9
The assembled teenage tragedies that populate River's Edge aren't suffering in their nihilistic angst to provide a lesson, however, so much as they are there to exist and envelop you into their dead-end state of mind, living as they do in presumably hazardous proximity to an industrial district that is polluting the rivers that run behind the school from which they frequently skip.
6
The Blood of Wolves is a studied, committed throwback to the blood-soaked, abrasive Yakuza films in the vain of Kinji Fukasaku
6
There exists good intentions behind Harada's want to focus on the plight of Edo women and the disproportionate favoritism of the institution of marriage at the time, but lacking the follow-through and giving into broad populist appeals to entertainment makes these intents inherently shallow.
7
Kore-eda remains staunchly pragmatic in laying out this case as to make sure the “correct” lesson is taken away, and that makes the whole exercise falter significantly.
7.5
When it is knee-deep in prowling the ins and outs of the porn industry, the film shines as provocatively as Boogie Nights, but peering past this fun surface confronts you with little to no depth for the avatar doing the prowling.
NYAFF 2018 is about to kick off June 29, and today Subway Cinema released a batch of new trailers celebrating three of their programs. NYAFF will run through July 15th at FSLC in New York.
Stay tuned for reviews coming out of
Subway Cinema has released the trailer promoting this year’s New York Asian Film Festival, running from June 29 – July 15. The 17th year of the festival, dubbed “The Savage Seventeenth Year,” will feature four world premieres, three international premieres, 21 North American premieres,
The full lineup for the 17th New York Asian Film Festival has been announced, with 58 films from China, Hong Kong, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand.
The opening night film will be Tominaga Masanori’s Dynamite Graffiti, with the
This year’s New York Asian Film Festival has officially wrapped, and with the the award winners have been announced. Nattawut Poonpiriya’s Bad Genius won the Best Feature Award with honorable mentions going to Yoshiyuki Kishi‘s A Double Life and Le Binh Giang‘s Kfc. Naoko
7.5
Methodical in its formal approach and more twisted than the salacious details of the crimes it combs over, Kei Ishikawa's Traces of Sin probes ingenuously into the various connecting threads of a murder case, not for the sake of pointing fingers, but more for a want of a full picture.
5.5
The concern over the utter aimlessness and disaffection of Japan's youth has proven to be a topic of abundance for the country's transgressive cinema. Whether we are talking the carefree Sun Tribe films of 1950s, the politically charged student activist films of ’60s and ’70s, or the nihilistic films that followed the burst of the economic bubble in the late ’80s, the nation's cinema was always worried about its future working force maturing in the wrong ways.
4.5
Aside from its goofy title and uniquely strange villain, Alan Lo’s Zombiology: Enjoy Yourself Tonight plays out like numerous other zombie comedies that we’ve seen over the last decade or so, making for a slightly enjoyable, yet familiar, experience despite some of the ideas on display.
5
Combining tropes from classic Hong Kong vampire comedies of decades past with more contemporary vampire tales, Sin-Hang Chiu and Pak-Wing Yan’s Vampire Cleanup Department is a fun concept but lacks any real lasting power, falling short of laughs and plot.
7
Mixing animation with live-action photography is a consistently compelling tactic in contemporary filmmaking. Whether it’s in comedies like Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Space Jam or in action films like Kill Bill Vol. 1, the additional work required to mix the two modes demands an artistic intention that makes the animation mean something more than what could be done with either mode on its own.
7.5
Filled to the brim with near-constant, brutal violence, Tetsuya Mariko’s Destruction Babies is an artfully crafted tale of nihilism and lost youth set against the backdrop of a hot summer in Japan.
6
Derek Tsang's Soul Mate is an interesting, if never fully compelling, romantic drama about the love and friendship shared by Ansheng (Zhou Dongyu) and Qiyue (Sandra Ma), two Chinese women who meet at age 13 and grow up, apart and back together.
