SCREEN | 'Spring After Spring' Parades Around Chinatown x VAFF 2025

"She wanted to see us thrive."

Vancouver Asian Film Festival

Chinese-Peruvian-Canadian local filmmaker Jon Chiang, making his feature debut, directs Spring After Spring, a Vancouver Chinatown-based documentary following three remarkable dancer sisters, Anabel, Val, and Lisa Ho. They reunite to lead the annual Lunar New Year Parade after the death of their mother, dedicated community leader and dance teacher Madame Maria Mimie Ho.

VIFF 2025 | Bi Gan Dreams A Cinematic 'Resurrection'

"The secret to eternal life is to no longer dream!"

Vancouver International Film Festival

VIFF 2025—Resurrection (狂野时代 aka Wild Times), visionary Chinese artist turned filmmaker Bi Gan's ambitious dreamscape odyssey of surrealist sci-fi slow cinema, is structured into six disparate but interconnected chapters, each revolving around one of the Buddhist senses, including the "mind." Set in a far future where most people no longer dream and, as a result, can live forever, things start off in a German expressionist style before transitioning into distinct twentieth-century cinematic eras in China.

CABLE | Wong Kar-wai Colours 'Blossoms Shanghai'

"Neon signs glowed like a sea of flowers."

Jet Tone Films / Tencent Pictures

Blossoms Shanghai, Chinese auteur Wong Kar-wai's first television drama series, broadly romanticizes 1990s Shanghai in the lushly complementary vein of what his cinematic masterpiece, In the Mood for Love, did for 1960s Hong Kong, but only on the small screen. Created and directed by Wong, scripted by Qin Wen, and based on author Jin Yucheng's award-winning 2013 novel, Blossoms, it tells a vaguely historical yarn of late twentieth-century Eastern capitalism wrapped in melodramatic intrigue.

GENRE | Finally 'Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair' – Pure Uncut Revenge

"Tear that bitch apart!"

Lionsgate / Cineplex Pictures

The one and only Quentin Tarantino finally reassembles his fourth film (split in half but counted as one by its director and star), the two-volume Uma Thurman-starring revenge actioner into one four-and-a-half-hour magnum opus of uncut martial arts ultraviolence, retitled Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair.

REEL | Top 10 Films of the 21st Century So Far

"We won't be like them."

Janus Films / Jet Tone Films

Click on each film title to read its corresponding review:

1) In the Mood for Love ¹ (dir. Wong Kar-wai, 2000)

2) Mulholland Drive ² (dir. David Lynch, 2001)

3) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (dir. Michel Gondry, 2004)

4) Ghost World ³ (dir. Terry Zwigoff, 2001)

5) The Social Network (dir. David Fincher, 2010)

SCREEN | Hiring A Chinese 'Mistress Dispeller' x DOXA 2025

"When a fish takes the bait, your heart will beat with the fish."

DOXA Documentary Film Festival

Director Elizabeth Lo documents the eponymous Chinese phenomenon of wives hiring professionals to save their crumbling marriages through one particular middle-aged couple in Mistress Dispeller. How she follows the raw, unfiltered emotions, feelings, and motivations of these strangers is nothing short of fascinating.

CABLE | 'Interior Chinatown' Typecasts A Police Procedural

"Koreans are the most fun Asians."

20th Television

Award-winning Taiwanese-American author Charles Yu adapts his own bestselling second novel, 2020's metatextual Interior Chinatown, for television. Exploring the life of a generic background Asian character in a Law & Order-type '90s police procedural, the hilarious titled Black & White: Impossible Crimes Unit, stars stand-up comedian Jimmy O. Yang as a Chinese restaurant worker who longs for a lead role in his own life.

SCREEN | After the Boy of Summer Has Gone – 'Dìdi' Kickflips Out

"You're pretty cute for an Asian boy."

Focus Features

Set in the recent past of the summer of 2008 in the Bay Area, Oscar-nominated Taiwanese-American first-time feature filmmaker Sean Wang takes his own experiences growing up to tell a tender coming-of-age story in Dìdi (弟弟, aka "little brother" in Mandarin). His small-scale, semi-autobiographical indie drama is rich with details of its time period, featuring juvenile humour about friendship, crushes, and fitting in as the son of Chinese immigrants.

REEL | Cinematic Heartbreak – Falling 'In the Mood for Love'

"Feelings can creep up just like that."

Janus Films / Jet Tone Films

It's 2008, and I'm a young cinephile—the only way a college freshman with no real life experience of any significance can be—after being heavily influenced by the American independent film movement of the late nineties and early aughts, thanks to accessible DVD culture. After being shown the seminal 2000 Cantonese-language film In the Mood for Love in an introductory first-year film class at UBC, I immediately fell in love with its beautiful sense of cinematic heartbreak and breathtaking cinematography set across romantic 1962 Hong Kong.

SCREEN | Girls Trip to China – 'Joy Ride' Dares to be Raunchy

"I'm just a garbage American who only speaks English."

Lionsgate / Cineplex Pictures

Malaysian-American screenwriter Adele Lim makes her largely triumphant debut behind the camera in the generically titled but hilariously raunchy girls' trip comedy Joy Ride (originally titled Joy F*ck Club). Filmed entirely in the Metro Vancouver area, standing in (sometimes poorly) for Seattle, Beijing, Seoul, and Paris, the scattershot but appealing film focuses on its killer cast led by Asian-American women.

SCREEN | 'Big Fight in Little Chinatown' Finds Trouble x DOXA 2023

"Chinatown is a nesting place of living heritage."

DOXA Documentary Film Festival

Montreal-based filmmaker Karen Cho documents the battle for the soul of various fading Chinatowns across major North American cities—including Vancouver's. Big Fight in Little Chinatown tackles the disappearances of these historical neighbourhoods amidst the fervent anti-Asian racism that accelerated during the global pandemic.

CABLE | Steven Yeun and Ali Wong Settle Their 'Beef' on Netflix

"Western therapy doesn't work on the Eastern minds."

A24 Television

Tuca & Bertie co-stars Steven Yeun and Ali Wong reteam for creator Lee Sung Jin's towering feud dark comedy series, Beef. Both leads are exceptionally dynamic, sizzling in their broad emotional range as dramatic performers. It's hard to telegraph where the strange action of the show is heading as Lee inserts a ton of situational surprises from episode to episode.

VIFF 2022 | Park Chan-wook Romances the 'Decision to Leave'

"Treat me like a suspect."

Vancouver International Film Festival

VIFF 2022—South Korean auteur Park Chan-wook investigates at least one possible mariticide in his latest neo-noir mystery wrapped in a bittersweet detective romance. At first, Decision to Leave seems more concerned with mood than dramatic turns, yet there's a building sense of tension derived from its damaged characters.

GENRE | Michelle Yeoh Fights 'Everything Everywhere All at Once'

"You're living your worst you."

A24 / Elevation Pictures

Written and directed by the filmmaking duo collectively credited as the "Daniels" (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert), Everything Everywhere All at Once is their martial arts action-comedy riff on the concept of the multiverse—multiple versions of yourself existing across universes or realities all at the very same time, as the title would suggest. How it's realized on the screen feels like pure and dazzling cinematic chaos.

REEL | Chinese-Canadian Heritage – 'Turning Red' Panda

"You'll get whipped up into a frenzy and panda all over the place!"

Walt Disney Pictures / Pixar Animation Studios

Pixar Animation and Chinese-Canadian animator Domee Shi, who makes her feature-length debut after writing and directing the Oscar-winning animated short Bao, have created a very specific coming-of-age story of teenage growth. Set in 2002 Toronto, Turning Red follows the spunky Meilin Lee (Rosalie Chiang), a 13-year-old girl who suddenly transforms into a giant red panda whenever she experiences any strong emotion like anger or excitement, due to her ancestors' mystical connections.

REEL | Colin Farrell Contemplates Life 'After Yang'

"There's no something without nothing."

A24 / Elevation Pictures

Enigmatic Korean-American mononymous video essayist turned sophomore filmmaker Kogonada crafts another striking yet forlorn character drama ruminating on masculine Asian identity. This time, he uses speculative science-fiction motifs of artificial intelligence and near-future tech to slowly ponder themes of existential humanity and cultural heritage in After Yang, based on the short story "Saying Goodbye to Yang" written by Alexander Weinstein.

KAFFE | Affogato x Sunny M Specialty Coffee & Tea x Richmond

Richmond—Of the many wonderful varieties of places and hole-in-the-wall joints you can find to visit in the airport-adjacent suburb, I have always felt there was a lack of independent coffee shops. So when I heard about Sunny M Specialty Coffee & Tea (originally starting out as a pop-up at local markets) nestled somewhere in Empire Centre, one of many Asian strip malls, I had to pay a visit.

GENRE | Trafficking Chinatown – 'Snakehead' x VAFF 2021

"Chinatown doesn't change for anyone."

Vancouver Asian Film Festival

Chinatown crime drama Snakehead, written and directed by Evan Jackson Leong, tackles the less-than-savoury underbelly of Chinese-American life found somewhere in the back alleys of New York City. Set around restaurants and kitchens, Leong tries to dramatize Southeast Asian gang culture organically but relies too heavily on clunky voiceover narration and dialogue for exposition, thus limiting the power of his performances.

REEL | 'Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings' Fights Back

"I always bet on Asian."

Marvel Studios

Japanese-American filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton takes classic Asian cinematic tropes from the martial arts fantasy genre and themes about sons running from their destinies and abusive fathers, mixed with wuxia influences in Marvel Studios' latest superhero effort, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Starring magnetic Chinese-Canadian stuntman turned comedic actor Simu Liu of Kim's Convenience fame as the original Master of Kung Fu, the film is a thrilling and action-packed adventure story about fractured families and mystical legends.

FEAST | Italian Meets Chinese x Miantiao Restaurant x Shangri-La

"Chinese gastronomy uplifted by the elegant simplicity of Italian cuisine."

ostrica freddo (poached and chilled oysters) + Soppratutto (with bourbon, mint amaro, lemon juice, and egg white)

Financial District—(June 22, 2021) Easily one of the year's most highly-anticipated restaurant openings has been the brand new Italian-Chinese fusion concept from Miantiao Restaurant & Bar—so named after the Mandarin word for "noodle"—located upstairs inside the luxurious five-star Shangri-La Hotel Vancouver after taking over the old Market by Jean-Georges dining space.