Drama

Unbeatable

Dante Lam follows up his action spectacular The Viral Factor with this far more character focused and melodramatic story of two MMA fighters in Macau. Nick Cheung goes even further… Read More
The Canterbury Tales

Pasolini’s films are challenging but I like to challenge myself from time to time, and his body of work has become one of my go-to selections when I’m looking to… Read More
Harold And Maude

One of the most eccentric and distinctive voices of the New Hollywood movement, Hal Ashby created some of the most interesting and unique American films of the period. None more… Read More
The Guilt Trip

Looking for something mindless for the flight home I opted for this comedy drama that casts Seth Rogen as the struggling salesman who is cajoled into a cross-country road trip… Read More
Northwest

Excellent Danish crime drama has distinct echoes of early Nicolas Winding Refn in its story of a young man drawn into the Copenhagen underworld while looking to provide for his… Read More
The Dance of Reality

Chilean surrealist Alejandro Jodorowsky returns to filmmaking for the first time in more than 20 years, and the results are every bit as bizarre and beautiful as we could have… Read More
Ritual: A Psychomagic Story

Of interest almost solely because of a rare acting performance from Alejandro Jodorowsky, this Italian psychodrama proves a baffling, underwhelming dud. As our heroine battles depression and an incredibly frustrating… Read More
The Congress

The opening film at this year’s PiFan Festival is this incredible blend of live action and animation rom Ari Folman, based on the novel by Solaris author Stanislav Lem. This… Read More
Red Beard

For this month’s Full Disclosure over at Twitch, my July entry on the list of shame was Kurosawa Akira’s 1965 drama, Red Beard – his last collaboration with actor Mifune… Read More
Secret Sunshine

I’m ashamed to say that I’ve largely allowed the films of Korean auteur Lee Chang-dong to pass me by until now. I did catch Poetry (although I much preferred Bong… Read More
Paradise: Love

The first part of a loose trilogy from Ulrich Seidl that follows an Austrian housewife as she heads to the beaches of Kenya on a package holiday in the hopes… Read More
In The Mood For Love

Probably Wong Kar Wai’s best film and certainly his most visually accomplished, this is a delicate, ornate study of social mores, forbidden love and loyalty in the face of infidelity.… Read More
City of Life and Death

Hardly a jolly romp, Lu Chuan’s gorgeously shot drama remains to my mind the “best” film to tackle the Nanking Massacre. Most interesting is the decision to depict sympathetic Japanese… Read More
Enter The Void

I’ve watched and struggled with Gaspar Noe’s surreal exploration of life after death before in the past, but there’s no denying the audacity of its ambition and the impact of… Read More
Days of Being Wild

My Full Disclosure entry for June was this early Wong Kar Wai classic, starring a host of big Hong Kong stars including Leslie Cheung, Maggie Cheung and Andy Lau. Check… Read More
Bleeder

I continue my trek through Nicolas Winding Refn’s back catalogue with a first look at his second feature. Using much the same cast as Pusher, this is a far looser,… Read More
The Naked Island

Masters of Cinema just released Shindo Kaneto’s wonderfully poetic film on Blu-ray in the UK, a modern silent with almost no discernible dialogue, but an incredibly powerful narrative nonetheless about… Read More
The Place Beyond The Pines

It has taken a long time for Derek Cianfrance’s crime drama to make it to Hong Kong (in fact it doesn’t even open officially here for another month) but it… Read More