Across the Furious Sea [涉过愤怒的海] (2023)

Director Cao Baoping's latest action film features a father [Huang Bo] responding to the death of his daughter in Japan in the most ludicrous manner possible. Lao Jin [Huang] is the captain of a fishing boat fishing mainly illegally in foreign waters. His independent nature is shown early on when he fights off the heavily…

Not a Murder Story [非殺人小說] (2024) ep 1-2

An ongoing quirky Taiwanese drama set in a standard apartment block and based on a story by author Li Tonghao. Directed by Ko Chen-Nien [The Bionic Life]. Chang Tse-tung [Liu Kuan-ting] is a rather feckless (and not very good) would-be actor. He spends most of his time working as an extra and thinking about his…

Record Without Words [沉默笔录] (2023)

An imaginative and interesting low-budget crime drama set in the 1990s in rural China (shot in Guizhou province with much of the dialogue in local dialect). Li Lizhong [Zhang Yu, An Elephant Sitting Still, Dying to Survive looking much younger than he is] is the new captain of the town security team (not, as one…

Frozen Surface [黑土无言] (2024)

My first review of a 2024 release. Tencent take on iQIYI's Light On series in the short (12 episodes of about 1 hour) crime drama field and do a good job. The drama opens in 2005 in a north-eastern city Lanhe (shot apparently in Mudanjiang in Heilongjiang province.). Three bodies are found at the headquarters…

Trending Topic [热搜] (2023)

Chen Miao [Zhu Dongyu] is an online journalist and editor-in-chief of We Media. When she covers a school bullying story, it initially get lots of attention,. But when the apparent bully, 18-year old Zhang Xiaosui [Zhang Yuwen who played the younger version of Angelababy's character in Murderous Affair in Horizon Tower] jumps off a building…

The Lonely Warrior [三大队] (2023) ep 1-4

The latest iQIYI Light On series in 24 episodes of 45 minutes. Set in the late 1990s in fictional southern city Ningzhou, the series opens as Cheng Bing [Qin Hao] and his colleagues in the third criminal investigation squad are trying to track down two violent criminal brothers [Chen Minghao and Wei Xiaodong] who have…

The Empress Dowager [一代妖后] (1989)

This film takes up the story of Empress Cixi continuing more or less where Reign behind the Curtain left off (see last review). It is 1864 and the Qing have finally overcome the Taiping revolution. Empresses Dowager Cian and Cixi [with Chen Ye and Liu Xiaoqing continuing in the roles] are now firmly in power.…