Favorite films

Recent reviews

• 

  Farewell My Concubine 1993

  ★★★★½ Watched 23 Mar 2025

  张国荣演的出神入化，完全把程蝶衣演成了一个活活的人。而我对电影里最感兴趣的其实是蝶衣和菊仙两个人之间的关系。怒、恨、嫉妒、怀疑、同情、可怜。这种复杂的心情和感情完全是靠张国荣和巩俐两人的演技砸出来的。每次两人在银幕上出现都能感受到这种复杂的心情。而电影的内容包含着深厚中国文化和感情，把民国到文革后的那种社会情绪演变丰富的表现了出来。
  我记得小时候我常常去外公家陪着他看京剧。小孩子那时候不懂，也就觉得陪着公公看着玩，挺有意思的。但京剧中所含有的文化、历史，那时候怎么懂啊？现在长大了也还是看不懂。而清朝末年的老百姓们怎么就能看得懂啊？还不是小时候收到的文化教育吗？京剧二百多年的历史，经过了清末、民国、二战、内战的考验。保护了这么多年，最后还是文革把京剧的文化根给砍了。自己人害自己人。多可惜。
  还得用中文字幕再看一遍。英文字幕的翻译是差的厉害。

• 

  Immaculate 2024

  ★★½ Watched 22 Mar 2025

  Honestly really loved the concept. I think it played too safe in trying to be a modern “horror” movie when it could’ve played the psychological horror aspect up a lot more. The opening set the tone for a cheap jump scare movie and honestly that was the biggest mistake. The reveal should’ve been a lot slower and a lot more deliberate.

  Hell of an ending though. That was top tier stuff. If only the rest of the movie followed that tone.

Popular reviews

• 

  Joint Security Area 2000

  ★★★★½ Watched 19 Mar 2025

  Crashing Landing on Us

  Ending is a little heavy handed, and all the white actors suffer from the “bad acting syndrome” that was prevalent in earlier Asian cinema. 

  But wow I was HOOKED. I expected a mystery thriller but instead I teared up over dudes being dudes. The non-linear storytelling really does wonders for the complex emotions the film tries to elicit. The ending revelations are such a gut punch too. Park Chan-wook never left because he was there from the beginning.

• 

  Oppenheimer 2023

  ★★★★ Watched 23 Jul 2023

  Barbenheimer’d - link to my Barbie review

  A fascinating study of the titular character, complete with a spectacular performance by the leading cast. I thoroughly enjoyed both the clear and subtle digs at our legal structure and how it can be influenced and manipulated by the political sentiments and agendas of the era. Definitely a monumental achievement in production design. The sets were incredible and the costume designers were phenomenal in curating a particular style to supplement the overall theme…