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If the past two decades have taught us anything then it is that modern cinema is currently in the age of the “Superhero”. With both Marvel and D.C. cinematic universes dominating box office figures, it is perhaps inevitable that others would follow suit. Comic books have proven popular in most cultures and provide a wealth of source material as well as storyboarding shorthand. Therefore, we eventually got the announcement in 2019 of the Bumilangit cinematic universe in Indonesia using the Marvel model of interconnected stories and media to tell their own stories. Following “Gundala” in 2019 came a delay due to the pandemic. With “Sri Asih: The Warrior” comes an attempt to regain momentum and unleash comic book action Indonesian style on a global audience as Shout Factory releases it on Blu-ray.

A volcanic eruption sees the tragic loss of Alana’s parents and she grows up in an orphanage along with her friend Tangguh.

It seems that with the toning down of censorship in Indonesia, filmmakers are now free(er) to deal with issues that could not be touched before, such as female desire, the harshness of the school system and the blight of social media, through realistic approaches. The recent “Like & Share” and “Photocopier” are two of the most renowned samples, with Lucky Kuswandi's latest work, “Dear David” also moving in the same direction.

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Laras, despite being the second child of a poor family along with her brother and mother, is the student body president at an expensive private school, which she is able to attend due to a scholarship. Both the aforementioned facts (that she is poor and a straight A student) have not helped her in the school environment, with her frequently getting bullied, even more so since she is the principal,...

For Variety‘s Writers on Writers, Jenny Zhang pens a tribute to “The Farewell” (written by Lulu Wang). For more, click here.

Lulu Wang’s “The Farewell” opens with, “Based on an actual lie.” Billi, a broke artist in Brooklyn, played with precision and subtlety by Awkwafina, is the only one in her family who wants to tell her beloved nai nai (Chinese for paternal grandmother) the truth: she has stage-four cancer and her children and grandchildren, all of whom immigrated decades ago to America and Japan, are reuniting in Changchun under the pretense of a wedding so they can see her one last time.

Like Billi, one day I was a child playing in my nai nai’s garden, and the next I was suddenly ripped away from everything and everyone I knew and plopped into a foreign land where I had no language, identity, family or home. Over time,...

We knew that Cathy Yan was going to get some extra shine on her young career thanks to being selected to direct the upcoming “Birds of Prey” superhero team-up film for Warner Bros. But it appears that even without that film hitting theaters, the up-and-coming filmmaker has already lined up her next project with indie studio A24.

According to Variety, Yan is set to direct a coming-of-age drama titled “Sour Heart,” which is based on a short story collection from author Jenny Zhang.

Continue reading ‘Birds Of Prey’ Director Cathy Yan To Direct Immigrant Drama ‘Sour Heart’ For A24 at The Playlist.

Cathy Yan has set her next directorial outing following the highly anticipated Margot Robbie-led Birds of Prey adaptation. Yan, who wrote and directed the Sundance award-winning film Dead Pigs, has been tapped to co-write direct Sour Hearts, a film based on the short-story collection by Jenny Zhang, who will co-write the screenplay alongside Yan. A24 will finance, produce, and distribute the film, which is described as a coming-of-age story about the immigrant experience from the perspective of children and parents. Set in the boroughs of New York in the 90s, the story is portrayed through the point of view of a young girl, whose parents relocated from Shanghai, as her family as the work to reach the middle-class status. Variety was first to report this news.

Following her major break in the upcoming Harley Quinn spinoff, “Birds of Prey,” director Cathy Yan has found her next film: A24’s “Sour Hearts,” based on Jenny Zhang’s debut short-story collection.

A24 optioned the collection in 2017 and will produce the pic. Zhang and Yan will co-write the script.

The movie unfolds from the perspective of a girl growing up in the outer boroughs of New York in the ’90s. With parents newly arrived from Shanghai, the family works through the unique trials of ascending to the middle class. A coming-of-age tale told with insight and humor, the story offers a sweeping perspective on the humility and heartache of the immigrant experience, as told from the point of view of children and parents.

A24 will also finance and distribute the film. The collection was celebrated on best-of-the-year lists by the New Yorker, NPR, Oprah Magazine, the Guardian, Esquire, New York Magazine and BuzzFeed.