We are accustomed to stories of love and marriage. We almost always think about those two things in that order: first love, then marriage. Return to Dust, from writer/director Li Ruijun, gives us an alternative to the relationship of those two concepts. In rural China, Ma Youtie is paired with Cao Guiying in a marriage…
Combining 3D animation and interview footage, the new documentary Eternal Spring transports the viewer back to Communist China in 2006. Retracing the life of comic book illustrator Daxiong and a team of Chinese activists, the film follows the events leading up to a daring plan to hack into the state?s television broadcast in order to help speak…
How strange that AFI Fest 2021 is already coming to an end. But perhaps next year the festival will be able to move back to a weeklong fully in person event. Still, it is important to thank the staff and volunteers for the work they did to make this such a wonderful?and safe?experience. And of…
What happens when a “conspiracy” is vindicated? In this episode of the Your Sunday Drive podcast, we take a look at the Wuhan coronavirus lab leak hypothesis and its fascinating transformation from shunned conspiracy to legitimate possibility over the course of the past year. Along the way we discuss other conspiracies that have turned out…
?Turning poop culture into pop culture is the fastest way to solve the sanitation crisis? (Jack Sim) Yes, there is scatological humor in Lily Zepeda?s documentary Mr. Toilet: The World?s #2 Man. How can there not be given the subject: a worldwide sanitation crisis. It tells us that 2.5 billion people (about 40 percent of…
If you strip away the sex and dragons from Game of Thrones you have the story of trying to unite warring factions into a single kingdom and bring the period of warfare to an end. Kingdom (based on a seinen manga series of graphic novels, and later a seventy-seven episode anime tv series) is a…
Based on an actual lie,??The Farewell follows the young?Chinese-born but U.S.-raised Billi (Awkwafina) who reluctantly returns to Changchun to find that, although the whole family knows their beloved matriarch, Nai-Nai (grandma), has been given mere weeks to live, everyone has decided not to tell Nai Nai herself. To ensure that she doesn?t worry about her…
Currently playing at the Newport Beach Film Festival in Los Angeles, In a New York Minutegives a glimpse into the lives of three strangers who inadvertently discover that their problems may be solved by a single pregnancy test. Amy (Amy Chen) is haunted by a past breakup that has manifested into an eating disorder. Angel (Yi…
The New Legends of Monkey?follows the journey of Tripitaka (Luciane Buchanan), a young monk who lives in a world of gods and demons. Seeking an answer to the evils of the world, Tripitaka releases the Monkey King (Chai Hanson), a powerful yet cocky god who has the potential to reset the balance of spiritual power…
I recently had the chance to talk by phone with Academy Award winner Vanessa Roth about her new short documentary, The Girl and the Picture, that played at the Newport Beach Film Festival. The film tells the story of Madame Xia, who as an eight year old girl survived the Nanjing Massacre (sometimes referred to…
