Author Archives: philipbrasor

Review: About Dry Grasses

Posted on October 10, 2024 by philipbrasor

Much less tedious than the only other Nuri Bilge Ceylan movie I’ve seen, Winter Sleep, this typically long award-winner proceeds leisurely into a narrative that mostly stays on course aside from a few detours into philosophical muckraking. The protagonist, middle … Continue reading →

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Review: The Great Escaper

Posted on October 9, 2024 by philipbrasor

Reportedly Michael Caine’s last film and definitely Glenda Jackson’s last because she died not long after it was completed, this widely reported true story is further proof that old British actors, male and female, can still not only find work, … Continue reading →

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29th Busan International Film Festival, Oct. 8, 2024

Posted on October 8, 2024 by philipbrasor

I’m sitting in Gimhae Airport now waiting for my flight, which is very early, meaning I’ll get home before lunch. As I think I mentioned last year (the year before?), several years ago the festival stopped providing transportation between the … Continue reading →

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29th Busan International Film Festival, Oct. 7, 2024

Posted on October 7, 2024 by philipbrasor

Yesterday I helped two women from Vietnam work the subway ticket machine and we rode the train together to Haeundae. They work for a Vietnamese film production company and were going to the Westin Hotel to help set up the … Continue reading →

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29th Busan International Film Festival, Oct. 6, 2024

Posted on October 6, 2024 by philipbrasor

The high point of my Saturday at the festival was interviewing Shonali Bose and Nilesh Maniyar, the directors of the Competition Documentary entry, A Fly on the Wall, which is about a friend of theirs, Chika Kapadia, who, after being … Continue reading →

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29th Busan International Film Festival, Oct. 5, 2024

Posted on October 5, 2024 by philipbrasor

The assassination of President Park Chung-hee in 1979 has received a lot of cinematic attention in South Korea recently, as if some kind of floodgates were opened. Several years ago there was The Man Who Stood Next, which thoroughly probed … Continue reading →

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29th Busan International Film Festival, Oct. 4, 2024

Posted on October 4, 2024 by philipbrasor

One immediate observation after one full day at the festival: Chanel and Netflix seem to have taken over. As I mentioned yesterday, Chanel, in addition to sponsoring the Asian Film Academy, now gives out an award to a vital female … Continue reading →

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Review: Civil War

Posted on October 4, 2024 by philipbrasor

Alex Garland’s extrapolation of the current U.S. crisis of cultural division to its most extreme ends is very disturbing not just because of the ultra-violence on display but also due to its purposeful vagueness. The second American civil war is … Continue reading →

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29th Busan International Film Festival, October 3, 2024

Posted on October 3, 2024 by philipbrasor

My very slight favored status as a reliable press participant at the Busan International Film Festival—I’ve attended every edition since 2001, except for two years during the pandemic—has not been recognized this year. No free accommodations, no advance ticket bookings, … Continue reading →

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Review: Laapataa Ladies

Posted on October 3, 2024 by philipbrasor

The Hindi title translates as something like “lost” ladies, though technically speaking the two females in question are misplaced by dint of negligence, a notion that makes this otherwise strained comedy interesting in terms of what it has to say … Continue reading →

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