In the Mood for Love: Criterion Collection
October 22, 2012
Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-Wai may be the master of unrequited love. Think of the cop with a crush on a femme fatale in Chungking Express (1994) or the hitman whose handler admires him from afar in Fallen Angels (1995). However, In the Mood for Love...
Butterfly Swords
July 5, 2012
Based loosely on the novel Liuxing Hudie Jian by Gu Long, Butterfly Swords a.k.a. Butterfly and Sword (1993) is a prime example of wuxia, a heroic martial arts genre best known in North America from the Ang Lee film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)....
Chungking Express: Criterion Collection
November 24, 2008
Chungking Express (1994) is a film obsessed with time. Not only are its characters consciously aware of and thinking about time passing, but the film itself plays around with the slowing down and speeding up of time. The camera lingers on close-ups of...
Hard Boiled: Ultimate Edition
July 31, 2007
In retrospect, John Woo’s Hard Boiled (1992) can be seen as his audition reel for Hollywood. And what a helluva audition reel it was – a masterfully orchestrated magnum opus of mayhem. After its release, he moved to the United States and started over...
2046
February 21, 2006
Several years in the making (and three cinematographers later), Wong Kar-Wai’s 2046 (2004) is a sequel of sorts to his sumptuous period piece of unrequited love, In the Mood for Love (2000). Or rather, it should be viewed as a continuation of that world,...
Infernal Affairs
July 2, 2005
Infernal Affairs (2002) is an Asian cinema fan’s dream with a powerhouse cast the features the likes of Tony Leung (Chungking Express), Andy Lau (House of Flying Daggers), Anthony Wong (Hard-Boiled), and Eric Tsang (The Accidental Spy)—all internationally...
Hero
June 18, 2005
Known more for his period dramas, Raise the Red Lantern (1991) and The Story of Qiu Ju (1992), director Zhang Yimou decided to fulfill a life-long ambition of making a swordsmen epic with Hero (2002). Despite garnering huge box office returns all over...