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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.

Following “Durian Durian” at a short distance, “Hollywood Hong Kong” is billed as the second instalment of the Prostitute Trilogy. A personal favourite, the film has a playfulness and a blend of comedy, sleaze, horror and Cat III flavours that make it rather different from the more realistic previous one. In fact, the only evident similarity is the protagonist being a Mainland prostitute working in Hong Kong to make money to fulfill her dream.

“Hollywood Hong Kong” is screening at Five Flavours Asian Film Festival

“Hollywood Hong Kong” is staged in a very precise place and time. The story unfolds in the Village of Tai Hom, a small Hong Kong shantytown in the Kowloon area that was being evacuated due to impending regeneration of the area, right when Chan was filming. In stark contrast with the low-rise of the low-life of Tai Hom, a complex of Shopping Centre and 5 classy apartment blocks annex,...

Superb filmmaking! Edward Yang's chronicle of the children of Chinese exiles in Taiwan follows one teen's strange story of accidental delinquency, muted romance and pervasive violence in a closed society fed on American Rock 'n' Roll and Cold War militarism. Almost exactly as long as Gone With the Wind, Yang's intimate epic is one of those 'best movies ever' that few Americans have heard of. A Brighter Summer Day Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 804 1991 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 236 min. / Gu ling jie shao nian sha ren shi jian / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date March 22, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Chen Chang, Lisa Yang, Kuo-Chu Chang, Elaine Jin, Chuan Wang, Han Chang, Hsiu-Chiung Chiang, Stephanie Lai, Chi-tsan Wang, Lawrence Ko, Chih-Kang Tan, Ming-Hsin Chang, Chun-Lung Jung, Hui-Kuo Chou. Cinematography Hui Kung Chang, Longyu Zhang Film Editor Po-Wen Chen Written by Hung Hung, Mingtang Lai Produced by Wei-yen Yu Directed by Edward Yang

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Sci-fi from Taiwan? Director Hung Hung’s 2007 movie The Wall Passer is an audacious little film that wants to be everything at once; a genre flick on a microbudget, a thought-provoking, intelligent drama, a love story for the ages and a feast for the eyes. Is Twitch better late than never, or is The Wall Passer best bricked up and forgotten? Review after the break.