Wide Angle
Cherchez La FemmesA few years ago I discovered a book titled “Doctor Diamond’s Portraits of the Insane” written by Adrienne Burrows and Iwan Schumacher. [The] photograph of a young woman who imagined herself to be a queen fascinated me. Her delusio...
A Window on Asian Cinema
Chicken HeartThis is the second film directed by Hiroshi Shimizu, who had worked as Takeshi Kitano’s assistant director. The film comically depicts the lives of three underdogs. Iwano, in his twenties, stops boxing and lives as a ‘human punchi...
Korean Panorama
ChiHwaSeonFilmmaker Im Kwon-taek introduces the life of talented 19th century painter Jang Seung-up in his latest feature Chihwaseon. Born into a lower-class family, Jang Seung-up’s artistic gift bestows him with the status of palace artist...
A Window on Asian Cinema
Cry WomanWhat goes on at a funeral reveals the culture and customs of that particular region or society. Liu Bingjian’s Cry Woman looks at Chinese society through such scenes. First, the Chinese custom of ‘wailing’ for the dead is an indic...
Special Programs in Focus
Darkness and LightSet in Keelung, Darkness and Light is a winding tale with multiple characters and storylines. The action pivots on a love triangle involving the teenaged Kang-yi, back from Taipei on summer vacation, Ah Lim (daughter of a local ga...
Wide Angle
Daughter from Yan′anOne of the unknown aspects of the Cultural Revolution was the banning of love, which according to the revolutionaries, was considered decadent and capitalist. However no policy can stop two young persons from falling in love, even...
Special Programs in Focus
Death by HangingAn intelligent young Korean man, known as ′R′, faces death by hanging for committing two sex-murders in Japan. But on the day of the execution, the hanging fails: R′s body refuses to die. The prison rule-books do not cover this ev...
Korean Panorama
DesireA middle class couple is set in their monotonous life until one day the husband has a homosexual affair with a young male prostitute. Suspicious of her husband’s infidelity, the wife seeks the truth and eventually ends up in bed w...
Special Programs in Focus
Diary of YunbogiThe images in Yunbogi′s Diary were shot by Oshima himself on his first visit to Korea in 1964. He was inspired to turn them into a film by the publication of a Japanese translation of the book which gives the film its title, the d...
The Critics` Week
Divine InterventionPalestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman not only directed, but also stars as the main character in this film. Divine Intervention transforms one of the world’s most tension-driven places into a space of comedy. Suleiman’s acting-with ...