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DEAR LONELINESS 致親愛的孤獨者 (Lien Chien-hung, Sunny Yu, Liao Che-yi 2019)
Three excellent shorts by young Taiwanese directors, each of which involves a young female who is probably lonely - but the penetrating narratives are better than such sentimental framing.
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LUCKY CHAN-SIL / 찬실이는 복도 많지 (Kim Cho-hee 2019)
Film by a former Hong Sang-soo producer about a woman who loses her job when her director dies - in a drunken wrap party like a Hong scene. Becomes a sweet study of a Korean professional woman's life crisis. I might have enjoyed it more had I not been asked to see meta- and satirical complexities and cross-references I couldn't find.
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DANCING MARY ダンシング・マリ (Sabu 2019)
A wild genre mashup by a gonzo Japanese director, about a complicated government shopping mall project requiring demolition of a haunted Showa-era dance hall building. Shows that before a remodel, an exorcism is sometimes needed. Romance, mafia, martial arts, ballet, horror. Fun moments that are none of those categories. Some have seen the early Kiyoshi Kurosawa in this film and Sabu acted in the latter's 2001 Pulse.
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FORBIDDEN DREAM 천문: 하늘에 묻는다 (Hur Jin-ho 2019)
A colorful Korean historical costume drama about the extremely important 15th century Korean scientist-inventor-engineer Jang Yeong-sil (Choi Min-sik) and King Sejong the Great (Han Suk-kiu), a liberal and forward-looking leaderwho nurtured his talents. Excellent film even if the plotline gets a bit muddled toward the end. Excellent rapport between Cho and Han, who are two of the country's best actors.
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Victim(s)) 加害者，被害人 (Layla Zhuqing Ji 2020)
This debut feature by young Chinese director Layla Zhuqing Ji, shot in Malaysia apparently both to avoid mainland censorship and to save money, deals with bullying leading to murder and focuses on a boy and girl and their mothers. It's ambitious, but all over the place in tone, often like a horror movie or a comedy. Some gratuitous extended bullying scenes are very hard to watch. The plot is more complicated than it needs to be. It actually makes Naito Eisuke's Forgiven Children 許された子どもたち (also in the NYAFF this year) look like a great movie.
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IWeirDo 怪胎 ( Liao Ming-yi 2020)
A lovely and charming rom-com from Taiwan about 2 obsessive OCDers shot with iPhones. See it!
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WILD SPARROW 野雀之詩 (Shih Li 2019)
A pretty, wayward young woman becomes responsible for her young son when he comes to Taipei City from the remote countryside for school, and trouble comes. A beautiful picture with some fine acting and images that doesn't quite integrate its disparate story elements.
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