Pickpocket (1997)

In Jia Zhangke’s Pickpocket (1997) aka Xiao Wu, which was shot in the Chinese town of Fenyang (where Zhangke grew up), there are a few street scenes where something happens, often to the main character, and people passing by begin to stop and look; there’s a feeling that these are not extras, but actual people wondering what’s going […]

Still Life (2006)

I was watching Still Life (2006) in several sittings due to timing and being away on holiday. Not an ideal way to experience the film, and one I would have loved to have seen in a cinema, but its approach and tone suited the intermittent immersion. Dipping in and out of the movie like I […]

Ash Is Purest White (2018)

Wanting to explore more of Chinese director Jia Zhangke’s filmography, Ash Is Purest White (2018) intrigued me because of how it appeared. In the poster and key images I’ve seen, the film is marketed as a romantic crime movie. And yet, that’s only one third of the story. While I was watching Ash Is Purest […]

Drug War (2012)

Of the Johnnie To movies I’ve seen, they often work in a macho register like Michael Mann movies, focusing on professionals and process. As an action thriller, the main driver for Drug War (2012) is surveillance, as drug enforcement police in China get wind of a deal happening. One member of a drug syndicate, Timmy […]

Black Coal, Thin Ice (2014)

I really loved Chinese director Diao Yinan’s neo-noir The Wild Goose Lake. I’ve seen it twice now, and it is definitely style over substance, in that I remember most fondly the images and sequences rather than the story itself. Purple neon hotel lighting engulfing a room where three thieves talk shop. A motorbike at night, […]