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By Goh Ming Siu

Fade up on a mountain of rocks in a quarry — raw material for construction, for literal nation-building, yet mining also destabilizes the land. The shot tracks along, as we hear a distant rumble – is it a storm on the horizon, far-off construction, or something more ominous? The camera comes to rest on an empty frame. The protagonist, Lim Cheng Soon (Peter Yu) and his brother Cheng Boon (Johnson Choo) rise from below, where they’ve been digging for rocks, up into frame.

An opening that encapsulates a film where everything important is operating under the surface, a film that needs one to excavate it for a meaningful experience. Hemingway-esque in its sparseness but also in its hidden richness and depth, much like the films of Edward Yang. We think we know what’s going to happen, because we’re familiar with the tropes. Yet at every turn,...

Celebrated Taiwanese director Edward Yang‘s penultimate feature is a deceptively simple and straightforward affair. “Mahjong” poses as an over-the-top, soap opera-esque tale full of petty criminals, blackmail, sentimental manipulation and unrequited love. But it also offers a bittersweet chronicle of life, love, greed and economic opportunism in the booming, bustling Taipei of the late 1990s.

Mahjong is screening at San Diego Asian Film Festival

The film follows a group of rowdy young men who share the same apartment while ripping off other people for a living – and almost, it seems, for a hobby. Their leader is Red Fish (Tsung Sheng Tang), an enterprising young hustler who sees the world as one huge scamming opportunity with only the capitalist sky for a limit. His father is a fugitive businessman and con man who has made a fortune out of Taiwan’s roaring economy, and Red Fish has assimilated to his...

Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia, who was awarded the Grand Prix at this year’s Cannes film festival for her debut narrative feature All We Imagine As Light, talked about the challenges facing indie filmmakers in India during a conversation with Japanese auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda at Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF).

She also touched on how she felt about the fact that All We Imagine As Light was not selected by India’s Oscars committee as its submission for the Best International feature category, but was gracious about the snub.

Kore-eda was on the Cannes competition jury that awarded Kapadia’s film, and said he was impressed by her work, but due to the restraints of jury duty, had not been able to talk to her and find out more about her career. The Japanese director is a Cannes regular, winning the Palme d’Or for Shoplifters in 2018, while Yuji Sakamoto...

Though the Criterion Collection may be taking their beloved closet on the road to celebrate their 40th anniversary, only the lucky few have been able to step foot in the actual hallowed space. Now, renaissance man Bill Hader can say he’s done so twice. The actor, writer, and director behind the hit HBO series “Barry” first entered the Criterion Closet in 2011. Dressed for the occasion with an orange shirt sporting the Kaibyō from the poster for the 1977 Japanese horror film “House,” Hader drew selections such as Federico Fellini’s “Amarcord” and Pier Paolo Pasolini’s grotesque “Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom,” which he referred to at the time as “a great date movie.”

Referencing this pick in his latest video, Hader displayed “Salò” once again and said, “It is not a good date movie. Just want to clear that up.”

After making a few jokes at the expense...

After becoming the first Singaporean filmmaker to win Locarno’s Golden Leopard for A Land Imagined, Yeo Siew Hua will break new ground again with mystery thriller Stranger Eyes, which is the first Singapore film to premiere in-competition at the Venice Film Festival.

The Singapore-Taiwan-France-u.S. co-production stars a Taiwanese ensemble cast featuring legendary actor-director Lee Kang-Sheng, Wu Chien-Ho, Annica Panna and Vera Chen. Malaysian actor Pete Teo and Singaporean actress Xenia Tan also appear in the film.

Yeo conceived the Stranger Eyes project more than 10 years ago but he and Akanga Film Asia’s veteran producer Fran Borgia hit several “dead ends” with funding.

“We decided that we were going to try something else and pitch different projects, so that’s how A Land Imagined came about,” Yeo told Deadline.

A Land Imagined, Yeo’s second feature, also went on to clinch Best Original Screenplay and Best Original Film...

Asian-produced teen and coming-of-age films will be the focus of a special section at this year’s Busan International Film Festival which is heading for its 29 edition in October.

With 10 titles, the section comprises a mix of notable recent productions, such as Malaysian body horror and self-discovery title “Tiger Stripes,” and a pair of world premieres.

In addition to “Tiger Stripes,” which won the Grand Prix Prize in Critics Week at Cannes in 2023, was selected as Malaysia’s Oscar contender only to be cut by local censors, the selection includes: “City of Wind,” winner of the Orizzonti Award for best actor at Venice last year; Okuyama Hiroshi’s “My Sunshine,” from this year’s Cannes Un Certain Regard section; Sora Neo’s “Happyend,” which will play at Venice next month’; Shuchi Talati’s “Girls Will Be Girls,” winner of the audience awards at Sundance in January; and “Fishbone,” which won...

Distribution veteran Wendy Lidell will depart Kino Lorber as SVP of theatrical acquisitions and distribution at the end of June after eight years to pursue a new, undisclosed, chapter.

Kino Lorber chairman and CEO Richard Lorber made the announcement on Friday and hailed Lidell as “the rarest amalgam of smart cinephile and canny business executive”.

Kino Lorber chief revenue officer Lisa Schwartz will oversee theatrical distribution and acquisitions in the interim and continue to report to Klmg president Ed Carroll.

Lidell joined the company in 2016. During her tenure she shepherded three documentaries to Oscar nominations – Gianfranco Rosi’s Fire At Sea,...

Exclusive: Kino Lorber SVP of Theatrical Acquisitions & Distribution Wendy Lidell will depart the company at the end of June following a great eight year run at the indie distributor.

The company’s Chief Revenue Officer Lisa Schwartz will oversee theatrical distribution and acquisitions in the interim and will continue to report to President Ed Carroll. Reporting to Schwartz will be SVP Marketing and Communications Nicholas Kemp, VP Press and Publicity Kate Patterson, VP Theatrical Distribution & Repertory Acquisitions George Schmalz, and Director Theatrical Distribution Maxwell Wolkin.

Schwartz and Carroll, former top executives at AMC Networks, joined Kino Lorber in early 2023.

Lidell has been at Kino Lorber since 2016, overseeing all theatrical acquisitions and distribution efforts and shepherding three documentaries to Oscar nominations – Gianfranco Rosi’s Fire at Sea, Talal Derki’s Of Fathers and Sons most recently Kaouther Ben Hania’s decorated Four Daughters.

Other theatrical releases on her watch include Long Day’s Journey Into Night,...

1984 signaled the beginning of the “Coming of Age” trilogy that began with “A Summer in Grandpa's”. The film is based on Chu Tien Wen's childhood memories, one of the most renowned theatrical writers and novelists of the country. The protagonists are two kids, a fact that established Hou's ability to direct kid actors. The movie won a Best Director award at the 1984 Asia-Pacific Film Festival, the Golden Montgolfiere award (tied with The Runner (1984)) at the 1985 Nantes Three Continents Festival, and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury – Special Mention at the 1985 Locarno International Film Festival. It was also the first work of the Taiwanese auteur to screen in the US, in 1986. Also of note is the fact that Hou cast Edward Yang in a brief role, with Yang returning the favor by casting Hou in his film “Taipei Story”

Follow our tribute to Taiwanese by clicking on the image below

Two city kids,...

Since the beginning of his career, Hirokazu Koreeda became recognized for his films representing the family cinema genre—intrinsically linked with the favorite of Western critics among Japanese filmmakers: Yasujiro Ozu. This was already the case with Koreeda's 1995 debut film, “Maboroshi no hikari”, a visual meditation on loss and the passing of time, told through the eyes of a single mother who has just lost her beloved husband. Since the early 1960s and the death of Yasujiro Ozu, Western critics seemed to be engaged in an excruciating quest to find a new ancestor to Ozu's poetics of cinema—and finally, there was one; Koreeda became the new Ozu.

The similarity is there—a contemplative approach towards the mundane which translates to something more transcendental; a patient gaze onto the bonds of the family set against the backdrop of a modernizing world and changing traditions; or a talent to put...

The Mauritanian master Aberrahmane Sissako reached glory with his previous feature, the foreign-language Oscar-nominated “Timbuktu” (2014). It was a harrowing, beautiful and potent film that hit the soft spot in combining the no-nonsense panoramic overview of the Islamist occupation of the titular city and the humaneness of the resistance to it. Ten years later, Sissako is, once again re-united with his co-screenwriter Kessen Tall, back on the festival circuit with his attempt at the globe-trotting cinema called “Black Tea”. It premiered at the competition of Berlinale and continued its tour at the Belgrade International Film Festival – Fest.

Black Tea screened at Berlin International Film Festival

Sissako opens his film with a sequence set, but not actually elaborated in any way, at a mass wedding ceremony in Abijan, the capital of Ivory Coast. Like other brides, Aya (Nina Melo) is excited, but when her time comes to say the magic words, she makes a monologue,...

Much is open-ended about this realist yet dreamlike exploration of midlife crisis and regret set in Vietnam

The question of what the title means, or what the movie means, remain open; even so, this is a quietly amazing feature debut from 34-year-old Thien An Pham, born in Vietnam and based in Houston, Texas. It’s a jewel of slow cinema set initially in Saigon and then the mountainous, lush central highlands far from the city; it is a zero-gravity epic quest, floating towards its strange narrative destiny and then maybe floating up over that to something else. It’s compassionate, intimate, spiritual and mysterious in ways that reminded me of Tsai Ming-liang or Edward Yang.

Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell is presented in a calm, unforced realist style with many long, unbroken middle-distance shots, with closeups a rarity. There is a flashback and a dream-sequence presented in exactly the same way,...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For regular updates, sign up for our weekly email newsletter and follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSHard Truths.Mike Leigh’s forthcoming Hard Truths will reunite him with Marianne Jean-Baptiste, star of Secrets and Lies (1996). It will be the British director’s first film set in the present day since Another Year (2010).Jia Zhangke has divulged some details of We Shall Be All, now in the early stages of post-production. In production off and on since 2001, the film will be his first feature since Ash Is Purest White (2018). “I travelled with actors and a cameraman to shoot, without a script, without any obvious story,” the director told Variety. “This is a work of fiction, but I have applied many documentary methods.”Robert Bresson’s rarely seen Four Nights of a Dreamer is being restored by MK2 Films, set for a spring release.

“Kuei-mei, a Woman” is a cinematic gem that has not only earned critical acclaim in its time but has also left an indelible mark on the history of filmmaking. Selected as the Taiwanese entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 58th Academy Awards and recipient of the Golden Horse Award for Best Feature Film in 1985, Chang Yi's movie has garnered international recognition for its profound portrayal of sacrifice and perseverance. Nowadays, its themes and cinematography resonate even more.

on Amazon by clicking on the image below

Set against the backdrop of post-revolution Taiwan in the 1950s, the movie unfolds the poignant narrative of its titular character, brilliantly brought to life by the esteemed actress Yang Hui-shan. Born into poverty in mainland China, Kuei-mei embarks on a journey fraught with challenges as she migrates to Taiwan and enters a marriage of convenience with an alcoholic widower.

German filmmaker Nele Wohlatz’s “Sleep With Your Eyes Open,” which had its world premiere on Saturday in the Encounters section of the Berlin Film Festival, tells a story about the search for a sense of belonging in a foreign country.

It starts with Kai, a young Taiwanese woman with a broken heart, arriving at a Brazilian beach resort for a holiday. Here, her life crosses paths with a group of Chinese migrants living in a luxury tower block, and in particular a young woman called Xiaoxin, who accepts her fate, and Fu Ang, who is working in an umbrella store when we meet him but harbors ambitions to become wealthy.

Xiaoxin writes about her life on a series of postcards, which are never sent and are eventually discarded. Kai finds them and reads them, provided a connection between the two women. At one point, we stop following Kai and...

Two Taiwan-based production companies with features in this week’s Berlin Film Festival have joined forces to launch new venture, Long Hu Bao × An Attitude.

Taiwan’s Yi Tiao Long Hu Bao International Entertainment, is one of eight co-producers on main competition film “Shambhala,” from Nepal’s Min Bahadur Bham.

Yi Tiao Long Hu Bao is also one of three co-producers on Brazilian title “Sleep With Your Eyes Open” (aka “Dormir de olhos abertos”) directed by Nele Wohlatz, which debuts in Berlin’s Encounters section.

While the two companies will remain legally separate, the collaboration also brings together Lee Lieh, Roger Huang, and Justine O., three of Taiwan’s most experienced producers. They aim to continue their expansion into international co-productions and span both film and TV.

“We see it as three generations of producers becoming a strong alliance that joins together the resources of Asia – Edward Yang’s Taiwanese new wave,...

“The last thing I hate is that life always forces us to keep moving forwards.”

In the aftermath of the New York Film Festival, reporter Vincent Canby wrote an article about the films of the festival he aptly named “Why Some Films Don't Travel Well”. Works such as Zhang Yimou's “Red Sorghum”, Andrei Konchalovsky's “Asya's Happiness” and Hou Hsiao-Hsien's “Daughter of the Nile” are mostly relevant thanks to their “sociology factor” Canby begins his article, an aspect that these works are and have been applauded for around the world while as films themselves they are not that interesting. Hou Hsiao-Hien, one of the most popular directors of Taiwanese New Cinema along with Edward Yang, was still trying to find a cinematic language for his films, one which strongly resembled the works of Yasujiro Ozu in terms of style and content, the sense of resignation, as he writes...

The East Asia Film Festival Ireland (Eaffi) and the Irish Film Institute (Ifi) are delighted to announce the programme for the eighth edition of the festival, which will take place this year from Thursday, March 7th to Sunday, March 10th, bringing works from prominent and

emerging writers and directors from diverse cultural and social backgrounds across East Asian cinema to audiences in Ireland. These films reflect on individual and communal experiences, and observe and explore life and relationships in an eclectic mix of fiction, documentary, and classic titles. At the programme's centre is a season of rare screenings by auteur filmmaker Edward Yang (1947–2007) – four masterworks from one of the most iconic figures, alongside Hou Hsiao-Hsien, of the Taiwanese New Wave film movement of the early 1980s.

Each of the four special screenings will be introduced by Taiwanese film producer Chuti Chang. They will be:

A Confucian Confusion , which charts the...

Acclaimed Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf will serve as jury president at the 30th Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema (Viffac), which runs from February 6-13.

Held in France, this year’s edition will spotlight Taiwanese cinema and Malayalam-language films from India. A total of 92 films from 29 countries will be screened.

Makhmalbaf’s works include A Moment of Innocence (1996), which won a special mention at the Locarno Film Festival, as well as Kandahar (2001), which won the Ecumenical Jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

Other jury members at Viffac this year include Taiwanese director Zero Chou, winner of the Golden Bear at the Berlinale in 2007, Iranian actress Fatemed Motamed-Arya and Japanese actor Shogen.

There are 17 films across the fiction and documentary competitions, which come from China, Korea, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bangladesh, Nepal and Taiwan. There are two world premieres, five international premieres, six European premieres and four French premieres.

Taiwan and India in the spotlight at the 30th Vesoul Iff of Asian Cinema

The 30th Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema will feature 92 films, including 52 never-before-seen films from 29 countries, under the banner of commitment!

Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Iranian director with 60 international awards to his credit, is President of the Jury. Other members include Taiwanese director Zero Chou, winner of the Golden Bear at Berlin 2007, Fatemed Motamed-Arya, the most awarded Iranian actress in the history of Iranian cinema, and Japanese actor Shogen, cinema ambassador at the Sea-Okinawa Pan-Pacific International Film Festival.

The 17 films in the fiction and documentary competitions come from China, Korea, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bangladesh, Nepal and Taiwan. Four are French premieres, six European premieres, five international premieres and two world premieres.

Feature Film Competition :

China: All Ears by Liu Jiayin – China (Tibet): The Snow Leopard by Pema Tseden – Korea: Work to...

As we have mentioned many times recently, Korea's Weird Wave is definitely having a moment right now, with titles that can only be described with the particular word coming one after the other. Slow-burning, road movie of sorts, family drama of sorts, winner of the Cgv Arthouse Award at the latest Busan International Film Festival “Chorokbam” also falls under the “category”.

“Chorokbam” is available from Echelon Studios

Starting during a night when everything seems to be painted in green, the Dad of a three-membered family who works as a night security guard discovers a cat hanging by its neck on a rope. The image shocks him, but still continues his routine, of returning to their cramped apartment just as Mom leaves to dry peppers in the sun in the morning, with the red color dominating the images this time. As soon as she returns, a rather dysfunctional relationship is revealed,...

A UK-based Chinese film festival that strives to take on the responsibility of promoting the importance of a mutual understanding of diverse cultures between greater China and the UK, Mint Chinese Film Festival (Mint Cff) is back for its fresh 2nd edition from Feb 1-4 at Keswick Alhambra Cinema to welcome the Year of Dragon, showcasing the best and most pioneering Chinese films!

Mint is the first women-organised Chinese film festival in the UK and aims to curate for underrepresented voices, images, and stories, actively discovering and supporting Chinese creators, emerging women filmmakers and artists, and gender-diverse directors.

Founded by Chinese film curator Yixiang Shirley Lin and Keswick Alhambra Cinema's co-owner Dr Carol Rennie, Mint is a year-round active film festival; it not only holds an annual Chinese film festival but also curates and organises pop-up film screenings and relevant cultural and artistic events in various venues across the UK...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For regular updates, sign up for our weekly email newsletter and follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSGuy Maddin’s next film, Rumours, recently wrapped production in Hungary. The ensemble piece is led by Cate Blanchett and Alicia Vikander, who play world leaders who end up stranded in a forest during the annual G7 summit. Maddin has shared a breathless, spoof press release (below) announcing the film, describing the project as “an elevated dramedy and erotico-political threnody cum sylvan moodbank.”Paul Thomas Anderson is also at work on something new. So far, all we know is that his project is set in the present day and will star Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, and Regina Hall. Production begins in California later this year.Recommended VIEWINGOne of the most exciting rediscoveries of the 2023 Il Cinema Ritrovato festival was the restoration of David Schickele’s Bushman...

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Film at Lincoln Center

The massive Edward Yang retrospective, New York’s first in a dozen years, has its final weekend with A Brighter Summer Day, Yi Yi, and new restorations of A Confucian Confusion and Mahjong.

Roxy Cinema

Claire Donato presents Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me on 35mm and Preminger’s Bonjour Tristesse, while The Canyons screens on Saturday and Saturday.

IFC Center

Céline and Julie Go Boating and Casablanca and Alphaville have runs; Donnie Darko, Black Christmas, Once and Future Queen, and Goldfinger have late showings.

Museum of Modern Art

The comprehensive Ennio Morricone retrospective comes to a close with The Untouchables and 1900.

Film Forum

A Leon Ischai retrospective begins while The Third Man continues a 75th-anniversary 35mm run; Days of Heaven (read our interview with Brooke Adams) plays on Sunday with 101 Dalmations.

The post NYC Weekend Watch: Mahjong,...

By Goh Ming Siu

Fade up on a mountain of rocks in a quarry — raw material for construction, for literal nation-building, yet mining also destabilizes the land. The shot tracks along, as we hear a distant rumble – is it a storm on the horizon, far-off construction, or something more ominous? The camera comes to rest on an empty frame. The protagonist, Lim Cheng Soon (Peter Yu) and his brother Cheng Boon (Johnson Choo) rise from below, where they've been digging for rocks, up into frame.

An opening that encapsulates a film where everything important is operating under the surface, a film that needs one to excavate it for a meaningful experience. Hemingway-esque in its sparseness but also in its hidden richness and depth, much like the films of Edward Yang. We think we know what's going to happen, because we're familiar with the tropes. Yet at every turn, we're...

Film at Lincoln Center

A massive Edward Yang retrospective, New York’s first in a dozen years, continues with A Brighter Summer Day, Yi Yi, and new restorations of A Confucian Confusion and Mahjong.

Roxy Cinema

A 35mm print of Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and “City Dudes” screen this Saturday.

Museum of the Moving Image

A Roy Andersson retrospective continues with his flagship films and a lesser-seen work; the Todd Haynes series winds down; The Wicker Man plays on Saturday and Sunday.

Film Forum

The Third Man begins a 75th-anniversary 35mm run while Days of Heaven (read our interview with Brooke Adams) continues in 4K.

Museum of Modern Art

The comprehensive Ennio Morricone retrospective continues.

IFC Center

Casablanca and Alphaville have runs; The Muppets Take Manhattan plays early, while Black Christmas, Revenge of the Sith, and Last Crusade have late showings.

The post NYC Weekend Watch: Yi Yi,...

What splits the fine line between desire and expectations? Is it a thing you can see? Is it a thing you can film?

Film at Lincoln Center’s new retrospective supposes that if any of those questions have answers, they might reside in the cinema of Edward Yang. Moving from “A Rational Mind”––the title of their 2011 retrospective of Yang’s work––to “Desire/Expectations” reframes those questions to be more diffuse, less singular. A rational mind could answer in the affirmative or negative; a slash indicates that desire and expectations may occupy the same terrain simultaneously.

“A rational mind” is also, perhaps, an accusation a Yang character could lob at another, especially in A Confucian Confusion (1994), a workplace farce that subjects a “culture company” in 1990s Taipei to the contradictions of Confucian teachings. In turn (or simultaneously), the film interrogates Confucian-influenced, consumer-friendly spaces––like 1990s Taipei––to rethink old-world molds of tradition and expectation.

Film at Lincoln Center

A massive Edward Yang retrospective, New York’s first in a dozen years, has begun, featuring new restorations of A Confucian Confusion and Mahjong.

Museum of the Moving Image

A Roy Andersson retrospective begins with two lesser-seen works; the Todd Haynes series continues with Carol and Far from Heaven; Ghost in the Shell plays on Friday, while The Shop Around the Corner screens through the weekend.

Film Forum

A Charlie Chaplin series is underway to coincide with the new Woman of Paris restoration; Days of Heaven (read our interview with Brooke Adams) and Michael Powell’s career-killing masterwork Peeping Tom continue.

Museum of Modern Art

The comprehensive Ennio Morricone retrospective continues, including Once Upon a Time in America.

Roxy Cinema

Amadeus plays on 35mm; Home Alone also screens.

IFC Center

It’s a Wonderful Life and Alphaville have runs; Black Christmas, Revenge of the Sith, Last Crusade,...

A holy grail of restorations is premiering soon. As part of Film at Lincoln Center’s Desire/Expectations: The Films of Edward Yang the 4K restoration of the late, legendary director’s 1996 feature Mahjong will world-premiere.

Along with all of his features, the series also includes the anthology film In Our Time, which he contributed to, as well as The Winter of 1905, directed by Yu Wei-cheng and scripted by Yang, and nine minutes from Yang’s unfinished animated martial arts film The Wind (2002–2005), whose production was halted after his death.

Also featuring the recently restored A Confucian Confusion, a proper run of Yi Yi, A Brighter Summer Day, Taipei Story, That Day, on the Beach, and Terrorizers, see the lineup and schedule below, with tickets on sale Thursday, November 30 at noon and an Flc Members pre-sale starting Wednesday, November 29 at noon.

The Winter of 1905

Yu Wei-cheng, 1982, Taiwan, 90m

Mandarin with...

Zhang Lu has been a festival-favorite director for some time, with his somewhat European art-house approach finding much resonance throughout the West. This approach finds one of its zeniths in his latest work, “The Shadowless Tower” a film that functions as an unusual road movie, inspired by the concept of the White Pagoda, a 13th-century Buddhist temple in Beijing, whose construction makes it rather hard to see its shadow.

Shadowless Tower is screening at Singapore International Film Festival

Gu Wentong is a relatively successful film critic, whose life, however, is not in its higher point. His daughter Smiley, a rather smart and humorous child, is living with his sister Wenhui and her husband Li Jun after his divorce, with him more visiting than actually raising her. Gu's mother has recently died, while the reason for her own divorce with his father, due to an accusation of molestation on a...

He may be the world’s greatest living filmmaker, and now we know we’ve seen his last film.

Hou Hsiao-hsien, director of timeless masterpieces such as “A City of Sadness,” “The Puppetmaster,” “Flowers of Shanghai,” and “Millennium Mambo” is battling dementia and is now retired from filmmaking. The 76-year-old Taiwanese auteur had been hoping to make his long-in-development film “Shulan River” up until the past couple years, and location scouting had begun. Now, 2015’s “The Assassin” will stand as his final film.

The news broke that Hou is now retired via film scholar Tony Rayns’ introduction to a screening of his 1985 film “A Time to Live and a Time to Die” at the Garden Cinema in London on October 23. IndieWire has since confirmed the news with a source close to Hou as well as with the film curator of the Garden Cinema, George Crosthwait, who said that the director “will certainly not work again.

Above: first US teaser poster for Poor Things. Design by Vasilis Marmatakis.I don’t know whether it’s because of the power of Yorgos Lanthimos, or the popularity of Emma Stone, or the sheer genius of designer Vasilis Marmatakis, or a combination of all of them, but three out of the four most liked posters on my Movie Poster of the Day Instagram over the past six months have all been posters for Lanthimos’s latest, Poor Things. The teaser above is now the most liked poster ever on my feed.Breaking up the Poor Things monopoly at number two is Polish designer Maks Bereski’s fan-art design for Ridley Scott’s yet-to-be-released Napoleon, which also went through the roof with over 4,000 likes when I posted it in June in conjunction with my article on Bereski and his favorite movie posters. Instagram likes are a fickle thing but it...

Family will break your heart and bruise your heart and mend your heart like no one else can — not always in that order, and sometimes all three at once. In his exceptional, happy-sad-funny debut film “House of the Seasons,” Oh Jung-min creates a beautiful tapestry of intimate sprawl, as three generations of a meddlesome, quarrelsome, loving Korean clan experience all the colors of familial life while the hills of their village home phase from lush green to copper and russet to stark, snowy white.

Through clean bright clouds of clearing steam, we’re invited into the small Daegu Village tofu factory owned and run by the Kim family. Hae-sook (Cha Mi-kyeong), the careworn, efficient wife of the factory’s flighty current boss Tae-geun (Oh Man-seok) is taking special care with this batch, as tonight it’s to be part of their Jesa ceremony — an annual ritual commemorating the spirits of dead ancestors.

Szu-Wei Chen is a writer/director from Taiwan and earned his MFA from Columbia University's Graduate Film program. Having grown up with an interest in directors such as Edward Yang and Lou Ye, Chen is currently exploring a means to bridge the film language he grew up on with and his experiences as an international resident living in the US. “A New Apartment” is his latest work, which is currently having its festival run, having screened at Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema and Cinequest San Jose Film Festival.

“A New Apartment” review is part of the Submit Your Film Initiative

The film begins with Ms Wang, a real estate agent trying to sell an apartment to her client, Yu-Ting, a woman in her early 30s. Her efforts are crowned with success, and soon the focus changes to the new tenant, during her first day in the apartment.

By Kun-Yu Lai

Reviewing Taiwanese Cinema history, everyone refers to the masters of Taiwanese New Wave, like Hou Hsiao-hsien, Edward Yang, Wan Jen and Wang Toon. However, seldom people had ever mentioned another great director who made, possibly, the greatest gangster film in Taiwan: Hsu Hsiao-ming. Only some audience has seen his “Dust of Angels”, which is underrated all the time.

“Dust of Angels” is screening at Udine Far East Film Festival

The story is about two teenagers, A-Guo and A-Douzi, who use drugs and hang around with gangster all day. During the 1990s, Taiwanese economy had reached its highest point, and the society changed faster than any periods in history. The economic boom gave gangsters opportunities to gain their power in business and politics. Teenagers like the main characters were easily absorbed and became part of it. After getting involved in a homicide event in their home town, A-Guo...

To the surprise of some and the delight of many, the late Taiwanese director Edward Yang’s drama Yi Yi (2000) has topped the The Hollywood Reporter critics’ list of the “Best 50 Films of the 21st Century (So Far).” Helping put the film in context, Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi, 44, whose 2021 film Drive My Car won the best international film Oscar (and also lands at #19 on THR‘s list), offers a personal statement on what Yang’s masterpiece has meant to him and a generation of Asian filmmakers.

Urban life in Asia, especially in the wake of World War II, has become markedly Westernized. For the post-war generation, to which Edward Yang and my parents belonged, the richness of material and spiritual gains that came from this process must have felt like a stroke of luck. But ultimately, the trauma of this historical rupture has also been passed down through the generations,...

Canadian drama series “Streams Flow From a River” will debut in Canada on Super Channel, available on Apple TV and Prime Video Channels, on April 1.

The series is in the Canneseries short format competition and will have its international premiere at the festival on April 18.

Produced by Canadian scripted production company Fae Pictures, “Streams Flow From a River” (6 x 14′) is the first Canadian series from an all-Asian writers’ room and 75% East Asian crew led by producer Shant Joshi. Joshi is one of MipTV’s Producers to Watch 2023 and will be attending Mip-Canneseries Connections event.

Created by writer and director Christopher Yip (“Fish Boy”), the series brings forward the invisible struggles that Chinese Canadian immigrant families face while trying to make a home in the West. With nods to Asian cinema films like Edward Yang’s “Yi Yi” and BBC drama “I May Destroy You,” “Streams Flow From a River” revolves around the Chow family,...

Hong Kong High

Already the highest grossing local film in its home market, courtroom drama, “A Guilty Conscience” has broken into Hong Kong’s all-time top ten box office ranking with a cumulative of Hk$107 million ($13.7 million). Data from Hong Kong Box Office Ltd. shows the film achieving the feat after just 41 days in cinemas and coming within Hk$1 million of overtaking “Top Gun: Maverick.” The data firm noted that the last time a Hong Kong film got this far was with fantasy-action-comedy “Kung Fu Hustle” in 2004. Since then, it has been overtaken by a fleet of Hollywood titles. Hong Hong’s current top ten is headed by “Avengers: Endgame” and includes six Marvel movies, the two “Avatar” titles and “Titanic.”

Streamer Encourages Churn

With its shares buoyed by recent more positive results, Chinese video streamer iQiyi is returning to the capital markets – again. The Nasdaq-listed company is issuing $600 million...

Singapore-based film production outfit Potocol, whose “Tomorrow is a Long Time,” by Jow Zhi Wei bowed at the Berlin Film Festival’s Generation 14plus competition, has revealed a diverse Asian slate.

Potocol’s recent triumphs include Bangladeshi filmmaker Abdullah Mohammad Saad’s Cannes selection “Rehana Maryam Noor” and Indonesian director Makbul Mubarak’s Venice winner “Autobiography.” The company, led by Jeremy Chua who is currently at the Berlinale, has a growing reputation for championing the rise of young filmmakers from across Asia.

Potocol has four films in post-production and several more in development. Nicole Midori Woodford’s debut feature “Last Shadow at First Light” is a supernatural road trip drama that follows a Singaporean teenager tracing the footsteps of her missing mother in Japan and explores the ripple effects of a traumatic event subconsciously buried within the family unit.

A winner of several project development and market prizes at Seafic,...

Berlin-based sales company M-Appeal will be handling eight films by Academy Award winner Hamaguchi Ryûsuke made between 2008-2016.

The deal follows M-Appeal’s previous collaboration with Hamaguchi and producer Takata Satoshi, of Neopa Inc., in 2021 on the film “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy,” which premiered in Berlinale Competition and won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize. “Drive My Car” by Hamaguchi screened in Cannes Competition the same year, before winning Best International Feature Film at the Academy Awards.

The deal includes “Passion,” Hamaguchi’s 2008 graduation film for the School of Film & New Media at Tokyo University of the Arts, as well as “Happy Hour,” which world premiered in Locarno in 2015. “Happy Hour” won the Best Actress Award in Locarno, shared between the four lead actresses of the film, all of whom had no previous acting experience, as well as receiving a special mention for the film’s script. Other titles...

Big sales were hardly in short supply at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, with Netflix going wild for “Fair Play,” AppleTV+ shelling out for “Flora and Son,” and Searchlight Pictures snapping up “Theater Camp”, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of superior films still looking for homes.

Of the still-for-sale titles that premiered at this year’s festival, there’s plenty to intrigue all sorts of buyers, from those looking for films with excellent performances that could inspire major awards pushes (like the Jonathan Majors-starring “Magazine Dreams”), those in search of the next big director, hungry genre hounds (see: “Divinity”), and even documentary lovers looking for films with incredible real world impact.

And while it’s still early days, given the incredible assortment of films still looking for homes, we can’t help but tout their allure to all interested buyers. These aren’t just...

Ho Wi Ding is a Malaysian director working mostly in Taiwan. Born in 1971, he studied in New York. His short movie “Respire” was awarded at the Cannes Film Festival and his debut feature “Pinoy Sunday” brought him a Golden Horse Award for the Best New Director.

On the occasion of “Terrorizers” screening at Five Flavours we talk to him, among other topics, about playing with audience expectations, loneliness, Edward Yang and overwhelming film scores.

Terrorizers screened at Five Flavours

I’m very excited we can talk. This is my first face-to-face interview since… before the pandemic.

And this is my first face-to-face festival. “Terrorizers” premiered in Toronto last year, but I haven’t been there in person.

Zoom festivals times…

Tough ones. So I look forward to meeting the live audience and discussing my film with them.

Okay, so let’s talk about your movie. We meet on the occasion...

Often regarded as the feature which ignited what ultimately was titled the Taiwanese New Way, Edward Yang’s “That Day, on the Beach” set the tone for his works and was also the logical next step from his short films, both in terms of narration and aesthetics. As the feature has recently been restored and screened in many international festivals, together with his other works such as “Yi Yi” and “A Bright Summer Day”, audiences can experience for themselves how the themes of this director expanded over time, and also his keen eye on developments, on the political, social and economic level, which would shape the lives of many people, even outside Taiwan. Given the pressures on young people to become mature even quicker nowadays in the age of digitization, Yang’s nostalgic and often skeptical look at his country perhaps has become increasingly relevant, besides being a showcase of...

Edward Yang began filmmaking while he was in his 30’s, and died of cancer at the young age of 59. Throughout his all-too-brief filmography, the seven full-length titles he produced are arguably some of the most retrospective films to ever grace the world theater. Yang’s sophomore feature film ‘Taipei Story’ is no exception; working alongside prolific director Hsiao-Hsien Hou, this depiction of young adults navigating a dreadfully uncertain new time is so universally relatable that even viewers in 2021 are bound to experience a palpable sense of melancholy throughout its two hour runtime.

“Taipei Story“ is screening at Five Flavours Asian Film Festival

Set in mid-80’s Taiwan, ‘Taipei Story’ tells the tale of childhood-sweetheart-turned-adult lovers Lung (in a rare acting performance from Hou Hsiao-Hsien) and Chin as they try to build a life for themselves. Lung is a washed out former member of a Little League baseball team who compromises...

When Edward Yang’s “A Brighter Summer Day” was released by Criterion on the European market in 2017, many cinephiles – at least those who did not own a region free-player – were able to enjoy a film many had praised over the years but only a few had actually seen. Even though Yang’s film is certainly not the only title which has become much sought after by film fans, for years after its release in 1991, “A Brighter Summer Day” was a title which one could only enjoy at festivals and selected screenings. Along with “Yi Yi” (2000), 2018 marked the year in which many film fans could enjoy two of the most significant titles within Asian cinema, news which Yang surely would have been delighted to hear given the amount of work he put into his films, but also considering their themes.

“A Brighter Summer Day” is screening at Five Flavours...

In his third directorial effort, Taiwanese filmmaker Edward Yang once again told a story about the relationship of people within the urban space, in this case, as with many of his other works, the city of Taipei. Along with his previous movies, it further manifested Yang’s reputation and inclusion as a founding member of what film scholars called the “Taiwanese New Wave” which represented a farewell to the old ways of making movies, formally and thematically. Apart from “The Terrorizers” being awarded upon its screening at the Locarno Film Festival, it would continue to receive many more honors, along with critics praising it as a work reminiscent of the movies by Italian filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni, especially “Blow-Up” which seems to have inspired the narrative strand revolving around the young photographer played by Mao Shao-chun.

“The Terrorizers“ is screening at Five Flavours Asian Film Festival

The story, which deals with...

Wi Ding Ho’s dark drama “Terrorizers” doesn’t only share the title with Edward Yang’s classic from 1986, it likewise focuses on a group of individuals in Taipei outcasted in one form of the other, longing to break out from loneliness. Their destinies will intertwine through a slashing incident in a public space, with the film revolving around events that preceded or followed that moment, crucial in puzzling the story pieces together.

“Terrorizers“ is screening at Five Flavours Asian Film Festival

The plot is put in the context of societal malaise, dependency on social media and the switch of realities. The ‘earthly’ life gets hijacked by the pixelized in “Terrorizers”, a film that also speaks about how much power we gave to the internet and how little it takes to ruin a person’s life by exposing sensitive content online. While one of the...

One of the best-curated festivals devoted to Asian cinema begins this week. The San Diego Asian Film Festival, now in its 23rd edition, will feature 130-plus films from more than 30 countries and in upwards of 30 languages. We’ve had a chance to see a number of highlights on the festival circuit and have rounded up our top picks. See below and learn more at the official festival site.

A Confucian Confusion (Edward Yang)

It was once so impossible to imagine that it now appears like a mirage. Or so’s the obvious effect of mere clarity: having only seen A Confucian Confusion on (redundant phrasing) a less-than-sharp Laserdisc rip, this recent restoration of a personal favorite could’ve only been more welcome if it somehow revealed a lost Edward Yang picture in the process. (Which in some ways it has.) Those who’ve waited for this day will be well-rewarded...

The two directors were in conversation at Tokyo International Film Festival.

Award-winning directors Koji Fukada and Tsai Ming-liang voiced concerns about the state of filmmaking in Japan and Taiwan respectively during an on-stage conversation at Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF).

Tsai, whose films have won top prizes at Cannes, Venice and Berlin, reflected on the rich period for Taiwanese art cinema that began in the 1980s with the emergence of directors like Hou Hsiao-hsien and Edward Yang before lamenting the move into genre features to make a profit.

“That was a great period for Taiwanese films, but in recent years,...

The two directors were in conversation at Tokyo International Film Festival.

Award-winning directors Fukada Koji and Tsai Ming-liang voiced concerns about the state of filmmaking in Japan and Taiwan respectively during an on-stage conversation at Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF).

Tsai, whose films have won top prizes at Cannes, Venice and Berlin, reflected on the rich period for Taiwanese art cinema that began in the 1980s with the emergence of directors like Hou Hsiao-hsien and Edward Yang before lamenting the move into genre features to make a profit.

“That was a great period for Taiwanese films, but in recent years,...