Oh, how I’m going to hell for that post title. The final vampire picture produced by Hammer Film Productions saw the studio going out with neither a bang nor a whimper, but a comic SPROING!!! noise. At least that is the sound it makes in my head, because wow is The Legend of the 7 […]

Having seen only his 2006 gangster-western Exiled hardly makes me anything like a specialist on director Johnnie To, but even with that limited knowledge it’s hard not to see what makes that film like his newest, Sparrow. Both films are, on paper, rough-and-tumble crime pictures about the travails affecting a group of friends who get […]

I think it’s fair to argue that Wong Kar-Wai makes the most distinctive films in the history of narrative cinema. So to call My Blueberry Nights a Wong Kar-Wai film is a fair bit of description all by itself. On the other hand, My Blueberry Nights is also, by a pretty healthy margin, the worst […]

On 20 December, 1999, sovereignty of the Portuguese city-state colony of Macau was transferred to the People’s Republic of China. At that time, Macau was a sort of semi-lawless frontier region, and it was for this reason that it makes the ideal setting for Hong Kong director Johnny To and screenwriters Szeto Kam–Yuen and Yip […]

If it’s true that Jet Li has starred in his last martial arts film, then it is reasonable to assume that Fearless is in part an audition for future dramatic roles. In which case, it is a very poor audition indeed. Fearless, whose English-language title has nothing to do with the content of the film […]

There’s such a thing as too much good movie. Exhibit A: Wong Kar-Wai’s 2046, a film full of brilliant scenes and moments, and some of the most beautiful cinematography on cinema screens this year. A film in which almost nothing makes sense when put together. I hardly know where to start with the plot, so […]