Producer, arranger, keyboardist, songwriter, composer, electronic music pioneer, actor: Japan’s Ryuichi Sakamoto, who died in late March this year after a long battle with cancer, was all of these things, together and/or separately.
It’s a volley! — Chinese American street volleyball documentary hits cable
By Jason Cruz Northwest Asian Weekly Ursula Liang’s “labor of love,” 9-Man, which documents the Chinese American sport of street volleyball has received critical acclaim. We first covered the documentary […]
“Man From Reno”
By Andrew Hamlin Northwest Asian Weekly Dave Boyle’s “Man From Reno” begins with a gray screen. Slowly, we see that the camera is aimed dead on at a car windshield […]
Revisiting Taiwanese New Wave — Northwest Film Forum features retrospective of Hou Hsiao-hsien’s films
By Andrew Hamlin Northwest Asian Weekly Hou Hsiao-hsien, who’s been directing films since 1980, is considered one of the most prominent directors in the Taiwanese New Wave cinema movement. The […]
Respect!: Celebrating Seven Samurai’s 60th anniversary
By Ninette Cheng Northwest Asian Weekly On December 4, Seattle will be hosting a film screening of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai for its 60th anniversary.
Adding music to silence — “Japanese Girls at the Harbor” gets a soundtrack
By Andrew Hamlin Northwest Asian Weekly Seattle’s musical/performance art troupe Aono Jikken Ensemble brings its musical and performing expertise to
At the “Mekong Hotel”
By Andrew Hamlin Northwest Asian Weekly “All characters appearing in this work are actual persons,” warns the fine print at the end of Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s new film, “Mekong Hotel.” “Any […]
Love “In the Family”
By Andrew Hamlin NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY “In the Family,” Patrick Wang’s first feature film as writer and director, opens with a quiet scene of a family preparing for breakfast. The […]
Not a film, but a triumph
By Andrew Hamlin Northwest Asian Weekly “This Is Not a Film,” a documentary by co-directors Jafar Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, opens with a man seated at his breakfast table, preparing […]
Cultural and generational clashes abound in powerful “My Reincarnation”
By Andrew Hamlin Northwest Asian Weekly Jennifer Fox’s documentary film “My Reincarnation” begins enigmatically, with bodies floating in a pool of water and unidentified images shimmering, as if viewed through […]