With the New York Asian Film festival kicking off, Adam and Kevin take a look at two films screening there this year with Jinpa and Hard-Core. Other titles discussed include Samurai Marathon, Vice, Midsommar, O-Bi, O-Ba: The End of Civilization, and Child's Play.
5
Not even the inclusion of a robot could invigorate the stale, self-pitying lowlife comedy, HARD-CORE, into anything endearing.
6
Although uneven in certain spots, this period piece from director Bernard Rose, known for his horror classic Candyman, is an entertaining if not slightly underwhelming look at an interesting piece of history.
The New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF) is gearing up to launch its 2019 season, and today the full lineup of titles has been announced. As usual there’s a fantastic lineup, featuring 53 features from all over Asia. The festival will
8.5
BuyBust is a non-stop, adrenaline-soaked bloodbath that hits the ground running and doesn’t let up until the exhausting conclusion.
6.5
This is a film that subverts your expectations of the romantic drama. In its opening monologue, you think this is going to be a story of a once-passionate and loving relationship that went up in flames. What you’re greeted with is the semi-tumultuous pairing of two very unlikely companions.
This week, Adam and Kevin cover the 2018 New York Asian Film Festival with reviews of The Empty Hand, The Looming Storm, Microhabitat, and Wrath of Silence. Adam also gushes about the craziness that is BuyBust.
6
Whether this film has any hope for the future isn’t really the point so much as thinking broadly about how world events affect our microscopic lives, and, more importantly, what we do about that.
6.5
What is so interesting about Dukun's tackling of witchcraft as a horror subject is that the tension does not come from whether or not it is real, but from what the sadistic soul who practices it will do with her unregistered power.
7
Kanato Wolf's Smokin' on the Moon is a bait-and-switch exercise that begins with an anarchist sense of untethered visual chaos and grinds down to a cloying but effective buddy picture.
5
Scythian Lamb is a pointed, but utterly airless, exploration of a topic that Yoshida struggles to mold.
5.5
Attempting to highlight the idea that rumors have real-world consequences for the unlucky ones they concern, The Hungry Lion is a meditation on the effects of schoolyard buzz on one of its victims in a monopolizing, objective manner, which dryly makes its opinions heard through blank, repetitive sermonizing about the ills of the young people.
7.5
In possibly the most dreary film seen in decades, Yue Dong’s The Looming Storm presents an intriguing Chinese noir, set in a town sandwiched between four factories where a man’s obsession brings him to ruin. Bathed in melancholy, Dong crafts a fascinating mystery buttressed by a magnificent performance by Yihong Duan.
6.5
If you can get past the ridiculous CG blood (clearly I can’t), The Age of Blood is an entertaining period piece that proves the time period isn’t just reserved for Japanese and Chinese cinema.
6
Officially formed in 1973 and still doing shows to this day with its original members, The Wynners isn’t a very widely known band outside the members’ native Hong Kong, but there, they will go down in history as one of the most famous and prolific Cantopop groups ever.
5.5
Shot in just eight days, Richard Somes’ Filipino actioner We Will Not Die Tonight evokes a lo-fi version of Walter Hill’s The Warriors, delivering unrelenting violence from the first act that never lets up.
