Walking into Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg is to step into a phantasmagoria of the garishly cute, the disarmingly grotesque, and above all, the unflinchingly bizarre: vibrant, multi-eyed mushrooms sprout from the ground (DOB in The … more »
Film festivals like Toronto are sometimes like revolving doors. Each year their whirlwind oscillations allow just the big films with coin and clout to pass through, attracting instant publicity, esteem and distribution. For everyone else, the wait for recognition is … more »
It’s Christmas time! With the holiday seasons comes some down time for reading and contemplation. Here’s my chance to share with you my reading list for the past few months. It’s been a very busy time, with the end of … more »
Ontario Premiere at Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival
Japan / 2017 / Rated 14A / 127:00 / Japanese with English subtitles
The Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival opened with Yukiko Mishima’s moving family drama Dear Etranger 幼な子われらに生まれ… more »
Toronto Premiere at Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival
Canada / 2017 / / 85:00 / English, Korean with English subtitles
Stand Up Man is a film with a story which will resonate with young people who … more »
Thailand / 2017 / / 130:00 / Thai with English subtitles
All Asian children understand the pressure and importance of education which is drilled into them at an
… more »The Korean word ‘guk’ (or ‘gook’) means ‘country’, and it has been speculated that this was the origin of the titular slur of Justin Chon’s second feature.
Early in the film, the eleven-year old Kamilla asks Eli, played by … more »
The Chinese diaspora population is estimated at 50 million. That is not just one Australia. It is two. Spread across 110 countries, one of those nations is Switzerland. This brings us to Swiss filmmaker, François Yang whose The Soul of … more »
A Korean-born man (John Cho) finds himself stuck in Columbus, Indiana, where his architect father is in a coma. The man meets a young woman (Haley Lu Richardson) who wants to stay in Columbus with her mother, a recovering addict, … more »
It is November soon and that means it is time for one of Vancouver’s most anticipated events: the Vancouver Asian Film Festival, otherwise known as VAFF. Nowhere else can Asians like myself, be they first, second, third, fourth, maybe … more »