Author Archives: philipbrasor

Review: About Endlessness

Posted on November 20, 2020 by philipbrasor

Swedish director Roy Andersson’s gift, if you can call it that, is how perfectly he envisions existence, a trait that’s interpolated cinematically as meticulously blocked scenes, uniformly stark lighting, and little if no camera movement. The mood is minimalist black … Continue reading →

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Media Mix, Nov. 15, 2020

Posted on November 15, 2020 by philipbrasor

Here’s this week’s Media Mix about the government’s plan to allow couples to use national health insurance to pay for fertility treatments. We’ve written about related topics in the past, so here is a list of articles that address fertility, … Continue reading →

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TIFF 2020

Posted on November 9, 2020 by philipbrasor

Here are the articles about the movies and events I covered for the 33rd Tokyo International Film Festival home page. “Possessor“ “Ora, Ora Be Goin’ Alone“ “The Last Bath“ “TiTi“ “Come and Go“ Asia Lounge with Tsai Ming-liang “The Old … Continue reading →

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Media Mix, Nov. 1, 2020

Posted on November 1, 2020 by philipbrasor

Here’s this week’s Media Mix, which is about the controversy over the six rejected nominees for the Science Council of Japan. As pointed out in the column, it was Akahata, the press organ of the Japanese Communist Party, that broke … Continue reading →

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BIFF 2020: Oct. 30

Posted on October 30, 2020 by philipbrasor

The 25th Busan International Film Festival ended today and, as usual, the press office sent me a final report. Total attendance at offline screenings came to 20,135, or 92 percent of capacity, which is surprising given that there was only … Continue reading →

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BIFF 2020: Oct. 29

Posted on October 29, 2020 by philipbrasor

I didn’t intend to watch the Japanese contribution to Window On Asian Cinema, Ora, Ora Be Goin’ Alone, a World Premiere, because I was asked to write about it for the English web page of the Tokyo International Film Festival … Continue reading →

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BIFF 2020: Oct. 28

Posted on October 28, 2020 by philipbrasor

This year, the Asian Film Awards were presented at BIFF for the first time. Of course, the organizers hoped to have a real ceremony with a real audience, so transferring the awards to Asia’s biggest film festival made sense, since … Continue reading →

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BIFF 2020: Oct. 27

Posted on October 27, 2020 by philipbrasor

I haven’t seen that many Vietnamese movies, but all the ones I’ve seen I’ve seen at BIFF, and I’m pretty sure all of them were about people of limited means, which I interpreted to represent the bulk of the population. … Continue reading →

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BIFF 2020: Oct. 26

Posted on October 26, 2020 by philipbrasor

Debut features, especially by university trained directors, are a crap shoot, since they often replicate graduation projects. That isn’t usually the case, however, in South Korea, where film students with real ambition and talent are put through the ringer, and … Continue reading →

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BIFF 2020: Oct. 25

Posted on October 25, 2020 by philipbrasor

I spent all day on Kazuo Hara’s latest epic, Minamata Mandala, which is six hours and 12 minutes, thus making it almost twice as long as his last epic, Sennan Asbestos Disaster. The two documentaries are very similar in both … Continue reading →

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