Category Archives: film

“Of Love and Honor” (Bushi no Ichibun) (2006)

Posted on January 2, 2009 by

High production values. Fits the genre to a T: melodramatic and predictable, with overwrought weather elements and even a cameo by Ogata Ken as an Obi-wan Kenobi figure (the facetiousness of such an analogy is fully warranted imho). In other … Continue reading →

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The Literary vs the Martial

Posted on July 18, 2008 by

Using examples from recent movies, this post in The China Beat makes an interesting observation about the kungfu genre, and why Kung Fu Panda really relies more on American cultural tropes than Chinese ones: The assumption is that writing encodes … Continue reading →

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Hellboy II

Posted on July 16, 2008 by

I wonder if I’m the only one who was underwhelmed by Hellboy II. My view of the Hellboy movies is likely tainted by my liking the comic and Mike Mignola’s art very much, and I have to keep telling myself … Continue reading →

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The absence of govt in creating the Korean wave

Posted on June 27, 2008 by

According to an essay a colleague referred to me, the Korean Wave / Hallyu seems to have happened with little direct govt support. Rather, it was the happy confluence of: – a large domestic population that could sustain local production … Continue reading →

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Reading without rhythm – 24/4/08

Posted on April 24, 2008 by

() Thanks TokyoMango! – Vom leisen Inferno der Depression und von der Unheimlichkeit des Glücks. – Vantan gets a sneak preview of the Peranakan Museum. The museum occupies the old Tao Nan school building at Armenian Street, next to The … Continue reading →

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SIFF 2008 — Milky Way Liberation Front, Keronchong for Pak Bakar, After the Rain

Posted on April 14, 2008 by

(cross-posted on the SFS blog. To see all cross-posts, click on the “SFS Blog” tag or category) Leaving the cinema after the end credits for Milky Way Liberation Front rolled, that was the end of SIFF 2008 for me. I … Continue reading →

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SFS History in “Latent Images”

Posted on April 10, 2008 by

A couple of weeks ago, while reading up to prep for the Perspectives Film Festival, I discovered that Jan Uhde and Yvonne Ng Uhde had already compiled a comprehensive account of the Singapore Film Society’s history since 1958, in their … Continue reading →

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SIFF – Quick Cuts – 8 April 2008

Posted on April 9, 2008 by

(Cross-posted on the SFS blog.) Yep, got a lot to catch up on. I’ll be working backwards from my most recent viewings. Hopefully I can get to NTU’s Perspectives Film Festival (31 Mar – 4 Apr 2008) before too long. … Continue reading →

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Todd Solondz and “Happiness” – 21 March 2008

Posted on March 27, 2008 by

Managed to get tickets to Tisch Asia‘s exclusive screening of Happiness and Q&A with director Todd Solondz. Solondz was here for a week to mentor the Tisch students. Naturally his work was shown (at the Tisch Open House we saw … Continue reading →

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Lobby Cards – the Leonard Schrader Collection

Posted on March 10, 2008 by

From the homepage: The Collection consists of 8,462 vintage lobby-cards and 5,000 related items – many the sole surviving traces of long-lost silent films – acquired by late screenwriter/filmmaker Leonard Schrader over the course of 27 years. While Schrader preserved … Continue reading →

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