Reviews
I’ve always wondered if the Comedy Of The Absurd is a criticism of the human condition: Life is a series of accidents that veer towards a pointless milieu of pain, frustration, and disappointment– with death as a subpar release of … more »
Taiwan’s contemporary cinema thrives with the personal story. Korean films glorify spectacle while Japan prefers its offbeat genre-benders. Contrary to this metric, Taiwan keeps to its path of elegant simplicity as it navigates through its perennial themes revolving around the … more »
Every year, I gravitate towards the anime offering for VIFF from classics such as Wolf Children and duds like Red Turtle, every year I roll a proverbial dice. Children of the Sea by Watanabe Ayumi is a bit of … more »
We fall because we’re alive, an adage that resonated throughout the film as a drunken warning by herald Sakamoto to protagonist Dazai as he set off in his plagiarism. Sakamoto returned later in the story to provide another clichéd piece … more »
“For those keen for narratives beyond Crazy Rich Asians…” at the Vancouver Writers Fest 2019
How do we tell politically potent stories? How to do we resist stereotypes and champion marginalized voices in all their complexity? From October 21-27, 2019, The Vancouver Writers Fest will welcome more than 100 authors from around the world to … more »
Review of “We Are Not Princess” at the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) 2019
We Are Not Princesses, directed by Bridgette Auger and Itab Azzam, tells the powerful stories from four women, Syrian refugees living in Lebanon, as they prepare for their roles in a production of Antigone. Antigone, the ancient Greek … more »
Weirdly enough, as a passage in my own work, I write about my stint as a venue manager at Vancouver International Film Festival in my novella The Seven Muses of Harry Salcedo. In a passage, I mention my passing … more »
When I saw the trailer for Birthday, my first impression of the film was that it would be a manipulative sob-fest, and I steeled myself for the emotional exploitation and the violin strings. But the film – about the … more »
Clifton Hill centers on pathological liar Abby’s return to Niagara Falls after her mother’s death, and follows her obsessive quest to solve the mystery behind a potential kidnapping she witnessed as a child.
The film is Toronto-based filmmaker Albert Shin’s … more »