The Power of Goodbye: Wang Returns with Heartfelt Portrait of Grief
The famous 1940 novel by Thomas Wolfe gave us the poetic metaphor about the impossibility of going home again, which also doubles as a warning on the potential danger of wallowing in nostalgia. An expert in mining the subtleties of human bonds, Wayne Wang returns with a reflective indie effort, Coming Home Again, a small scale portrait of the emotional trauma experienced in a universally recognizable scenario of having to return to one’s origins to care for an ailing loved one.
Based on an essay by novelist Chang-rae Lee, originally published in the New Yorker in 1995, it’s an authentically primed odyssey which charts a young writer’s struggle with denial as he deals with the impending death of his mother from stomach cancer.…...
The famous 1940 novel by Thomas Wolfe gave us the poetic metaphor about the impossibility of going home again, which also doubles as a warning on the potential danger of wallowing in nostalgia. An expert in mining the subtleties of human bonds, Wayne Wang returns with a reflective indie effort, Coming Home Again, a small scale portrait of the emotional trauma experienced in a universally recognizable scenario of having to return to one’s origins to care for an ailing loved one.
Based on an essay by novelist Chang-rae Lee, originally published in the New Yorker in 1995, it’s an authentically primed odyssey which charts a young writer’s struggle with denial as he deals with the impending death of his mother from stomach cancer.…...
- 10/26/2020
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
It’s a week of high-profile sequels and remakes, all of which are easier to see at home than in theaters.
The splashiest of the bunch is Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Borat” follow-up, in which the gotcha comedian parodies right-wing values not only by attempting to embarrass Mike Pence and Rudy Giuliani, but also in getting American conservatives to react to the character’s medieval values. Although Amazon Prime subscribers can watch the movie via the service, it’s also available in select drive-ins around the country.
Another hybrid release, available in theaters and on demand, has already done big business abroad, rivaling “Tenet” on a per-screen basis in limited U.K. release: “After We Collided” continues the steamy fan-fiction romance inspired by Harry Styles of One Direction, and by all reports, the only thing worse than the movie is the news that it’s part two of a planned four-film franchise.
The splashiest of the bunch is Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Borat” follow-up, in which the gotcha comedian parodies right-wing values not only by attempting to embarrass Mike Pence and Rudy Giuliani, but also in getting American conservatives to react to the character’s medieval values. Although Amazon Prime subscribers can watch the movie via the service, it’s also available in select drive-ins around the country.
Another hybrid release, available in theaters and on demand, has already done big business abroad, rivaling “Tenet” on a per-screen basis in limited U.K. release: “After We Collided” continues the steamy fan-fiction romance inspired by Harry Styles of One Direction, and by all reports, the only thing worse than the movie is the news that it’s part two of a planned four-film franchise.
- 10/23/2020
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
The specialty streaming space will be On the Rocks this weekend — so to speak. Sofia Coppola’s father-daughter dramedy is set to drop on Apple TV+ on Friday and it seems like light-hearted movie-watching fare from the Oscar-winning filmmaker.
Deadline’s resident critic Pete Hammond seems to sign off on the sentiment that this will bring a little more fun than past Coppola auteur-driven pics like The Beguiled. In his review from when the pic premiered at the New York Film Festival in September, he wrote, “On the Rocks is more than just a riotously funny, wonderfully witty and smart film — it is a much-needed one.” Hammond added, “Coppola’s movie is also a bit of a pre-pandemic valentine to New York City, a reminder of the Big Apple’s pure joy, and even without Bill Murray to light it up that would probably be enough.”
On the Rocks stars Rashida Jones as Laura,...
Deadline’s resident critic Pete Hammond seems to sign off on the sentiment that this will bring a little more fun than past Coppola auteur-driven pics like The Beguiled. In his review from when the pic premiered at the New York Film Festival in September, he wrote, “On the Rocks is more than just a riotously funny, wonderfully witty and smart film — it is a much-needed one.” Hammond added, “Coppola’s movie is also a bit of a pre-pandemic valentine to New York City, a reminder of the Big Apple’s pure joy, and even without Bill Murray to light it up that would probably be enough.”
On the Rocks stars Rashida Jones as Laura,...
- 10/23/2020
- by Dino-Ray Ramos
- Deadline Film + TV
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
American Utopia (Spike Lee)
A cocked eyebrow might be the ideal lens for watching David Byrne’s latest project, American Utopia, or at least key into where he’s leading with that title. A sensation nearly the second it hit Broadway last fall, the show offered 20 faithful renditions––from Talking Heads catalog to present-day output—by a coterie of players hailing from around the globe, a fact Byrne will, between songs, use to argue for the importance of immigrants. He’ll also pause to promote voting (also an opportunity to lightly chide this crowd for not participating in local elections). And again to discuss fascism. One number is accentuated...
American Utopia (Spike Lee)
A cocked eyebrow might be the ideal lens for watching David Byrne’s latest project, American Utopia, or at least key into where he’s leading with that title. A sensation nearly the second it hit Broadway last fall, the show offered 20 faithful renditions––from Talking Heads catalog to present-day output—by a coterie of players hailing from around the globe, a fact Byrne will, between songs, use to argue for the importance of immigrants. He’ll also pause to promote voting (also an opportunity to lightly chide this crowd for not participating in local elections). And again to discuss fascism. One number is accentuated...
- 10/23/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Chiseled as a haiku, director Wayne Wang’s “Coming Home Again” . Formally impeccable and observant, the “Joy Luck Club” filmmaker’s latest wastes none of its 85 minutes in unpeeling the relationship between Chang-rae (Justin Chon) and his ailing mom (Jackie Chung). At the heart of this Ozu-esque drama is Chung, who supplies a heartbreaking performance as a woman trying to make up for lost time, while also trying to explain to her son why time slipped from under her in the first place, leaving behind some potent maxims and Korean recipes in the process.
“Coming Home Again” is co-written by Wang and the real Chang-rae Lee from his moving 1995 New Yorker essay. The movie transplants that piece’s late-1980s period to present-day San Francisco, the now-gentrified hub to the Bay Area tech bubble that has all but engulfed the city’s multicultural foundation. Chang-rae has abandoned his life as...
“Coming Home Again” is co-written by Wang and the real Chang-rae Lee from his moving 1995 New Yorker essay. The movie transplants that piece’s late-1980s period to present-day San Francisco, the now-gentrified hub to the Bay Area tech bubble that has all but engulfed the city’s multicultural foundation. Chang-rae has abandoned his life as...
- 10/22/2020
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Director Wayne Wang made his name with films like “The Joy Luck Club,” “Eat a Bowl of Tea” and “Smoke,” intimate works in which he showed his adeptness at detailing the small rituals of life (particularly those having to do with food) and at creating a strong sense of place. “Coming Home Again,” which opens in theaters and virtual cinemas on Friday, does both of those things, and it’s one of the quietest and most restrained movies ever made by a director who’s never been one for overstatement.
An elegant chamber piece that deals with big issues – life, death, family, guilt, grief – in a beautifully austere way, “Coming Home Again” rarely raises its voice, but it cuts deeply.
At first, it is a film of vignettes: a man (played by Justin Chon) prepares food and talks about his mother’s cooking advice; he runs up a hill in San Francisco,...
An elegant chamber piece that deals with big issues – life, death, family, guilt, grief – in a beautifully austere way, “Coming Home Again” rarely raises its voice, but it cuts deeply.
At first, it is a film of vignettes: a man (played by Justin Chon) prepares food and talks about his mother’s cooking advice; he runs up a hill in San Francisco,...
- 10/21/2020
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
The Center for Asian American Media (Caam) is pleased to announce CAAMFest Forward, a newly reimagined and mostly virtual festival experience. On October 14-18, 2020, the upcoming festival will take CAAMFest to new heights with two unique drive-in experiences, over a dozen live virtual programs, and over 40 films available to watch on our on-demand channel and eight world premieres.
This year will also highlight Filipino cinema in honor of Filipino American History Month, a sneak preview into the Asian Art Museum’s next exhibition “New Hope,” and a focus on social justice, civic engagement, and activism.
Since May, Caam has produced over 30 unique virtual programs that amplify the diverse voices and experiences of the Asian American community. Beginning with CAAMFest Online: Heritage at Home, one of the first film festivals to pivot to an online format, Caam successfully brought together over 100 filmmakers and over 10,000 attendees from all around the globe. A...
This year will also highlight Filipino cinema in honor of Filipino American History Month, a sneak preview into the Asian Art Museum’s next exhibition “New Hope,” and a focus on social justice, civic engagement, and activism.
Since May, Caam has produced over 30 unique virtual programs that amplify the diverse voices and experiences of the Asian American community. Beginning with CAAMFest Online: Heritage at Home, one of the first film festivals to pivot to an online format, Caam successfully brought together over 100 filmmakers and over 10,000 attendees from all around the globe. A...
- 10/3/2020
- by Grace Han
- AsianMoviePulse
Wayne Wang is one of the pioneers of Asian-American cinema, often providing a unique voice on the topics of identity, immigration and integration. In his long and fruitful career, listing 22 feature-length films over the course of 44 years, he has made some of the biggest and most beloved indie hits like “The Joy Luck Club” (1993) and “Smoke” (1995), had his chance of earning Hollywood fame with “Maid in Manhattan” (2002), but he always came back to Asian-American themes. The other thing characteristic for Wang is the tendency to work with the material sourced in literature. Both stated facts hold for his latest film, “Coming Home Again”, which was shown at Toronto and Busan before having its European premiere in the official selection at Black Nights Film Festival in Tallinn.
However, “Coming Home Again” will take a special place in Wang’s filmography. The reason for that is the type of the material he works with: a deeply personal,...
However, “Coming Home Again” will take a special place in Wang’s filmography. The reason for that is the type of the material he works with: a deeply personal,...
- 12/1/2019
- by Marko Stojiljković
- AsianMoviePulse
Other winners include the UK’s ‘Looted’ and the Philippines’ ‘Kalel, 15’.
Japanese drama Kontora has won the grand prix at the 23rd Black Nights Film Festival, held in the Estonian capital of Tallinn.
Scroll down for full list of winners
The black-and-white feature, produced by Kowatanda Films, received its world premiere at the festival and marks the second live-action feature of India-born animator Anshul Chauhan. The story centres on a teenager who searches for a mysterious trove, guided by her grandfather’s WWII-era diary.
Chauhan, who was in Tallinn to accept the honour at an awards ceremony tonight, will receive...
Japanese drama Kontora has won the grand prix at the 23rd Black Nights Film Festival, held in the Estonian capital of Tallinn.
Scroll down for full list of winners
The black-and-white feature, produced by Kowatanda Films, received its world premiere at the festival and marks the second live-action feature of India-born animator Anshul Chauhan. The story centres on a teenager who searches for a mysterious trove, guided by her grandfather’s WWII-era diary.
Chauhan, who was in Tallinn to accept the honour at an awards ceremony tonight, will receive...
- 12/1/2019
- by 1100453¦Michael Rosser¦9¦
- ScreenDaily
Other winners include the UK’s ‘Looted’ and the Philippines’ ‘Kalel, 15’.
Japanese drama Kontora has won the grand prix at the 23rd Black Nights Film Festival, held in the Estonian capital of Tallinn.
Scroll down for full list of winners
The black-and-white feature, produced by Kowatanda Films, received its world premiere at the festival and marks the second live-action feature of India-born animator Anshul Chauhan. The story centres on a teenager who searches for a mysterious trove, guided by her grandfather’s WWII-era diary.
Chauhan, who was in Tallinn to accept the honour at an awards ceremony tonight, will receive...
Japanese drama Kontora has won the grand prix at the 23rd Black Nights Film Festival, held in the Estonian capital of Tallinn.
Scroll down for full list of winners
The black-and-white feature, produced by Kowatanda Films, received its world premiere at the festival and marks the second live-action feature of India-born animator Anshul Chauhan. The story centres on a teenager who searches for a mysterious trove, guided by her grandfather’s WWII-era diary.
Chauhan, who was in Tallinn to accept the honour at an awards ceremony tonight, will receive...
- 12/1/2019
- by 1100453¦Michael Rosser¦9¦
- ScreenDaily
Mike Newell shared select highlights while a local actress was signed by a talent agency and guests shared excitement for the future of the Estonian film industry.
Fresh films, homegrown talent and optimism for the future fired up guests at this year’s Black Nights Film Festival in the Estonian capital of Tallinn.
Mike Newell, the UK drector of Four Weddings And A Funeral and Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, was on the main jury that considered 21 features. He told Screen: “The selection of films has been extremely rich and enormously varied, coming from all over the world.
Fresh films, homegrown talent and optimism for the future fired up guests at this year’s Black Nights Film Festival in the Estonian capital of Tallinn.
Mike Newell, the UK drector of Four Weddings And A Funeral and Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, was on the main jury that considered 21 features. He told Screen: “The selection of films has been extremely rich and enormously varied, coming from all over the world.
- 12/1/2019
- by 1100453¦Michael Rosser¦9¦
- ScreenDaily
Asian cinema emerges victorious at the Award Ceremony of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival with the Grand Prix going to Japanese “Kontora” and the Best Director award to Filippino filmmaker Jun Robles Jana for “Kalel, 15”.
In the festival’s premiere competition programme, the Official Selection – Competition Japanese film Kontora, directed, produced and written by Anshul Chauhan emerged victorious, nabbing the festival’s Grand Prix and the Best Music award that was handed to Yuma Koda. The film centres on the problematic relationship of a single father and his teenage daughter in economic distress, as a stranger, a mute man who only walks backwards enters their lives forcing them to confront their emotional reality.
But let’s see them all:
Kontora
Official Selection Competition
Grand Prix for the Best Film (grant of 10 000 euros from the City of Tallinn, shared by the Director and Producer):
Kontora (Japan)
Director and producer:...
In the festival’s premiere competition programme, the Official Selection – Competition Japanese film Kontora, directed, produced and written by Anshul Chauhan emerged victorious, nabbing the festival’s Grand Prix and the Best Music award that was handed to Yuma Koda. The film centres on the problematic relationship of a single father and his teenage daughter in economic distress, as a stranger, a mute man who only walks backwards enters their lives forcing them to confront their emotional reality.
But let’s see them all:
Kontora
Official Selection Competition
Grand Prix for the Best Film (grant of 10 000 euros from the City of Tallinn, shared by the Director and Producer):
Kontora (Japan)
Director and producer:...
- 11/30/2019
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
In Coming Home Again, a Korean American man returns home to take care of his dying mother in this modest and sensitively-rendered chamber piece that takes place in the span of one day on New Year’s Eve. Adapted from a short autobiographical story published in The New Yorker by author Lee Chang-rae, Coming Home Again offers a deeply personal insight into one man’s relationship with mother, using food – in the form of the latter’s cooking – as the central conduit through which the protagonist remembers her and reconciles with her impending death. Coming Home Again opens with a close-up of a knife scraping a thick, frozen red slab of meat on a chopping board. Chang-rae (Justin Chon) is preparing dakgalbi in the kitchen...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 11/8/2019
- Screen Anarchy
The 23rd edition of Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, or PÖFF23, will take place this year in the Estonian city between 15th November and 1st December. The festival has unveiled its complete lineup of films and it includes a healthy amount of Asian titles, both in the Official Selection and elsewhere. Let’s take a look at what’s included:
Official Selection
Drowsy City
The unique story of a young man named Tao unfolds at breath-taking pace in the heart of a bustling city, a circle of hell harbouring abuse, crime and salvific revenge. Slaughtering chickens for a living, Tao spends most of his time in close proximity with the birds which seem to be the only companions to his solitude. Until one day three strange gangsters come to hide in the abandoned building where he is living in, bringing violence, noisy drunkenness, bullying and a young prostitute. Turning for the worst,...
Official Selection
Drowsy City
The unique story of a young man named Tao unfolds at breath-taking pace in the heart of a bustling city, a circle of hell harbouring abuse, crime and salvific revenge. Slaughtering chickens for a living, Tao spends most of his time in close proximity with the birds which seem to be the only companions to his solitude. Until one day three strange gangsters come to hide in the abandoned building where he is living in, bringing violence, noisy drunkenness, bullying and a young prostitute. Turning for the worst,...
- 10/26/2019
- by Rhythm Zaveri
- AsianMoviePulse
The Estonian gathering has unveiled the full, jam-packed line-up of the Official Selection of its 23rd edition. The line-up of the Official Selection of the 23rd Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (15 November-1 December), which was kick-started in 2014 when the Estonian festival received its “category A” status, is now complete. Seven world premieres (as well as five international ones and a European one) have been added to the previously announced Wayne Wang’s Coming Home Again, Gipsy Queen by Hüseyin Tabak, Girl With No Mouth by Can Evrenol, Ulrich Thomsen’s Gutterbee, Lost Lotus by Liu Shu, Monster by Tom Sullivan, Konstantin Lopushansky’s Through Black Glass and When the Moon Was Full, helmed by Narges Abyar. “From sweeping historical dramas and artsy genre exercises to auteur drama in its purest form, we can say that this selection really encapsulates what we are after,” summed up festival director and head of programme.
- 10/25/2019
- Cineuropa - The Best of European Cinema
Craig Fairbrass in Muscle Photo: Courtesy of Tallinn Black Nights British director Gerard Johnson will be among the filmmakers vying for the Grand Prix at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival this year, as Muscle makes its international premiere in the Official Selection.
The thriller, starring Cavan Clerkin and Craig Fairbrass, follows a shy call centre worker, who joins a gym to improve his lot, only for his personal trainer to insinuate his way into his life.
The Estonian festival completed its competition line-up yesterday, with films screening from five continents, including seven world, five international and one European premiere to the previously announced eight films. They include Irish actor-turned-director Tom Sullivan's Monster (Arracht), a historic drama set in 1845, that sees a fisherman go on the run for crimes he didn't commit.
Among the established names competing this year, are Wayne Wang - who brings Coming Home Again to the festival - and Konstantin Lopushansky,...
The thriller, starring Cavan Clerkin and Craig Fairbrass, follows a shy call centre worker, who joins a gym to improve his lot, only for his personal trainer to insinuate his way into his life.
The Estonian festival completed its competition line-up yesterday, with films screening from five continents, including seven world, five international and one European premiere to the previously announced eight films. They include Irish actor-turned-director Tom Sullivan's Monster (Arracht), a historic drama set in 1845, that sees a fisherman go on the run for crimes he didn't commit.
Among the established names competing this year, are Wayne Wang - who brings Coming Home Again to the festival - and Konstantin Lopushansky,...
- 10/25/2019
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The 30th Singapore International Film Festival (Sgiff) announced its full Festival line-up at the Shangri-La Hotel today, staying true to its roots as a discovery ground of the spirited stories in Southeast Asia, an enabler to the regional filmmaking scene and talents, and a tastemaker of global developments in cinema.
A leading international film festival in the region and part of the Singapore Media Festival (Smf), Sgiff will present a dynamic array of over 90 films by auteurs from 40 countries that take the pulse of Asian and international cinema.
Sgiff’s Programme Director, Kuo Ming-Jung said, “In the past year, captivating stories told by brilliant filmmakers have unfolded in varying styles and genres across the global cinematic landscape. As with our line-up each year, we hope to bring distinctive films from around the world to the audience, while staying committed to the strong belief in giving a voice to our own...
A leading international film festival in the region and part of the Singapore Media Festival (Smf), Sgiff will present a dynamic array of over 90 films by auteurs from 40 countries that take the pulse of Asian and international cinema.
Sgiff’s Programme Director, Kuo Ming-Jung said, “In the past year, captivating stories told by brilliant filmmakers have unfolded in varying styles and genres across the global cinematic landscape. As with our line-up each year, we hope to bring distinctive films from around the world to the audience, while staying committed to the strong belief in giving a voice to our own...
- 10/24/2019
- by Don Anelli
- AsianMoviePulse
For its 30th edition the Singapore International Film Festival has avoided programming novelty and instead focused on assembling excellence – mostly indie titles — from Asia and further afield.
The festival, which previously announced local filmmaker Anthony Chen’s second feature “Wet Season” as its opening night gala presentation, announced the balance of its programming on Tuesday. Other galas are set to include “Downton Abbey,” and “Nina Wu.” Hirokazu Koreeda’s “The Truth” was named as the closing film. The festival runs Nov. 21 – Dec. 1.
The nine-film competition section includes: “Dwelling in The Fuchun Mountains”; Indian animation, “Bombay Rose”; Indonesia’s “The Science of Fictions,” and “Verdict,” all of which have received favorable reception elsewhere on the festival circuit.
Prizes for the competition will be decided by a jury that includes India’’s Anurag Kashyap, Indonesia’s Nia Dinata, Singapore’s Amir Muhammad, and Hong Kong’s Pang Ho-cheung.
One sidebar section includes Asia-Pacific festival favorites including “Balloon,...
The festival, which previously announced local filmmaker Anthony Chen’s second feature “Wet Season” as its opening night gala presentation, announced the balance of its programming on Tuesday. Other galas are set to include “Downton Abbey,” and “Nina Wu.” Hirokazu Koreeda’s “The Truth” was named as the closing film. The festival runs Nov. 21 – Dec. 1.
The nine-film competition section includes: “Dwelling in The Fuchun Mountains”; Indian animation, “Bombay Rose”; Indonesia’s “The Science of Fictions,” and “Verdict,” all of which have received favorable reception elsewhere on the festival circuit.
Prizes for the competition will be decided by a jury that includes India’’s Anurag Kashyap, Indonesia’s Nia Dinata, Singapore’s Amir Muhammad, and Hong Kong’s Pang Ho-cheung.
One sidebar section includes Asia-Pacific festival favorites including “Balloon,...
- 10/22/2019
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
Estonian festival also unveils first feature selection.
Estonia’s Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (Nov 15-Dec 1) has announced the first eight films for its official selection, the festival’s main competition strand.
These include the European premiere of Wayne Wang’s Coming Home Again and the world premieres of Liu Shu’s Lost Lotus and Tom Sullivan’s Monster.
The titles will compete for the Grand Prix for best film, which includes a grant of €10,000 shared by the director and producer, among other prizes for director, script, actor, actress, cinematographer and music.
Coming Home Again screened at Toronto and Busan...
Estonia’s Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (Nov 15-Dec 1) has announced the first eight films for its official selection, the festival’s main competition strand.
These include the European premiere of Wayne Wang’s Coming Home Again and the world premieres of Liu Shu’s Lost Lotus and Tom Sullivan’s Monster.
The titles will compete for the Grand Prix for best film, which includes a grant of €10,000 shared by the director and producer, among other prizes for director, script, actor, actress, cinematographer and music.
Coming Home Again screened at Toronto and Busan...
- 10/10/2019
- by 1100453¦Michael Rosser¦9¦
- ScreenDaily
The Busan International Film Festival, South Korea’s largest film festival, has canceled its pre opening event, due to typhoon Mitag.
“We inform that the opening eve event that was set to take place Wednesday (Oct. 2), 6 p.m., has been canceled, as an advanced special typhoon statement has been issued due to the effect of typhoon Mitag,” the festival office said in an e-mailed statement. “We, therefore, for the safety of our audiences and guests, inform that we have decided to cancel the event.”
According to local weather forecasters, the typhoon is likely to land on the southwestern coast of the Korean Peninsula around midnight Wednesday night.
The Busan festival’s opening ceremony, scheduled for Thursday evening, is expected to go ahead. Last year, because of typhoon Kong-Rey, the fest had to cancel or relocate some of its outdoor events and guests’ stage greetings.
This year’s film lineup features two Venice selections,...
“We inform that the opening eve event that was set to take place Wednesday (Oct. 2), 6 p.m., has been canceled, as an advanced special typhoon statement has been issued due to the effect of typhoon Mitag,” the festival office said in an e-mailed statement. “We, therefore, for the safety of our audiences and guests, inform that we have decided to cancel the event.”
According to local weather forecasters, the typhoon is likely to land on the southwestern coast of the Korean Peninsula around midnight Wednesday night.
The Busan festival’s opening ceremony, scheduled for Thursday evening, is expected to go ahead. Last year, because of typhoon Kong-Rey, the fest had to cancel or relocate some of its outdoor events and guests’ stage greetings.
This year’s film lineup features two Venice selections,...
- 10/2/2019
- by Sonia Kil
- Variety Film + TV
An autobiographical essay by Korean-American novelist Chang-rae Lee, published in the New Yorker back in 1995, is the spark for Wayne Wang’s highly personal mother-son drama Coming Home Again. Lee is credited as co-screenwriter of the film, which describes the way a young writer named Chang-rae drops his day job and girlfriend in New York to take care of his mother, who is slowly dying of stomach cancer. Shot in a light-filled San Francisco apartment, it’s a far cry from dreary or depressing, but it also doesn’t offer any easy way to enter its emotional territory. Viewers who have ...
- 9/13/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
An autobiographical essay by Korean-American novelist Chang-rae Lee, published in the New Yorker back in 1995, is the spark for Wayne Wang’s highly personal mother-son drama Coming Home Again. Lee is credited as co-screenwriter of the film, which describes the way a young writer named Chang-rae drops his day job and girlfriend in New York to take care of his mother, who is slowly dying of stomach cancer. Shot in a light-filled San Francisco apartment, it’s a far cry from dreary or depressing, but it also doesn’t offer any easy way to enter its emotional territory. Viewers who have ...
- 9/13/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
An intimate chamber piece that tightly interlaces remembrances of food and family, Wayne Wang’s quietly sensitive “Coming Home Again” adapts Chang-rae Lee’s award-winning 1995 New Yorker essay, a personal piece on Lee’s caring for his terminally ill mother and cooking her Korean dishes. A filmmaker with a diverse slate that includes the likes of “The Joy Luck Club” and female-centric populist films like “Maid in Manhattan” and “Last Holiday,” Wang operates loosely in the vein of his 1995 film “Smoke” here: incisively observant and attentive to items, mining in objects emotional traces of those who touched them.
But as with his other work, he is also precise in culturally detailing a contemporary San Francisco-based Asian American immigrant family facing a major life crisis. Wang is no stranger to exploring the immigrant experience in America — in films such as “Chan Is Missing,” “The Princess of Nebraska” and “A Thousand Years of Good Prayers,...
But as with his other work, he is also precise in culturally detailing a contemporary San Francisco-based Asian American immigrant family facing a major life crisis. Wang is no stranger to exploring the immigrant experience in America — in films such as “Chan Is Missing,” “The Princess of Nebraska” and “A Thousand Years of Good Prayers,...
- 9/10/2019
- by Tomris Laffly
- Variety Film + TV
Crazy Rich Asians having opened the spigot on the previously untapped audience for Asian-diasporic considerations of family and multicultural identity, Joy Luck Club director Wayne Wang arrives with Coming Home Again, adapted with Chang-rae Lee from the latter’s New Yorker essay about home cooking and bittersweet nostalgia. A film that will surely be misleadingly marketed as a heartachy children-of-immigrants story, Coming Home Again is authentically a real weird one: Wang, flexing formalist muscles that have atrophied considerably since the early stages of his career, has made his 15:17 to Paris.
Chang-rae (Justin Chon) has taken a step back from his Exeter-Yale-Wall Street trajectory to return to his family’s home in San Francisco, where his mother is dying of cancer in a room off the kitchen. The apartment, designed in hospice neutrals, is almost the film’s only location, and basically a memory palace: over the course of last day of the year,...
Chang-rae (Justin Chon) has taken a step back from his Exeter-Yale-Wall Street trajectory to return to his family’s home in San Francisco, where his mother is dying of cancer in a room off the kitchen. The apartment, designed in hospice neutrals, is almost the film’s only location, and basically a memory palace: over the course of last day of the year,...
- 9/10/2019
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Wayne Wang’s “Coming Home Again” unfolds largely over the course of a single day as a young Korean-American man tries to prepare a New Year’s Eve feast using his ailing mother’s recipes. It’s a movie that celebrates the enduring connection that many of us feel between food and family.
The film premieres Saturday night at the Toronto International Film Festival in a Special Presentation slot.
“Growing up with my mother, cooking was a basic way that we communicated,” said Wang, the veteran filmmaker of “The Joy Luck Club” and “Maid in Manhattan,” who directed the low-budget film. “We didn’t have many deep psychological conversations and when we did talk, it was mostly about food. The way she expressed her love for me was to cook and the way that I demonstrated my love for her was to eat until I was stuffed.”
When “The Joy Luck Club...
The film premieres Saturday night at the Toronto International Film Festival in a Special Presentation slot.
“Growing up with my mother, cooking was a basic way that we communicated,” said Wang, the veteran filmmaker of “The Joy Luck Club” and “Maid in Manhattan,” who directed the low-budget film. “We didn’t have many deep psychological conversations and when we did talk, it was mostly about food. The way she expressed her love for me was to cook and the way that I demonstrated my love for her was to eat until I was stuffed.”
When “The Joy Luck Club...
- 9/7/2019
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Japan’s Hirokazu Kore-eda is being honoured as this year’s Asian Filmmaker of the Year.
The 24th Busan International Film Festival will open with the world premiere of The Horse Thieves. Roads Of Time, a Kazakhstan-Japan co-production, co-directed by Yerlan Nurmukhambetov and Lisa Takeba.
For the first time in the festival’s history, both the opening and closing films have directors who were previously selected for the festival’s New Currents competition for first and second features. Nurmukhambetov previously won the New Currents Award at Biff’s 20th edition with Walnut Tree.
The closing film, also receiving its world premiere,...
The 24th Busan International Film Festival will open with the world premiere of The Horse Thieves. Roads Of Time, a Kazakhstan-Japan co-production, co-directed by Yerlan Nurmukhambetov and Lisa Takeba.
For the first time in the festival’s history, both the opening and closing films have directors who were previously selected for the festival’s New Currents competition for first and second features. Nurmukhambetov previously won the New Currents Award at Biff’s 20th edition with Walnut Tree.
The closing film, also receiving its world premiere,...
- 9/4/2019
- by Jean Noh
- ScreenDaily
“The Horse Thieves, Roads of Time,” co-directed by Kazakhstan’s Yerlan Nurmukhambetov and Japan’s Lisa Takeba, has been set as the opening film of next month’s Busan International Film Festival.
“Although Kazakh films are not very familiar [to our audiences], the country has produced masterworks for the past five years,” said festival director Jay Jeon at the festival’s first press conference held in Busan on Wednesday morning. “Thieves” tells the tale of a man who is murdered on his way home after selling his horses at a market. Nurmukhambetov previously directed 2015’s “The Walnut Tree,” which won the Busan festival’s New Currents main competition section.
This year’s lineup includes two Venice selections, Kore-eda Hirokazu’s “The Truth” and David Michod’s “The King” as gala presentations. Other gala presentations are Wayne Wang’s U.S.-Korea co-production “Coming Home Again,” and Robert Guediguian’s “Gloria Mundi.” Busan confirmed...
“Although Kazakh films are not very familiar [to our audiences], the country has produced masterworks for the past five years,” said festival director Jay Jeon at the festival’s first press conference held in Busan on Wednesday morning. “Thieves” tells the tale of a man who is murdered on his way home after selling his horses at a market. Nurmukhambetov previously directed 2015’s “The Walnut Tree,” which won the Busan festival’s New Currents main competition section.
This year’s lineup includes two Venice selections, Kore-eda Hirokazu’s “The Truth” and David Michod’s “The King” as gala presentations. Other gala presentations are Wayne Wang’s U.S.-Korea co-production “Coming Home Again,” and Robert Guediguian’s “Gloria Mundi.” Busan confirmed...
- 9/4/2019
- by Sonia Kil
- Variety Film + TV
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