau (Infernal Affairs, Legend of the Fist) has shown over the last decade or two that he turn out solid (and generally great-looking) genre films, spanning a variety of different styles and settings.… (read more)
This week in cinemas: ‘From Up On Poppy Hill’ (Japan, anime)
I’m a touch late on cinema releases this week — I blame the season, there’s too much running around to do this time of year!
Studio Ghibli fans that happen to live in a couple of Aussie cities have just under a week to catch their newest anime film in cinemas, From Up On Poppy Hill, directed by Goro Miyazaki and written by his father, Hayao Miyazaki. … (read more)
This week in cinemas: ‘Back to 1942′ (China)
This Thursday (Nov 29) sees the Australian cinema release of Back to 1942, a historical drama from mainland Chinese director Feng Xiaogang (Aftershock, A World Without Thieves, Big Shot’s Funeral). As seems to be more often the case nowadays, we’re getting it right after its premiere at the International Rome Film Festival (on Nov 11!)
The film takes as its subject the famine of 1942-43 in Henan province during the second Sino-Japanese War, and it … (read more)
Korean Short Film Night at the KCO (Sydney, Nov 29)
The hard-working folks at the Korean Cultural Office here in Sydney dropped me a line to remind me that they have their 2012 Korean Short Film night scheduled for Thursday evening next week, with free admission for all (though you’ll need to book). It’s a chance to see some local and international talent strut their stuff with a collection films celebrating cultural diversity and Korean heritage.… (read more)
This week in cinemas: ‘Cold War’ (Hong Kong)
This Thursday (8 November) brings us a new film in the modern (well, post-90s) tradition of gritty Hong Kong police films: Cold War, the first film as co-directors for Sunny Luk and Longman Leung. It stars HK veterans Tony Leung Ka Fai and Aaron Kwok in the lead roles, and it has a cameo from Andy Lau for the Lau completists out there!
The story follows two senior cops bucking for a promotion as a crisis overturns their precinct: … (read more)