A Distant Place (South Korea, 2020)

A sheep farmer whose remote and quiet life is disturbed by the arrival of both his lover and his twin sister.

A Distant Place is a really slow-moving drama that's in no hurry in delivering you to the next act, and going in knowing that should help you just enjoy it for what it is. That is, a complete countermeasure to all the bloated junk cinema that's being released. It boasts some amazing visuals, and one shot of the genuine beauty of a forest-filled canyon is worth more than a million green-screened action scenes. While the characters deal with their family-related problems and relationships, they inhabit a world of lush colors and serenity. The story doesn't do anything revolutionary but accompanied by the cinematography I think it all clicks in place beautifully.

Genre: Drama. 1h 57min. 

Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes (Japan, 2020)

A cafe owner discovers that the TV in his cafe suddenly shows images from the future, but only two minutes into the future.

Fact: Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes is an absolute happy pill. After learning he can talk to his future self, Kato is drawn into a hilarious time-loop which his friends are no late to abuse and have some fun with, while at the same time of course putting themselves in a big mess. All shot in one take, the formula really reminds me of One Shot Of the Dead (2017) with its meta-humor. Clocking in at just over an hour, Beyond is a fresh thinking and light-hearted mini adventure.

Genre: Comedy/Sci-Fi. 1h 10min.

Under the Open Sky (Japan, 2020)

A middle-aged former yakuza, Mikami, is released from prison after thirteen years where he was placed for murder. He is struggling to adapt to society and freedom, find a job and communicate normally, but he is also preoccupied by the quest for his mother from whom he was separated as a child. He finds allies in his search for his parent and a place in mainstream society, but the process is not seamless or smooth.

Directed by Miwa Nishikawa (Sway, The Long Excuse), Under the Open Sky looks at the life of a yakuza who's trying to re-enter society but finds himself ostracized and alone in a Japan that almost has left his mob syndicate to history. It's an interesting take on the yakuza genre, showing that when fighting the system you're bound to loose. Mikami is played by Koji Yakusho who gives the character great depth and makes you wish he finds his place somewhere in his new existence, even though Japanese society has deemed his chance already spent. 

Genre: Crime/Drama. 2h 6min.

Taipei Suicide Story (Taiwan, 2020)

A receptionist at a suicide hotel in Taipei, Taiwan forms a fleeting friendship over the course of one night with a guest who can't decide if she wants to live or die.

For its short running time, Taipei Suicide Story ambitiously tackles some difficult subjects. What makes it work is that it doesn't overdo it, but focuses more on the personal emotional depth of only two characters. In an environment where dozens of people take the most extreme action to end their pain, a young woman is hesitating. Slowly we're getting to know her more and more, but also knowing in the back of our head that the end of the night could spell the end of that friendship. 

A melancholic exercise in figuring out someone on the edge, but not without its subtle tenderness. 

Genre: Drama/Short. 45min.

Yakuza and the Family (Japan, 2020)

When Kenji Yamamoto's father died from using a stimulant drug his life fell into desperation. Kenji then joined a crime syndicate. There, he meets the gang's boss Hiroshi Shibasaki. Hiroshi reaches out to Kenji and they developed a relationship like father and son. As time passes, Kenji has his own family.

Japanese yakuza flicks are not the rarest find, so when a film is centered around the Japanese mob syndicate I can't help but compare it to a dozen of earlier greats in the genre. I'm very glad to say that Yakuza and the Family (a.k.a. The Family) gave me flashbacks to Kitano's Kids Return (1996), in how a young man gets drawn into the world of yakuza and how the passage of time affects them all. It doesn't ooze of original characters but it's well-shot, has some really bone-crunching fights and you get the sense that the director wanted to make a stand-out Yakuza film with a lot of heart.

Genre: Crime/Drama. 2h 16min

Crazy Samurai Musashi (Japan, 2020)

When a master samurai arrives to duel the disgraced Yoshioka dojo, he walks into an ambush. In the world's first 77-minute, one-take action film sequence, Miyamoto Musashi fights for his life against 400 warriors, earning a place in history as the crazy samurai Musashi.

Crazy Samurai Musashi doesn't come without glaring flaws but you really got to praise it for its ambition, a 77-minute long fight scene with no cuts? Yes, you read that right. You're getting some small amount of context in the beginning of the film and then it's on, 400 warriors one by one run towards Musashi only to get sliced down. I will say that the idea of the film is much better than the execution, and after a while the novelty of it has kinda worn off. You're starting to recognize the attack patters, the huge wigs for the ones who're gonna get hit on the head and awful blood effects, so it's starts to drag after some time. Because of the long sequence the actors are genuinely out of breath towards the end, and you can't help but wonder what a nightmare the whole thing must have been to shoot.

I really dig the concept though, and some parts are a lot better than others. Not a film you're likely to rewatch but an interesting one-time experience.

Genre: Action

Parasite: A Graphic Novel in Storyboards (2020)

Discover the illustrations that inspired the historic, OSCAR®-winning film’s every shot in this graphic novel drawn by Director Bong Joon Ho himself.

If you're huge into the making of films you love, you should consider picking up this book drawn by Bong Joon-ho, detailing all the storyboarding he did for his film Parasite. Many of the pages contains little annotations in the margins like "Rubber ball?" when considering the safety of using a knife and "Fruits?" when wondering what should be inside of a bowl in the kitchen.

Pretty much only for the die-hard fans of the film but very informative in showing exactly how a masterfully crafted film jumps from the page to the big screen.

House of Hummingbird (South Korea, 2019)

Set in 1994 in Seoul, a touching coming-of-age drama centered around the quiet, unexceptional eighth-grader Eun-Hee. Struggling to make passing grades and subject to non-stop screaming at home, she spends her time finding meaning in the love and friendships of her peers, in shoplifting, and in karaoke bars. It's in her cram school professor Yong-Ji, however, that Eun-Hee finds the answers that she seeks, as the two form an unlikely friendship.

Female director Bora Kim drew a lot of inspiration from her own childhood when writing the coming of age drama House of Hummingbird, and she wanted to highlight the all too rapid modernization of South Korea through the eyes of a young woman going through her own early stages of womanhood. The cinematography was carefully designed to evoke the correct time period and when talking about camera techniques in an interview, Kim gave the following statement: "In terms of camera movement and shot size, we followed her face and emotions and her body movement. Eun-hee’s way of seeing life was our intention and we tried our best to be very honest about camera movement and camera language throughout the film because this film is a realistic film, and we didn’t just want to zoom in and move in the camera to make it fancy". 

A lot of film makers definitely has a very pretentious way of shooting their films so it's great knowing Kim didn't want to overthink it but instead rely on the characters to express themselves. House of Hummingbird won a slew of awards at film festivals around the world and hopefully paved the way for not only Bora Kim but other female directors as well in a male-dominated industry.  

Genre: Drama