SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
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From the convoluted set-up to its preposterous finale, Kim Byung-woo’s political action thriller defies logic and comprehension at every turn. Eschewing the noirish sheen of so many Korean contemporaries, while… Read More
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More than a decade since Zhang Yimou’s last foray into the wuxia (martial arts) genre, the celebrated filmmaker returns with Shadow, a visually ravishing tale of intrigue and deception that… Read More
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South Korea was one of many Asian nations brought to their knees by the 1997 financial crisis: it faced imminent bankruptcy and was forced to accept a US$20 billion bailout… Read More
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Following the success of controversial Hong Kong anthology Ten Years, similar offerings from Japan, Thailand and now Taiwan have been produced, with upcoming filmmakers speculating on the fate of their… Read More
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The tea ceremony is one of the classical Japanese arts of refinement, combining a complex series of movements and gestures, with a subtle understanding of the seasons, the weather, poetry… Read More
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In 2011, Taiwanese author Giddens Ko Ching-teng turned his hand to filmmaking – scripting and directing an adaptation of his semi-autobiographical novel You Are the Apple of My Eye. A… Read More
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More Than Blue, the Taiwanese remake of the 2009 South Korean tear-jerker, is sending audiences reaching for the Kleenex once again. It stars Jasper Liu Yi-hao as a young man… Read More
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“What if [second world war escape epic] The Battleship Island was more like La La Land?” appears to have been the pitch behind Kang Hyeong-chul’s tap-dance-infused prisoner-of-war drama. However, Swing… Read More
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Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh has come to embody for many the quintessential tortured artist. Young, broke and unrecognised in his time, Van Gogh battled mental illness and poverty throughout… Read More
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Arguably the most celebrated filmmaker working in South Korea, Lee Chang-dong came to the art form relatively late. The acclaimed playwright, theatre director and novelist penned his first screenplay in… Read More
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A young man crippled by debt learns the obvious lesson that money can’t buy happiness in Keishi Ohtomo’s laborious cautionary tale. Adapted by Genki Kawamura from his own novel, Million… Read More
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After 40 years and close to 100 acting credits, Nicolas Cage is more prolific than ever. The Oscar winner, who turns 55 next month, was in Macau last weekend serving… Read More
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Presented as a fantastical mystery with stand-out visual effects, Homestay is at its heart more a conventional drama about the struggles of adolescence. The supernatural presence in Thai filmmaker Parkpoom… Read More
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“Life will always be unpredictable and surprising” is the flimsy observation at the centre of writer-director Dan Fogelman’s self-important opus. Blissfully unaware of its own triteness, Life Itself examines the… Read More
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Daisuke Miura is no stranger to Japan’s prolific soft core pornographic film industry. In 2014, the writer-director adapted his own play Love’s Whirlpool into a critically acclaimed film about lonely… Read More
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Now in its third year, the International Film Festival and Awards Macao runs from December 8 to 14 and is an exciting addition to the film calendar. It offers local… Read More
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Inspired by Ten Years , the controversial Hong Kong anthology speculating on the city’s future a decade hence, the Ten Years international Project has produced a trio of spin-offs. Ten… Read More
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For his first Chinese-language film, Japanese director Shunji Iwai collaborates with producer Peter Chan Ho-sun to revisit themes from his 1995 hit Love Letter with a film that champions the… Read More
The James Marsh film review archive 