Asian Films
Magia Record, Kakushigoto, Fruits Basket and Sword Art Online: A general review of anime in 2020
By Matthew MacEgan, 16 January 2021
A total of 140 Japanese animated television series numbering more than 1,865 episodes debuted in 2020. Our critic comments on a selection of the more popular titles.
Re-release of Bong Joon-ho’s Memories of Murder (2003): A picture of South Korean society
By David Walsh, 14 November 2020
An early film by South Korean writer-director Bong Joon-ho (Parasite) has been released over the course of the past year in a number of countries—and now in the US. It is well worth seeing.
The Truth: Catherine Deneuve as an actress with her feet on the ground
By David Walsh, 22 August 2020
A French actress in her 70s, Fabienne Dangeville, receives a visit at her elegant Paris home from her daughter Lumir, son-in-law Hank and grand-daughter Charlotte, who live in New York.
Shusenjo: The Main Battleground of the Comfort Women Issue: Documentary about war crimes and historical revisionism in Japan
By Isabel Roy, 20 March 2020
Miki Dezaki interviews revisionists from far-right circles in Japan, politicians and historians who have studied “comfort women,” as well as activists working for the recognition of the victimised women.
Weathering With You: Climate change and fatalism
By Matthew MacEgan, 23 January 2020
Makoto Shinkai’s latest anime film is the Japanese entry for Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards.
Parasite: An unusual director with his antenna attuned to social class
The Lighthouse: A gothic horror film
By Joanne Laurier, 16 November 2019
Parasite is a dark comedy from South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho that concerns itself with income inequality and its implications. The Lighthouse is a pointless horror film set in the late 1800s in New England.
Ash is the Purest White: Finding one’s way in “the new ‘capitalist’ China”
And Working Woman from Israel
By David Walsh, 13 April 2019
Jia Zhangke has demonstrated a concern with the fate of workers and others whose lives have been turned upside down by the full integration of China into the global capitalist economy.
Sri Lankan government censors Prasanna Vithanage’s latest film
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 18 December 2014
The government’s demand for extensive cuts to With You, Without You is an attack on basic democratic rights.
60th Berlin International Film Festival—Part 3
Kanikosen: a Japanese “proletarian novel,” updated
By Stefan Steinberg, 3 March 2010
This is the third in a series of articles on the recent Berlin International Film Festival, February 11-21.
San Francisco International Film Festival 2009
An interview with He Jianjun, director of River People
By David Walsh, 25 June 2009
He Jianjun’s River People from China is a serious and honest work about young fishermen on the Yellow River. The film depicts a harsh, almost entirely joyless existence. The WSWS conducted an e-mail interview with He.
David Walsh looks at Taste of Cherry, a new film from Iran
Despair, hope, life
By David Walsh, 11 April 1998
Film review: Taste of Cherry, written and directed by Abbas Kiarostami
Four films from Taiwan and China
By David Walsh, 6 November 1995
In an oft-quoted remark reportedly made to a young Romanian poet in a Zurich restaurant during World War I, Lenin is supposed to have said, in part, "One can never be radical enough; that is, one must always try to be as radical as reality itself."
Four films from Taiwan and China
By David Walsh, 6 November 1995
In an oft-quoted remark reportedly made to a young Romanian poet in a Zurich restaurant during World War I, Lenin is supposed to have said, in part, "One can never be radical enough; that is, one must always try to be as radical as reality itself."
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