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Devils on the Doorstep

Directors from across East and Southeast Asia.

A Useful Ghost (Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, 2025)

Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke

A Useful Ghost (Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, 2025)

A slightly different version of this was originally published at InReview Online as part of their coverage of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival series. One day, noticing an influx of dust into their apartment due to some construction outside, a person known only as an “academic ladyboy” (as they call

The Old Woman with the Knife (Min Kyudong, 2025)

The Old Woman with the Knife (Min Kyudong, 2025)

Look, I’m only human. You tell me there’s a movie where a woman plays a professional killer, and I’m in. I love Girls with Guns movies, from the certified classics starring the classy stars like Michelle Yeoh and Cynthia Rothrock to the early 90s underground of Moon

Bullet Trains (Sato Junya, 1975 & Higuchi Shinji, 2025)

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Bullet Trains (Sato Junya, 1975 & Higuchi Shinji, 2025)

No Blood Relation (Naruse Mikio, 1934)

Paid-members only

No Blood Relation (Naruse Mikio, 1934)

Rendez-vous avec Pol Pot (Rithy Panh, 2024)

Rendez-vous avec Pol Pot (Rithy Panh, 2024)

A slightly different version of this was originally published at InReview Online as part of their coverage of the 2025 Rendez-vous with French Cinema series. It’s been over a decade now since I caught Rithy Panh’s The Missing Picture at the Vancouver Film Festival. His chronicle of his

Devils on the Doorstep

Yamada Naoko

Reviews: Liz and the Blue Bird (2018) – November 14, 2018 The Heike Story (2021) – November 22, 2024 Capsule Reviews: K-On! The Movie (2011) – August 13, 2019 A Silent Voice (2016) – November 9, 2019 Liz and the Blue Bird (2018) – August 1, 2019 Yamada Naoko Movies

Japan Cuts 2024 - Part 3

Devils on the Doorstep

Japan Cuts 2024 - Part 3

It’s taken me a bit longer than I’d hoped to roll out this third and final installment of my Japan Cuts coverage. Mostly because I was enjoying watching the Olympics so much this past weekend. But in a wild coincidence, both of the movies I’m reviewing here

Japan Cuts 2024 - Part Two

Devils on the Doorstep

Japan Cuts 2024 - Part Two

The 2024 Japan Cuts may have already concluded, but I’m still catching up with some of the films that played there. I hope to have another of these dispatches by the end of the week, to cover Somai Shinji’s Moving and Ishii Gakuryū’s August in the Water.

Japan Cuts 2024 - Part One

Devils on the Doorstep

Japan Cuts 2024 - Part One

If you’re a subscriber to The Chinese Cinema, you know that the posts have been sparse over the last month or so. That will happen occasionally, as I get commissions that require some weeks of research and writing to put together, and I hope you all will continue to

Devils on the Doorstep

Sōmai Shinji

Reviews: Sailor Suit and Machine Gun (1981) – May 7, 2024 Moving (1993) – July 30, 2024 Capsule Reviews: Typhoon Club (1985) – June 6, 2024

Sōmai Shinji Capsule Reviews

Sōmai Shinji Capsule Reviews

Typhoon Club (1985) – June 6, 2024 Sōmai's A Brighter Summer Day? Maybe, maybe not. Yang seems more interested in exploring the ways the world has failed his kids. Somai more in expressing the varieties of malformation in the junior high school mind. Someday, a real rain will come.

Slices of Life - Japan Cuts 2023

Devils on the Doorstep

Slices of Life - Japan Cuts 2023

Every year these midsummer weeks of late July and early August see the best showcases for East Asian film in North America arrive in New York City and, by the miracle of online screeners, in my inbox. While the New York Asian Film Festival (follow the link to see my

Devils on the Doorstep

Kitano Takeshi

Reviews: Kubi (2023) – July 23, 2024 Broken Rage (2024) – February 19, 2025 Capsule Reviews: Violent Cop (1989) - April 13, 2016 Sonatine (1993) - April 14, 2016 List: Kitano Takeshi Movies

Devils on the Doorstep

Sakamoto Yugo

Reviews: A Janitor (2021) – June 15, 2023 Baby Assassins (2021) – October 6, 2022 Yellow Dragon's Village (2021) – June 15, 2023 Baby Assassins 2 Babies (2023) – November 8, 2023 Baby Assassins: Nice Days (2024) – July 18, 2024 List: Sakamoto Yugo Movies

Jeong Ga-young Capsule Reviews

Devils on the Doorstep

Jeong Ga-young Capsule Reviews

Capsule Reviews: Hit the Night (2017) – June 29, 2018 Hit the Night is an ultra-low budget comedy about a director who has an idea for a movie she wants to make. As research, she interviews a slightly older man about love, sex, and relationships (not necessarily in that order). Slowly

Devils on the Doorstep

Lê Văn Kiệt

Reviews: Furie (2019) – March 13, 2019 The Princess (2022) – July 5, 2022

Devils on the Doorstep

Ohku Akiko

Reviews [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/tag/ohku-akiko/]: My Sweet Grappa Remedies [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/my-sweet-grappa-remedies-ohku-akiko-2019/] (2019) – March 10, 2022 Capsule Reviews [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/ohku-akiko-capsule-reviews/]: Tremble All You Want (2017) — July 19, 2018 Hold Me Back (2020) — August 2, 2021 List: Ohku Akiko Movies [https://letterboxd.com/theendofcinema/

Hamaguchi Ryūsuke

Devils on the Doorstep

Hamaguchi Ryūsuke

Reviews [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/tag/hamguchi-ryusuke/]: Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/wheel-of-fortune-and-fantasy-hamaguchi-ryusuke-2021/] (2021) — November 2, 2021 Capsule Reviews [https://www.thechinesecinema.com/hamaguchi-ryusuke-capsule-reviews/]: Happy Hour (2015)— March 12, 2017 Asako I & II (2018) — October 3, 2018 Drive My Car (2021) — November 2, 2021 List:

Obayashi Nobuhiko

Devils on the Doorstep

Obayashi Nobuhiko

Reviews: House (1977) – October 19, 2022 School in the Crosshairs (1981) – January 5, 2023 The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (1983) – January 24, 2024 Beijing Watermelon (1989) – June 7, 2024 Hanagatami (2017) — July 19, 2018 Capsule Reviews: His Motorbike, Her Island (1986)— January 14, 2021 Bound for the Fields, the

Crazy Samurai Musashi (Shimomura Yûji, 2020)

Shimomura Yûji

Crazy Samurai Musashi (Shimomura Yûji, 2020)

Legendary samurai Miyamoto Musashi has defeated the champion of the Yoshioka clan in a duel. In retaliation, the clan gathers 100 samurai and 300 mercenaries to ambush him and exact their revenge. But then things go terribly, terribly wrong as that crazy samurai kills them all, one after another in

Devils on the Doorstep

Iwai Shunji

Reviews: The Case of Hana and Alice (2015) — September 4, 2019 Last Letter (2018) — November 9, 2018 The 12 Day Tale of the Monster that Died in 8 (2021) — August 9, 2021 Kyrie (2023) – July 16, 2024 Capsule Reviews: Fireworks, Should We See It from the Side or the Bottom?

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 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 Mole Song: Hong Kong Capriccio

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: Daguerrotype (2016) — November 3, 2017 Before We Vanish (2017) — March 8, 2018 Cloud (2024) – September 1, 2024 Capsule Reviews: Cure (1997) — May 10, 2016 Pulse (2001)— May 10, 2016 Tokyo Sonata (2008) — May 12, 2016 Creepy (2016) — June 11, 2016 To the Ends of the Earth (2019) — December 12,

Devils on the Doorstep Capsule Reviews

Devils on the Doorstep

Devils on the Doorstep Capsule Reviews

Singapore Anthony Chen: Wet Season (2019) — September 28, 2019 Literally everything but the plot is great. All the details, performance, sound design, subtext about language and changing culture: great. Plot though — totally generic. The Breaking Ice (2023) – September 13, 2023 Singaporean filmmaker Anthony Chen’s most impressive career achievement to-date