Director – Patricion Plaza – 2022 – Argentina, Mexico, Columbia – France 16+ – 21m ***** When a travelling monk falls prey to a fever, the folk remedy administered by an old woman causes him to experience bizarre hallucinations – plays in the Annecy International Animation Festival 2026 which runs from Sunday, 21st June to […]
Director – Yoko Kuno, Nobuhiro Yamashita – 2024 – Japan – Cert. N/C 15+ – 97m **** When her father leaves to sort out his loan shark debt problem, a man-sized, ghost cat is charged to look after her by her grandfather – animated fable plays UK cinemas in the Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme […]
Director – Patrick Dickinson – 2023 – UK, Japan – Cert. 12a – 94m **** A Japanese widower comes to England to scatter his late wife’s ashes at Lake Windermere – out in UK cinemas on Friday, February 14th Kenzaburo (Lily Franky from Shoplifters, 2018; After the Storm, 2016; Like Father, Like Son, 2013, all […]
Director – Pema Tseden – 2023 – Tibet – Cert. 15 – 109m ***** A monk invites a filmmaker friend to a remote farm in the Tibetan mountain region where a snow leopard trapped in a sheep pen has killed nine sheep – the late Pema Tseden’s final completed film is out in UK cinemas […]
Director – Paul King – 2023 – US – Cert. PG – 112m Movie **** Hugh Grant as an Oompa Loompa when he eventually appears***** How the youthful Willy Wonka became the world’s most celebrated maker of chocolate – musical based on one of Roald Dahl’s best-known characters is out in UK cinemas on Friday, […]
Director – Im Kwon-taek – 1989 – South Korea – Cert. 18 – 121m ***1/2 As a young woman attempts to live as a Buddhist monk, she embarks on a series of increasingly physical sexual relationships – part of a strand of films celebrating actress Kang Soo-Yeon (1966-2022) from LKFF, the London Korean Film Festival […]
A Chinese Odyssey: Part One – Pandora’s Box (Sai Yau Gei: Yut Gwong Bou Haap, 西遊記第壹佰零壹回之月光寶盒) A Chinese Odyssey: Part Two – Cinderella (Sai Yau Gei: Sin Leui Kei Yun, 西遊記大結局之仙履奇緣) Director – Jeffrey Lau – 1995 – Hong Kong – 87 + 98m *** The Monkey King is banished to earth with loss of […]
**1/2 Director – Park Jung Bae – 2020 – South Korea – Cert. 12 – 114m A disparate group of tomb raiders attempt to outwit each other to find and obtain a valuable archaeological artifact in this lightweight, comedy caper – from LKFF, the London Korean Film Festival which runs in cinemas from Thursday, November […]
Director – Kim Ki-young – 1974 – South Korea – 111m ***** Buddhist, monastic drama. Celibacy confronts carnal desire and a new senior monk must be chosen as the incumbent nears death. Free to view in the Korean Film Archive as part of Korean Film Nights Online: Trapped! The Cinema of Confinement (Friday, July 17th […]
Director – Tsui Hark – 1993 – Hong Kong – Cert. 12 – 99m ****1/2 Two sister snake spirits, the white snake and the green snake, enter our world to discover the mystery of human sexual love – from the London East Asia Film Festival (LEAFF) China’s White Snake legend has spawned numerous adaptations including […]