Posted on 26 January 2012. Tags: 2012, Vol 31 No 5 | January 28 - February 3
By Andrew Hamlin Northwest Asian Weekly Director Tran Anh Hung left his native Vietnam in 1975, at the age of 12, after Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese forces. Until the year 2000, he made all of his films, with permission, inside the unified Vietnam, showing a rich mixture of love for his homeland with [...]
Read the full story
Posted in At the Movies, Vol 31 No 5 | 1/28-2/3
Posted on 19 January 2012. Tags: 2012, Full Metal Alchemist, Vol 31 No 4 | January 21 - January 27
By Andrew Hamlin Northwest Asian Weekly “All is of one, and one is in all.” So says an alchemist — a fancy term for magician — at the beginning of “Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos,” the second feature derived from the popular Japanese manga and TV anime “Fullmetal Alchemist.” Over the course of [...]
Read the full story
Posted in At the Movies, Vol 31 No 4 | 1/21-1/27
Posted on 29 December 2011. Tags: 2012, Vol 31 No 1 | December 31 - January 6
By Andrew Hamlin Northwest Asian Weekly 2011 gave us a wide variety of Asian cinema, from sweeping historical epics to smaller, more human-scaled studies of life. Seek out the following films wherever you can. They are ranked in order of excellence.
Read the full story
Posted in At the Movies, Features 01, Vol 31 No 1 | 12/31/11-1/6/12
Posted on 15 December 2011. Tags: 2011, Outrage, Vol 30 No 51 | December 17 - December 23
By Andrew Hamlin Northwest Asian Weekly Takeshi Kitano’s new film “Outrage” opens with the camera panning slowly across a group of men slouching against luxury cars, some fanning themselves in the heat. They are the yakuza promised in the film’s advance publicity, but they are not stylish. They do not immediately look dangerous. The filmmaker [...]
Read the full story
Posted in At the Movies, Vol 30 No 51 | 12/17-12/23
Posted on 15 September 2011. Tags: 2011, Ip Man, Vol 30 No 38 | September 17 - September 23
By Andrew Hamlin Northwest Asian Weekly Ip Man (1893–1972) was a legendary Chinese marital artist whose students included a young Bruce Lee. Several films have been based on his amazing life. This newest one, “The Legend is Born: Ip Man,” is the first to offer an account — fictionalized, but derived loosely from real [...]
Read the full story
Posted in At the Movies, Vol 30 No 38 | 9/17-9/23
Posted on 02 September 2011.
The American director John Sayles has a long and distinguished history of tackling difficult projects addressing difficult aspects of life and history. His latest film “Amigo,” set in the Philippines, explores a time in history not well-remembered by most Americans, but which remains vivid to Filipinos …
Read the full story
Posted in Arts & Entertainment, At the Movies, Reviews, Vol 30 No 35 | 8/27-9/2
Posted on 28 July 2011. Tags: 2011, Trigun, Vol 30 No 31 | July 30 - August 5
By Andrew Hamlin Northwest Asian Weekly Director Satoshi Nishimura’s anime feature “Trigun: Badlands Rumble” begins with frantic police radio calls and the ringing of a burglar alarm inside a bank. We see bank employees held hostage as the robbers pillage the vault, arguing about how to divide the loot. But this is no ordinary bank [...]
Read the full story
Posted in At the Movies, Vol 30 No 31 | 7/30-8/5
Posted on 20 July 2011. Tags: 2011, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Vol 30 No 30 | July 23 - July 29
By Andrew Hamlin Northwest Asian Weekly Director Wayne Wang’s new dramatic film “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan” begins with a business diner in Shanghai. The well-dressed Chinese at the table speak fluent English and toast two of their number. Nina (played by Bingbing Li) and Sebastian (Archie Kao) are to leave for New York [...]
Read the full story
Posted in At the Movies, Vol 30 No 30 | 7/23-7/29
Posted on 07 July 2011. Tags: 2011, City of Life & Death, Vol 30 No 28 | July 9 - July 15
By Andrew Hamlin Northwest Asian Weekly Chinese director Chuan Lu graduated from the prestigious Beijing Film Academy and wrote his dissertation on Francis Ford Coppola, director of the “Godfather” saga. He summons all of his knowledge for his devastating third dramatic feature, “City of Life and Death,” a study of the Nanking Massacre. The still-shocking [...]
Read the full story
Posted in At the Movies, Vol 30 No 28 | 7/9-7/15
Posted on 16 June 2011. Tags: 2011, Uncle Boonmee, Vol 30 No 25 | June 18 - June 24
By Andrew Hamlin Northwest Asian Weekly Thailand’s Apichatpong Weerasethakul, who turns 40 in July, began making feature films 11 years ago in 2000. Working outside the Thai studio system, he quickly established himself as an artistic maverick, with films rich in light and spirit.
Read the full story
Posted in At the Movies, Vol 30 No 25 | 6/18-6/24