Monthly Archives: April 2025

Review: Youth (Hard Times) and Youth (Homecoming)

Posted on April 26, 2025 by philipbrasor

Earlier this week, in a review for another movie, I wrote that Chinese fiction films rarely tackle work as a central theme. In a sense, Wang Bing’s monumental three-part documentary, Youth, says probably everything that needs to be said about … Continue reading →

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Review: The Beast and It’s Not Me

Posted on April 25, 2025 by philipbrasor

Though Bertrand Bonello only borrows part of the title and the basic dramatic premise of Henry James’ 1903 novella The Beast in the Jungle, in which many literary experts believe the author was describing his own personal fear of intimacy, … Continue reading →

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Review: Heretic

Posted on April 24, 2025 by philipbrasor

Hugh Grant further solidifies his post-rom-com resurgence as the extremely creepy Mr. Reed in this fairly intellectual horror movie that puts religious belief on trial. Though not particularly scary as modern-day horror movies go, there’s enough substance in the elaborate … Continue reading →

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Review: All Ears and Joika

Posted on April 23, 2025 by philipbrasor

For a communist country, the Peoples’ Republic of China produces relatively few non-documentary feature films that focus on work. The theme that has dominated post-Sixth Generation cinema is the personal and psychological costs of a social system that has been … Continue reading →

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Media watch: Archive named for Korean independence fighter not appreciated by anyone

Posted on April 21, 2025 by philipbrasor

Movie distributor Kadokawa just announced that the Korean movie Harbin, which topped the South Korean box office for several weeks after it opened on Christmas Day, will be released theatrically in Japan on July 4, which is great news for … Continue reading →

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Review: The Maiden

Posted on April 18, 2025 by philipbrasor

This debut by Canadian director Graham Foy has been compared to the work of David Lynch, though it lacks Lynch’s sense of the absurd. The script, however, does feature metaphysical situations that may throw some viewers off since they are … Continue reading →

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Review: My Dearest Fu Bao

Posted on April 17, 2025 by philipbrasor

You have to hand it to China for its so-called panda diplomacy. Because everything about the animal is “rare and difficult,” according to a zookeeper quoted in this sentimental South Korean documentary, a certain delicacy is built into its process … Continue reading →

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Review: Sing Sing

Posted on April 11, 2025 by philipbrasor

Certainly the most daring thing that director Greg Kwedar did in adapting an old magazine article about the titular prison’s Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) program, which allows inmates to stage plays, is the way he disregards the crimes of … Continue reading →

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Review: Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy

Posted on April 10, 2025 by philipbrasor

Though not my cup of tea, the first three installments of the Bridget Jones series made for pleasantly unforced entertainment, probably because the British have developed a better understanding than Hollywood has of what’s charming about romantic comedies, namely a … Continue reading →

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Review: I, the Executioner and In the Land of Saints and Sinners

Posted on April 9, 2025 by philipbrasor

Though I see a lot of Korean movies, I don’t know much about the situation surrounding Korean cinema outside of South Korea or Japan, but I think I understand why this successful sequel to the 2015 cop-action comedy Veteran did … Continue reading →

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