December 2012
1 post
The Mystical Laws (Isamu Imakake, 2012)
As a definite non-fan of anime, outside of great directors such as Miyazaki, Satoshi Kon, and a few others, I settled in for The Mystical Laws with more than a little trepidation. Alas, I must report that trepidation was justified: The Mystical Laws, despite the crackpot religious message shoved down the viewer’s throats relentlessly, is an unholy mess, a combo of flat and...
March 2012
1 post
4 tags
Dear Pyongyang ディア・ピョンヤン (Yonghi Yang, 2005)
Yonghi Yang’s affecting personal documentary Dear Pyongyang screens at Asia Society on March 11 at 3pm as part of their film series “Extreme Private Ethos: Japanese Documentaries.” This series, screening through March 31, features revealing and intimate documentaries that expose many private details of the filmmaker’s lives, and are all very memorable (and often...
January 2012
1 post
4 tags
Best Films of 2011: #11. Le Quattro Volte...
With all due respect to The Artist (which I quite liked), this was the real silent film masterwork of 2011. Frammartino’s wonderfully profound, absorbing and immersive second feature, set in the mountainous region of Calabria on the southernmost tip of Italy, unfolds in four interconnected sections (the “four times” of the title) without relying on conventional narrative or...
December 2011
5 posts
8 tags
Best Films of 2011: #12. Beginners (Mike Mills,...
Music video director and graphic designer Mike Mills’ second feature mines autobiographical material, combining it with indie-quirk elements (that for once, actually work here) to deliver an incredibly moving and resonant film about love and memory that elevate Mills to being one of the great American directors. Based largely on the true story of Mills’ father, who came out as a gay...
6 tags
Best Films of 2011: #13. Attack the Block (Joe...
This low budget comic science-fiction feature, the writing/directing debut of British comedian Joe Cornish, and executive produced by his mentor and writing partner Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) was the most pure fun I had at the movies all year. Ingeniously written and designed, Attack the Block concerns an alien invasion of a London city block of council estates (the equivalent of...
6 tags
Best Films of 2011: #14. United Red Army 実録・連合赤軍...
These two films by Koji Wakamatsu, conceived as companion pieces, and which both saw US release this year, if nothing else, prove that this firebrand and revolutionary 75 year-old pink film auteur has most definitely not mellowed in his old age. Both United Red Army and Caterpillar are merciless blunt instruments of devastating criticism of two especially bloody periods of Japanese history:...
6 tags
Best Films of 2011: #15. Midnight in Paris (Woody...
Woody Allen’s European sojourn yields one of its most charming and beautifully filmed entries (courtesy of ace cinematographer Darius Khondji) with this cautionary tale of the pitfalls of nostalgia. Midnight in Paris begins with a visual tip of the hat to Manhattan, one of Allen’s earlier classics, with the City of Lights as an Old World stand-in for the Big Apple. The Allen stand-in this time...
3 tags
Taiwan Culinary Night at TECO-NY
For the past few years, I’ve had the pleasure many times of attending film and other cultural events at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York (website). Besides the great films and other presentations I’ve seen there, a big highlight are the generous and sumptuous receptions they have to offer. It’s always a happy day when I get an invitation to their events from...
August 2011
5 posts
5 tags
Yelling to the Sky (Victoria Mahoney, 2011)
“Lucky you, escaping.”
Yelling to the Sky, actress-turned-director Victoria Mahoney’s debut feature, immediately sets up what we’re in for in its very first scene, that of its protagonist Sweetness (Zoe Kravitz) being beaten mercilessly by a group of neighborhood toughs, including the roughest of them all, played by Gabourey Sidibe of Precious. In contrast to that earlier role, the...
4 tags
Secret Sunshine 밀양 (Lee Chang-dong, 2007)
“How dare God absolve him before I’ve forgiven him myself?”
In an early scene in Secret Sunshine, a pharmacist is attempting to persuade Shin-ae (Jeon Do-yeon), a widowed piano teacher who has come to the town of Miryang with her young son in tow, to join her faith. “Maybe you believe only in what you can see? You doubt what you can’t see? … But there are things you can’t see too!” This question...
5 tags
13 Lakes (James Benning, 2004)
James Benning’s 13 Lakes and its companion piece Ten Skies, both made in 2004, employ the same visual strategy: unbroken 10-minute takes shot with a fixed camera. The effect becomes quite hypnotic, almost surreal, as we slowly are drawn into each environment Benning places us into. Both these films can be described as landscape painting in motion. The fixed nature of each shot puts the many...
6 tags
A Useful Life (La Vida Útil) (Federico Veiroj,...
“The best programming and films d’auteur from all over the world, in our theaters. Find your soulmate and join the cinema.”
What’s looking to be a shoo-in for inclusion on my list of the best films of 2011 is Federico Veiroj’s beautiful, beguiling, and deadpan funny second feature A Useful Life, which screened this January as part of the Museum of Modern Art’s annual “Global Lens” series. The...
5 tags
Come Rain, Come Shine 사랑한다, 사랑하지 않는다 (Lee Yoon-ki,...
“Sometimes I should throw things out with no regrets. But I seem to suck at it.”
A torrential downpour, a pot of coffee, a lost kitten, a pasta dinner: instead of melodrama and histrionics, these are the materials of the break-up at the center of Lee Yoon-ki’s latest. The eerie calm that masks the deepest of despair permeates the film, the vast shadows of their house...
