The Chinese Cinema (Page 17)

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Alan Mak & Felix Chong Capsule Reviews

Alan Mak & Felix Chong Capsule Reviews

Infernal Affairs II (2003) — June 29, 2017 Everything with Anthony Wong, Carina Lau, and Eric Tsang is excellent. And Francis Ng is pretty good too, though he seems to have time traveled two years into the future to steal Simon Yam’s Election performance. Chapman To and Roy Cheung do

Final Victory (Patrick Tam, 1987)

Final Victory (Patrick Tam, 1987)

A pair of eyes stare at us from under a green bowler hat. Then Eric Tsang looking uncomfortable, also facing us. Back to the hat, now revealing the whole face under it, that of Tsui Hark: pale, bearded, and glaring. Back to Eric Tsang, scared perhaps by Tsui, perhaps by

Alan Mak & Felix Chong

Crippled Avengers

Alan Mak & Felix Chong

Reviews: Infernal Affairs [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/infernal-affairs-andrew-lau-alan-mak-2002/] (Andrew Lau & Alan Mak, 2002) — March 19, 2013 Capsule Reviews [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/alan-mak-felix-chong-capsule-reviews/]: Infernal Affairs II (Andrew Lau & Alan Mak, 2003) — June 29, 2017 Overheard (2009)— May 6, 2015 Overheard 2 (2011) — May 8, 2015 Overheard 3 (2014)

Gordon Chan Capsule Reviews

Crippled Avengers

Gordon Chan Capsule Reviews

Fight Back to School (1991) — April 15, 2019 Is to Ringo Lam’s On Fire films what Hot Fuzz is to Michael Bay. With a little bit of Kindergarten Cop thrown in, because why not. Beast Cops (1998) — August 5, 2017 Not only does this have Anthony Wong at his

Longman Leung & Sunny Luk

It's a Drink, It's a Bomb

Longman Leung & Sunny Luk

Reviews: Cold War [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/cold-war-longman-leung-sunny-luk-2012/] (2012) — July 4, 2016 Cold War 2 [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/cold-war-2-longman-leung-sunny-luk-2016/] (2016) — July 6, 2016

Apichatpong Weerasethakul Short Films

Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Apichatpong Weerasethakul Short Films

Thirdworld (1998) — March 10, 2016 Early short from Apichatpong Weerasethakul already follows his split narrative structure. First half is two men talking at night, images of feet and hands and murky shadows, they talk about their pasts, the villages they’re from. It’s very mellow and sweet. The second

Grass (Hong Sangsoo, 2018)

Grass (Hong Sangsoo, 2018)

Evan Morgan: Let’s start with the title. Hong arguably crafts the best titles of any filmmaker working today; something like On the Beach at Night Alone is tinged with mystery, poetical and allusive. Grass, on the other hand, sounds quite atypical: earthy, prosaic, direct. Critical writing on Hong often

Takashi Capsule Reviews

Takashi Capsule Reviews

Dead or Alive (1999) — November 1, 2017 No filmmaker in the world has more fun that Takashi Miike. That’s evident from a late career masterpiece like 2012’s Ace Attorney, or from the last of the prolific director’s films to play here in Seattle, Yakuza Apocalypse. But even

Devils on the Doorstep

Miike Takashi

Reviews: Yakuza Apocalypse (2015) — November 6, 2015 First Love (2019) — September 25, 2019 Blue Fight (2025) – February 17, 2025 Sham (2025) – August 15, 2025 Capsule Reviews: Dead or Alive (1999) — November 1, 2017 Ace Attorney (2012) — March 16, 2017 The Mole Song: Undercover Agent Reiji (2013) – January 31, 2022 The

Bad Genius (Nattawut Poonpiriya, 2017)

Nattawut Poonpiriya

Bad Genius (Nattawut Poonpiriya, 2017)

Fresh off of wide acclaim both at film festivals across North America (the New York Asian Film Festival, Fantastic Fest in Austin ,and the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal, as well as here at VIFF) and at home, where it was just edged out as Thailand’s submission to the

Kim Jeewoon Capsule Reviews

Kim Jeewoon Capsule Reviews

A Bittersweet Life (2005) — March 15, 2017 Kind of like Miller’s Crossing, but without all the plot, dialogue, or character. It’s a vehicle for surface-level emotions (love, pain, revenge), but Kim has great eye for cool and set-piece construction. He tends toward the gimmicky, the kind of camera

Kiyoshi Kurosawa Capsule Reviews

Kurosawa Kiyoshi

Kiyoshi Kurosawa Capsule Reviews

Cure (1997) — May 10, 2016 “Psychiatry is a pseudoscience.” — Tom Cruise Added September 8, 2025: Hypnotic. Mesmerizing. Captivating. Etc. Pulse (2001) — May 10, 2016 Remember when the internet was so new and mysterious we thought it might plausibly contain demons? Now we know it’s just full of assholes. Double

Devils on the Doorstep

Kim Jeewoon

Reviews: The Age of Shadows [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/the-age-of-shadows-kim-jeewoon-2016/] (2016) — September 27, 2016 Capsule Reviews [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/kim-jeewoon-capsule-reviews/]: A Bittersweet Life (2005)— March 15, 2017 The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008)— December 30, 2010 List: Kim Jeewoon Movies [https://letterboxd.com/theendofcinema/list/kim-jeewoon-movies/]

Kurosawa Kiyoshi

Devils on the Doorstep

Kurosawa Kiyoshi

Reviews: Serpent's Path (1998) – July 14, 2025 License to Live (1999) – July 14, 2025 Daguerrotype (2016) — November 3, 2017 Before We Vanish (2017) — March 8, 2018 Cloud (2024) – September 1, 2024 Serpent's Path (2025) – July 14, 2025 Capsule Reviews: Cure (1997) — May 10, 2016 Pulse (2001)

Devils on the Doorstep Capsule Reviews

Devils on the Doorstep

Devils on the Doorstep Capsule Reviews

Japan Yamaguchi Junta: Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes (2021) – October 20, 2021 Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes is an ingenious ultra-low budget time travel comedy, as clever as it is relaxed. It’s the first film from director (and cinematographer, and editor) Yamaguchi Junta, though its screenplay is by Ueda

Bong Joonho Capsule Reviews

Devils on the Doorstep

Bong Joonho Capsule Reviews

Memories of Murder (2003) — September 13, 2019 It always seems like Bong’s movies, while they’re good and I like them, are never really quite as good as they probably should be. Like how Mother is just a worse version of Poetry, or Shin Godzilla is a much better

Yamashita Nobuhiro Capsule Reviews

Devils on the Doorstep

Yamashita Nobuhiro Capsule Reviews

Linda Linda Linda (2005) — May 13, 2015 Last night, I dreamt that Bae Doona was a professional basketball player and was generating serious All-Star consideration as the point guard for the New York Knicks. It took me awhile, on waking, to realize that that was in fact a dream and

Harvard Sensory Ethnography Lab Capsule Reviews

Harvard Sensory Ethnography Lab

Harvard Sensory Ethnography Lab Capsule Reviews

Leviathan (Véréna Paravel & Lucien Castaing-Taylor, 2012) — December 5, 2013 I’m on board. Sound, fish POV, net POV, the colors, watching TV, humanity as unconquerable monster dominating other species, more sound, the terror of seagull attack, the possibilities of digital cinema, oh wow the colors. The Iron Ministry (JP

JP Sniadecki and the Harvard Sensory Ethnography Lab

Devils on the Doorstep

JP Sniadecki and the Harvard Sensory Ethnography Lab

Reviews [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/tag/harvard-sensory-ethnography-lab/]: People’s Park [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/peoples-park-jp-sniadecki-libbie-cohn-2012/] (JP Sniadecki & Libbie Cohn, 2012) — December 13, 2012 Yumen [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/yumen-jp-sniadecki-xu-ruotao-huang-xiang-2013/] (JP Sniadecki, Xu Ruotao & Huang Xiang, 2013) — October 23, 2013 Capsule Reviews [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/harvard-sensory-ethnography-lab-capsule-reviews/] : Leviathan

Yuen Woo-ping Capsule Reviews

Yuen Woo-ping Capsule Reviews

Drunken Master (1978) — June 13, 2013 Much better subtitled than dubbed (obviously). Even still, the subs translate Jackie Chan’s character’s name as “Freddy Wong,” which kind of obscures one of the most interesting things about the film: that it’s a total subversion of the Wong Fei-hung legend.

Yuen Woo-ping

Reviews: Miracle Fighters (1982) – November 8, 2024 Shaolin Drunkard (1983) – November 8, 2024 The Tiger Cage Trilogy (1988-1991) – August 25, 2022 In the Line of Duty IV (1989) – March 24, 2023 The Tai Chi Master (1993) – June 21, 2022 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny (2016) — February 27, 2016

Corey Yuen Capsule Reviews

Corey Yuen Capsule Reviews

Ninja in the Dragon’s Den (1982) — December 30, 2013 Conan Lee fights a guy on stilts. Conan publicly humiliates a Taoist magician. Then a ninja shows up, trying to kill Conan’s old friend. Conan fights the ninja (Sanada Hiroyuki, the Japanese guy from Royal Warriors) in a room

Corey Yuen

Reviews: Yes, Madam! (1985) — July 2, 2015 Righting Wrongs (1986) – August 1, 2022 She Shoots Straight (1990) — December 22, 2013 Saviour of the Soul I & II (Corey Yuen, David Lai, & Jeffrey Lau, 1991 & 1992) – April 12, 2023) The Legend of Fong Sai-yuk (1993) – January 23, 2022 The

Chor Yuen Capsule Reviews

Chor Yuen Capsule Reviews

The House of 72 Tenants (1973) — July 21, 2013 A comic version of the “poor people living in cramped quarters” genre that pops around around the world in movies like Humanity and Paper Balloons by Sadao Yamanaka, Street Scene by King Vidor, many of the 1930s films of Naruse and

Chor Yuen

Reviews: Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan (1972) — July 7, 2013 Killer Clans (1976) — December 26, 2012 The Web of Death (1976) – February 22, 2022 The Sentimental Swordsman (1977) — July 23, 2013 Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre Parts I & II (1978) — July 25, 2013 Swordsman and Enchantress (1978) – January