Category Archives: Film

The Killer (喋血雙雄)

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  • 喋血雙雄 (The Killer)

10/25/25 (Sat)

Woo followed his breakout A Better Tomorrow and its sequel with this 1989 thriller. An assassin (Chow Yun-fat) agrees to one final job before retirement (this “final job” trope could be a genre on its own). He succeeds in gunning down an entire gang in a nightclub, but accidentally blinds a female nightclub singer who gets too close to the action. Plagued with guilt, he gets close to her without revealing his identity and vows to himself to get the money for a corneal operation that will restore her sight.

At the same time, the triad boss who hired him for the kill now wants him dead. A bloody shootout ensues in which a child is injured. Even as Chow manages to escape, he brings the child to a hospital. A detective (Danny Lee) on the case is intrigued that Chow would risk his own life to get the child to safety, especially in light of his relation with the blind singer. Sensing human feeling inside the killer, he becomes obsessed with capturing Chow. After numerous betrayals and plot twists, Lee ends up fighting the bad guys alongside Chow until the final climax, where they confront a triad gang at a church in a you-gotta-see-it-to-believe-it battle.

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A Better Tomorrow (英雄本色)

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  • 英雄本色 (A Better Tomorrow)

10/24/25 (Fri)

John Woo’s 1986 flick apparently defied gloomy expectations and proved an unexpected blockbuster, making Woo a major presence, reigniting the film careers of Chow Yun-fat and Ti Lung, and propelling pop star Leslie Cheung to film stardom (he also sang the theme song). Moreover, it changed the game for Hong Kong action films, essentially creating a new genre.

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Infernal Affairs (無間道)

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  • 無間道 (Infernal Affairs)

10/19/25 (Sun)

Andrew Lau and Alan Mak’s 2002 classic was not only a big hit in its own right but spawned a prequel, a sequel, a TV series, and adaptations in Korea, Japan, India and America (Scorsese’s Oscar-winning The Departed). So I figured it’s about time I caught up with it. The Chinese title, “The Endless Road”, refers to the eternal sufferings of Buddhist hell, described more fully at the beginning and end of the film. That would have made for a memorable English title, but as it happens they found a terrific substitute. I wish Japanese title-makers were this creative.

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Undercurrent (夜の河)

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  • 夜の河 (Undercurrent)

10/11/25 (Sat)

Yoshimura Kozaburo’s 1956 melodrama (also known more literally as Night River) is another of his Mizoguchi-type female-centric films exploring the plight of women in contemporary Japan. Yamamoto Fujiko is a Kyoto kimono designer working at her family shop. Her talent and perseverance have won her success in what is seen as a dying industry (back in 1956! – fortunately that proved untrue) in an increasingly Westernized society. She missed out on the normal marriage years due to the war and is now 30 and unwed, quite old for the time. She is resolved to be her own woman, not reliant on anyone, and rejects the efforts of her friends and family to match her up. A young painter is clearly in love with her, even basing his works on her, but to his despair, she takes no notice romantically.

During a stroll into town, she happens upon a man (Uehara Ken) wearing a tie with her design. Something about him attracts her, and they strike up a friendship. Continue reading →

Highest 2 Lowest

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  • Highest 2 Lowest

10/9/25 (Thurs)

I shouldn’t be commenting on this since I only watched a small part before giving up. I was excited to learn of this remake of the Kurosawa classic High & Low, directed by Spike Lee, starring Denzel Washington – how perfect is that? The moviemakers retain the basic plot of a businessman who must decide whether to save his employee’s kid at a devastating cost to himself, but shift the setting to a black music producer taunted by a struggling rap artist. I re-watched the original first with friends, then took in the remake.

All of us were stunned at how awful this was in just about every department. Continue reading →

Lullaby of the Earth (大地の子守歌)

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  • 大地の子守歌 (Lullaby of the Earth)

9/15/25 (Mon)

Masamura Yasuzo’s 1976 work was playing at a retrospective of powerful film performances by actresses, and a friend spoke so highly of Harada Mieko that it piqued my interest.

It is the 1930s. An orphaned 13-year-old girl has been raised by an old lady in the happy solitude of the mountains of Iyo (Ehime Prefecture). She returns one day to find the woman dead. Extremely strong-willed, she is determined to live her life dependent on no one. She initially rejects one man who tries to recruit her for steady work, but gives in when she learns that it is by the sea, which she’s always dreamed of seeing. She is taken to a remote island, where unsurprisingly she is put to work in a brothel, though, given her age, as an assistant to the girls and not a prostitute herself.

She is headstrong and not interested in making friends or being liked. She resists limits and labels: she insists on rowing the boat that takes the prostitutes out to sailors, usually a man’s job, and cuts her hair to look like a man. She resolutely refuses to be with clients even after she gets her first period – which she only comprehends after a kind lady on the outside explains – but gives in when she realizes that the money earned can buy her way out. After first forcing a young kid to have sex with her to get that out of the way, she plunges into that world as with everything and is soon the most popular whore in the house.

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Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean

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  • Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean

9/7/25 (Sun)

Criterion introduced a salute to Robert Altman this month, and this 1982 title caught my eye. It’s based on a Broadway play that Altman himself directed the same year with the same starry cast. Having just seen Emilia Pérez, I was surprised to come across another transgender role, this time from eons ago (the play was written in 1976). Even more interesting, the film, similar to the much later work, was not patronizing or preachy.

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Emilia Pérez

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  • Emilia Pérez

9/3/25 (Wed), plane

French director Jacques Audiard’s much-discussed flick about a transgender mob boss, played by a male-to-female transgender performer, didn’t immediately appeal to me despite all its awards and critical praise. I figured it would be a finger-wagging love-thy-trans-neighbor lecture. But a friend gave it such an enthusiastic review that I decided to give it a chance. I’m glad I did.

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I’m Still Here (Ainda Estou Aqui )

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  • Ainda Estou Aqui  (I’m Still Here)

8/11/25 (Mon)

This biographical film by Brazilian master Walter Salles about one of the “disappearances” under the nation’s military dictatorship caught my interest right away after the fascinating They Shot the Piano Player, which dealt with the same phenomenon under the contemporaneous Argentine military dictatorship. (Now we need a Chilean film to complete the trilogy.) The movie is based on a memoir by the protagonist’s son.

The film unflinchingly depicts the horrors of the regime, not only the violence but the psychological trauma of the unknown. Still, the real theme is Eunice’s incredible resilience in the face of the ordeal, especially her determination to give her children a normal life as she works against all odds to learn her husband’s fate.

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Touchez Pas Au Grisbi

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  • Touchez Pas Au Grisbi

8/2/25 (Sat)

Writer/director Jacques Becker’s acclaimed 1954 film, which has different English titles but translates as “Don’t Touch the Loot”, was apparently a landmark in France. It brings a more introspective take to film noir, giving new life to that genre as well as reviving the career of the aging former heartthrob Jean Gabin.

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Summertime

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  • Summertime (1955)

7/5/25 (Sat)

David Lean’s 1955 rom-com, based on Arthur Laurents’ stage play The Time of the Cuckoo of three years earlier (which was also adapted by the writer in 1965 into a flop musical Do I Hear a Waltz?), comes just before he turned to the huge epics that we generally associate him with. Jane (Katharine Hepburn) is a cautious middle-aged spinster on a dream trip to Venice. Pleasant and intelligent, she is also conservative, conventional (down to her name), and unable or unwilling to let her emotions out. She’s determined to like the city: “I’ve got to! I’ve come such a long way!” But she views most everything through her camera lens. While she meets numerous couples along the way, she always refrains from joining them, afraid of being a “fifth wheel”, despite her longing to do so. Upon an encounter with the Italian owner of an antiques shop, she is wary at first, almost allowing him to get away. She finally gets her courage up and gradually gives in to his passion for her, opening herself up to the possibility of love. Then she discovers, not unsurprisingly, that he is married…

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Don’t Look Back

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  • Don’t Look Back

7/11/25 (Fri)

DA Pennebaker’s 1967 documentary of Bob Dylan’s tour in England two years earlier is said to be a landmark in rockumentary filmmaking. (The title’s first word is actually spelled for some reason without the apostrophe, but I’m going with the real thing.) It follows the Nobel laureate and others in cars, hotel rooms, offices, the streets, and the concert stage, where he performs some of his numbers. He also plays snatches of songs backstage along with Donovan, Joan Baez (who he was dating) and others.

It’s a very curious film in that Dylan, who we would expect to be portrayed with reverence, comes off as a condescending jerk. Continue reading →