Sylvia Chang - The Chinese Cinema

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Sylvia Chang

A collection of 11 posts

2023 Fall Festival Compilation

2023 Fall Festival Compilation

As I put together in 2022 and again for last Spring, here is a collection of the reviews I wrote for InReview Online's coverage of various film festivals from around the world. For publication here, the reviews have been re-edited and occasionally expanded. Check out the rest of

Both Sides Now: Women in Chinese Film at the DC Chinese Film Festival

Both Sides Now: Women in Chinese Film at the DC Chinese Film Festival

This weekend, the (Washington) DC Chinese Film Festival [http://www.dccff.org/schedule.html], in partnership with The One International Women's Film Festival, presents a mini-festival focused on women in Chinese Cinema called “On Both Sides of the Camera” focusing on Chinese films by and/or about women.

Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Bi Gan, 2018)

Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Bi Gan, 2018)

Thinking of a series of dreams Where the time and the tempo fly And there’s no exit in any direction ‘Cept the one that you can’t see with your eyes Wasn’t making any great connection Wasn’t falling for any intricate scheme Nothing that would pass inspection

Sylvia Chang Capsule Reviews

Sylvia Chang Capsule Reviews

Passion (1986) — May 11, 2018 When George Lam’s mustache is so sexy that even a lifetime of friendship can’t keep Sylvia Chang and Cora Miao from both falling in love with him. Sisters of the World Unite (1991) — May 11, 2018 Very pleasant Lunar New Year style movie

The Fun, the Luck, and the Tycoon (Johnnie To, 1990)

The Fun, the Luck, and the Tycoon (Johnnie To, 1990)

Following up on the smash hit that was All About Ah-long, Johnnie To went back to television for a two-part film called The Iron Butterfly. I haven’t been able to track it down, but it looks to be a modern cop/Triad thriller, with Anthony Wong and Mark Cheng

All About Ah-Long (Johnnie To, 1989)

All About Ah-Long (Johnnie To, 1989)

After an auspicious, if commercially unsuccessful, debut with the New Wave wuxia The Enigmatic Case in 1980, To spent the early 80s working in Hong Kong television. In 1986 he returned to film working under Raymond Wong Bak-ming at the Cinema City studio, where he made the popular, if not

Mountains May Depart (Jia Zhangke, 2015)

Mountains May Depart (Jia Zhangke, 2015)

Jia Zhangke’s Mountains May Depart is one of the more polarizing films of the year. It marks a radical shift in Jia’s formal technique, abandoning the long-shot/long-take aesthetic that has made him one of the preeminent examples of 21st Century Asian Minimalism. Instead, working with his longtime

Shanghai Blues (Tsui Hark, 1984)

Shanghai Blues (Tsui Hark, 1984)

In his essential book Planet Hong Kong [http://www.davidbordwell.net/books/planethongkong.php], David Bordwell examines a sequence in the 1986 film Peking Opera Blues where director Tsui Hark deftly coordinates the movements of his actors as they try to remain hidden from an inquisitive father (three of them,

Legend of the Mountain (King Hu, 1979)

Legend of the Mountain (King Hu, 1979)

It starts with a Wagnerian incantation: elemental imagery calling forth the natural world, music rising with the sun, the mountain, the clouds and the river, always the river, rushing, falling, churning. A Touch of Zen begins much the same way, but this world is depopulated, not even a spider mars

The Aces Go Places Series (1982-1989)

The Odd One Dies

The Aces Go Places Series (1982-1989)

Aces Go Places (Eric Tsang, 1982) — November 20, 2013 The first of the smash hit action/comedy series that was one of the first big successes of the Cinema City studio that dominated 80s Hong Kong. Pioneering Cantopop star Sam Hui plays a master jewel thief who helps a bumbling

Seven Years Itch (Johnnie To, 1987)

Seven Years Itch (Johnnie To, 1987)

After finding success in his return to filmmaking with 1986’s Happy Ghost III, Johnnie To re-teamed with actor-writer-producer-Cinema City studio head Raymond Wong for a more conventional romantic comedy, loosely inspired by Billy Wilder’s popular 1955 Marilyn Monroe vehicle The Seven-Year Itch. Wilder’s film is an adaptation