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Communication barriers and compassion — “Lilting” slowly reveals vulnerability

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By Andrew Hamlin Northwest Asian Weekly The camera work in “Lilting” moves slowly and unobtrusively.  Usually, it keeps two characters in

“A Letter to Momo”

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By Andrew Hamlin Northwest Asian Weekly Hiroyuki Okiura’s anime feature “A Letter to Momo” was seven years in the making, including the story, script, and storyboarding. It’s also the filmmaker’s first turn in the director’s seat since 1999’s “Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade.”  For all the planning, though, the film begins simply enough, with a medium-sized […]

Living his dream, Japanese American singer makes screen debut

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By Andrew Hamlin Northwest Asian Weekly I met Tomo Nakayama shortly after 9/11 at Seattle’s Varsity Theatre where I was reviewing a movie and he was letting the critics

On ‘The Act Of Killing’

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By Andrew Hamlin Northwest Asian Weekly “The Act Of Killing” is a documentary film. I want to emphasize that right up front. But it opens with a beguiling surrealistic dance sequence. A giant fish, the size of an office building, sits on the edge of a body of water. The fish is concrete, perhaps metal; […]

“Wish You Were Here”

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By Andrew Hamlin Northwest Asian Weekly The two people on the beach at the beginning of “Wish You Were Here” are white and attractive, though iridescently so. They look healthy enough — normal enough.  They’re wistful, though a little tired. The sand gleams underneath them. They ask themselves where they would go if they could […]

Born “Somewhere Between”

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By Andrew Hamlin Northwest Asian Weekly The documentary “Somewhere Between” begins with the adoption of a tiny Chinese girl by an American family. The family turns out to be that of the director, Linda Goldstein Knowlton, who has previously worked on documentaries about cooking and “Sesame Street” as well as  helped produce prominent dramatic films […]

“The Manzanar Fishing Club”

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By Andrew Hamlin Northwest Asian Weekly The Manzanar War Relocation Center housed at its peak 10,000 Japanese internees during World War II. Forcibly relocated from their homes on the West Coast by a government order, the internees toughed it out against desert heat, cold weather, dust, and constant wind between 1942 and 1945. Barbed wire […]

‘Outrage’ aptly portrays yakuza, but too gory

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By Andrew Hamlin Northwest Asian Weekly Takeshi Kitano’s new film “Outrage” opens with the camera panning slowly across a group of men slouching against luxury cars, some fanning themselves in the heat. They are the yakuza promised in the film’s advance publicity, but they are not stylish. They do not immediately look dangerous. The filmmaker […]