Bloody Morning [血色清晨] (1992)

Far East Film Festival 25 Bloody Morning (or Bloody Dawn to use the title on the print) is a brilliant (loose) adaptation of the Gabriel García Márquez story Chronicle of a Death Foretold by director Li Shaohong, one of the few women directors of the so-called Fifth Generation. Set in the 1980s in a small…

Untold Herstory [流麻溝十五號] (2022)

Far East Film Festival 25 The latest film (based on real stories) from director Zero Chou opens in 1953 as a large group of women arrive at the New Life Re-education Centre on Green Island over 30 km off Taiwan. They have been sent there by the Taiwanese authorities due to suspicion of 'Communist' activities.…

Hidden Blade [无名] (2023)

Hidden Blade [Nameless in Chinese] is the latest in a line of Second World War (War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression) spy thrillers set in Shanghai such as Lust Caution and Purple Butterfly. It is not entirely successful and indeed it is probably impossible to make such a film in the current environment. But nor…

Thirteen Years of Dust [尘封十三载] (2023) ep. 1-6

Light On dramas are coming thick and fast from iQiyi. But unlike the most recent series, this - perhaps hoping to cash in on the success of The Knockout - is a return to a standard crime drama. It's ongoing at the time of writing. The drama opens in fictional Nandu city (shot in crime…

Copycat Killer [模仿犯] (2023)

This look like an interesting concept: a crime novel by Japanese author Miyuki Miyanbe adapted to a Taiwanese setting. Miyabe is a prolific crime author (and indeed has written a wide range of books). Many of these have been adapted for the screen, some a number of times. Copycat Killer has already been fiulmed twice…

Two current spy dramas: Thin Ice [薄冰] and Infernal Affairs [无间](2023)

Perhaps building on the commercial success of Hidden Blade (2023), there are two major spy dramas set in 1940s Shanghai currently under release: Thin Ice and the unimaginatively titled Infernal Affairs. The first is from Hunan TV/Mango TV while the second is from Tencent. Both are 40 episodes series (45 minutes) invovling a struggle between…

The Drunkard [酒徒] (2011)

This film, set in the early 1960s in Hong Kong, tells the story of a writer Lau [Taiwanese John Chang] who has literary aspirations and is an alcoholic. In order to make ends meet (and arguably to avoid the risk of not being able to produce the great work he dreams of), Lau writes kung…

All Tomorrow’s Parties [我的朋 (2022)

East Asian Film Festival Ireland Partially making up for their normally dismal selection of Mainland films, EAFFI showed this interesting short by director Zhang Dalei (The Summer is Gone, Why Try to Change me Now?). It's 1990 and the Asian Games in Beijing have just come to an end. In a large film studio (I…

Far Away Eyes [幻日手記] (2021)

East Asian Film Festival Ireland Set in 2019-20 in Taipei during the Taiwan presidential election, this is a striking art house movie with stunning visuals. Written and directed by (and starring) Wang Chun- Hong his first feature length film. The film features a young man [played by the tall and morose director] who wanders around…

Absence [雪云] (2023)

East Asian Film Festival Ireland Again we are in Hainan (see last review) but from a rather different perspective. Absence is an extended version by director Wu Lang of his 15 minute short of the same name which was shown in Cannes in 2021. Unfortunately, the task of turning his ideas into a feature proves…