Trailer: “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny”

Posted on December 12, 2015 by Justin

Internet-era home TV juggernaut-tuned-studio Netflix has just unleashed the first trailer for its feature film sequel to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and it would be remiss of us not to mention it here.

The film stars martial arts superstars Michelle Yeoh and Donnie Yen and is directed by veteran action director Yuen Woo-ping. Rounding out the cast is Harry Shum Jr. (from Glee), Jason Scott Lee (Dragon: the Bruce Lee Story), Roger Yuan (Bulletproof Monk… (read more)

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This week in cinemas: ‘Our Times’ (Taiwan)

Posted on November 21, 2015 by Justin

This week in Aussie cinemas is Taiwanese rom-com Our Times (我的少女時代), the feature film directorial debut of television producer Frankie Chen.

It’s another entry in the fairly recent last-days-of-high-school 90’s nostalgia subgenre of romance films, focusing on the relationship between schoolgirl Lin Zhen Xin (Vivian Sung) and school tough guy Xu Tai Yu (Darren Wang). Dino Lee and Dewi Chien round out the cast.

Here’s a trailer:

The film opened last Thursday 19 November and is showing at Hoyts cinemas… (read more)

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Behemoth (2015)

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Posted on November 15, 2015 by Yee-Yin

Competing in the 2015 Stockholm International Film Festival’s Documentary section, Behemoth is a visually striking documentary about the negative effects that coal mining in rural Mongolia have on the environment, and the lives and health of the coal miners. Although the film strives to connect the dots between the causation of air pollution in big cities in China like Beijing that is in part due to unchecked industrial development, such as coal mining and the running of steelworks, it is … (read more)

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Bilocation (2013)

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Posted on November 12, 2015 by Yee-Yin

Mari Asato spins a new take on the well-worn theme of of doppelgängers in this creepy thriller. Bilocation is about an aspiring painter named Shinobu (Asami Mizukawa) and the harrowing discovery that she has an identical self who is traipsing around the city with a completely different will and in a parallel existence, totally unaware that she is just an apparition of the real copy.

Shinobu is a loner, preferring to spend her time in her studio painting, hoping to … (read more)

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Revivre (2014)

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Posted on November 8, 2015 by Yee-Yin

As the European title of the film suggests, the story is about rebirth or to come alive again. Interestingly, Revivre’s Korean title Hwajang (화장) means “cremation” and “make-up”, and as the film progresses all of these meanings come into play in the narrative of the story, culminating in an end that is at once poignant and thought-provoking, and kept me guessing at the outcome until the credits rolled.

What’s seemingly a bland story about a senior executive’s ordeal in … (read more)

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Lost in Hong Kong (2015)

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Posted on October 20, 2015 by John Snadden

I will admit to not having been in a big hurry to see this film, as I had recently watched Lost in Thailand, the second entry in this loosely-connected series. I can only describe that feature as being interminably long and totally unfunny — not good descriptions for a comedy. Also, I wasn’t a fan of mainland star and director Xu Zheng, but I do like Zhao Wei and her recent films have been so varied (Dearest, Hollywood … (read more)

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Melbourne Giveaway: Free tickets to ‘The Assassin’

Posted on September 27, 2015 by Justin

Attention, Melbourne cinema fans! We have a great giveaway to hand out this week, courtesy of the Cinema Nova on Lygon Street: ten free double passes to see Hou Hsiao-hsien’s The Assassin at a special advance screening on Sunday 11 October at 10am.… (read more)

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My Ordinary Love Story (2014)

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Posted on August 16, 2015 by Samson

My Ordinary Love Story is screening at this year’s Korean Film Festival in Australia. See the KOFFIA website for more details!

My Ordinary Love Story is not your ordinary love story. It starts off as one, but soon takes you on an unexpectedly wild ride along with the film’s main couple, Eun-jin and Hyeon-suk.

Eun-jin is an almost-30 year old woman who has yet to find the right man; that is, until she meets the plain but loving Hyeon-suk. The … (read more)

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