Interview: 'Goddamned Asura' director Lou Yi-an on his multi-layered crime drama

by Juan Carlos Ojano

Inspired by a 2014 real-life killing, Goddamned Asura explores the lives of six people involved in a ramdom shooting in a night market, including the perpetrator - a troubled teenager named Jan Wen. The film follows not only the lead-up to the shooting incident, but also the aftermath of the characters as they face the repercussions of the actions of Jan Wen.The result is a somber exploration of class, isolation, and violence that is unfortunately still timely and universal.

Goddamned Asura is Taiwan's official submission for Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards. In this interview, co-writer and director Lou Yi-an expounds on the origins and themes of the story as well as explaining some terms with their cultural context compared to their English translation...

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Doc Corner: Patricio Guzmán’s 'My Imaginary Country'

By Glenn Dunks

The spectre of director Patricio Guzmán’s career lingers over his latest, My Imaginary Country. It would be hard not to considering he is the most prominent and prolific documenter of modern Chile. But in this case it feels different. It isn’t just a case of the viewer bringing their knowledge of the director’s work into a latest. Rather, the new work is reflecting those films going back fifty years.

For you see, Guzmán has made a name for himself detailing the horrors of the Pinochet dictatorship. Most prominently across two of the most impressive film trilogies you will ever see (The Battle of Chile parts one to three, and the run of Nostalgia for the Light, The Pearl Button and Cordillera of Dreams). He didn’t expect this beloved homeland to fall once again to civil war, which is what it appeared was happening in 2019...

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India and Iceland choose their Oscar horses, but not the ones you'd think

by Nathaniel R

India and Iceland have selected their Oscar submissions choosing Last Film Show and Beautiful Beings respectively. Neither title was the highest profile option. India had a much-loved crossover hit in the US this year with RRR (now streaming on Netflix) which brought Bollywood spectacle and ridiculous (in a fun way) action exuberance to the big screen. It grossed nearly $12 million in the US which is more than some English language Oscar winning pictures recenty! India's last nomination was way back in 2001 with Lagaan which, like RRR, was a very mainstream epic with musical numbers...

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Did you see The Woman King this weekend?

by Nathaniel R

AND WE'RE OFF... Fall film season is now underway, thanks to the wrap up of TIFF and something finally happening in the nation's theaters again. Those somethings were Gina Prince-Blythwood's action drama The Woman King and the David Bowie documentary Moonage Daydream on IMAX screens, both doing fine business. Here are the charts from the weekend. We separate the wide and limited because otherwise limited release don't get any attention in stories about what people are seeing. But more people SHOULD frequent their local arthouses. 

Holiday Weekend Box Office  September 19th-21st 🔺 = new or expanding /  ★ = Recommended links if we've written about it
WIDE (OVER 800 SCREENS)	LIMITED / PLATFORM
THE WOMAN KING	MOONAGE DAYDREAM
1 🔺★  THE WOMAN KING  $19 *NEW*	1 🔺★ MOONAGE DAYDREAM  $1.2 *NEW*

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Abe’s ‘Jury of One’ from TIFF 2022

Brendan Fraser in The Whale

By Abe Friedtanzer 

I had always heard from other journalists at festivals like Sundance and SXSW that TIFF was the best one. I’m thrilled that I had the chance to attend my first in-person edition after covering remotely last year. I’m certainly exhausted – I saw 37 films at screenings and another six at home. Fortunately, almost all of what I saw was very good, and even better for you readers, the overwhelming majority is also slated for release. Of course, the crazy thing about these festivals is that, no matter how much you see, you’ll still somehow not get what others think was best (Baby Clyde’s top two films are among the six from his 25 that I didn’t see). But there’s plenty to celebrate, and without further ado, here are my ‘jury of one’ awards with release dates, if applicable, in parentheses, and some personal prizes…

The Swimmers 

Top Ten Films 

1. The Whale (Dec 9^th, theaters)
2. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (Dec 23^rd, Netflix)

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