Author Archives: philipbrasor

Media watch: South Korea happily takes over as brands leader

Posted on January 23, 2023 by philipbrasor

A Jan. 14 article on the Chosun Online website revealed that South Korea has overtaken China as the luxury brand capital of the world in terms of consumption. Citing data compiled by investment bank Morgan Stanley, the news service noted … Continue reading →

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Review: The Shadow Play

Posted on January 21, 2023 by philipbrasor

Lou Ye was once touted as one of the most significant new mainland China directors of the millennium after the overseas success of the atmospheric Suzhou River, a reputation that was further bolstered by his 2006 Tiananmen epic Summer Palace, … Continue reading →

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Yun Jeong-hee

Posted on January 20, 2023 by philipbrasor

I am saddened to read of the death of Yun Jeong-hee, who gave the best film performance of the 21st century in my favorite film of the 21st century, Lee Chang-dong’s Poetry. Yun reportedly died in Paris with Alzheimer’s, the … Continue reading →

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Review: La Civil

Posted on January 20, 2023 by philipbrasor

One of the salient features of the ongoing drug wars in Mexico is how opaque the issue is to outsiders. Though we know who is doing the killing and who is being killed, it’s often difficult to get much further, … Continue reading →

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Review: The Northman

Posted on January 19, 2023 by philipbrasor

Though not trailblazing in any significant way, Robert Eggers’ first two features successfully perverted forms that tend to be thought of as inviolable. The Witch was a horror movie that implied a deep distrust of the devices that characterize the … Continue reading →

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Media watch: Victim of crime seeks compensation the hard way

Posted on January 15, 2023 by philipbrasor

When a person is the victim of theft or fraud, it is often difficult for them to recoup their losses, even if the perpetrator of the crime is caught and punished. According to a Jan. 12 article in the Asahi … Continue reading →

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Review: She Said

Posted on January 13, 2023 by philipbrasor

The PR campaign for screenwriter Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s movie adaptation of New York Times reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor’s Pulitzer Prize-winning journalism foregrounds their story as a seminal instance in the progress of the #MeToo movement, which it is. Nevertheless, … Continue reading →

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Media watch: Is Japan bankrupting itself just to make the U.S. happy?

Posted on January 11, 2023 by philipbrasor

We’ve already written about the huge amount of money that Japan plans to spend for defense in the coming years. We’ve also written about how Japan will acquire all the new hardware it says it needs. What we didn’t write … Continue reading →

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Media watch: You can’t pay people to have kids

Posted on January 8, 2023 by philipbrasor

On Jan. 4 during his New Year’s press conference, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida vowed to implement measures to increase Japan’s low birth rate. In 2022, the number of babies born in Japan went below 800,000 for the first time, and … Continue reading →

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Review: Kung Fu Stuntmen

Posted on January 7, 2023 by philipbrasor

Perhaps because it was produced by a guild of Hong Kong-based stuntmen, this documentary about the evolution of their craft since the 1950s is both exhaustive (quite a feat at 92 minutes) and wonkish. Every legend you can think of … Continue reading →

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