MUBI: Three by Wong Kar-Wai

by Cláudio Alves

Happy birthday to Wong Kar-Wai. The Hong Kong auteur turns 65 today, the same day I say goodbye to 28 and welcome my 29th year –we're birthday twins! But of course, I've loved the director long before discovering we shared July 17th, having fallen for his cinema when I glimpsed Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung cross paths in slow-motion, saw the treacherous enchantment of a kitschy lamp lost in Buenos Aires, experienced a Nouvelle Vague color kaleidoscope to the sound of "California Dreamin'." It's only fitting to celebrate the date by pouring over some of Wong's most ravishing pictures, remembering his mastery as we mourn a decade since his last feature.

Join me as I consider three films MUBI has programmed specially for July, a collection they call As Time Goes By. A trio marked by lavish spectacle, they reach for the stars – a wuxia experiment, a sci-fi lament, and a martial-arts biopic like none other…

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Almost There: Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"

by Cláudio Alves

History repeats itself, especially when it comes to the Academy Awards. Throughout its 92 years, very few Asian actors have been recognized, even when their films were otherwise embraced. This year, the victim of the insidious trend was Parasite, which won the SAG for Best Ensemble but couldn't muster enough support for a single acting nomination at the Oscars. Thinking back to the last non-English speaking Asian production to score a Best Picture nomination, we see the same phenomenon.

In 2000, Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon conquered a remarkable 10 nominations, including for Picture and Director but none of the nods were for acting. In the end, the blockbuster won four of its categories. Despite the acting branch's oversight, Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi received many nominations elsewhere, including the BAFTAs. The younger actress even conquered the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actress…

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The 72 Greatest Gowns of the 72nd Cannes Festival (Part 2)

by Nathaniel R

Look, Andie MacDowell (with Ellen von Unwerth and Izabel Goulart) at a party in Cannes is illustrating for us exactly how we feel like watching actresses work the red carpets at Cannes: drunk, giddy, silly, happy and greedy. 

So let's finish up that list of our favourite gowns at this year's Cannes but before we do that we should note that we purposely didn't include any pants outfits though there were more women in slacks this year than has been the norm. Of those our favourite looks belonged to Margot Robbie and Li Yuchun. Like so...

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Posterized: Zhang Yimou returns with his best film in many years

by Nathaniel R

One of Asia's finest auteurs, Zhang Yimou, returns to arthouse theaters today with his new film Shadow, which is a true return to form for a director whose use of color in movies has few contemporary equals. The new films is shot in color but the costumes and sets are black and white making for numerous startling images. The 69 year old Chinese director's films have been up for multiple BAFTAs, Globes, and Oscars over the years and he also co-directed the very famous Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics so you might not even realize how familiar you are with his work. 

How many of his movies have you seen? Here are the posters for all 21 of his narrative features with some awards trivia, too...

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Beauty vs Beast: Video Nasties

Hey everybody it's Jason from MNPP here poking my head out from in between NYFF screenings to entertain us with this week's "Beauty vs Beast" real quick - this weekend Jacques Audiard's The Sisters Brothers is hitting theaters, but as I am sure you are each and all aware it's not the first time we have been gifted the sight of Jake Gyllenhaal & Riz Ahmed on-screen together. Nope four years ago they gave us the wonder that was Dan Gilroy's Nightcrawler, in which the self-determined (ha, understatement) Lou Bloom (Gyllenhaal) took the slightly less determined Rick (Ahmed) under his wing. And what a scratchy wing that was.

bike trails

PREVIOUSLY Although her fate was a downer in Crouching Tiger we can now these many years later finally give a round of applause to Michelle Yeoh's character of Yu Shu Lien, who roundly trounced Zhang Ziyi's Jen Yu, taking 73% of your vote. I'm sure it's little comfort given what she lost, but hey, whatcha gonna do. Said Ani di:

"Not fair, this is like a gay sophie's choice. Torture."