The truly terrifying THE WAILING plays NYAFF on July 19

With THE WAILING playing NYAFF here is my review from when it hit theaters

The WAILING has vexed me since I saw it last week. I have been writing and rewriting the review in the hope of getting it to the point where I was happy with it. The question with the film is how much do I reveal.

To be honest it’s very easy to say that for 130 of its 156 minutes it’s one of the best horror films you’ll see all year, possibly ever.  The trouble how to I deal with the last 20 minutes of story, where something happens and well its a head scratcher? I suspect  by reviewing the film and talking about the end at the end.

The plot of the film has the residents of a small town going nutzy fagin and killing themselves and each other. The people seem to be insane and are covered in boils. Stories are rampant that it’s the doing of a weird Japanese guy living in the woods. Many people insist he is a ghost or worse. A local police officer is drawn deeper into the mystery when his daughter begins to change and seems possessed by something. When medicine fails a shaman is brought in and then things get weirder.

It’s just f-ed up visceral stuff and it gets your heart racing.

I loved most of THE WAILING. The film freaked me out, made me laugh, made me hide my eyes and it made me wish the film would break so I could get the hell out of the theater and the head space. It is most of its running time one of the best horror films I’ve ever seen.

It is a finely crafted film which gives us just enough detail to keep us connected and just enough uncertainty to make us deeply disturbed. For most of its running time it keeps us on the edge of dream logic where we know enough to go with it despite being bothered by what we are seeing not jibing with reality. We are trapped in our hero and the towns waking nightmare and there is no escape. It is the sort of ghoulish twisted delight where you want to run but at the same time you have to see what happens. Watching it I wanted to shut the film off and take a breather.

It’s just wrong in the best possible ways. It’s also frequently funny, in the right ways.

The trouble is that there is a point in the last twenty minutes where the spell is broken and soon after it seems like someone grafted the plot from another film into this one. Yes it remains tense, but the film goes to a dead stop in logic and reasoning - especially on its own terms. The ethereal dream logic is gone.

Nothing is as it was before… what we are told is the new situation in no way fits what with what before. This isn’t like a caper film where details are left out and we then see them from another POV later, this is whole scale reinvention of characters and situations. And while the film has no trouble coasting  to the end credits with enough good will that I still really love the film, my desire to let the world know how great the film was gone. I wanted to discuss the film not because its grand masterpiece but because I wanted to know what the hell went wrong with this one twist.

When I say that the twist is a problem I mean it’s a HUGE problem that several hours of discussion can’t explain away.

I telling you about the two hours of discussion because two days after I saw the film, friend and occasional Unseen Films contributor Alec Kubas-Meyer saw it. A texting conversation turned into a two hour discussion during which we hashed out everything that happened in the last twenty minutes. During the discussion I found most of the minor plot questions I had could be explained away depending on how you chose to view the film. Yea, they can be considered niggling problems but they are not catastrophic. Our discussion sorted out any problems pretty quickly but there was one thing that we can’t explain away.

The event I am talking about involves a twist in the plot that would work except that director Na Hong-Jin cut the film in such way as to make clear that the twist couldn’t or shouldn’t have occurred. It’s kind of like watching a one of the old movie serials that cheated. You know where the chapter ends with the hero heading for certain doom only when you come back the next week they escape using a means that was clearly not an option the week before. Hong-Jin gives a twist that by implication of the editing cannot possibly have happened. It’s so egregious an error that two hours of discussion can’t make it go away. (And know Alec and I tried to make it go away- as has everyone I know who has seen the film)

Don’t get me wrong I love THE WAILING, and it will almost certainly end up on my best of 2016 list because it’s such a f-ed up visceral punch but there is this one thing that keeps me from saying its one of the best horror films of all time. I’m hoping that repeated viewings and time will soften my disappointment and let me put the film where it belongs. For now I feel like I’ve seen the Mona Lisa but had to keep dancing around a woman with a big hat to see it.

Reservations aside- the film is a must see. A visceral kick in the gut that is very much its own thing.

THE WAILING  opens in theaters Friday

40 WATTS FROM NOWHERE opens July 17

Sue Carpenter started a pirate radio station in her living room in the late 1990's and changed the lives of everyone who heard it. 

This is the rise and fall of a two pirate radio stations KPBJ and KBLT which ran out of Carpenter's living room. The station had DJs who were members of various well known groups and it played the music that they wanted to hear. The station eventually ran afoul of the FCC but for a few years it made music and delighted fans.

This is a pure nostalgia trip. Exploring not just the life of the station, the film delves into the why and hows that successful radio stations exist. Why do some stations have rabid fans and others don't? 

As a radio guy I found this film fascinating. I discovered so much I never knew and finally understood why certain things clicked with me. It made me realize that given the opportunity I and my friends might have stormed the airwaves ourselves. 

What an absolute delight.

Highly recommended.

Bird of Paradise (2025) NYAFF 2026

This was not what I expected.  This is a sweet little film that is not what you think it is. A serious comedy about a woman who decides to get out of the routine by taking a pole dancing class. In it she finds a part of herself she thought she lost.

There is no doubt this hits a lot of the expected notes but at the same time the film keeps the tone exactly right. Neither overtly silly nor deeply serious this is just a film about a woman trying to find her better self.

I was delighted.

To be honest this was not on my list of films to see for NYAFF, but since I was given access to it I figured I try it for a few minute. As the end credits started to roll I realized that I had lost track of time.

I love finding unexpected gems.

 Recommended.

Suzuki=Bakudan (2025) Japan Cuts 2026 Fantasia 2026 plays Saturday at the Japan Society

A seemingly drunk man is arrested for beating up a vending machine. As he is integrated by the cops he offers to trade his being released for information concerning a bombing that his psychic sense is telling him about. The cops think he’s nuts… until the bomb goes off. Thus begins a cat an mouse game as the police try to prevent additional bombs from going off.

Hands down this is one of the best thrillers you’ll see all year. Sure some of the stuff outside the police station is a bit standard compared to the rest, but for the most part his is a taut and compelling a film as you will see. Its one of the best films at Japan Cuts and probably one of the best films at Fantasia as well.

What makes this work is the cast. Everyone is fully engaged and everyone is at the top of the game. While we do get some scenes of the cops dealing with trying to find the bomb, the meat and potatoes of this film is the interrogation/game with the drunk guy. (I am being intentionally vague because I don’t want to say anything).  I can’t tell you how good these scenes are and I completely understand why the cast won so many awards.

I can not stress how great this film is.  If you can you need to go buy a ticket and go.

This will be on your end of the year list and one you will talk to your friends about for hours.

Brief thoughts on Horsegirls (2025)

As a mother  (Gretchen Mol) deals with a not very good medical diagnosis, she worries about what will happen to her autistic daughter (Lillian Carrier).  However there maybe hope as the young woman gets a job at a Halloween Store and joins competitive hobby horse dance team.

This is a nice little film. While the film hits many of the expected notes for a film like this the cast sells this. Both Mol and Carrier are delights and we will gladly follow them anywhere. The pair makes this a small gem of a film that is worth your time.

Recommended.

Shaolin Soccer play NYAFF on July 17

MY IMDB REVIEW FROM BEFORE IT PLAYED THE US

Good but not great

You either accept this movie as it is or you don't.

This is a very silly movie about a group of brothers who form a soccer team and find self respect in doing so. Its basically a kung fu movie done as a soccer film.

As I said, its very silly, for example the villain's soccer team is called Team Evil. The film is knowing and cute and sweet and funny...

...and I didn't care for it.

Don't get me wrong, I laughed and I smiled and I thought it was way too long and occasionally over done. Perhaps this plays better in the "short version" that Miramax was going to release in the US which was to be about 20 minutes shorter then its original, and apparently now restored running time. To me its an hour long story, not two.

What boggles my mind is that the film is going to get any sort of real release here. Granted the release date has been changed several times, which has caused the director and star to be on TV shows promoting a film that was now months away.But I can't help but wonder if someone really likes the film or if they think the combo of soccer and kung fu is going to play well in Peoria or at least to Peroria's help. Frankly its not that good and no better than any of several dozen comedies that Hong Kong film makers have produced over the years.

Then again I know this has been a big hit on the festival circuit and I've been reading about it for a while in articles by people who really like it, so what the hell do I know? If you like silly try it.

Who knows it may strike you as something wonderful, as for me I'm simply going to remain puzzled.

No I'm going to watch Bend it Like Beckham again.

Tha Rae-TheExorcist (2026) NYAFF 2026

Catholic priest teams up with spritual healer to take on a demon that has taken over a former priest. Of course there are complications.

This is one wild film. The opening scene has something that I never would see in a Catholic exorcism, namely a Catholic priest killing the possessed because if they go longer than three days they can't be turned back. That was a new twist I never expected.

To be honest I'm mixed on this film.  It's not the plot  or the sequences (there are some great things here) rather it's the two leads. The two young men don't have and gravitas. They have no weight what so ever. I never believed that they were on screen for any reason to look good. I would love to see them in a comedy, but in a drama or a horror film they seemed in over their head. They were never a match for the evil despite that it was written that way.

While not bad, this isn't what it should have been.

A disappointment.

Brightest Sun (2025) NYAFF 2026

Tetsuya Nakashima's latest film is a bleak murder mystery/ meditation on parenting, particularly parenting a special needs child.

The story begins at a funeral for a private detective no one liked. As the narration says he was a guy who would be better off dead. The man was murdered and as courtesy his boss puts one of his men on the job of looking into it. He's told to take a trainee with him, a single mom hoping for better life. As the film progresses the link to a young man with spina bifida dorces the pair to cosider their lives and their track record as parents.

This is a dark little film where life is bleak and people don't magically change. Hidetoshi Nishijima's detective never really lightens up he just shifts his pain around. It's a unique portrayal  of a man whose soul is crushed by life.  He is operating in a dark world (everything is often tinged with blue) where no one is really good and everyone is sarcastic to hide the pain. He just drinks and glares and radiates all the pain in the world. He isn't hard boiled so much as hard burnt.

The plot, having to do with a kidnapping years before, is a bit convoluted, especially at first when the film is introducing everyone. It settles down and we are dragged along by the tail, though if you're like me you are going to want a second viewing in order to really put it together.

I really liked this film a great deal. 

One of the best films at this year's NYAFF, it is one of the few that feels like a solid meal. 

Highly recommended

Deep Quiet Room (2025) nyaff 2026

In DEEP QUIET ROOM a man tries to come to terms with the suicide of his pregnant wife. Devastated at the loss he tries to figure out what drove her to take her life and the life of their unborn daughter.

The film is a documentary like low key look at grief and the things unsaid. Watching the film the first time I was rocked by the film and its expression of grief. The fact that the film is carefully modulated and that there are no explosive expression of grief or rage or pain is somehow deeply disturbing. 

When the film ended, I sat staring at the screen pondering what I had just seen and pondering if I wanted to do the scheduled interview for the film since the film exists in such a painful place.

And then I pondered the film again.

And I pondered the film some more… and I started to like the film less.

Yes, the filmmaking creates a definite mood everytime you watch it, but the narrative doesn’t quite work. Indeed, the film kind of cooks the books.

The biggest problem with the film is that the wife is almost entirely a cipher. We only get to see here from the point of view of the husband and what we see is limited. She doesn’t say much beyond hitting certain notes. She does react to things, but it isn’t always clear to why she is reacting as she is because there is too much un said for us to tryuly know her. Of course, it’s hard to understand since we are seeing it from his perspective and he doesn’t know what he doesn't know (or what we as an audience need). The bigger problem is we never quite see why they are together. What attracted them to each other? Why did they fall in love. Why does he care other than she is his wife? The opening sequence of their meeting in a library says almost nothing other than it shows their meeting.

A bigger problem is the film tries to give clues to things that we don’t need to know. For example, and the moment that I realized that something seemed off, is the scene where the husband is given a passage in a book to read. In the scene he is told about how working on the book and that passage in particular triggered repressed memories. The discussion goes on to explain that the wife had tried to commit suicide as a teen and had received a brain injury that not only injured her memory but made it so things could be confused. The exchanged bothered me when I saw the film but the film was so strong it pulled me back in. The trouble is the exchange haunted me after I saw the film and made me re-evaluate the. Something seemed off. It wasn’t so much the earlier suicide attempt or the repressed feelings but the memory loss and confusion. We don’t need to know that. There is something about that, especially coming so late in the film, that bothered the hell out of me. Why is it there? maybe to give him an out, that perhaps the suicide was the result of confusion?

It bothered me so much that I went back and started to watch the film again with an eye toward the construction of the narrative and I was not as in love with the film as I had been. Its not so much that things are not said, which is fine, after all we don’t say everything to our friends who don’t need explanation, rather, I noticed that we were not told about things we should have been told about – like why these two are together. Where the characters and their interactions are mostly fine, there should be clues about details of their life together – like what they saw in each other- I say that because most of what we see are tense moments. We only see things that effect the narrative and nothing that would bleed out as a real moment in life would. Even while we are seeing things from on POV  we never see the happy. We never see a random moment only something that ultimately figures into the story. And on the second viewing it is very clear how much of a cipher she is.  Watching it play out a second time I realized exactly how cherry picked the moments were.

After the second viewing the disturbing viewing experience was there but it was tempered by realizing how much we were being manipulated. I didn't like it. I was no longer watching life but a kind of polemic.

I went from really liking the film to thinking its just okay.

While the film is a disturbing ride, and it's well acted and well made, I’m not sure if its good  or not. I’m leaning toward not so much.

BURN (2025) Japan Cuts 2026

A young woman escapes her family and religious cult where she was regularly beaten into a life on the street where she is abused.

This is a dark memory play, with flashes of magical realism, related to us by the young woman at the center. This is a kind of feel bad film with a few rays of hope thrown in. I winced regularly. 

One of the best films I've seen at this year's Japan Cuts BURN makes taking a trip to the darkside something you want to do. Sure you don't want to live the life seen here, but the tale is so brilliantly told that you will not mind spending a couple of hours being there. I say this because I saw this with in quick succession of other down beat films playing at Cuts and NYAFF. I should have wanted to flee into the night, but BURN is so perfectly told that I kind of wanted to go again when it was done. (I'm a glutton for punishment)

If you want to take a walk on the dark side see this film.

Ichi the Killer is playing NYAFF on July 18

This is my IMDB review- which was written whe I had only seen a couple Miike films:  

What am I watching?

I've only watched a couple of Takashi Miike's films and I'm not sure what to make of them. They are technically well made but rather haphazard in most other areas. I tend to walk out wondering what it was all about.

Ichi is about a missing crime boss and the money that went with him. The story centers on the search for him by a man who will do anything to find him.

While I can admire what I was watching on a technical level, I can't really say that I really cared about anything that was going on. I think my attitude is best explained by my admiring all of the pieces, but not caring about the whole. I liked the look of things, say the unique way they have for questioning a rival gang boss, but I can't really say that the sequence really served any purpose, well not in the way it seemed to degenerate into an exercise in, some what funny, cruelty.

The film is nasty and graphic and funny, often in the "should I be laughing at this?" sort of way. Its far from for all tastes, but I would hope that people are not coming upon this unaware.

5 out of 10.

brief thoughts on Rescued (2026) Dances with Films

This is a film about a homeless man (played by writer/director DJ Hale)  as he hooks up with a doberman and and finds a to get off the street.

This is a solid and well acted film. While it doesn't have any new bells or whistles it has a great cast which sell the story and make us want to take this trip.

If the film has any real issues it's that the film runs over two hours which is probably a bit too long for this. Still I stayed engaged, and I was given access to an alternate cut of the film with a different ending, which I watched. That says a great deal about the film since I watched it twice back to back. (I have no idea which is the better ending) 

Worth a look

4 Tigers(2025) NYAFF 2026

 

Three men and a woman with special talents try to get their hands on Japanese gold.

If you like off Hollywood films then buy a ticket and take a ride because this is as off Hollywood as you can get. A mix of action, war time intrigue, comedy, Thai Nationalism, musical, spaghetti western, a behind the scenes of the making of a movie tale and like 15 other genres. This is a film that just does whatever it thinks will work at that moment. The result is a film that will leave you staring and slack jawed at the insanity on the screen.

Is it perfect?

Probably not. It is however unlike anything you’re likely to see anywhere outside of Thailand.

This film is most definitely a blast – and a throw back to the early days of the New York Asian Film Festival.

As I said above- buy a ticket and take a ride.

Nightflower (2025) Japan Cuts 2026

A mother on the run from debt meets up with a woman who kick boxes and forms a family that tries to be normal by day while dealing drugs at night.

A dark drama about finding the people you need while dealing with the darker side of life. This is a beautifully acted and perfectly made film that keeps us on edge for the characters while making us fall in love with the people on the screen.

 This film is an absolute gem. This is exactly the sort of film I started Unseen FIlms to highlight, a film that is so much better than its write up would suggest. This is absolutely a film you need to see at Japan Cuts because it is going to haunt you long after other bigger films have faded.

Just be prepared to be put through the ringer.

Ryan’s Babe (2000)

With Christopher Nolan’s latest, The Odyssey, on the horizon, I wanted to revisit another epic journey. One filled with strange encounters, unexpected detours, and a protagonist who spends most of his adventure looking utterly confused. And don’t worry, whether you’ve seen it or not, you’ll be just as perplexed. 

It’s not Homer’s Odyssey. It’s Ryan’s Babe. Courtesy of our good friends up north in Canada. 

How does one even begin to explain Ryan's Babe? Over the years, it's become a talking point among bloggers, critics, and YouTube reviewers alike, all seemingly attempting to answer the same question: what the hell is going on?

Released in 2000, Ryan’s Babe was written and directed by Ray Ramayya and filmed in Saskatchewan, Canada. The film largely disappeared after its initial release, only to be resurrected years later by cult movie fans who stumbled upon it and collectively decided that the rest of us needed to experience this too.

Let’s get into the plot. Or, rather, a series of things that happen. Because that’s exactly what this movie is. It’s literally a collection of scenes strung together with little to no connection between them. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Our main character, Ryan, is trying to get home. Home from where? Who cares? We never learn that. He just wants to see his babe, or more accurately, a woman who can’t seem to shake her feelings for Ryan despite him spending their entire shared history showing little interest in her.

Things only get more confusing from there. This movie goes into Inception levels of flashbacks. You’ll get a flashback within a flashback, followed by a transition that makes you think you’ve finally returned to the present day. Nope, wrong. You’re still in another flashback. WHAT?!

As if that wasn’t enough, this entire movie is ADR’d to all hell. To the point where there’s a scene in which a character appears to have two completely different actors’ voices coming out of his mouth.

We meet new characters, they disappear. More new characters show up, they disappear too. There are so many different storylines packed into this that it feels like someone accidentally condensed an entire season of television drama into a 90-minute movie.

Oh, did I say drama? Because judging by the movie poster, you’d think this was some goofy road-trip boner comedy where Ryan takes a zany wrong turn, somehow ends up in Las Vegas, and Snoop Dogg randomly appears halfway through to dispense life advice.

I’m completely making this up, and yet it somehow feels no less plausible than anything that actually happens in Ryan’s Babe.

Things that happen to our main character:

• He trades his car with a couple stranded on the side of the road. The wife complains that she hates the shade of her husband’s green car. It’s blue. Not green. Blue.

• He gets kidnapped and drugged by a group of cheerleaders because they’re convinced he’s the man who attacked their friend.

• He befriends a bartender by quoting Homer. The bartender immediately decides Ryan should work with him at a strip club so they can meet women. Ryan then hooks up with an older widow who becomes interested in him because he reminds her of her late football-player husband. After they sleep together, she dies. Ryan leaves.

These are just a few examples, because why spoil the entire thing? This is a movie that needs to be seen, then talked about, then probably seen again because you’ll have no idea what you just witnessed.

Oh, and because subtlety was apparently never on the table, in an early scene Ryan is literally reading from Homer’s Odyssey.

While Ryan’s Babe won’t be allowed in the No Homers Club—because we let Homer Glumplich in, and we’re only allowed to have one—it does earn a special place on the Mount Rushmore of all-time head-scratching, bizarre films.

Bravo, Canada.

Brief thoughts on Undertaker 2 (2025)

When a grandmother is struck by lightning, dies and then returns from the dead,  it forces everyone is a small town to ponder existence.

This film did not work for me. Yes, I know this and the previous films were mega hits, but this film didn't do anything for me.  I was told that I didn't need to have seen the first film to have this make sense but at the same time I kept feeling I was missing something.

Yes the meditation on life and death and everything in between is interesting but there was something about the tone of the film that never clicked so I never fully pondered what the film was trying to say.

No, it isn't bad, but it never grabbed me.

Fantasia Starts this week- The contractually obligated curtain raiser (no- really its true- they won't let me cover if I don't post this)

 

The always lovely Fantasia start this week, and the world is a better place.

One of the best festivals in the world it is a fest that while it focuses on mainly genre films and those not from Canada, it also makes damn sure that great films that might get overlooked will get their due. I say that because this year there is a killer film called TIGHT LETTUCE that is about a son trying to help his addict father. While the film has very serious subject and is heart breaking at times, it is also wickedly funny to the point that I think the big “important” festivals will be frightened by it.  Fantasia fears nothing (not even a papercut and lemon juice)

I love this festival. Almost two decades ago film director Ted Geoghagen pulled me aside and told me I had to cover the festival. It is a piece of advice that I will never be able to repay him for.

If you are in Montreal and love movies you have to go. (Someday I will)

As it stands now, I am waiting to wade into the festival’s goodness. I am planning on covering as much as humanly possible so keep reading.

Because the festival is not just premieres, I’ve already seen a typical person’s festival worth of titles. Below are links to what I’ve seen:

BAGWORM

BLADES OF THE GAURDIANS

BLAISE

COLONY 

GOZU - I am having issues finding my review of this. That said this is a must see from Takashi Miike since it's WTF nature made me fall in love with him as a filmmaker

IMPRINT

HONG KONG GODFATHER

KUNG FU is also playing this year's NYAFF after the screening at Fantasia (it plays the 16th). It is a knowing send up of martial arts cliches that demands to be seen with an audience. It smashes every cliche with glee. My review will run closer to the NYAFF screening - until then just buy a ticket and go.

PAPAYA

PONTY POOL

RECLUSE

REDLINE- I saw this ages ago in NYC at the Village Cinema and when I came out many of the guys who would become the Unseen Film Family were going in. That tells you this insane animated film is a must see- more so on the big screen where the films can blow your mind

SUSUKI = BAKUDAN look for a review this week tied to the Japan Cuts screening. This is one of the best thrillers you'll see all year as the police go head-to-head with a bomber. This is an absolute must see film

UNIDENTIFIED MURDER is playing NYAFF. This is a UFO-tinged puzzle box mystery with an all over the place tone.

WE ARE NOTHING is playing NYAFF soon. Herman Yau gives us his best film and his most soap opera like. The police investigate a bus bombing (no lie this part is some of the best filmmaking you'll see all year) while we are treated to the lives of the victims (pure pot boiling soap opera that will make you roll your eyes). The police procedural is why this is a must see.

And I need to put ATTACK ON PARADISE on your radar. I need to see this again because... well it kicks ass. The plot has a man coming home from prison and just wanting to be left alone and take care of his mom. But the gangs have taken over the apartment block and the police want to storm it... and what is a guy who loves his mom going to do? A review when the embargo drops but until then buy a ticket and bring a seat belt.

The festival opens Thursday and runs into August. Ticket and slate information can be found here.

And please keep reading because the reviews will start hitting when the embargos drop.

Mr Hero (2026) NYAFF 2026

 

A mega hit in Vietnam, MR HERO didn't work for me. 

The film is the story of a taxi cab driver who needs money badly. His daughter is sick and without a transplant she is going to die. In desperation he stages a fake rescue, hoping to get money from people on the internet. But the lies complicate everything.

A mix of social commentary (it's a brutal commentary on the health care system & the internet), comedy, soap opera and feel good family films, the film is tonally all over the place. What am I supposed to feel? I'm not sure. Its not that there is problem mixing tones when they are blended correctly. The problem here is its not always blended and I frequently felt out of sorts.

Worth a look if you're curious, but it didn't work for me.

Montreal, My Beautiful(2026) NYAFF 2026

Joan Chen stars as a Chinese immigrant to Canada who is trapped in a bad marriageand unhappy home life. When she meets a younger woman from Canada it begins a friendship that becomes something more.

This is a good, if very by the numbers tale. We've been here before in other stories and as a result we can more or less guess how this is going to play out. While Chen and the cast pull us in and keep us interested (even if some look the wrong age for their roles) so we will happily travel down this familiar road again.

Don't get me wrong I enjoyed the ride, I just wish it had more weight.

Worth a look.

Brief thoughts on Mockbuster (2026)

This is the story of Anthony Frith, who talks his way into directing features for Asylum Films despite not having any past in making features. 

For those who don't know Asylum is studio that makes homage (aka ripoff films) that piggy back blockbusters (New Toy Story, Alien Disclosure Day, Master of the Universe, Immortal Combat). They partly assume that the films people will pick their film by mistake, but mostly they know that their fanbase will try to watch the films because they will go witth the fun and perhaps so bqad its fun element and enjoy the movie. 

This is a wonderful look at Frith's journey to make his film and the story of the studio. Its a film about people who are in love with the art form and the art they make. (yes Asylum's films are art-they are so much fun). Its a film that makes us smile  because everyone is having a good time doing what they are doing.

This film is an absolute delight.

High recommended.

MOCKBUSTER is currently in select theaters and is on VOD.

Random thoughts

I am amused by what I’m reading on social media or in various think pieces on SUPERGIRL. So many are taking the film to task for not doing what they thought it should do. That would have made it a different film. People are also wondering why the film didn’t stop to explain little details or things that were unimportant or added shading to a real world. Why weren’t these odd bits explained? Because people on that would wouldn’t need them explained and if they did explain them you would have been up set that they were stopping the film for needless exposition.

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I think Dune 3 may open the NYFF- no reason but it’s a big film where the first one played NYFF

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There are some interesting films yet to play Japan Cuts, NYAFF and especially Fantasia

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If I seem down on doing Unseen and covering films, its got nothing to do with you or the films, more its simply that its lost the social aspect. I used to see a lot of friends. Now I maybe see a few at an occasional screening. Life has pushed us all apart, plus the way that the PR people want coverage, and doing press screenings at 10am now makes it hard pony up and go

The Jeju Uprsing films at NYAFF 2026: HALLAN (2025) and MY NAME (2026)

The New York Asian Film Festival has several films focusing on the Jeju Uprising which occurred in 1948 and 1949 on a small island off the Korean peninsula. 

The briefest and most basic of explanations tells the story of how in the wake of Independence Movement celebrations protests were organized, which were then crushed. This sparked revolts and those revolting fled into the forests on the sland. Authorities cracked down on everyone and people fled into the forests to get away. The authorities then moved into the forest to get the rebels which was anyone in the forests. Thousands were massacred. The incident was then covered up, especially in light of the Korean War which started shortly there after.

At least two films playing NYAFF tie directly into the Uprising (there maybe more, as I write this I haven't seen all the films).  I am mentioning this upfront because if you are not aware of the basic  history of the Uprising then these films are going to mean less to you. I say that because even though I ended up stopping HALLAN to read the Wikipedia entry, I still felt lost. While I give the festival credit for showing the films, I have to question their running films you need to have a background to fully get.

HALLAN
A mother and her daughter try and survive the horrifying events of the Jeju Uprising.

This is a well made and well intentioned war film that wears its heart on its sleeve. It not so subtlely looks to convict anyone and everyone who wasn't an islander of war crimes. There is no gray here and the film very much wants everyone to feel the pain. I'm not certain it always works since the film, for all the truth feels stacked. The result was the while ending wants to leave us broken I was simply ready to move onto the next film.

MY NAME 
The story of a mother and son trying to deal with their pasts and the damage it cost. The son has to deal with the issues that his name, and the trauma his mother fed him, causes him in life, while his mother has to deal with the hidden pain in her past- she was one of the survivors the Jeju Uprising.

This is an okay film that could have used another pass at the script stage. I say that because while the story of the mother finally coming to terms with the hidden secrets of her past is interesting and not quite something we've seen before , the son's story is much more by the numbers. It might have worked had that been the focus but the stuff involving the mother is so strong it makes the film seem weaker.

A pointer towards Gosh!! (2025) Japan Cuts 2026

 

I'm not really going to review GOSH!! The reason being that this is the sort of film you wither connect with or you don't. Based upon a Cult TV show the film is about a cop and his police dog, which is a man in a dog suit. The bicker like a married couple. They get involved with the disappearance of a volunteer and the case takes them across time and space in a mystery that involves glowing red doors that keep appearing.

I've seen enough films to know that this film is either going to click for you or its not. This is exactly the sort of off kilter tale that Japanese film and TV makers are very good at.  Its a kind of living manga/anime that makes no real world sense but is perfectlys fine in a cartoony sort of way.

I found it amusing at times but I'm not certain it all hangs together. That said it may work for you

ALL GREENS (2026) NYAFF 2026

Three girls want to get the hell out of their dead end town. They come up with a scheme to do so and it all goes sideways.

This is a bleak and biting black comedy that teeters on the knife edge of being truly horrifying and being catch in your throat funny (mostly). 

I don't  know what to say other than most of this film rocked my world. Until the final part of the the film I thought this was a brilliant meditastion on life in a small town and one of the darkest explorations of family dysfunction a dead end exploration I've ever seen.  Ye, there is humor here but at the same time it catches in your throat. There is a car accident early on and its shocking....and its darkly funny but the reaction of everyone involved in the scene speaks volumes about the dead soul of humanity.

I love this film. I loved that I didn't expect pretty much anything that happened. I loved it it's clear eyed look at life that is so brutal it blinds you to the ability to see goodness in humanity.

My problem with the film is the tone, it doesn't always work.  Some times the humor catches in your throat and some times it under cuts the feeling of dread. For the most part it all works, though the climax is the wrong sort of funny. It didn't kill the film for me but it lessened it.

On the other hand I am haunted by the darkness. 

One of the must sees at NYAFF

Coroner of theStars (2025) Opens July 14

This is a portrait of Thomas Noguchi the medical examiner and coroner who maybe best known for having dealt with numerous high profile cases (hence the title)  but who also broke through racial barriers.

This is a very good look at a man whose name most people know. Noguchi, was for his tenure as Los Angeles medical examiner, seemingly always around. If anyone died in LA he was on TV talking about it. The thing is, there was way more to the man then just press conferences and this film lets us know about that.

Covering all of Noguchi's 98 years the film tells the story from birth to now. It shows him growing up in Japan, coming to America, meeting his wife, getting a job in the LA coroners office and rising through the ranks. It shows how he his pursuit for the truth got him his job and ultimately got him in trouble (he didn't sugar coat findings when talking to the press.). It also shows how his breaking of the racial barrier (he was the first Asian in the office)  allowed him to break other barriers.

I really liked this film a great deal. It's a well told tale of a man who is part of entertainment history. While it doesn't break any new ground it entertains and informs, which is enough.

Recommended.

Colony at NYAFF

 

I saw Colony tonight at NYAFF and I was not a fan.

The audience loved it. I thought it was Yeon Sang-ho's least film with every turn foreshadaowing everything that will happen later, other turns that make no sense and a feeling that the real director was someone else trying to copy him. 

Its not bad, there are some killer sequences, but its the work of some one with less talent than Sang-ho.

As much as I want to post what looks like it is going to be a long piece looking at the problems, I'm going to hold off since no one has seen it in the US.  For now read everyone's reactions and make up your own mind. 

Look for my ffull thoughts when the film is released later in the summer.

Brief thoughts on Magical Secret Tour (2025) NYAFF 2026

Three women needing money begin to smuggle gold.

This is an odd mix of drama, crime and caper with a dash of humor. It's a film with a lot of plot threads running through it but it isn't always clear which one it wants to focus on. Don't get me wrong it isn't bad, and I enjoyed it all the way through, but when it was sone I kind of felt like it should have covered a bit more of some of the threads.

Worth a look for those wanting to be entertained.

Junk World (2026) Japan Cuts

"I am god. You will bend your knee to me and be given wisdom"

Follow up to 2017's mind blowing JUNK HEAD,  JUNK WORLD shows us more of the world of the future where mankind shares the planet with other life forms.  The film focuses on the battle between humans and the other species who want to remove mankind.

When I saw JUNK HEAD a few years back I was godsmacked. The film was unlike anything I had seen before. Sure I had seen stop motion films before but the world it was imagining it was something else entirely. The world was unique. Its rules were new. I fell into it. WhenJUNK WORLD was announced as playing this year's Japan Cuts it jumped to the top of my must see film at the festival.

I've seen the film twice now and to be honest it took me two  screenings to fall in love with it. This does not mean that the film that is bad, rather it is to say that the film was not what I expected and I had to see it the second  time so I could see it for  itself. Yes the film is still visually unique. Yes the details are delightful one of a kind. The problem with the film is that the narrative is, for the most part conventional. a good chunk of it it a chase film mixed with a clash of factions. We've been here before.  I had to see the film a second time to get past the obivious. I needed that second screening to truly see the film discussions about societies and peoples interaction. There is a lot going on here and when I saw how much I warmed to the film.

I like the film a great deal.  Do be honest I think the first film is better, but this film is still great.

(And no, you don't need to see the first film to understand this one. Actually that might be the better way to see it.)

By a ticket and go.

Seoul Station is playing NYAFF on July 13

They ran SEOUL STATION originallyran in a late night slot at the New York Asian Film Festival years ago and it provoked two reactions. The first was nervous laughter from those in the audience who couldn’t see animation as anything other than something to entertain kids or tell jokes. The other, more pervasive, reaction was a deep dark sense of unease and dread not to mention a feeling that the film was extremely “f-ed” up. Ultimately it was a film that everyone who was there shamed those who weren’t with talk that they should have been there.

The feeling that people should have been there was intensified when Yeon Sang-ho next film the epic zombie mega hit TRAIN TO BUSAN hit theaters and stayed there for months, literally. Suddenly everyone wanted to know what he had done before and was shocked that the animated SEOUL STATION was the film before it. Everyone had to know how the films related to each other and in many circles there was a mad quest to track down copies of the film.

And now, some 11 months after the film played the New York Asian Film Festival SEOUL STATION is hitting iTunes. Knowing that everyone who saw and loved TRAIN TO BUSAN was going to be rushing to see the first film I decided to revisit the film in case my review needed to be updated.

While I’m not going to update my original review, which follows, I do want to say a couple of things.

First despite the way it’s being touted by fans and the releasing company, SEOUL STATION is not really a prequel to TRAIN TO BUSAN. While it came out first the films do not lead into each other. If anything BUSAN should be seen as the first film since it explains how it all starts where SEOUL STATION is simply one event happening at the same time, more or less. I’ve heard that director Sang-ho said that the two films are not really related and that the fact that they are both zombie films was just happenstance relating to his wanting to tell two stories set against similar backgrounds. I'm not sure it's true, but it kind of makes sense since the two films are ultimately different.

The next thing I wanted to say is that don’t let the animation get in the way of your enjoying SEOUL STATION’s story. Just think of it as a damn good horror film. While there is no doubt that it could have been told live action, the scale of some sequences would have made it cost prohibitive. Yes they could have used computers like in Train to Busan, but the scale here is bigger. Animation made it possible to tell the story the way it should be told.

Lastly realize that the film is not about zombies. The plot is really a different kind of story that’s set during a time of monsters. I know the ending bothered some people who saw it last year and I’m guessing that is going to be the case again now that it can be widely seen. Sang-ho is simply using the tropes of horror to tell the story of a search.

Ultimately take SEOUL STATION on its own terms and if you do that I think you’ll like it. For me it was one of the best films I saw in 2016, which is as high a rave as I can give.

Here now is the review I ran right after SEOUL STATION blew me away last June.

Numerous story lines collide- an old guy with a neck wound wanders back into the city and his "brother" attempts to find medical help for him. A young woman has trouble with her boyfriend who wants to pimp her out via the internet. Meanwhile a father looks for his missing daughter. Elsewhere in and around the Seoul Station various homeless people cope with the late night. Everyone wants to settle in for the night - except that the old guy isn't just wounded but carrying the infection that will begin the outbreak of a condition that will see the dead rise and attack the living.

An absolute rarity in the zombie genre, a film with honest to god characters. Not only that its a zombie film with real scares. And its animated.

Normally I hate the zombie genre. I mean I HATE IT, so when I tell you SEOUL STATION IS really good believe me, this is REALLY GOOD. Actually it's quite amazing especially since the zombie film has been so badly raped by lazy hacks and would be comediennes that that to me the genre is pretty much worthless (do not get me started about WALKING DEAD). Yes we'd occasionally get a good film but it as always buried in the middle of 25 turds.. this is one of the best I've seen in years, decades if you want a straight on balls to the wall horror film as opposed to something like MAGGIE or MISS ZOMBIE which use the tropes for other purposes.

SEOUL STATION works for two reasons. First is the characters. Pretty much everyone is a real person. If they aren't a full fleshed out person then we have enough to think there is more to them than just being a cardboard cut out. We car about the people- even the ones we don't like.

The second reason the film works is that the film is set at the start of an outbreak. The characters don't know what is happening so their panic feeds our panic. We don't know the rules because no one knows whats happening so they haven't figured them out. The hordes are not your typical zombie masses but something else. They are fast but clumsy, they fall down a lot. While there is little doubt that they are in a direct line to the George Romero ones, a head shot is needed to kill them and the film riffs his DAWN OF THE DEAD, there are enough differences that it keeps things interesting. It also allows for some scary funny moments as we can't always be sure if someone infected or not. Best of all it feels real and you get the sense that this is how is would probably go (the governmental response is just as chilling as the zombies).

I was scared and on the edge of my seat for most of the film.

And do I really need to mention the social commentary that runs rampant but unobtrusively all through the film? And when you consider this was made by Yeon Sang-ho who made the bleakly depressing KING OF PIGS you can be sure its not a happy film.

One of the best films at NYAFF and one of the best horror films of 2016. A must see.

After Moonrise (2026) Welcome to Chinatown

A mother mourning the death of her husband during a sacred fast, is visted by her daughter who is worried about her. Her mother's grief had pushed her away, however a silence has made her return home.

Vinamrata Singal's film is a small gem of a film. Why do I say yes to unsolicited films? Becauase more often then not I find little treasures such as this.

A small  capture of a moment in time, AFTER MOONRISE nicely reveals the depth of emotion families have even with those who unintentionally drive us away.  We do make each other crazy, but at the same time there is love.

I was moved. 

Playing a full up community screening in New York's Chinatown as part of a Welcome to Chinatown event, AFTER MOONRISE is a film to track down.

Sato and Sato (2026) Japan Cuts 2025

The course of a relation ship from 22 to 27 as two people named Sato meet, fall in love, have a child and divorce.

This film kicked my ass for reasons outside of the film. Echoing a relationship with an ex of mine this film kicked up a great many emotions expressed and unexpressed.  It made me feel things I did not want to. I am saying this up front because on certain level my feelings for the film objectivey are compromised.

On the other hand his film is a great film on it's own terms. Its a beautifully acted film that perfectly uses a fragmented/time jumping style in order get maximum emotional response from the audience. If the film was straight forward it would not have worked as well. The fact that the film can move through time and mash the echoes is what gives this film its power.

My unobjective feelings or not this is one of the best films at Japan Cuts this year and an absolute must see when it plays this weekend.

Light in the Ether (2026)

A young girl is trapped in an escape pod in space after an attack. She is all alone and things are getting worse.

This is a super film that makes clear that being trapped in space can end up being incredibly boring. There is a super sense of  place. There us a real sense of claustaphobia that you never get in science fiction films. you can feel the closed in nature of our heroine's situation. Its a brilliant move that gets under your skin and makes you really feel for the girl on the screen.

At the same time the film has one on problem that may make it not work for some people and that is the film is very deliberately placed. Yes, I mean that the film is slow.  At the same time the slowness is intentional. Its there in order to make us feel what it is like to be trapped in space.  Its a move that gives us a real sense of what it's like but at the same time it may make it tough for someone looking for an entertainment.

I like this film a great deal. If you want to see a realistic film of survival in space give LIGHT IN THE ETHER a shot when it begins streaming July 31.