Favorite films

Recent reviews

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  Happy Together 1997

  ★★★★ Watched 16 Mar 2025

  when the world is gone, who will carry you? 

  when you fall 

  ill with homesick heartbreak, where the one you thought would stand here is not. 

  handover. a recorder. and you sob.

  a longing that is no longer. grieving staunched desire. the people who once wished to be here. deictic and diasporic. 

  happy together: a lighthouse for the brokenhearted who will watch until water covers the earth. 

  [stills]

• 

  I Don't Want to Sleep Alone 2006

  ★★★★★ Watched 15 Mar 2025

  an abandoned mattress blooms into a lotus on the surface of a submerged construction site. kuala lumpur’s undercurrent swells. the part without part sinks into worn foam. meanwhile, forests burn. land is cleared. palm oil over migrant palms. oxygen smogged. intimacy is scarce. sex is not love. yet there’s touch. sound. music leaks through a tv in the streets. a pond develops. washing life. soaking the consumed. 

  [stills]

Popular reviews

• 

  Taste of Cherry 1997

  ★★★★★ Watched 04 Jul 2024 2

  it’s irrelevant why mr. badii seeks death, but it matters why he might live. for nation? god? mulberries? in this, the film is optimistic without didacticism. still, abbas kiarostami drives to the heart of the aesthetic to acknowledge its limits. life ≠ art. cherries are only cherries. now, recall the ambient sounds that saturate the film. the final scene breaks nothing. is the world not always there?

  [stills]

• 

  Chungking Express 1994

  ★★★★½ Watched 17 Feb 2025 6

  “i was in love for five years. we’ve just split up.” when heartbroken, don’t jog. watch chungking express. the effects on the body are similar. it won’t decrease the volume of your tears, but it will soften them. everything expires. and so much never even has the chance to expire. 0.01cm away. i haven’t had reason to see this since 2015. what a difference a decade makes.