The Chinese Cinema (Page 20)

The Chinese Cinema

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Jiang Wen Capsule Reviews

Jiang Wen Capsule Reviews

In the Heat of the Sun (1994) — December 15, 2017 Somewhat autobiographical story of coming of age during the 1970s from Jiang Wen, based on Wang Shuo’s novel Wild Beast. It’s some kind of a middle ground between a couple of Edward Yang films: the textures of teenage

Jiang Wen

Reviews [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/tag/jiang-wen/]: Let the Bullets Fly [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/notes-on-filmspottings-contemporary-chinese-cinema-marathon/] (2010) — November 1, 2019 Gone with the Bullets [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/gone-with-the-bullets-jiang-wen-2014/] (2014) — June 15, 2016 Hidden Man [https://mubi.com/notebook/posts/contemporary-chinese-cinema-the-new-king-of-comedy-and-hidden-man] (2019) — April 29, 2019 Capsule Reviews [https://www.thechinesec

Long Arm of the Law (Johnny Mak, 1984)

Long Arm of the Law (Johnny Mak, 1984)

The intersection of the Hong Kong New Wave and the crime movie. A gang of thieves crosses the border from China into the city to pull a heist, but everything goes wrong: one guy gets caught by dogs before he can get over the razor-wire border fence, then the jewelry

Lau Kar-leung Capsule Reviews

Lau Kar-leung Capsule Reviews

Challenge of the Masters (1976) — June 30, 2013 Gordon Liu as a young Wong Fei-hung, an origin story for kung fu cinema’s greatest folk hero. Lau Kar-leung plays the villain, as scared and desperate as he is merciless and dishonorable. The true climax though is a philosophical one, as

The 36th Chamber

Lau Kar-leung

Challenge of the Master: Lau Kar-leung at MoMA — July 5, 2018 Reviews: The Spiritual Boxer (1975) — July 15, 2013 Executioners from Shaolin (1977) — December 21, 2012 The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978) – January 14, 2025 Dirty Ho (1979) —July 2, 2013 Mad Monkey Kung Fu (1979) — December 27, 2012 Martial

The 36th Chamber

John Woo

Reviews: Princess Chang Ping (1976) — August 20, 2015 Heroes Shed No Tears (1986) — March 28, 2014 A Better Tomorrow (1986) — June 26, 2015 A Better Tomorrow II (1987) — November 21, 2013 Once a Thief (1991) — March 28, 2014 Twice a Thief (1991 & 1996) – June 13, 2024 Red Cliff (2009)

John Woo Capsule Reviews

John Woo Capsule Reviews

The Young Dragons (1973) — August 14, 2015 Kind of exactly what you’d expect from John Woo’s first film. A low-budget picture (Golden Harvest) with lofty aspirations, the influences are obvious: Peckinpah’s slo-motion, Chang Cheh’s doomed antiheroes, an unusually heightened (for a cheap genre film of the

Wong Kar-wai Capsule Reviews

Wong Kar-wai Capsule Reviews

Chungking Express (1994) — April 1, 2014 “Where do you want to go?” “Doesn’t matter. Wherever you want to take me.” “It’s still a very emotional towel.” Ashes of Time (1994) — February 25, 2016 Dug out the original, pre-Redux version. Having seen this in its two forms a total

Tsai Ming-liang Capsule Reviews

Tsai Ming-liang

Tsai Ming-liang Capsule Reviews

Walker (2012) — October 4, 2012 Walker is Tsai Ming-liang’s first film since Visage, which I saw back at VIFF 2009 (and which my wife almost walked out of due to both boredom and extreme dislike). It’s been awhile since then and I don’t quite remember how it

Ann Hui Capsule Reviews

Ann Hui Capsule Reviews

The Secret (1979) — July 29, 2019 In America this would have been followed by at least two more imitation movies where Sylvia Chang solves spooky murders, of declining quality and increasing morbidity, directed by men of course and not Ann Hui, whose debut this was. But they weren’t in

The 36th Chamber

Wong Kar-wai

Reviews [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/tag/wong-kar-wai/]: Days of Being Wild [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/days-of-being-wild-wong-kar-wai-1990/] (1990) — August 16, 2013 Ashes of Time (Redux) [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/ashes-of-time-redux-wong-kar-wai-1994/] (1994) — August 26, 2013 Capsule Reviews [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/wong-kar-wai-capsule-reviews/] : Ashes of Time (1994)— February 25, 2016 Ashes of Time

Tsai Ming-liang

The 36th Chamber

Tsai Ming-liang

Reviews: Stray Dogs (2013) — October 4, 2013 Journey to the West (2014) — September 24, 2014 Journey to the West (2014) — May 26, 2020 The Night (2021) – September 22, 2022 Where (2022) – May 5, 2023 Abiding Nowhere (2024) – December 6, 2024 Capsule Reviews: Walker (2012) — October 4, 2012 Journey to the

The 36th Chamber

Ann Hui

Reviews: Boat People (1982) — September 3, 2013 Love in a Fallen City (1984) — August 23, 2019 Starry is the Night (1988) —August 23, 2019 Zodiac Killers (1991) — April 9, 2014 Visible Secret (2001) – April 12, 2024 July Rhapsody (2002) – May 16, 2024 Our Time Will Come (2017) — July 6, 2017

The Day After (Hong Sangsoo, 2017)

The Day After (Hong Sangsoo, 2017)

“I think that I have no control over my destiny and that I don’t play the leading role in it. I think that I can die at any time, I am ready to accept it. I think everything is less serious than it seems. In fact, I think that

Our Sunhi (Hong Sangsoo, 2013)

Our Sunhi (Hong Sangsoo, 2013)

The culmination of the Jung Yumi films, in which a young film student unsuccessfully navigates the attentions of several competing men, none of whom see her for who she actually is, blinded by their perceptions of her prettiness, her innocence, her artistic sense, and so on. This cycle began with

Hahaha (Hong Sangsoo, 2010)

Hahaha (Hong Sangsoo, 2010)

Among the slightest of Hong Sangsoo’s films is this story about two men recalling their recent trips to a small town. The movie is narrated by each in turn, we see them in black and white still photos as they drink toasts between anecdotes. The twist is that they

Like You Know It All (Hong Sangsoo, 2009)

Like You Know It All (Hong Sangsoo, 2009)

“Why don’t you admit you don’t know it all? It’s hard to get someone’s heart, right?” This was the first Hong Sangsoo movie I ever saw, at the Vancouver Film Festival in 2009, which is pretty much the ideal setting for a Hong movie about life

The Day He Arrives (Hong Sangsoo, 2011)

The Day He Arrives (Hong Sangsoo, 2011)

“Oh, Jeanne, to reach you at last, what a strange path I had to take.” For some reason, this final line from Robert Bresson’s Pickpocket was stuck in my head while rewatching The Day He Arrives. There’s no apparent relation between the two, though I have been thinking

Night and Day (Hong Sangsoo, 2008)

Night and Day (Hong Sangsoo, 2008)

The Hongian hero, not so young anymore, finds himself alone in Paris. A quick intertitle informs us that this man, Seongnam (played by Kim Youngho), was at a party with some exchange students where marijuana was being consumed. Someone ratted him out to the police (pot smoking being apparently a

Woman on the Beach (Hong Sangsoo, 2006)

Woman on the Beach (Hong Sangsoo, 2006)

Coming off of one of his more audacious experiments in repetition, Tale of Cinema, in which the first half of the movie turns out to be a movie the main characters of the second half are watching, Woman on the Beach feels like a step toward conventionality. The two-part form

Hong Sangsoo Capsule Reviews

Hong Sangsoo Capsule Reviews

On the Occasion of Remembering the Turning Gate (2002) — May 9, 2013 Is it the remembering of the story of the Turning Gate that leads to re-enacting it, and if so, is it remembering the whole first half of the film that leads to inverting it? What’s the relation

Tale of Cinema (Hong Sangsoo, 2005)

Tale of Cinema (Hong Sangsoo, 2005)

A depressed young man talks to himself, narrating his life as he meets up with his brother and then runs into an old classmate on the street. He meets her after she gets off work for dinner, which naturally enough becomes drinks instead. The two resolve to kill themselves, together,

Woman is the Future of Man (Hong Sangsoo, 2004)

Woman is the Future of Man (Hong Sangsoo, 2004)

After finding increasing warmth amidst narrative experimentation and a shearing away of formal adornment, with his fifth film Hong Sangsoo returns to the cruel satire of his debut. A bitter and cruel skewering of the pretensions, hypocrisies and stupid lusts of the modern man, the film is relentlessly bleak, offering

On the Occasion of Remembering the Turning Gate (Hong Sangsoo, 2002)

On the Occasion of Remembering the Turning Gate (Hong Sangsoo, 2002)

The best of Hong Sangsoo’s early films is this, his fourth feature. Following upon the great leap forward in narrative experimentation that was Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, with its bifurcated narrative of literal repetition and variation, Turning Gate takes a step toward the abstract. Again the narrative

King Hu Capsule Reviews

King Hu Capsule Reviews

The Story of Sue San (1964) — August 4, 2014 King Hu’s directorial debut. He’d been acting and working a variety of other movie jobs (props, writing, etc) since the mid-1950s, and this is for the most part in the vein of his two films as assistant director under