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Elsewhere on the Web
Ilo Ilo (2013)
Based on the director’s own childhood memories and experiences, Ilo Ilo is a low-key and intimate look at family life in the age of modernization in Singapore, in the midst of the late 1990s’ Asian Financial Crisis. It tells the story of Terry, a domestic worker from the province Ilo Ilo in The Philippines and her adjustment to her host environs and new life as a maid in a middle class household, hired by fulltime working parents to mind their … (read more)
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Our Sunhi (2013)
This surprisingly entertaining offer from writer-director Hong Sang-soo (Nobody’s Daughter Hae-Won, Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors) is a little like watching a Woody Allen movie, without as much whining. Western mainstream audiences might find themselves a little torn between the gentle humour and the lack of normal narrative cues towards the end, but words like charming and quirky are definitely not just intellectual terms being bandied about at the critic’s level.
Sunhi (Jung Yu-Mi, A Bittersweet … (read more)
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Like Father, Like Son (2013)
Kore-eda is in my very humble opinion the most sensitive and humane filmmaker working in Japan today. His body of work is relatively small, but each film has been the product of a quiet and unassuming story-telling genius that rather than exploits people’s ugliness imbues them with the possibility of hope and redemption. He plumbs emotional depths in a way that exposes the human soul as achingly beautiful; his insight is both gentle and unflinching, and his deft, minimalist handling … (read more)
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Snowpiercer (2013)
Making the leap beyond regional borders for Asian filmmakers is not as easy as it sounds. The road to global domination, particularly with an assist from the Hollywood marketing machine is littered with the broken, bitter careers of many an auteur. For every Ang Lee there are countless Ringo Lams and John Woos. Added to that pile in the last little while are Kim Jee-woon (A Bittersweet Life, I Saw the Devil), whose underrated The Last Stand… (read more)
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A Touch of Sin (2013)
Jia Zhangke is almost bulletproof. He’s attained a status akin to Wong Kar-wai or Michael Haneke wherein critics fall all over themselves to fawn over the brilliance and daring of their Art and anyone who disagrees is a Hollywoodised philistine. What many people — writers, academics, occasionally filmgoers — forget is that movies are the Shakespeare of our time: mass entertainments that may have a deep message for those seeking it. The key there is “mass”, and if no one’s … (read more)
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Why Don’t You Play in Hell (2013)
Sion Sono’s Why Don’t You Play in Hell is, I think, a little like modern art – staring at it, you’re pretty sure you’re missing the point. Not that Sono’s work has necessarily been thematically deep to date, but it’s hard to look at a film about a filmmaker making a film without trying to read into it a little industry commenatary. The problem is, if you are, it’s difficult to work out what the hell Sono is trying to … (read more)
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Tokyo Family (2013)
When Gus Van Sant remade Alfred Hitchcock’s slasher masterpiece Psycho in 1998, I have to admit to a certain level of bemusement. Why, when the original film was perfect in both pitch and execution, would anyone anywhere feel the need to remake it almost shot for shot? It seemed like an exercise in redundancy and in the end I walked away from that film with the only opinion that made sense to me — Van Sant was such a Hitchcock … (read more)
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Ore, Ore (2013)
Satoshi Miki’s Adrift In Tokyo ranks rather high on my to-see list of films. Why? Well, I have heard so many good things about it and it seems to be a fan and critic favourite, which to me is a sure sign of a good movie. While I am still waiting to tick that film off my list, I have had the chance to see the director’s new film, Ore, Ore, at this year’s Japanese Film Festival. My thoughts? … (read more)
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