News

Tomb Raider (2018) - USA     Reviewed by Andrew Chan (Film Critics Circle of Australia)    One of the best thing about the latest Tomb Raider reboot is the way our key heroine (played by the wonderful and raw Alicia Vikander) remains rather grounded and extremely human. Whilst Angelina Jolie made the video game heroine as a sex icon, Vikander made her like a strong modern day female character. Teaming with “Into the Badlands” superstar Daniel Wu, the duo venture into the brutal forest of the devil’s island in search of the holy grail and her long lost father....

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (2018) - USA     Reviewed by Andrew Chan (Film Critics Circle of Australia)   In line with Asian Americans representation, Netflix releases just at the right moment one of the best teen romantic comedies and coming of age film in 2018. The fact that Netflix is having a bad run of poor films add to this success and with the diverse casting, making this a sweet win for all. Vietnamese American Lana Condor is cast as the lead protagonist and manages to defy most genre cliches to come up with a fresh...

Crazy Rich Asians (2018) - USA   Reviewed by Andrew Chan (Film Critics Circle of Australia)     Probably the most important film of 2018 comes in the form of “Crazy Rich Asians” starring an all Asian cast and directed by Jon Chu in a romantic comedy setting backed by big Hollywood studio - Warner Brothers. Seems like a dream come true, it is for many people and thinking about the trailblazers for Asian representation for Hollywood. The road is long, difficult and often emotional. There is that aspect of feeling surrounding the hype and thank goodness the film is...

Adieu 告別之前 (2018) - Hong Kong     Reviewed by Andrew Chan (Film Critics Circle of Australia)   One of the biggest issue with the well meaning and manufactured “tear-jerker” film about death, life end of journey and cancer is poor filmmaking techniques from the basics to handling strong dramatic scenes. Yes, there will be bound to be a few tears, but mostly forced out of the end of life situations than the developed storyline or plot. There is a lot of good things to say and end of life message the film tries extremely hard to portray, but none...

The Lowlife / Saitei / 最低。(2017) - Japan     Reviewed by Andrew Chan (Film Critics Circle of Australia)   What is so beautiful about veteran “Pink” Director Takahisa Zeze latest film “The Lowlife” is not so much the content of attraction that will undoubtedly sell tickets and draw a sizeable audience, but the efforts to drill well into the characters, the mothers, the daughters and the wives. They are all humans, no matter what version of commodity and opinions that society seem to have of adult movies actresses.    It also provides a stunning return to the big screen...