Two words that kept going through my mind while watching Flight of the Red Balloon were "gentle" and "beautiful." The imagery that director Hou Hsiao-hsien includes in this movie was reminiscent of the film The Red Balloon of which it was loosely based on, but Flight takes the themes of that movie further. The movie follows Suzanne (the wonderful Juliette Binoche) and her son Simon in Paris, just as they hire a new nanny, Song,......

When we heard about a "live-action" version of Death Note, the manga/anime series, we were skeptical. The elements of anime that makes it, well, anime are the fantasy behind the whole genre: scary, grotesque creatures, futuristic buildings and cars, supernatural events. Anime just doesn't seem to lend itself well to "live-action." It's difficult to imagine all of the imagery of anime coming together in a live-action version, at least in a believable way. To be......

The title of Nobuhiro Yamashita's A Gentle Breeze in the Village poignantly conveys the tone of this film. Witnessing the gentle coming of age of young Soyo (played by Kaho), the oldest of the students in her small, combined elementary and middle school, personifies for the viewer the lush yet gentle breeze that reverberates throughout the beautiful landscape shots of the Japanese countryside. Oh, to be young and going to the beach and playing with......

Last night's screening of Wayne Wang's A Thousand Years of Good Prayers on opening night of the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival was a sheer delight. The film is based on Bay Area author Yiyun Li’s book of short stories. Wayne Wang was there to present the film to us, and then he and star Henry O answered questions after the film. Afterwards, everyone headed over to the Asian American Art Museum for......