Twelve Nights, a 2013 documentary film about animal shelters, is probably one of the most influential Taiwanese advocacy films you have not heard about Read More
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“Sonata for Smoke” stands out for its mastery of the technical aspects of filmmaking, playing with viewers’ expectations through its proficiency. The film begins with what appears to be a burning object, along with a blunt instrument that is eventually revealed to be a microphone. They are left to wonder what they are seeing for several moments, before the camera pulls back Read More
Island in Between follows director S. Leo Chiang’s personal journey. Having grown up in the US, he finds himself back in Taiwan after the COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently, he finds himself drawn to the island of Kinmen, where his father previously served in the military as part of the draft Read More
With its all-woman cast, Taiwanese movie “As We Like It” critiques the exclusion of women in Shakespearean theatre and asks audiences to consider life beyond a gender binary Read More
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
《枷/家》是導演與動物平權促進會聯合製作的短紀錄片，是部為了告知公眾籠鍊犬議題、為具體的提倡目的而製的影片。籠鍊犬是長期被鍊養的狗，他們很少有每日走動的機會，或是得到最低標準的適當對待。本片不會在平常的電影院、電視節目，或是網路平台播放，而是在動平會舉辦在部落和學校的活動中播出。 Read More
Hand Rolled Cigarette is a well-made film, proving something like the Hong Kong version of Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino. Although the film starts off slow, its narrative gradually builds strength over time Read More
The documentary "Singing in the Wilderness" is a look at a church chorus thrust into China's national stage after fame from participating in a televised singing competition. What makes this chorus especially interesting is that all its members are Miao—one of China's officially recognized ethnic minorities. Unlike the Muslim Uyghurs and Hui or Buddhist Tibetans, the Miao receive little international focus, which makes this documentary especially notable Read More
Green Grass, Pale Fire follows three Taiwanese runaway miners in 1935 who are on the run from the Japanese army. Stranded in the jungles of Iriomote Island, Okinawa prefecture, after having escaped from the infamous “Green Jail” coal mine, the three hope to find a way home by boat. Given this setting, the short film explores Taiwan’s Japanese colonial period, which lasted from 1895 to 1945 Read More
Infused with soft dystopian sci-fi elements, "The Tenants" is a lean yet stirring movie that comments upon the bleakness of urban life in South Korea Read More
Inside the Brick Wall—a film that can no longer safely be safely screened in Hong Kong—will no doubt prove a worthy historical document of the Hong Kong protests. Not only does the film document a key moment in the protests, but it proves a film encapsulating the dynamics of the protest in microcosm—and the subjective struggle faced by Hongkongers as a whole today Read More
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