Author Archives: Justin

This week in cinemas: ‘The White Haired Witch of Lunar Kingdom’ (China, 3D)

Posted on July 29, 2014 by Justin

There’s a serious Chinese film release in Aussie cinemas this week: Thursday July 31 sees the release of The White Haired Witch of Lunar Kingdom (quite the title!), a big-budget 3D spectacular that will look hauntingly familiar to fans of 1993 classic The Bride with White Hair, since it shares the same source material.

This adaptation of the wuxia novel comes from experienced HK director Jacob Cheung, and stars Fan Bingbing in the lead, ably supported by Huang … (read more)

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This week in cinemas: ‘Snowpiercer’ (South Korea)

Posted on July 23, 2014 by Justin

Opening tomorrow in Aussie cinemas is a big release: Snowpiercer, the first English-language film from top-flight South Korean director Bong Joon-ho (Memories of Murder, The Host, Mother).

Liz has already reviewed this one for us (read about it here), but in brief: humanity tried to solve climate change with an atmospheric science experiment that went horribly wrong, and now the remains of all human life live on a train, endlessly circling the … (read more)

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Asian Cinema at the Melbourne International Film Festival 2014

Posted on July 17, 2014 by Justin

It’s MIFF time, everyone! The venerable Melbourne Film Festival has released their program for this year’s event, and as always it’s crammed with cinema from Asia, from horror classics from Hong Kong (which have their own stream this year, A Perfect Midnight: Haunted Hong Kong) to gritty noir or modern arthouse.

Read on for our rundown of the features from Asia (don’t forget there are some great shorts and documentaries, too) screening this year, and you can find the … (read more)

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This week in cinemas: ‘Z Storm’ (Hong Kong)

Posted on July 10, 2014 by Justin

Opening today in Australian cinemas is Hong Kong crime thriller ‘Z Storm’, from director David Lam (his first film in fifteen years, after 1999’s Street Angels). It stars the omnipresent Louis Koo, Dada Chan, Gordon Lam and Michael Wong, and if you’re like me it’ll bring to mind recent entries in the genre Cold War and the Overheard series.

Topical perhaps for audiences in New South Wales, the story focuses on Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) as … (read more)

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This week in cinemas: ‘The Lunchbox’ (India)

Posted on July 6, 2014 by Justin

This Thursday July 10 sees the Aussie cinema release of an Indian romantic drama, The Lunchbox, starring Irrfan Khan (the narrator in Ang Lee’s Life of Pi), Nimrat Kaur (Peddlers) and Nawazuddin Siddiqui (Gangs of Wasseypur). It is the debut feature from director Ritesh Batra, and it’s garnered some very positive attention internationally, including taking the Critics Week Viewers Choice Award at Cannes.

The film takes as its subject the dabbawala lunchbox delivery system … (read more)

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This week in cinemas: ‘The Breakup Guru’ (China)

Posted on July 2, 2014 by Justin

In Aussie cinemas this week (and opening well in China and some USA cinemas according to according to Variety, despite the money-hoovering colossus of Transformers 4) is Chinese rom-com The Breakup Guru.

Starring Yang Mi and Deng Chao (who also co-directs with Yu Baimei), the trailer suggests that this film is going for My Sassy Girl territory, but I’m guessing that it swaps the tugging at heartstrings for louder comedy fare.

The Breakup Guru opens in most … (read more)

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This week in cinemas: ‘Overheard 3’ (Hong Kong)

Posted on May 28, 2014 by Justin

Arriving tomorrow May 29 in Aussie cinemas we have the latest installment in this series from writer/director duo Alan Mak and Felix Chong (the team behind the Infernal Affairs trilogy, and more recently The Lost Bladesman and The Silent War.)

Overheard 3 stars the series’ usual trio of HK A-listers Lau Ching-wan, Louis Koo and Daniel Wu, plus Zhou Xin and a supporting cast of familiar Hong Kong faces. As with the previous film, it’s a very loose sequel: … (read more)

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Asian Cinema at the Sydney Film Festival 2014

Posted on May 14, 2014 by Justin

The full program for this year’s Sydney Film Festival has been announced, and as usual there are plenty of morsels available for fans of Asian cinema.

This year in particular there are a couple In Competition (including Bong Joon-ho’s Snowpiercer, in the director’s reputedly hard-won original cut), a program of modern Chinese films, a special presentation of a couple of Studio Ghibli anime classics, and a restored print of Indian auteur Satyajit Ray’s classic Charulata.

All up, there’s … (read more)

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