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A Romanticization of Taiwanese Gangster Life

·September 21, 2021·3 min read

Gatao: The Last Stray is a competent gangster film of its genre, as a prequel and the third of three films in the Gatao franchise. Of course, one would expect a romanticization of gangster life from a film of the genre and, in this respect, Gatao stays the course Read More

Island Nation 2 Encounters Same Issues as Other Recent Taiwanese Historical Television Dramas

English Film

·September 17, 2021·3 min read

Island Nation 2, the second season of 2020’s historical drama Island Nation, continues the first season’s dramatization of recent Taiwanese history. Though the season is off to a stronger start in its first two episodes than the shaky first few episodes of Island Nation, whether or not the show can find a broader audience outside of Taiwan is still up in the air Read More

The Story of a Gangster with a Heart of Gold

Film

·September 14, 2021·3 min read

Man in Love, adapted from the 2014 South Korean film by the same name, is an impressive first outing for director Yin Chen-hao. Yin notably entered the film industry after founding a production studio in graduate school, while studying chemistry Read More

In Search of a Lost Limb

English Film

·September 10, 2021·3 min read

Offering a fluent interplay of the humorous and melodramatic, A Leg is a standout film. A Leg is the directorial debut of Chang Yao-sheng, who penned the script for A Sun, which won Best Film at the 2019 Golden Horse Awards. As such, it may not be surprising that A Leg manages to be a similarly deft work. Chang successfully makes the leap from scriptwriting to directing Read More

Telling a Story About Two Generations in Hong Kong

English Film Interviews

·September 7, 2021·4 min read

No Man is an Island interviewed Kelvin Chan Kin-long, the director of recent Hong Kong film Hand Rolled Cigarette Read More

Two Working-Class Taiwanese Women in Guangzhou

English Film

·September 3, 2021·4 min read

Mickey on the Road has the makings of a great film, but fails to live up to its promises. Consequently, it represents much wasted potential for what could have otherwise been a strong entry in the road movie genre Read More

A Humanistic Look at How the Outbreak Was Brought Under Control in Wuhan

English Film

·August 31, 2021·3 min read

Wuhan Wuhan, directed by Yung Chang, is a humanistic look at everyday residents and medical workers in Wuhan at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic last year. The documentary begins shortly after the peak of cases in the city, and follows residents of Wuhan until the end of the city’s lockdown in April 2020 Read More

A Trainwreck of an Asian American Gangster Film

English Film

·August 24, 2021·5 min read

With violence against Asian immigrants in the US spotlighted by incidents such as the shootings of Asian spa workers that took place in Atlanta in March, Snakehead is not just a film in remarkably poor taste, it is also a comically bad film. This is all the more so, in consideration of the production crew, which seems to largely consist of Asian Americans Read More

A Powerful Look into the Struggles of Two Generations in China

Film

·August 20, 2021·3 min read

Father is a standout documentary, whose strengths primarily derive from the revealing moments it manages to capture on camera. This is due to the fact that director Deng Wei is filming his father and grandfather as the documentary’s subjects. Read More

A Competent but Problematic Adaptation

English Film

·August 17, 2021·5 min read

SEQALU: Formosa 1867 has been widely discussed in Taiwan in past few days, following its premiere last week. As the title implies, the television drama is set in Taiwan in 1867. SEQALU is the latest historical drama offering from PTS Taiwan depicting Taiwanese history. This follows suit from last year’s Island Nation, another big-budget work that dramatized the political history of Taiwan’s democratic transition Read More

The Effects of Unfettered Development on Nature

English Film

·August 13, 2021·3 min read

Anima depicts the human effects of unfettered development in China, while also featuring elements of Chinese ethnic minority film. The final results are passable and the film’s technical merits are impressive, but the work does not break new ground Read More

An Insipid and Vaguely Authoritarian Hong Kong COVID Comedy

English Film

·August 10, 2021·4 min read

2021 Hong Kong comedy All U Need is Love is likely one of the earliest films in the world to make the COVID-19 the central focus of its story. The movie features a star-studded cast of Hong Kong actors and actresses, many of which reprise their best-known roles for the film. This is due to the fact that the movie was originally intended as a collaboration between ten major Hong Kong film companies to benefit a hard-hit domestic film industry. However, All U Need is Love is an insipid affair, which says more about the film industry in Hong Kong today than anything else Read More