Category Archives: Movies

Review: Better Days

Posted on July 15, 2021 by philipbrasor

Now that China has effectively exercised its mandate over Hong Kong and all that entails in terms of freedoms for the former British territory, it remains to be seen how independent of party influence the city’s famously independent film industry … Continue reading →

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Review: The Mole Agent

Posted on July 10, 2021 by philipbrasor

It feels like cheating to label the Chilean movie The Mole Agent a documentary. Though we are informed right at the start of the premise of the investigation being recorded, there’s such an overriding sense of calculated setup that the … Continue reading →

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Review: Samjin Company English Class

Posted on July 9, 2021 by philipbrasor

As the Korean Wave has brought greater attention to South Korean movies and TV dramas, differences must surely have become obvious. Korean cinema maintains fairly high production values across the board while varying greatly in tone and style, depending on … Continue reading →

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Review: The Lighthouse

Posted on July 8, 2021 by philipbrasor

Robert Eggers’ previous movie, The Witch, was celebrated as a genre subversion. Touted as a horror film, it appropriated archaic speech directly from the source and grounded its terrors in experiences that only the truly God-fearing can suffer in order … Continue reading →

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Review: The Asian Angel

Posted on July 2, 2021 by philipbrasor

Quality-wise, cross-border co-productions are rarely as good as their intentions. This Japanese-South Korean film is a case in point, a true hybrid in that it combines Japanese writing-directing styles with Korean production values while presenting a mixed cast that mostly … Continue reading →

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Review: The King’s Letters

Posted on June 25, 2021 by philipbrasor

The last we saw of King Sejong, he had completed a map of the stars with the help of former slave Jang Yeong-sil. Given that King Sejong is one of the most commonly portrayed historical figures in Korean cinema, I … Continue reading →

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Review: Greed

Posted on June 19, 2021 by philipbrasor

At one point, Michael Winterbottom was perhaps the most irreducible major movie director working. Despite the fact that the guy’s output was regular as clockwork—at least one production a year, in addition to TV work—the range in style and genre … Continue reading →

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Review: Mortal Kombat

Posted on June 18, 2021 by philipbrasor

The benefit of reviewing a game-based movie without being a gamer is that there are no impossible expectations that need to be met; but, then again, not being a gamer usually means expectations are low to begin with when addressing … Continue reading →

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Review: The Clovehitch Killer

Posted on June 12, 2021 by philipbrasor

Probably the only narrative story device more hackneyed than the serial killer is the paid assassin. Neither are as tenth as ubiquitous as the movies would have us believe, and yet there’s obviously something about them that appeals to our … Continue reading →

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Review: The Woman Who Ran

Posted on June 11, 2021 by philipbrasor

The English titles of Hong Sang-soo’s stilted comedies are always interesting. Sometimes they simply describe a situation in the plainest terms: Hotel by the River or The Day He Arrives. Other times they seem to be taking the piss: Like … Continue reading →

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