一部艺术片的诞生 [The Birth of an Art Film] (2020)

The first of two films which, coincidentally and very loosely, involve Tibet though these are not Tibetan movies. The online Birth of an Art Film (it does not seem to have an official English title) tells the story of a small group of film makers in Shanghai who are making a (very low budget) art…

Miss Petunia [朝颜] (2020）

A rather more realistic, if largely downbeat, account of life in China focusing on the difficulties faced by young women in a traditional patriarchal rural society. The film opens in 2004 in a remote village in Hebei (shot mainly in Yixian county). Li Bayue's [Yuan Fan] husband Yuhai has been killed in an accident. Left…

Promise [应承] (2020)

Promise aims to tell the story of an ordinary man struggling to keep his promise but it is too unfocused to succeed. Shot in Shenmu a county-level city in the north of Shaanxi province. Xu Ergua [Feng Yuanzheng] is about to marry the widow Hua Hua [Yue Hong] with whom he has had a long…

The Foolish Bird [笨鸟] (2017)

The Foolish Bird was my favourite Chinese film at the 2018 Far East Film Festival and one of a number of excellent coming-of-age films focusing on young women around this time (including Angels wear White and The Crossing). It is writer and director Huang Ji's follow up to 2012's Egg and Stone (this time co-written…

Sweet Eighteen [甜蜜18岁] (2013)

Sweet Eighteen, written and directed by He Wenchao, is an excellent film which seems to have slipped by the censor, critics and the general public when it came out. He Na (NaNa) [Zhou Wenyi] is a moody (and tomboyish) teenager who has just turned eighteen and likes art studies. She has a combative relationship with…

Aqérat (We, the dead) [阿奇洛] (2017)

A striking (if perhaps not fully successful) film, written and directed by Malaysian (Singapore-born) Edmond Yeo who has directed a large number of interesting shorts. This is his second feature. Malaysian Chinese Hui Ling [Daphne Low] is working in a restaurant in northern Malaysia (Kelantan close to the Thai border and not far from souther…

Bringing in the Wine [将进酒] (2017)

An interesting 30 minute short, set in Malaysia (in Sekinchan a small town on the west coast of Malaysia about 90 km from KL), by Chengdu-born writer and director Rayist. It's a rare short film that could have been developed into a longer version. The film is set in 1996. Paigu [Ching Jun Hong] is…

Shuttle Life [分贝人生 分貝人生] (2017)

A striking drama from Malaysian writer and director Tan Seng Kiat, his first and (to date) only feature. Nineteen year old Ah Qiang [Jack Tan] is having a bad time. He has just lost his job and his mother [Sylvia Chang] is suffering from a serious mental illness which confines her to their small Kuala…

Wet Season [热带雨] (2019)

Wet Season is Singaporean director Anthony Chen's follow up to his great debut film Ilo Ilo (2013). Apparently the film took three years to write which explains some of the gap since his debut. Dialogue is mainly in Chinese (Mandarin or dialect). Ling [Yeo Yann Yann the mother in Ilo Ilo], Mrs. Lim to her…

Two feelings along road [两情一路] (2020)

This online film opens on board a high-speed train where two strangers, who happen to sit beside each other on a long trip to Guangzhou, begin to talk about their lives. The woman, in her mid 40s, is travelling for a break. She is introverted and rather dissatisfied with her husband who, she feels is…